Speakers told College of Professional Studies graduates to use their education and experiences to make a positive impact in an increasingly changing world at the school’s graduation celebration in the Smith Center Saturday.
Keynote speaker and the CEO of the artificial intelligence management firms IG Digital and Overlook AI Jose Carlos Linares, CPS Dean Liesl Riddle and student speaker Desmond Burgess encouraged over 270 graduates to forge genuine relationships with those they work with in their future careers. The speakers urged graduates to address pressing issues, like economic uncertainty, political polarization and conflicts around the world, with compassion and purpose.
Linares, who is also a CPS lecturer and chair of the CPS Advisory Council, said graduates should strive to treat everyone with dignity, compassion and respect, as they will accomplish their greatest achievements when they work to lift others up. He said every person has a story to tell, and graduates should take the time to listen to others and build genuine relationships with them.
“Build relationships, not transactions,” Linares said. “Transactions end when the exchange is complete. Relationships compound over a lifetime.”
Linares said while graduates have inherited an uncertain world affected by issues like rising unemployment, ongoing wars and growing divisions between different people, their futures will be defined by how they choose to tackle these challenges.
Linares also said graduates are coming into the professional sphere at a time when AI, which he called the most important information tool, is drastically transforming the world. He urged students to use AI responsibly and guide the tool when it makes mistakes rather than outsourcing their thinking to it.
“Do not be a follower,” Linares said. “Be a finder. Be a thinker. Be a true GW revolutionary.”
Riddle thanked faculty, staff, families and graduates for their “dedication” and “passion” for the GW community. Riddle said graduates should continue to developing their professional skills as they step into their professional lives by using RevU, the CPS online learning platform that provides courses in cybersecurity, homeland security, information technology and other programs offered by the school.
“Here, education is not confined to the classroom,” Riddle said. “It is applied, it is connected and it is continuously in motion.”
Riddle encouraged graduates to engage with CPS’s alumni network for collaboration and opportunities and to return to GW to mentor the next generation of students.
“Come back to share your stories, your wisdom and your leadership with those who will follow in your footsteps,” Riddle said.
CPS program directors also presented nine awards to faculty, graduates and alumni for their academic and professional accomplishments.
Burgess, who received a master’s degree in legislative affairs and is a senior active-duty U.S. Army sergeant major, said his graduating class became like its own military unit, with each graduate supporting each other to achieve their goals. He said during his military service he learned that one person’s performance can affect the entire team, so graduates should continue to mentor those who have the potential to make their team successful.
“If one person falls behind, the whole team adjusts,” Burgess said. “If one person succeeds, the whole team moves forward. The goal is to find that one person, mentor them, give them everything positive to their growth. That way, when you elevate, they elevate.”
Burgess told graduates while they have earned their degrees, their work has only started. He said graduates have the responsibility to tackle complicated issues, like in healthcare, education and security, and to be a generation that works to improve the world.
“Notice tomorrow that your degree is not your greatest achievement,” Burgess said. “What you do with it, will be.”
