25 June 2016
DL Umali Freedom Park
College, Laguna
You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.
This is a popular quote of unknown origin. Nonetheless, its message is clear: Life is more than just working for a living. This is the theme I would like to discuss this morning.
But before proceeding, I want to first congratulate the parents and guardians of our graduates. You, parents and guardians, were selfless in giving to your children and wards the support that enabled them to get this far. I am sure their graduation today makes you happy and proud.
I also commend the UP Los Baños administrators, faculty, REPs, and admin staff. You were exemplary in giving your best to foster a culture of excellence in UPLB for the benefit of your students.
Of course, most of all, I congratulate the UP Los Baños Class of 2016 for achieving success in your studies. You graduates have reached another important milestone in your life—a point at which you choose where you go next and which path to follow. The choice, for sure, is not as easy as solving for x in a Math class. Sometimes that is hard, too. But the problems you will face from now on demand more than just intellect—you will need a strong sense of value, a good level of maturity, and a different kind of wisdom. In comparison, your earlier decision to study in UP and take your studies seriously might appear now to be no brainer.
Around you graduates are people who have given a lot to bring you to this morning’s ceremonies—your parents, your mentors, your friends. These are people you know and can thank individually. But you also have faceless supporters: the hordes of taxpaying Filipinos who have contributed collectively to your education in UP, the country’s sole national university. As you very well know, all UP students are heavily subsidized by the state, that is why you are called Iskolar ng Bayan. How do you thank your benefactors—the Filipino people?
Making a living with excellence and honor
Making a living is something everyone needs to do—either to help uplift the economic condition of your parents and siblings, or to meet the payment of your own bills and purchases, or to prove your mettle to your elders and peers, or simply to affirm of your status as a productive member of society.
That is why, by all means, make a living and earn your keep. Use everything you learned in the University to do your work well and eventually excel in your endeavor. Being the best in what you do is a great tribute you can offer to UP and our nation. It does not matter whether you are a corporate employee, or a professional practitioner, or a striving artist, or an academic, or a social worker, or an entrepreneur.
As you do better in what you are doing to make a living, get the accolades, the awards, the praises. Any of these is a mark of what is conventionally called achievement—an epitome of excellence.
But in your pursuit of excellence, do not overlook honor. Honor determines the value of excellent work. Being ethical in your professional dealings, and moral in your personal interactions, is the honorable way of living that I hope you learned in the University and will follow in the real world.
I know it is hard to be honorable amidst the temptations of fast money and instant fame. But holding yourself up to high standards of behavior when you pursue excellence is what builds your integrity. This very word, integrity comes from the Latin word ‘integer’, meaning intact or whole.
With no exception, honor is in tandem with UP’s tradition of excellence. Dangal at husay as we say in Filipino: dangal at husay go hand in hand. Both, together, will make you whole and define your integrity. You have integrity only when your sterling façade is a true reflection of your inner core.
Staying socially connected
Perhaps you will, indeed, make a living with excellence and honor. But will you be content with that?
A criticism to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which you must have learned in class, questions the linearity of its ideas on survival. Pamela Rutledge, a business strategy psychologist, suggests that none of the need levels in the Maslow Pyramid—not physiological needs, safety, belonging, esteem, nor self-actualization can exist without being anchored in social connections.1
To UP graduates, the notion of being socially connected can often be a challenge. We hear stories about UP grads who behave arrogantly in the workplace. The arrogance could perhaps be due to a feeling of entitlement that UP grads have as products of the country’s premier university.
At the same time, you must have read about that Jobstreet survey of 550 companies. The said survey shows UP grads as being only the 3rd most employable. You must have thought, What? I went through how many Hell Weeks2 just to become the 3rd preference among employers? The validity of that survey may be questioned, but we have to accept, true or not, this is bad reputation. We need to change the negative impression. While UP students are often told they are a cut above the rest, UP grads should not harbor an elitist attitude that will keep them segregated from others.
In UP, we have a time-honored culture of activism and that probably ingrained in us the propensity to talk, and sometimes shout. Yet it is also a common commentary by employers: UP grads cannot communicate well. What a plot twist, isn’t it? Our graduates can talk, but cannot communicate?
This is why I said earlier, from now on, you will need more than just intellect. You need to connect. Connect with your boss, workmates, and customers. More importantly, connect with our people. That is because you studied in UP not to become this nation’s privileged intellectual elite—but this nation’s hope.
Making a life of giving and service
In my investiture as UP President in 2011, I proclaimed: We in UP must succeed not because we have a reputation to keep but because we have a country to serve. I’m sharing it again here because we must keep returning to this kind of mindset—a mindset that makes your UP education extraordinary. Placing the country above self is what makes you extraordinary.
So I hope you will begin to consider service as your investment in what our country, the Philippines, can be. I hope you will commit to a life of giving and service. It is a commitment to a better nation and a better world for everyone to live in. This may not come instantly for many of you, because of the immediate need to make a living. But as you make a living over time, continue to better yourselves and your capabilities. Hone your skills and expertise. Build up a career and work towards financial sufficiency. So when you are ready to make a life someday, you will have more to give.
I am sure most of you here would describe today’s ceremony as a moment of happiness. And more moments like this—getting your academic degrees, getting hired, winning a contest, making breakthroughs—will make you even happier. Notice though, that most of these moments of happiness are moments when you get something: your diploma, your first salary, your first car, or even your first love. It’s about getting, taking, having. That’s okay. After all, you deserve to get the things for which you have worked hard.
Making a life of service may not be as happy—you may become overworked, underpaid, and even unappreciated. People may, and often will, forget to thank you along the way. Yet for people who have dedicated their lives to the Filipino people, fulfillment is not in the happy prospects of money, fame, or power. More than happiness then, service is about attaining a sense meaning and purpose. At the end of the day, which makes us more satisfied?
An exploratory study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology in 2013 reported the difference. According to the authors: Happiness was linked to being a taker rather than a giver, whereas meaningfulness went with being a giver rather than a taker.3
They defined meaningfulness as both a cognitive and an emotional assessment of whether one’s life has purpose and value. And one way of finding that purpose is to dedicate yourself to making a life of giving and service.
I hope that you will not take it against me my emphasis on giving and service today. My preference, though, is for you to take a longer-term plan for a life of giving and service—not just immediately after graduation but more so in the future when you are better able, more capable, and less bothered by the day-to-day concerns of making a living.
Of the thousands who aspire to enter UP year after year, less than a fifth make it. The few who make it are given world class education by excellent teachers, backed by resources that are not accessible to many schools in the country. The nation is investing in UP so that UP can deliver on its mandate of producing competent and responsible leaders. We take seriously our slogan, UP: Shaping Minds that Shape the Nation.
But our country is still confronted with challenges so complex that it needs the best and brightest minds we can muster from across the nation. Finding the solutions is our extraordinary task in UP as the country’s national university—your challenge as UP graduates.
At this point, I would like to call on our UP graduates who are prepared to invest more time in developing their capability to be of greater service to our country and people. I encourage you to join the academe and pursue postgraduate studies here or abroad. The country needs to massively develop its human or knowledge capital which is considered as the key for technological innovation needed to achieve and sustain inclusive growth that reduces inequality and poverty.
Higher level education and training will enable you to create new knowledge, innovate products and processes, and improve productivity. Technology innovation supports the manufacturing sector which generates quality jobs. Scientific research supports the agricultural sector which provides our people with food and nutrition. And because interdisciplinary approach is important in setting the path to growth and development, the promotion of science and technology should be closely integrated with the social sciences, the arts, and the humanities to ensure the holistic development of the Filipino society.
As a well-trained professor in the university, you can contribute in educating our youth, in doing research and development work to find solutions to our country’s pestering problems, and perform public service to government, industry, and the society as a whole.
In the academe, you will enjoy the best of both worlds: you make a living as you make a life of giving and service.
I am not saying UP graduates have the monopoly of knowledge and ability, still, you are the ones especially expected to take leadership in shaping the nation. Always remember, you are from the University of the Philippines. You carry the name of our nation in your degree wherever life brings you, however you make a living or make a life.
More than a hundred years ago, Jose Rizal wrote in El Filibusterismo, through the character of Padre Florentino, a question that I hope we can now confidently answer today: “Where are the youth who will consecrate their golden hours, their illusions, and their enthusiasm to the welfare of their native land?”
I fervently believe, ladies and gentlemen, that they are in front of me— the youth who will lead their lives with integrity and with a sense of social responsibility. Tinatawagan ko kayo, mga Iskolar ng Bayan: may Rizal’s call be your commitment to nation. No, let Rizal’s call be our joint commitment to the nation as One UP.
Maraming salamat po.
Padayon, UP!
1 https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/positively-media/201111/social-networks-what-maslow-misses-0
2 (Student term for the weeks leading to finals)
3 Baumeister, R., Vohs, K., Aaker, J., & Garbinsky, E. (2013). Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life. Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(6), 505-516.
This message is part of the collection of Messages from the President of the University of the Philippines. You can access the other pieces by clicking through the image below.
To view photos of the UP Los Baños graduation, please click the album below.
