Congratulations Class of 2021 from Dean Donna Kotsopoulos
My name is Donna Kotsopoulos and I am proud to be the Dean of the Faculty of Education at Western University.
To our graduating class of 2021, on behalf of the Faculty and Western University, our most sincere congratulations! Today this is your day to celebrate everything that you have accomplished. And, your accomplishments are many. We are so excited for you!
I’ll begin by sharing with you a quote from Alice Walker’s (1973) A Talk: Convocation 1972 : “From the heart, I must tell you something I have learned since becoming an advanced ten-year old. Any school would be worthless without great teachers” (p. 37). Some of you today will be graduating as teachers. We know that you will be that “great teacher” who transforms the lives of many students over your career. Others will be graduating today with a graduate degree – continuing your careers in a wide range of fields. Whatever your path may be going forward, we challenge you to continue to be great – to be that educator, that leader, that change maker – that makes an impact.
We know this journey has not been easy. We hope you are as proud as we are of your accomplishments and the extraordinary ways in which you have approached your own learning and how you have contributed to the complex landscape of education since last March of 2020.
Today you join the more than 41,000 alumni from the Faculty of Education at Western, worldwide. Wherever your journeys take you, please also stay connected through our alumni events, our additional programming, or just as an email to your favourite professor. We want to continue to hear from you! Hopefully in the future we well again be able to gather for homecoming events and it would be our great honour to see you again and again.
We hope you will take the time to celebrate with your family and those closest to you. We trust that these important people in your lives, are equally as proud of you as we are!
You are the graduating class of 2021 and we wish you all the best in all that you do.
Donna Kotsopoulos, PhD
Dean and Professor
Faculty of Education
