Dartmouth University Commencement Ceremony 2024 featuring tennis great Roger Federer

Dartmouth University's 2024 Commencement Ceremony featuring tennis great Roger Federer was full of inspirational moments, lessons, and things to think about.

Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqWUuYTcG-o.

What spoke most to me came at the end, and appeared to be the message that he really came to Dartmouth to deliver to the Graduating Class of 2024. That was his passion for providing preschool education for children and training for the teachers.

Speaking of being motivated by his South African mother, Federer started a foundation -the Roger Federer Foundation https://rogerfedererfoundation.org focused on early childhood education. Federer quoted an astonishing statistic that in Sub-Saharan Africa 75% of the children do not have access to preschool. Through his foundation they’ve helped over 3 million children and train over 55,000 teachers.

According to 联合国儿童基金会 , the lack of quality preschool education limits the future of children by denying them the opportunity to reach their full potential. It also limits the future of countries, robbing them of the human capital needed to reduce inequalities and promote peaceful and prosperous societies.

https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/access-early-childhood-education-preschool

Universal preschool education is a global priority because:

• establishes strong foundations for learning,
• increases the effectiveness and efficiency of education systems; and
• it is an effective strategy for promoting economic growth.

The importance of early childhood learning is rooted in the second target of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which seeks to ensure that, by 2030, "all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood care and development services and quality pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary school."?

That statement delivered an unspoken message (whether he intended to or not): Use your talent to fuel your passion!

Key Points

1. Take advantage of opportunities outside of your comfort zone.

2. When you transition, you graduate.

3. Effortless is a myth.

4. Work hard when nobody is watching.

5.?Grit > Gift:?Grit is more valuable than gift.

6. It’s only a point.

7. Discipline is a talent (so is patience, trusting yourself, and belief in yourself).

8. Once a point is behind you, it needs to be behind you.?

9. Life is bigger than the court.

10. Even though you're graduating from Dartmouth University, you still have to work hard.