Graduates of the 2023-2024 MSc CEID Cohort. Isola in on bottom right.
In preparation for her graduation from the MSc CEID programme, Isola wrote and submitted a graduation speech. While she was not selected to share her speech at the ceremony on 27 November 2024, Isola did share it with her cohort mates and faculty at a celebration meal later that day. Thanks Isola for sharing your speech with us. You can find the full speech below.
Today is a victory day for all of us sitting here. It was a victory over a tremendous amount of diverse challenges and battles each of us faced to get to this great accomplishment that will change our lives forever. We came from very different backgrounds and came here full of hope to become high-quality professionals in each of our areas of expertise. Throughout this year our growth went beyond excellent academic standards, we grew in our knowledge about the world and ourselves. We were able to more deeply visualize and understand the challenging realities in the international sphere that will be awaiting us to intervene as highly qualified professionals, in pursuit of constructing a fairer and more charitable society. We learned about our strengths, talents, and abilities; likewise, we identified our limitations, weaknesses, and areas of improvement. More than a master’s this was a profound personal development experience that I am sure we will remember for the rest of our lives, hopefully with gratitude, as not many can get to this point. Let us use this privileged opportunity to become agents of positive change in this world, wherever we are all extending to go next.
One message I want to leave you with is to never lose faith, no matter how wide and profound the ocean of challenges ahead of us is, we can still get to the other side as long as we keep fighting with faith. Like many of you, I came from far away, it took us a two-day journey to get to the UK from Paraguay, South America, with my two children, not even very sure of how to get home in the middle of the night, but hope was strong and we trusted we would make it. My heart was filled with gratitude that when we got off our third plane, I was warmly welcomed by my amazing Masters Director and a wonderful teacher representative from the CEID program. They helped us get to our place and brought us food that my incredible classmates had collected to support us as they knew my husband would join us later. This community became our second family as the teachers and students treated us with so much love and support during this time, revealing what the true spirit of education is, not just teaching about fairness, social justice, and tackling social inequalities, but actually practicing these values with those who mostly need it, sometimes the people right next to ourselves.
Isola reading her speech to cohort peers, CEID faculty, and family members for the graduation celebration at BrewDog.
I am deeply thankful to every person who was a part of this accomplishment because, besides our personal efforts and dedication, we need to recognize the importance of those who propelled us to be here: a biological or spiritual family, friends, classmates, and teachers with a genuine calling. Those people who shared words of encouragement, an arm to cry on, a hug to celebrate, a laugh to break the tension, and even a prayer when things were no longer in our hands and we needed to carry on. Now it is our time to be that person for others, to extend the hope and good each of us has received in this House of Study, and to expand it to the world. Thank you University of Edinburgh for becoming such a significant part of our lives, we hope to take in high all the teachings we acquired here and to continue developing as professionals according to our personal callings and goals. “Ñandejára tanderovasa” which means “God bless you” in my Guaraní native language. Congratulations dear colleagues, let us make a great and positive impact worldwide!
