Ledger

Issue date: 6/17/04 Section: News

By any name, this is a significant event in your life. You, and your family and support networks, should rightfully be very proud of your completing your program and achieving this enormous academic goal.

Whichever one of the several degrees or certificates we offer at UWT - bachelor's degree, teacher's or administrator's certificate, or master's degree - you have succeeded in overcoming intellectual, financial, and life challenges. Good for you, and good for us.

But Commencement also signifies a transition to a completely new set of challenges.

Those challenges will be different for each one of you. Those challenges could include starting a new job, or just being better at your current job. They could include tackling a new educational challenge - going on to graduate school.

You will need to learn how to use the knowledge you gained at UWT to enrich your personal life, and the lives of those around you.

But whatever different challenges you now face, all of you have something in common - the obligation that emanates from receiving a publicly financed education.

That obligation is for you to give back something to the community who supported you though your studies. You will each give back differently you will have renewed time and opportunity to volunteer in your community; you will spend a little more time with your loved ones; you will become involved in civic concerns; you will advance the economy of our area through your work and entrepreneurship; and you will pay greater taxes so students in the future will continue to have access to a publicly financed education just as you have.

And all of these things you can now do because you earned a degree or certificate from the University of Washington, Tacoma.

We are proud of you and commend you for your achievements.

Steven G. Olwang
UWT Interim Chancellor

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