‘We’re first-rate, top-class, second-to-none graduates’
Law school valedictorian tells fellow UWI graduates to bask in high achievement
Published:Saturday | November 4, 2023 | 12:08 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
WHEN AUNDRENE Cameron, a law graduate of The University of the West Indies, Mona, concluded her valedictory speech yesterday where she urged outgoing students from the faculties of law and social sciences to keep striving for excellence and to pivot in the face of adversity, a thunderous applause filled the air.
“Kotch e hat a lie?, Kotch e degree a lie?,” she remarked humorously, using the popular dancehall cultural expression.
“Raise your canisters high because we angle that and triangle that! UWI Mona class of 2023, congratulations!” she said in her closing remarks, which fuelled howls of laughter, shouts of rejoicing expressions, and gleaming faces.
Cameron, who graduated with first class honours, reminded students that they were graduates of an institution that was ranked in the top 1.5 per cent of universities in the world.
“Understand that we are first-rate, top-class, second-to-none graduates. We are graduates of one of the most prestigious universities in the world,” she shared, which was met with an outpouring of cheers and applause.
The UWI valedictorian did not fail to highlight the various challenges faced by the graduates, such as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which plunged students into the virtual space, forcing them to try and navigate classes behind computer screens, and which was described as “uncharted and unprecedented waters”.
She continued that the students were “thrown off the calm waves of familiarity and thrown in the tempest; raging, unforgiving tides of uncertainty”, yet still they made it, she said, as the students “learned to become sailors, vested with a seemingly near but impossible voyage”, and still managed to conquer, united in their objective to pivot as they readjusted their sails.
Relying heavily on nautical metaphors, Cameron encouraged the pupils to continue riding the waves of life with the goal of docking at the shores of success.
“May we continue to pivot and never lose sight of our potential, because a smooth sea never raised still sails,” she said.
Cameron is known to have a deep passion for volunteerism, nation-building, advocacy and women’s rights. She was recently crowned both the Miss St Catherine Festival Queen, and the Miss Jamaica Festival Queen for 2023.
As a student-leader, Cameron has held various positions, including vice-president of the Mona Law Society, UWI Mona Guild External Affairs Committee, and the University Dance Society.
Empowering others
Her strong sense of determination and the confidence exhibited by her peers in her abilities to effectively represent them have propelled her to many of these roles.
She is inspired by the belief that life is about empowering others through voluntary service and by ensuring to maximise her God-given talents and potential to achieve success.
Cameron, in closing, stated that each student was called to be a visionary, an innovator and a trailblazer, as they were not only the future of Jamaica but that of the Caribbean region and the world.
“So, as UWI Pelicans, let us commit to continue to soar above the tides of life, face whatever storm that may come our way, and pivot, knowing that, as a graduate of the prestigious UWI, we are rooted, we are ready, and we are rising to heights unimaginable,” she said.