2024 Wharton Graduation Speech – EMBA Student Alexander Daie

wow friends can you believe we're here somehow it feels like we just kicked off this program yesterday although undeniably we had moments where we wondered if this day would ever come before reflecting briefly on what made this experience so incredible on behalf of my classmates I'd like to thank Roger Ferguson for that fantastic keynote address our wonderful professors and the amazing Wharton staff for being here to recognize this achievement with us most importantly as a class we want to thank our loved ones friends and colleagues for all of us saying that the past two years have been challenging is an understatement this program started off with one full week in Philadelphia we' followed that up with 46 Yes you heard me right 46 class weekends in San Francisco a global business week trip and a whole host of other trips around the world that we could partake in throughout all of this time away from home we've been able to grow personally and professionally in and out of the classroom because of the support that you have provided us with every step of the way this experience would not have been possible Without You classmates can we give one more round of applause to all of our our loved ones friends and [Applause] [Music] colleagues two years ago every member of our class came to an identical decision in the process of writing the book that is our life each one of us was motivated to write a chapter titled Wharton so why add this chapter to our book what about this Wharton experience is so special and why is being a Wharton grad such a coveted achievement today we know the answer incredible friendships learning from a world-renowned faculty and a little bit of struggle along the way well uh sometimes a lot of struggle but it was worth every single minute on friendships the graduates that you see in front of you today are some of the brightest most successful and energetic people you will ever meet with an average 12 years of professional work experience our class represents 26 nationalities with students traveling to campus from nine states and four countries around the world we have Engineers doctors lawyers entrepreneurs experts in Tech and finance you name it this remarkable group has spent the past two years together doing so much more than sitting in class class we've shared pricess experiences learned from each other supported one another tackled challenges and admittedly partied together way more than most of us I think expected we aren't just classmates anymore we're devoted friends and these friendships will undoubtedly last a lifetime on learning a vivid memory comes to mind from our macroeconomics class that symbolizes the Wharton academic experience it was 7:30 p.m. on a Friday night normally 10:30 p.m. for Professor Landry who like all of our amazing professors willingly travels out here from San Francisco correction sorry from Philadelphia we were on our eighth hour of classes for the day and all of us including our professor were exhausted after writing the national income identity formula on the Whiteboard Professor Landry turned around and instantly saw the fatigue in our eyes so he grabbed a marker tapped it onto the Whiteboard as loud as he possibly could to focus our attention and enthusiastically yelled class I know you're tired but this is one of the most important equations in macroeconomics you have to understand this the passion and energy that he and all of our professors brought to the classroom was absolutely unrivaled this is Wharton and there is no other place like it the Lasting Impression our professors left on us went far beyond academics in global strategy we were reminded to always be humble and that real success and joy in life comes from serving others in finance we saw firsthand how important and meaningful it is to find passion in our lives outside of our professional careers and in entrepreneurship we were encouraged to always bet on ourselves and told that not doing so is a risk bigger than any other I could go on and on about the lessons we learned in and out of the classroom but I won't because in time it's unlikely that the details of this speech will be remembered but if we do remember any of it I hope it's the following first classmates let us always remember this moment and what it represents it is a testament to our determin our commitment to lifelong learning and our unyielding desire to succeed we have proven to ourselves that we can push Harder Faster and farther than we ever previously imagined and finally today marks the end of this remarkable Wharton chapter in each of our own books the pages that follow are blank none of us know exactly what the next 5 10 or 15 years will look like but we all have an idea of how we want our story to finish and what it will take to get there we also know that at times life has a tendency of diverting us from our dreams in those moments let us always remember the words of William Ernest Henley who in Invictus wrote I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul friends let us never allow anyone or anything to stop us from achieving our dreams and writing our life story the way we want it to be written class of 2024 we did it and now let's celebrate the start of this next chapter