09 June 2008

Commencement Ceremony 2008

By Moira Blake

The proclamation of welcome by the Town Crier

This year's Commencement Ceremony took place at the Regent Theatre on Friday 2 May. It opened with the procession of the official party onto the stage. This was immediately followed by the proclamation of welcome by the Town Crier, impressive both for her colourful traditional dress and her strong voice.

During the ceremony, one hundred and twenty-three new students went up on stage and were presented with their Welcome scrolls, and thirteen students, still on their way from India and Columbia, were welcomed in absentia.

Several themes were common to most of the speakers. In different ways, according to the perspective of the speaker, the new students were welcomed to the city; encouraged not only to study hard and become informed about the issues affecting people all over the world, but also to make the most of their time at IPC, in Palmerston North, and in New Zealand; advised to make both long and short term goals so that they are ready for the many changes that are certain to occur in the world in their lifetimes; and challenged, especially by the new student representative, Kazuki Kanemura, to move out of their comfort zones and use their initiative so as to succeed in finding what they have in common with students from other parts of the world and in making friends.

The Keynote Speaker, Mike Willing, Deputy CEO of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, described NZQA's role in ensuring that students at IPC get a quality education, and spoke about the processes involved in this. As well as reassuring parents and students that IPC's study programmes were sound, he referred to the commitment and involvement of staff.

This was also emphasised by several other speakers, especially the Parent representative, Mr Kyomasa Iha, who enthusiastically reassured new parents that they could be confident about entrusting their sons and daughters to IPC.

Between speeches, third-year student, Naofumi Sakata, entertained the audience with the delightful piano piece "Blue Sky", played without music, as is usual for this now well known and respected musician.

Drum Team opening the Commencement Ceremony

Master of Ceremony, Nagisa Mori and Tim Bunting

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