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August 2017 Commencement Address 2017.08.25

 August 25, 2017

 

To today’s graduates who will receive honorable degrees today and thus leave our Yonsei grounds, I offer you sincere congratulations. I also congratulate and thank the parents and family members for their dedication and sacrifice to support their beloved children throughout their time at Yonsei. I would also like to express my gratitude to Chairman Dong-soo Hur of the Board of Directors and distinguished guests for joining us today to encourage and support our graduates. In addition, I would like to acknowledge our faculty members who have made great efforts to educate our students. Graduates, I hope you will always remember your teachers and their teachings.

 

Beloved graduates,

Today you will receive a diploma upon graduation. Your diploma is not simply a piece of paper certifying that you went to college. It is your travel visa that will enable you to enter the “Age of Hyper-uncertainty.” If you have a visa issued by Yonsei, you can start with the confidence that there is no difficulty you cannot overcome.

 

In the 20th century, the internet connected humans with other humans. In the 21st century, the internet will closely connect humans with nature and nature within itself through the Internet of Things (IoT). We will shift towards a hyper-connected society where people's thoughts and actions meet in cloud computing and connect online and offline. The unknown world is quickly approaching us.

 

To our graduates who will soon sail towards the unknown world, the ocean of uncertainty, openness is the most important attitude. Most people are drained from the overabundance of information and thus create and live inside their own personal information cocoon. As soon they face other opinions, they close their mind. When you enter society, you will realize firsthand that you are not the center of the world. There is very little you can do without opening up to various colleagues and working together in earnest. I hope you will try to enrich the story of life that understands and accepts differences and thus changes the world together.

 

If the industrial society needed smart people, our future society needs empathic individuals who can relate to others. People who feel the pain of the sick and know how to share and care for others will lead and change society.

 

Imagine a patient’s family sleeping side-by-side on chairs in a hallway in front of a hospital emergency room on a cold winter’s night. A doctor passing by wakes them up, saying that they are not permitted to sleep here. A few days later, a similar situation takes place, but this time it is another doctor that hovers momentarily in front of the sleeping family. After a while the doctor brings a blanket, covers the family members, and quietly leaves. Empathy is not a grand gesture. This small act is empathy. I hope you will live a kind life understanding the pain and hardships of others like the second doctor.

 

Respected graduates,

Yonsei has always valued the education of empathic individuals, especially during the early years of its history. Last October, 28 descendants of missionary H.G. Underwood, a founder of Yonsei, gathered from all over the world to attend the 100th anniversary of his death. During this event, grandson Dr. Richard Underwood (Deuk-han Won) donated a sword that King Gojong had given to his grandfather H.G. Underwood, saying, “I am relieved of my efforts as caretaker of the sword, and now my heart is at ease." This example of selflessness portrays the Yonsei spirit that H.G. Underwood pursued. It is this spirit of Yonsei that teaches the morale of giving and serving. I sincerely hope you will forever continue the spirit of empathizing with others as a Yonseian.

 

Honored Yonsei graduates,

Although you leave Yonsei today, do not forget that Yonsei will always be there to support you. Never let go of your ties with your alma mater. May the grace of God always be with you in the years to come. Congratulations once again on your graduation.

 

Thank you.