Over 1,950 students conferred at AIT graduation ceremony

AIT graduates need to be versatile, take risks and be open to the idea of international experience to forge ahead in their chosen careers, President Ciarán O'Catháin urged during conferring ceremonies last week. In his address to 1,962 graduates on Thursday and Friday last, one of the largest in Athlone IT in recent years, Professor ” Catháin acknowledged that the situation facing graduates in 2010 was challenging, but he said the skills and knowledge garnered in Athlone were a “passport to a better life”. “Forty years ago when AIT was founded, Ireland faced unpromising economic circumstances. However, unlike many of your parents’ and grandparents’ generation, you have the benefit of a third level qualification. Even more than the parchment which you received today, the skills and knowledge which you have garnered in AIT, are a passport to a better life. What is apparent, however, is that you will have to be versatile in forging your careers, willing to take risks, open to the idea of international experience.” “The qualification you have received has given you advanced skills and knowledge about your chosen domain. In addition to becoming expert in a particular discipline, however, you have also developed values and attitudes which are broader than any one area,” he added. Since its foundation, AIT has placed a strong focus on business and engineering education, the AIT President stated, pointing out there has been an unwavering emphasis on producing professionals who act in an ethical and responsible way. “I am proud to note that such integrity has been a hallmark of the student community at the institute. This applies not just to their studies, but also to some extraordinary achievements in extra-curricular endeavours. During the past academic year, students from AIT spent a cold night on the streets of Athlone to experience for themselves what it is like to be homeless and to raise funds. Another group organised a major conference, with national speakers, on suicide prevention, leading to a five-year plan to target second and third level students. Master’s business students helped organise and participated in the Malin to Mizen Frank Young memorial cycle, raising €45,000. Similarly earthquake victims in China and Pakistan have benefited from fund raising initiated and carried out by our students.” He continued: “Such activities are in the vein of what the poet Adrienne Rich refers to as 'reconstituting the world’. However, the act of reconstituting can also happen on the fundamental platform of innovation and entrepreneurship. We hear each day of how central these are to the restoration of our country’s fortunes and to the development of the smart economy. Being an innovator requires you to take risks, to lead from the front and to dream what has not previously been considered. I hope that the education you received here will fan those flames of entrepreneurship and give you the confidence and skills to step into the unknown”. He went to say that it is noteworthy that today for the first time, we have graduates from several degree programmes designed to produce engineers and business people with the skill set necessary to engage with some of the issues we are facing as a global community. “Building a viable future is at the heart of programme such as the degrees in sustainable construction and sustainable energy engineering. They underscore one of the key challenges faced by all countries, how to renew our planet. We have seen how reckless decisions in the past have consequences that are still unfolding - and will continue to do so for some time to come.” Part of the institute’s own investment in a sustainable future has been realised through developing a state-of-the-art infrastructure that showcases the best in thinking and design, President ” Catháin remarked, highlighting new facilities in the Business School, and particularly the new Engineering and Informatics Building, which opened this semester, will alter for the good how people learn and research at third level. “Representing a €36 million investment, the building is an act of faith by the government in the midlands and an endorsement of the significant progress that has been made in recent years within the School of Engineering. Crucially the facility will be used to both support the engineering requirements of the region and to act as a catalyst and a magnet for inward investment. Coming as it does in our anniversary year, the Engineering and Informatics Building is a fulfilment of those early ambitions for what the college would deliver for the region and the country.”