Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Friday gave the commencement speech to the 2024 graduating class of the Delaware State University (DSU), where he congratulated them on their hard work and success while urging them to emulate the work and efforts of great activists who paved the way years ago.

Holness, who is the first sitting head of government to address the university at a commencement ceremony, opened his speech by greeting the attendees in patois saying “Wah gwaan!” which was met with cheers and applause.

He went on to congratulate the graduates, with special attention on the 38 Jamaicans who had accessed postgraduate studies through the Caribbean Ed.D programme at the university. The programme was established at DSU in 2020, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in collaboration with Jamaica, where students locally could pursue higher education without leaving the island.

“It is my pleasure to have the opportunity to address this audience of officials and dignitaries on the platform, well-wishers gathered here and of course you the DSU graduating class of 2024. We are all proud of your journey and achievement and today we celebrate you,” Holness said.

In his address, the prime minister, using his own university journey as an example, told the graduates that they are now tasked with paying forward the opportunities they received, even as they struggled to attain a higher level of education.

“It is not so long ago, maybe 33 years ago, I started my own university Journey. It was a struggle. I often tell the story that I went to university on an adventure. I didn’t know where I would get the first cent but I had faith that God had a plan for me. With the sacrifice of my parents; my mother a clerk in the civil service and my father a small farmer, by working part-time and by getting student loans I made it through.

“Now as prime minister I have the opportunity to pay it forward by ensuring that policies are in place to make it easier for students in my country to access student loans, grants and scholarships. My government has removed the guarantee requirement for student loans. We have removed fees for technical and skills training education and we have increased significantly the number of scholarships available,” he told the crowd.

Holness advised the graduating class to embrace the struggles that they often face, and grasp opportunities that will come. He drew on Nelson Mandela, Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King Jr as examples of what can happen when the struggles presented are embraced and the necessary work is applied to overcome them.

“As Nelson Mandela was called to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Martin Luther King was called to the struggle for civil rights in America and Marcus Garvey was called to the struggle for Pan-Africanism and black consciousness. Today we stand in a better world because these heroes embraced not just their struggles, they embraced our struggles,” he said.

His final charge came through highlighting the benefits of higher education, while expressing that the graduates now have a duty to become active participants in their communities, and making the world a better place in a time of divisiveness and dissonance.

“Your university motto ‘Enter to learn, go forth and serve’ is an important guide as some of you transition from students to assume greater responsibilities in your organisations and communities. Today, relative to the known history of mankind, we live in a time of abundance. There are infinite possibilities with the rapid advancement of technology, yet there are so many people without,” Holness said.

“Bob Marley a Jamaican legend and global icon in the struggle for liberation of oppressed people who, incidentally lived in Delaware in Wilmington for a couple of years, captured this paradox, this dissonance in the lyrics of one of his song ‘the rain a fall but the dutty tough’,” the prime minister said, singing the lyrics.

“Now more than ever we need citizens who actively embrace the challenge of our time and engage with enlightened perspectives in community and global affairs. You are the ones to make our democracy work to deliver shared prosperity. I charge you, the graduating class of 2024, embrace the struggle for good, be the voice of reason in your community, bring perspective to divisive issues, balance extremes, bridge divergent views and bring stakeholders together to cooperate on local and global problems and find the elegant solutions that will keep bending that arc of morality to greater wellbeing, enlightenment, justice and peace,” Holness urged.

Following his speech the prime minister was conferred with an honorary doctorate degree from the university.

The full video of the Prime Minister’s Commencement address can be seen here: Graduate Ceremony – Delaware State University Commencement 2024