Recently, several countries, including Canada, held national elections. We also have entered the annual graduation season, when students have completed their studies and cross a stage to receive their diplomas and certificates. You might wonder what these two quite distinct events have in common. Both mark important milestones鈥攏ot just for the individual candidates, whether politicians or students鈥攂ut also for the communities around them. Whether we are voting for a particular platform of policies or celebrating the collective expertise and knowledge that graduands presumably have acquired and can contribute, these events showcase a representative set of ideas and talents that will shape the future of the world around them.
Both elections and graduations are the outcomes of participatory, competitive processes. Ideally, they are measures of public accountability and trust. Through elections and graduations, the public manifests certain expectations鈥攖hat these events are backed up by validated, objective measures and commitments. They are expressions of a kind of social contract between society and the institutions that contribute to the outcome. For an elected official, that may mean a set of obligations to realize campaign promises. For a graduating learner, we expect someone to have a certain level of established competencies that prepare them for employment or advancement in careers and society. Both require persistent effort, hard work, and resources of time and money on the part of the participants and their support systems leading up to voting or graduation day. Candidates for office rely on campaign workers and infrastructures, financial and political backers, and an array of coalition partners invested in their success. Graduating learners rely on their instructors, administrative staff, schoolmates, friends, family, alumni and鈥攊n the case of adult learners鈥攐ften a supportive employer to succeed and reach the finish line.
Elections and graduation ceremonies carry with them symbolic and emotional meaning and signify a new beginning, with all the hopes, uncertainties, and anxieties that come with that. Both events represent important forms of peaceful social change that extend well beyond the momentary focus on electoral outcomes or celebrating the successful completion of a rigorous academic program. But the kind of future that follows may not be immediately clear鈥攏or is it guaranteed. As the actor Jane Fonda recently noted in a to the 2025 graduating class of the University of Southern California鈥檚 Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, where I used to work, 鈥淗ope takes action鈥�. Hope is a muscle like the heart. It鈥檚 when we take action that hope comes alive.鈥� She also referenced the late Czech playwright, activist, and former statesman, V谩clav Havel, who declared that 鈥淗ope is not a feeling of certainty that everything ends well. Hope is just a feeling that life and work have a meaning.鈥� (, 1987) Thus, we can think of elections and graduations as two channels by which we activate hope and exercise our rights and obligations as members of civil鈥攁nd ideally, democratic鈥攕ocieties.
To those who are getting ready to complete this milestone at the 黑料不打烊 University School of Continuing Studies鈥攁s graduands, as faculty and staff, and families pushing all of their learners to get to the finish line for the academic year鈥擨 congratulate you on what has already been accomplished and is yet to come!