First of all I would like to salute and honor all those who have made our celebration today possible. The parents, guardians, families and relatives. This graduation is your graduation. We offer it to you. Congratulations and thank you. We give you a round of applause.
Secondly, our teachers, administrators, staff, led by Father Principal Arnel Ong, and Assistant Principals Mr Honey Rod Alfaro, Mrs Evelyn Bugayong, and Mr Jeffrey Jalani. This graduation is a testimony of your success and achievement as educators, as formators of our young men and women. Congratulations and thank you. We give them a round of applause.
We also thank the people who have also helped us in many ways. The household helpers, the drivers, the security guards, the physical plant and maintenance personnel, the central services, our donors and benefactors. You also made this possible. Thank you. Let us give them a round
of applause.
Now let me address you, our dear graduates. For four years we have taught you how is it to be an Atenean. And I would like to repeat it, before you leave the Kreutz campus, and say goodbye to it. To be an Atenean is to love God and to love our country. This is written on our Ateneo de Zamboanga University seal: pro Deo et patria, for God and country. By love of God we mean, we are obedient to God. We follow God. We pray to God, we worship God. We do great things for God ad majorem Dei gloriam! Since God is goodness, we strive, we do our best to be good young men and women. Be good persons for others!
To love our country, we mean we love Zamboanga City, Mindanao, and we work hard to make it a better place. We obey the law, we work hard for peace, for democracy, for a better life for all of us. We work for justice. We care for everyone, especially the poor. We use our talents, our gifts, to serve others, to help others. We are not selfish, we share ourselves to others. To be Atenean is to be good Filipino citizens!
The Ateneo way is peace. We want you to be men and women of peace. The Ateneo has taught you how to be good friends with different types of people, with people of different religions, different cultures. Continue to be good friends with them. These friendships will last a long, long time, till you have grown up to be adults. Ateneo friendships last forever! If you are friends, differences and conflicts are settled peacefully. Through friendships like these, we build peace.
The Ateneo way is the way of the blue eagle. The blue eagle flies high, it soars. As Ateneans, dear graduates, you will do good things, great things, more things, you will do the magis, the more. You will achieve many things. Many people will notice you, will admire you. Many people will be proud of you. You will be leaders! But, dear graduates, do not be proud eagles. Be humble eagles. The blue eagle flies, but the blue eagle goes down, glides down, to see what is happening on the ground. Be humble. Do not just stay high above, but go down. Do not forget the people you serve. Do not forget who you really are. Be humble eagles, be humble Ateneans. To be proud, arrogant, and selfish – is not to be an Atenean.
Finally, to be an Atenean is to know that you still need to learn more. That you still need to grow. Therefore, you, our graduates, will continue learning, making yourself the best persons you can possibly be. Be excited. Be joyful. Look forward to the next step. Look forward to your senior
high school education.
For the past four years, we have taught you all these, the Ateneo way. Live out the Ateneo way, young Ateneans! Fight for the Ateneo way! You will be Ateneans forever! Congratulations! I hope to see you, most, if not all of you, at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University Senior High School!!
Muchas gracias a todos!
