 Welcome to this virtual celebration of your graduation from AUS. We know that this is no substitute for being together and we look forward to seeing you when circumstances permit. In spite of the difficulties, you have persevered and have been successful. As you make the transition to life after graduation, I am sure that your ability to persevere will serve you well. The University is proud of your accomplishments and grateful for the contributions that you've made to enriching AUS as students, as campus leaders, and as role models for your peers. I wish you continued success as you join your fellow alumni to make the world better. Congratulations again. I hope that you enjoy this video intended to celebrate all that you have accomplished. Congratulations. On behalf of His Highness, Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad al-Qasimi, member of the UAE Supreme Council, ruler of Sharjah, president of the American University of Sharjah, members of the Board of Trustees, the faculty and staff. Congratulations to the class of fall 2020. Much has changed since the first day you stepped onto campus and the world has changed in unexpected ways. AUS has expanded facilities, launched new programs, enhanced research opportunities for faculty and students, and renewed the focus on student success, including an increased emphasis on the transition to university life. Due to the foresight and the extraordinary vision of His Highness, AUS today is not only characterized by the incredible buildings that we enjoy due to his generosity, but the campus is much more. It is a diverse academic community enriched by the students, staff, and faculty who contributed to the advancement of the academic mission of the university. While the change that has occurred at AUS has been significant, it pales in comparison to the change that has taken place in the world. The pre-final exam anxiety that you experienced just a short time ago may seem minor when compared to the challenges ahead. However, my confidence is restored each time I speak with AUS students and graduates who are confident, capable, and prepared to face a complex future. At just as you have successfully negotiated the challenges associated with pursuing a degree, I am confident that you will rise to the even greater challenges that lie ahead. Education is a gift that comes at a cost and sacrifice, and we should not forget to thank those who have supported you in order to make today possible. Please join me in recognizing the family members and friends who have supported you through this journey. Given what you've accomplished academically and as contributors of the AUS community through class discussions, community service, initiatives, leadership roles, performances, extracurricular activities, and research and teaching assistants, I am confident that you will continue to make a difference in the world. Congratulations graduates. I am delighted to join you, your families and friends, in celebration of this major milestone in your lives. A degree from AUS is here finally. It's indeed a distinct honor for me to share the excitement of this moment with all of you and to express the sense of pride that everyone in the AUS community feels for your accomplishments. We all know that you have come to this point through a great deal of dedication, persistence, and hard work. That is always the case for an AUS graduate, but the fact that you have done so and that the severe restrictions mandated by the current pandemic simply adds to our pride and to our admiration for your achievements. It should also be a source of great joy to all of you. Rejoice in this your day and please accept my warmest congratulations on your graduation and my best wishes as you embark in a new phase in your life. Hello everyone. On behalf of the faculty and staff of the College of Arts and Sciences, I congratulate you on your graduation and reaching this important milestone in your life. Interacting with you is one of the great privileges of working at AUS. I had short discussions with many of you in the hallways of CAS. I have learned from your professors about your stimulating classroom discussions and have watched you perform on stage, present in international conferences and when international awards. I have witnessed this process of transformation myself and I sincerely say you are nothing short of inspiring. We are proud of your achievements, but you should not stop here. There is much more to do and today marks a new beginning. We are aware that finding a job or starting your own business or going to graduate school can be stressful and challenging at the best of times and that the current health situation and the declining economy may intensify this stress and amplify the challenges. However, I am confident that with your strength, resilience, unique skills and the education you have received at AUS, you will overcome these challenges and succeed in whatever you choose to do. Some of the most devastating things that happen to you will teach you the most as great things never come from your comfort zone. As you have learned in CAS, chase your dreams, but don't lose sight of the greater purpose. Congratulations and I wish you all the best. Hello everyone and allow me to begin this by extending a massive congratulations to all of my fellow graduates. This is a great big moment for all of us. We're all moving on to another chapter of our lives and I'm sure you're all very excited, but for some of us and myself included, getting to this point wasn't necessarily the smoothest ride. If you know me and you know my story at AUS and you probably know that it wasn't very smooth. It was a very turbulent trip, but joining the mass communication department made a world of a difference. I managed to make some of the best friends that I can think of and I managed to really connect with some incredible professors who really helped me become the best version of myself. Through the things they taught me in and out of a classroom, I really learned a lot from them. I learned how to really just understand the world differently, especially the media. Just looking at the media in a different perspective and I truly attribute all of that to my professors. They were all wonderful and great people and I will miss them very much and the friends that I made here are friends I'd probably call that for life, I imagine, hopefully. And I'm lucky enough to be able to call them my friends and I truly respect and admire them all and I hope you guys and everyone who watches this has had a similar experience, at least the good part of that experience minus the turbulent beginning. But with that, I'd like to end with saying again, congratulations to all of you and I wish you all the best of luck in your future, be it a career or furthering education or anything else, whatever you decide you want to do, it is all in your hands. Whatever you wish to do, you should do that. And again, congratulations one more time. Go celebrate safely, be responsible and be happy. Congratulations. The world needs you and AUS will continue to need you. You, along with the 16,000 alumni that you join, will continue to remain an important part of the AUS community, just as I hope that AUS will remain part of you. I look forward to the time we can gather to celebrate your graduation. Until then, I wish you continued success. Congratulations, proud AUSers. Accuracy, fellow graduates, we did it. We accomplished our dreams and our major steps that we took in this journey. I hope that wherever our future takes us, we allow it to take us somewhere and even beyond. The past four years were more than an academic journey. I will definitely miss my morning rides to Sharjah and I will miss the ITF room at SBA, but I'm definitely prepared for a career in corporate finance. Besides quality education, AUS gave me friendships and memories that I will forever remain grateful for. It gave me the opportunity to represent students in the Student Council for one year, which I consider one of my greatest achievements. In the future, I hope the type you simply represent AUS as an alumina and make it and its community proud. After graduating high school, I always went with the coat that says, be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire. And this coat has governed the life I live for the majority of my academic and social spheres throughout my time in college. To thank you to my MCM department and faculty that shaped me to the woman I am today that you guys are looking at. And of course, my friends that turned into my family. I can't wait to see what the future holds for me and each one of you and take all that AUS has taught us over the four years, patience, commitment, hard work, and kindness. Here's to our next journey of adulthood. AUS, you'll be missed. Thank you once again.