{"id":72747,"date":"2021-06-18T14:11:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T18:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=72747"},"modified":"2021-06-18T15:55:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T19:55:37","slug":"brocks-109th-convocation-goes-live-with-a-message-of-resiliency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2021\/06\/brocks-109th-convocation-goes-live-with-a-message-of-resiliency\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock\u2019s 109th Convocation goes live with a message of resiliency"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his final Convocation as President of Brock University, Gervan Fearon sent the Class of 2021 off with words of encouragement, reminding them that they are uniquely prepared to deal with life\u2019s unanticipated developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my video message to last year\u2019s graduates, I spoke about how the past few months had brought remarkable challenges, compelled us to make astonishing changes and to accept many compromises in our normal routines. But that despite all these considerations, we have collectively persevered and grown from the experience,\u201d said Fearon, whose tenure as Brock President concludes on June 30. \u201cHowever, I did not foresee at the time that graduates one year later would have completed the past year and a half virtually, through online classes. It is an accomplishment that makes you, the Class of 2021, remarkable, outstanding and, indeed, very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the pandemic continuing to place restrictions on the size of public gatherings, the University\u2019s Spring Convocation \u2014 Brock\u2019s 109th overall \u2014 was delivered as a personalized online portal for the nearly 3,300 graduands.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chancellor Hilary Pearson delivers her address during filming for Brock\u2019s 109th Convocation, which went live as an online portal Friday, June 18.<\/p><\/div>\n

Students were sent an invitation to the portal from the Deans of their respective Faculties Friday, June 18, and were then free to enjoy the Convocation experience with their friends and families at their convenience.<\/p>\n

The personalized online experience highlighted award winners from each Faculty and included a series of messages to the graduands from their respective Deans, Brock University Students\u2019 Union President Rafay Rehan and Graduate Students\u2019 Association President Christopher Yendt.<\/p>\n

Hundreds took advantage of two new features offered this year: the opportunity to purchase souvenir gowns and hoods from the Brock Campus Store, as well as a new Celebration Wall<\/a>, where grads, family, friends, faculty, staff and the wider community could post messages and photos of congratulations to the Class of 2021.<\/p>\n

In his address, Fearon said this year\u2019s graduates move into the next chapter of their lives with the important attributes of resilience, hope and connectedness.<\/p>\n

\u201cResilience is a very desirable trait and one that this pandemic has heightened in all of us. It refers to hardiness, the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHope is a progressive and affirming quality, and it is contagious. Your hope can give others the courage they need to discover, or rediscover, their own. And finally, connectedness is about our relationship with others. It is about our ability to inspire, and to be inspired by others. It is an important attribute for predicting an individual\u2019s success, within the university environment as well as in the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fearon encouraged graduates to \u201ctake time to reflect on your wonderful achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow have you developed both intellectually and personally from your educational experiences and from your participation in extra- and co-curricular, activities?\u201d he said. \u201cSavour this day \u2014 as you should feel immense pride in what you have accomplished. The University is proud of you, and, personally, I am extremely proud of you too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also delivering an address to the graduates was Brock Chancellor Hilary Pearson, who said she has been inspired by university students at Brock and across the country who are getting engaged in issues ranging from equality rights to social inclusion and justice to climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation is not just textbook learning or research, but an opportunity to influence community life,\u201d she said. \u201cOne of the messages of the pandemic is that we are all in this together \u2014 it\u2019s not only up to politicians, business leaders or other \u2018authority\u2019 figures to address our shared social issues. Given what you in our rising generation face in terms of social and environmental challenges, it is not an option but a necessity to educate you to act as engaged and empowered citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearson said students have reacted to the COVID-19 crisis with \u201cadaptability and determination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are qualities that I am certain will be important to our country in the future,\u201d she said. \u201cMore than ever, I believe our universities recognize their obligation to be centres not just of learning, but also of active citizenship. Your university can be an ally, not an opponent of your activism. You are the talent that Canada needs to work through the challenges of the coming decades together.\u201d<\/p>\n

With their degrees officially conferred, all graduates will be mailed Convocation in a Box packages containing their degree parchment, a Convocation program, an alumni pin, a copy of Surgite<\/em> magazine, other information from the Brock University Alumni Association and a bag of Class of 2021 confetti.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his final Convocation as President of Brock University, Gervan Fearon sent the Class of 2021 off with words of encouragement, reminding them that they are uniquely prepared to deal with life\u2019s unanticipated developments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":72749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,36,39,40,7,3319,4052,55,37,41,1,4,38],"tags":[5398,10450,9041,1759],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72747"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72750,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72747\/revisions\/72750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}