The University of Guam conferred degrees to 246 graduates at its\u00a0Fanuch\u00e5nan\u00a02020 (Fall) Commencement Ceremony yesterday. <\/p>\n
With 85 receiving master\u2019s degrees, it was the largest number of master\u2019s degrees ever conferred by the university in a semester, more than half of which were in education specializations. Bachelor\u2019s degrees totaled 161, the majority coming from the School of Business and Public Administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ceremony took place virtually and will remain accessible for viewing on the UOG Facebook page at\u00a0www.facebook.com\/UniversityofGuam.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have to tell this audience that these are unprecedented times and that we\u2019re all living through a historic challenge,\u201d said UOG president Thomas W. Krise. \u201cBut this class of graduates of the University of Guam has been resilient and flexible and supportive in the spirit of the CHamoru values of chinchule\u2019 and inafa\u2019maolek.\u201d\u00a0 Class valedictorian Maya D. Nanpei found a sense of belonging and support at UOG that helped her overcome the ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) she had struggled with in high school.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that we leave our time at UOG feeling like we belonged to something outside of ourselves and use that feeling to inspire us in future endeavors,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n She said graduating during a pandemic was a challenge \u201cin a league of its own.\u201d As an English literature major, she hopes that her fellow graduates are able to find words to keep them connected with the people who matter most.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 My time as a Triton, specifically in the English program, has taught me that words are truly what bind people together. This is especially true in our current situation, as the only way to safely express our love for one another is through words.\u201d\u00a0 The keynote speech was delivered by Dr.\u00a0Edison P. Manaloto, a two-time UOG alumnus and the 2006 UOG valedictorian who this year returned to Guam as a medical doctor at Guam Regional Medical City.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n As an undergraduate, he said he proclaimed in one class that in five years, he would hold a bachelor\u2019s degree, a master\u2019s degree, and become a certified public accountant, but he remembers some of his classmates were not dreaming as big.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem was not a lack of talent or skill\u2014that is abundant\u2014but an inherent fear to dream and to dream big. Looking back, I realized a false sense of insecurity that surrounds many of our island\u2019s youth growing up. \u2026Many fail to see their own uniqueness and talents. They fail to claim what is rightfully theirs, which is a seat at the table.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Manaloto earned his bachelor\u2019s in accounting in 2006, a master\u2019s in public administration in 2007, both from the University of Guam, and became a CPA in 2008 as well as a certified governmental financial manager. Later, seeing the pressing need for medical professionals in Guam, he applied for medical school at De La Salle Health Sciences Institute in the Philippines and became a Doctor of Medicine in 2015 and completed his residency at the University of Hawaii this past June.\u00a0 The ceremony also recognized two honorary degree recipients, awarded by the UOG Board of Regents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cReceiving an honorary degree shows that these individuals have not only become experts in their fields, but have earned the respect of our community and made long-lasting contributions to society,\u201d Krise said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rosalia Fejeran Mateo, a master traditional healer\u2014or\u00a0Yo\u2019\u00e5mte\u2014for 64 years and one of the few remaining indigenous experts in her field, received the honorary degree of Master of Micronesian Traditional Knowledge. Better known as \u201cMama Chai,\u201d she\u00a0has healed thousands of clients through herbal medicine and massage and was instrumental in opening Guam\u2019s first Traditional Healing Center at Sagan Kotturan Chamorro in 2016.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Rlene S. Steffy\u00a0was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Steffy is\u00a0a mass communications specialist of 42 years with a diverse career as a writer, journalist, talk show host, and documentarian. She has come to be considered one of the leading oral-history practitioners in the region, capturing the experiences of war survivors, community leaders, and traditional knowledge experts throughout Micronesia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For complete details, visit\u00a0https:\/\/url.uog.edu\/commencement.\u00a0\u00a0(PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The University of Guam conferred degrees to 246 graduates at its\u00a0Fanuch\u00e5nan\u00a02020 (Fall) Commencement Ceremony yesterday….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":330356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[445],"class_list":["post-335757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-uog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nValedictorian expresses importance of belonging\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nKeynote hopes grads \u2018claim a seat at the table\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nTwo earn honorary degrees\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n