2026 Convocation: Ceremony 2 | ECU

We're going to start our program now. So, I'll invite you to have a seat. Welcome everyone. My name is Marsha Guno and I'm the vice provost of students. The ceremony is about to begin. We kindly ask that you mute your electronic devices until the ceremony has concluded. And I'd like to ask you if you're able to to please rise for the academic procession and please remain standing for the entrance of the platform and chancellor's party. Thank you. Ho ho. Hello. Okay, everybody, let's join in. You can start by clapping if you like. You guys are awesome. Class of 2020. Let's give them a round of applause. Hello. Hey, one more time. Awesome. I know my name. Here we go. Oh yeah. Oh. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yes. Hyo hey of you for being here especially for those who are graduating. away. Oh, away. Hey, away. Hello. Hey sho hey All the way home away. Wait, take home. Hey, hey, hey. Woo! Holy Ghost. Glory. Okay, Oh hey. Oh hey. Oh hey. Oh hey. Oh hey. Oh hey. Please be seated. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Danna Hiadi and I'm the vice president academic and provost here at Emicar University. I'm honored to be your MC today. I begin today by acknowledging that we are gathering here today on the ancestral and unseated territories of the Muskim peoples. I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that Emily Carr University is situated on the unseated traditional and ancestral territories of the Muskam, Squamish, and Slaveatu peoples. It is my pleasure to begin the ceremony by introducing a video message to all you graduates from the Honorable Jesse Sunner, Minister of Postsecary Education and Future Skills. >> Hello. It is now my honor to welcome Emily Carr's Chancellor, Carlen Thomas, to the podium. Thank you, Vice President Diane. Oh, my dear respected ones, the feelings I have inside are really good to see you and be with you here today. And in my traditional language called down river hulkum. I introduced myself to you with my ancestral name. I carry the name onote. It's part of our ways to share a little bit of our family tree. We do it for a number of reasons, but the most important is that it informs you, the audience, that I know who I am and I know where I come from. My parents are Deanna George and the late Hereditary Chief Ernie George. My paternal grandparents were Hereditary Chief John L. George and Lillian or Dolly George. My mother's parents were the late Stan Joseph and my granny's name was Caroline. and then raising my hands. I'm sure you all aware this is a gesture of welcome in Coalish territory. So I'm thanking all of you for coming here today and I'm welcoming you to the home of the Musquam people here specifically at at the Chan Center but where Emily Carr sits. It's the home lands and waters of the Musquam the Squamish and the Slot peoples. I also want to share with you of how grateful I am that Emily Carr continues this tradition, this protocol of drumming in the students, of drumming in the platform party. And the reason we do that is when we gather, we have our singers and drummers come in first. They're clearing out all the negative energy. They're inviting in the positive energy. And you may see some empty seats in here. They are not empty because we've also asked our ancestors and your ancestors to join us here today. So I raise my hands to Emily Carar University for always continuing this tradition. To start off, I want to acknowledge what an incredible feat it is to get to this stage today. We're here to celebrate you. It's your dedication to your craft, your commitment to doing the work, and your unparalleled creativity that have brought you here to this moment. You didn't do this alone. So, let's thank the people that got you here. To the parents, the guardians, families, friends, and collaborators, we thank you for your support. As a longtime educator and a lifelong learner, I often wonder how do we become that lifelong learner? I often turn to the first people's principles of learning which highlights that learning is embedded in memory, history, and story. The way you become a lifelong learner is to embrace that process is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential and relational. Learning will take time and patience. These values are inherent to Emily Carr University and we hope you have embraced them in your work. What I hope you carry with you today is this. Learning doesn't end when you cross this stage. It's ongoing and evolves over life. Even though you are graduating today, you will discover many new avenues and journeys that will deepen and enhance your thinking and practice. Whether it took you on a winding road path or you grasp things instantly, no one person's learning journey is the same. As we celebrate our centennial anniversary, you stand alongside countless artists, designers, and thinkers across the decades who never stop reinventing and pushing the boundaries of their practice. I hope you embrace that energy of the creatives who came before you. I know they are encouraging you to share your talents and creative thinking with the world. As the graduating class in our centennial year, we are especially proud of how you've built such a warm and friendly community, the care you've shown each other in the tougher moments, and the unbridled creativity that is reflected in your projects. From 1925 to 2026, you now join a special community of ECU alumni who have made waves across the world and shaped our understanding of art and design. So go forth and create art that provokes us, inspires us, challenges us, and brings us together. Congratulations to the class of 2026. Hyde Septka. I would I would like now to call upon President and Vice Chancellor of Emily Core University, Dr. Trish Kelly, who will deliver the presidential address. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Trish Kelly, president and vice chancellor of Emily Carr University of Art and Design and it is my great privilege to share this milestone with you today. A moment that marks both an ending and a beginning. I'd like to first welcome our graduates along with their families and friends as well as the faculty, staff, and honored guests who have joined us during this c ceremony to celebrate you, the class of 2026. You are the first graduating cohort of Emily Carr University's next 100 years. Pretty good. Pretty good. and you are joining a legacy of excellence, creativity, and innovation that spans a century. From this moment forward, this chapter belongs to you. Getting to today has required not only hard work, but also the support of a strong community. I also wish to express my gratitude to the faculty, mentors, technicians, and support staff who have helped guide you here to this milestone. The path to graduation isn't always straightforward. In fact, it rarely ever is. It requires strengths that are honed through practice, iteration, and the willingness to start again. curiosity, imagination, and resilience in the face of failure. These qualities and strategies for making are not soft skills, but rather crucial lessons. They are what keeps you going when the work gets hard, and they really ensure that your practice will continue to develop long after leaving Emily Carr. There was a moment early in my own art school education that has stayed with me all these years. It was my very first drawing class and we were asked to display our sketches on the wall for critique. Maybe a 5 10 minute drawing. First time I'd ever done that. No preamble, no warm-up, just your work exposed in front of everyone. That was a totally new experience for me. I looked at what I'd made and then looked at what the person beside me had made and felt a particular kind of dread asking myself the questions, is this good enough? Will my classmates understand what I'm trying to say? If I only had more time, maybe it would be different. But I quickly realized that the critique wasn't about who had the best drawing or the most exceptional technical skills. It was about what each of us was seeing and how willing we were to be honest about it, to share that vision with one another and be responsible for the conversation and questions the work brings up. I walked out of that class with something that has stayed with me ever since. Creative practice is not just about making objects or products, though of course that is very important as our grad show demonstrates last night that opened last night. two more weeks to see it. So, you better get there if you haven't. But also about sharing meaning, experiences, and relationships with one another. It's about dialogue and self-reflection, learning and transformation, not just while you're at school, but through all the adventures yet to come. ECU doesn't make artists or designers. Rather, it creates the conditions for them to grow and thrive because real insight and change doesn't usually live in the polished outcomes or it doesn't exclusively live there. It lives in the messy uncertain process behind it in the experimentation and risk-taking and in the commitment to engage in thoughtful and collaborative ways. Your capacity to sit with uncertainty, question what you are looking at, and find a way through is now your superpower as graduates from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. More than any single tool, medium, or technique you've perfected here. It is this creative resilience that will define what you go on to do. And as new technologies continue to reshape what's possible, your curiosity, your emotion, your point of view is not a nice to have. It is actually irreplaceable. For a century, many of our alumni have driven transformation and shaped culture in ways that continue to resonate today. A painting by Luke Parnell hangs outside the prime minister's office at the threshold of where this country's most important decisions are made. Douglas Copelan wrote a novel that gave generation X a name and has never stopped asking what technology is doing to human experience. Sunius Sue weaves indigenous identity into every medium he touches. Kevin Eastwood holds a mirror up to the world through documentary film. Orville Fiser changed the way a generation understood war through his paintings. The list could go on. We know ECU graduates don't just enter industries. They inspire the spaces where decisions are made and change the way the world sees itself. And now you are the next generation of artists and designers to do just that. So as you transition to the next phase of your journey, imagine big ideas. Experiment and explore. And most importantly, use your newly honed superpowers. Remember, the future is not something waiting for you. It is something you will create. Congratulations to the class of 2026. Thank you, President Kelly. Chancellor Carlen Thomas will now begin the presentation of the honorary degrees. Honorary degrees are the highest awards conferred by Emily Carr University. They recognize and celebrate the commitment, dedication, and service of individuals who have distinguished themselves by their significant achievements and contributions to the art world in BC, Canada, and beyond. I will now call on President Kelly to present the honorary degree to Glenn Aline. Thank you, Chancellor Thomas. Glenn Aline is a Vancouver-based curator and writer and the founding program director of Grunt Gallery. He has worked extensively with performance art and is a co-founder of live performance bianial. His writing has been published in the place of objects, the John David Lawrence collection, a publication from the bag in 2025. Other places, reflections on media art in Canada from Mano 2019. Wordless, the performance of Rebecca Belmore, Grw Gallery 2018. Unseated Territories, Lawrence Paul Yakleptin from the Museum of Anthropology in 2016. making always war from stride gallery 2015, access all areas from the grunt gallery in 2008 and the list goes on. Alina has also helped organize a number of conferences including Indian acts aboriginal performance art in 2002 co-produced with tribe and grunt gallery infest 2004 produced by the pacific association of artistr run centers and live in public the art of engagement at ECU in 2007. In recent years, Alina has been involved in archival projects as a producer of websites including Medicine 2008, Beat Nation 2009, through Grunt Gallery, Ruins in Process, Vancouver Art in the60s 2009, produced through Grunt in the Morrison Helen Belulin Art Gallery at UBC, Activating the Archive, 2011, Background, This Place, 2013, and Taking Advantage: The Main Street redo 2014. As a program director of Grunt Gallery, Altene was active in creating sustainable administration practices through the purchase of a facility, the creation of the Glenn Altene Legacy Fund, an endowment held by the Vancouver Foundation and the Blue Cabin Residency Program. In 2018, Altene was awarded the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for outstanding contribution to contemporary art practice. We'll now have a very brief video introduction of our recipient, Glenn Aline. Chancellor Thomas, on behalf of the Senate of this university, I now ask that you confer upon Glenn Altene the degree Doctor of Letters, Honoris Ka. Glenn Aline by virtue of the authority vested in me and in the senate of Emily Core University I hereby admit you to the degree of doctor of letters honors kaza Dr. Glennaltine will be hooded by Vice President Deianne, Vice President Academic and Provo. Good afternoon. Greetings to the chancellor and president, the ECU board of governors, members of the platform party, staff and faculty of the university, graduating students, and my friends and family, I feel very honored to receive this degree. Thank you very much. After my p my 36 years as program director at Grunt and now retired for the past six, it's given me time to reflect on the work we did as a totality. At the time all this work was produced, we would finish a project, debrief, and move on to the next one, never really appreciating how the work was perceived or its impact over time. It's also given me a chance to look back at my years spent working in a community that demands so much of itself and has so often delivered. Our strongest projects happened when we really pushed ourselves beyond our comfort zones and produced and presented work that wouldn't have been possible without that stretch. Opening up new ground presenting younger emerging artists from a host of communities working in performance installation and social practice or showing older practitioners breaking out into new directions working with new technologies and stretching the boundaries of their practice. In Vancouver, the strength of the visual arts has always been the support of the communities that have sustained the practice over the decades. These include artists and curators, framers and installers and technicians of all sorts, but also gallery owners and collectors, museum board of directors and philanthropists, dosent, archivists, art educators and afterchool programs and adult arts classes. It's a much bigger community than you first think. My career has been spent working in these communities. My life has been sustained by these communities in so many ways. My relationship with artists have fascinated and astonished me in equal measures. Watching them create ignites me and watching what they create engages me even more. Being part of a process has given meaning to my life. Working in collaboration with other producers and organizations has made me appreciate the unique skill sets found in the art communities. You get to compare your organization with other organizations that do things differently and have better skills and ability than you do in certain areas. You learn learn what you're good at, but you also learn what you're not good at. Both of which are always good to know. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote or senica depending on who you believe, the reward of a thing well done is to have done it. This resonated with me when I first read it 20 years ago. So many times my curatorial career took me to places I really had no knowledge of or needed skills I had no capabilities for and the nea navigating of these conditions often became the challenge. It turns out there are many ways to procure the knowledge you need and the resources you require in any situation. But you need to reach out beyond your comfort zone to find them. And that experience is often the adventure. But there is also always a moment when you realize your accomplishment. When you did something you didn't think you could do or brought forward work that engaged artists in new ways or looked at artists through new eyes. For an artist, it's that breakthrough work and for a curator, it's that new exhibition that moves the dialogue forward. My life spent working in these communities has been as rich and full as it could be. The interesting artists I've worked with and the exhibitions that we put together have left me with a lifetime of memory. The artists I have made are the bounty of my life. I would like to thank all the colleagues I worked for over the past 36 years as staff, contractors, collaborators, artists, curators, and friends over my career and the indulgence they have shown me. I'd also like to thank the larger Vancouver art communities for the generosity I've received. And also much thanks to my family and to Victor for everything he does. Thank you very much. Congratulations, Dr. Glenn Aline. I will now call on President Kelly to present the honorary degree to FA Heavy Shield. Thank you, Chancellor Thomas. Fa Heavy Shield is a leading indigenous contemporary artist with a practice spanning 40 years. Her work has been taught in numerous classes throughout ECU's history, inspiring indigenous students and non-indigenous students with her conceptual and minimal art pieces that speak volumes to First Nation histories, culture, and knowledgebased philosophies. The 2021 recipient of the Gershorn Iskawitz Prize, Heavy Shield has created powerful installations and sculptures characterized by repeating forms and motifs, including spirals, circles, grids, and lines. Drawing from personal experience, her work reveals a deep relationship with the land, in particular, the Gana Nation in southern Alberta, where she grew up and still lives. During her first solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2025, Heavy Shield presented several works, including a reststaging of her acclaimed 1995-96 multimedia installation, Venus as Torpedo. This large-scale work with audio in both Blackfoot and English features assorted garments draped over a protruding arm that extends across the museum floor. The exhibition was curated by Georgina Olurik, Frederick S. Eaton, curator of Canadian art at the AGO and organized by the AGO in partnership with the Gershworn Iskawitz Foundation. Heavy Shield is exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including Nations and Urban Landscapes at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, Rock Paper River at Gallery Connection Frederickton, Into the Garden of Angels at the Power Plant in Toronto, Cutuist at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, and I apologize because I think Fay I said that incorrectly. I forgot to check that one with Fay, so my apologies on that. The 2005 Alberta Art Bianial, Hearts of Our People, Native Women Artists at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and Clan at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. Her work is held in private and public institutions including the National Gallery of Canada, the Mcichael Canadian Art Collection, the Alberta Foundation of Art, the Glenbo Museum, the Herd Museum, the Itel Museum of Native American Art and Western Art, the McKenzie Art Gallery, the Colona Art Gallery. She's the recipient of the Idol York Native American Contemporary Art Fellowship and received the Lieutenant Governor of Alurner Distinguished Artist Award in 2021. We will now have a brief video introduction of our recipient FA Heavy Shield. Chancellor Thomas, on behalf of the Senate of this university, I now ask that you confer upon FA Heavy Shield the degree Doctor of Letters, Honoris Kaza. FA heavy shield by the virtue of the authority vested in me and in the senate of Emily Carr University I hereby admit you to the degree of doctor of letters honors honores Kaza Dr. Fay heavy shield will be hooded by vice president Deianne vice president academic and provo Okay, everyone. I uh very thankful to be here. uh with family and friends. Um I thank you for this honor. Um Emily car the the land, the language, the people here. Um I am bringing uh respect from my home. Um and from my my family, my father Eddie is Adelide Fox. My mother, my grandmother saw me chana. Kate, three persons. Um, I said a lot in in the video, I think. And so I um I don't really have too much else to say except um what brought us here. Um, what brought us here are the rivers that take us to the ocean. For me, the rivers um have always um been about kinship. uh Guyana, the Blackfoot Confederacy, the rivers are what determined our lifestyle and they still do. I wrote a little poem for my father and for my son, Rivers and Kin. These are my skin. Thank you. Congratulations, Dr. Fay Heavyshield. I think you come up. Do I sit down? Do I sit down? The Governor General's Gold Medal, established in 1873 is one of the most prestigious awards that can be received by a student in a Canadian educational institution for exceptional achievement in graduate studies. The Governor General Gold Medal is awarded to the graduate student who achieves the highest academic standing from a master's degree program upon graduation. On behalf of their excellency, the right honorable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, I am pleased to present the gold academic medal to Frankie Fowl, Master of Design. Frankie, please come up. I would now like to call on our vice president, academic and provos to introduce our graduate student speaker. Thank you, Dr. Kelly. I'm honored to introduce the 2026 graduate student speaker, Shara Hamemed. Shara Hamemed is a communication designer, researcher, and weaver based in Vancouver. She has completed a master of design in interdisiplinary studies at Emlikar University after earning a bachelor of fine arts and graphic design with honors from the University of the Frasier Valley. Beginning this September, she will continue her studies through PhD in arts education at Simon Frasier University. At Emily Carr, Shara worked as a teaching assistant for Dr. Bonnie Zapalotney's art direction course and for co-ish weaving alongside Chief Janice George and Buddy Joseph while also serving as an undergraduate marker and student member of the research ethics board. Alongside her academic practice, she has worked as a graphic designer with Vancouver based retail brands, contributing to editorial design, branding, and visual systems across print and digital platforms. Her thesis, Tension, explores weaving and walking as relational ways of understanding care, memory, and land-based learning. Rooted in her Persian lineage and shaped through her ongoing learning and co-ailish weaving, her practices grounded in attentiveness, humility, and community. She often reflects on the guidance of her supervisor, Elend Frasier, whose support encouraged her to slow down and make space for reflection and becoming. In late summer 2025, her practice shifted profoundly when she began apprenticing with master weaver Angela Paul, an experience that deeply transformed both her thesis and her creative practice. Much of this learning unfolded alongside co-seller Schloom built by Aaron Splash Nelson Moody for Angela Paul. Angela and Splash's wisdom, generosity, and guidance continued to shape her understanding of weaving, relation, and responsibility within creative practice. Her work has been shared through exhibitions including material matters here together and gallery 881 as well as publications with Bloomsberry visual arts. As a recent graduate, Shara is in eager to continue contributing to the Emily car community and hopes to keep growing alongside its students, faculty and learning environments through teaching, research, design, and relational practice. Chancellor Thomas, I now call upon this year's graduate student speaker, Shara Hamemed, to address convocation. Shara, I welcome you to please come to the stage. Congratulations to my fellow graduates. Today is not just about us. It is about everyone who made it possible for us to be here. Our families, our friends, communities, our faculty who guided us, the staff and custodians who cared for us, the lands that held us. the indigenous peoples whose relationship to these lands continue to guide us and the materials that taught us to pay attention. Many of us arrived here through different paths. Some close to home, others from far away, carrying our own histories, different languages, and different ways of knowing. I came to Emily Carr carrying my own. Shaped by where I come from and the questions I brought with me. I thought I was here to study design. What unfolded here was something else. A return to curiosity, to making, to listening, to being in relation. And somewhere along the way, I found myself at a loom and it stayed with me. Today I weave, something I never imagined. In a world filled with uncertainty, pain, grief, and tension, there's a need for something quieter. Slowing down, paying attention, staying with complexity, listening and co-creating. And that matters because what we make will shape the world around us. But how we make and how we care for one another matters just as much. So as we move forward, I hope this is something we can carry with us not only as designers but also as humans to resonate, to listen, to care, to hold space. I end with a poem dedicated to this day to us. The work does not end, it shifts. From classroom to world, from idea to hand. From one life into many, like threads held together under tension, shaping something we cannot fully see. When one thread is pulled, the others respond. And in that responsiveness, in that quiet holding, there is a possibility for care. Thank you. And congratulations, class of 2026. I am so proud of us. Thank you so much, Shar. The members of the 2026 graduating class will now be presented to the chancellor to be admitted and masked to their degrees. Will the graduants please rise? By virtue of the authority vested in me as chancellor of Emily Core University of Art and Design and in the Senate of this university, I hereby admit you to your various degrees. Will the graduates please be seated. The Master of Fine Arts and Master of Design degrees will now be conferred. Our associate vice president research and dean of the Jake Ker faculty of graduate studies Justin Langla will present the candidates and Don Andrews will read the names of the graduates as they cross the stage. To honor the co-ish traditional territories we are on. We will refrain from handshakes and instead we invite our graduates in our platform party to raise our hands to each other as a sign of our respect and acknowledgement. In the spirit of inclusivity for all students graduating, we respectfully ask the audience to please hold applause until all degrees are conferred. >> Chancellor, I have the honor of presenting the candidates for the degrees Master of Fine Arts and Master of Design. >> Good afternoon everyone. Please welcome to the stage graduates for the degree Master of Fine Arts. Nima Amin. Congratulations. Sishen Grace Chen. Congratulations. Grace Havana Louisa Edwards. Congratulations. Laura Flom, congratulations, Trimidad Lando. Congratulations, Tatiana Mirov, Papoviki, Chelsea, Ourn. Congratulations Luigi Pledo, congratulations. Hul Q, congratulations. Gibson Switzer, congratulations. Florence Ariel Trum Leong. Congratulations, Jennifer Wood, Juan Chen, Yu. Please welcome to the stage graduates for the degree Master of Design. Congratulations. >> As Mina Doctor, congratulations. Frankie George Fowl, congratulations. Shayla Shiru, congratulations. Naga Lakshmi Shria Bopiseri. Congratulations. Llan G. Congratulations, >> Kanan Jien. >> Congratulations, Christopher Caholi. Congratulations, Chi Wu Lynn. Congratulations. Ren Leu, congratulations. Rita Murthy, congratulations. Joy Amarici Ni, congratulations. Tianne Ping, congratulations. Mia Jun Portal, congratulations. Shah Khamemed, >> congratulations. Griezma Mineskumar Sha, >> congratulations. Abhishek Singh Bess, >> congratulations. Shvidia Surrianaran, congratulations. Zubda Tahir, congratulations. Sigu Tong, congratulations. Mark Underberger, congratulations. Logan Wilkinson, congratulations. Z Yin, congratulations. You Joe, >> congratulations graduates. It is now my pleasure to introduce the 2026 undergraduate speak student speaker, Lennox Johnston U. Lennox Johnston U has been trying to figure out how to earn an audience trust for the past four years. In truth, it's been longer than that, but only the past four years are relevant to those in this room. Lennox is first and foremost a storyteller, but you might be more comfortable with the term musician. His work is multi-disiplinary, from composition and production to sound design and scoring to writing and performance to installation and film making. He operates from experience in the world of theater and film and has a passion for creating funny and meaningful stories in time-based mediums. Lennox can be found sitting comfortably in the hearts of houses he does not live in, holding hands with your roommates. He is the last one to arrive and the last one to leave. He holds the belief that art must have a purpose, must have an intended audience, and has often benefited by being engaging and entertaining to interact with. It's okay if you think it's silly. You're allowed to laugh. Lennux has always wanted you to leave feeling that you had a good time. Lennox, I welcome you to the stage. Test test test. Great. Wow. They really let me up here. Their mistake. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Lennox. If we've not met, it's probably because this degree had me living in the school basement. If we have met, then you're probably familiar with both my dislike of overly academic jargon and my tendency to lunge towards the limelight. I've been trying to think of what to say here. What's important enough to impart on all of you dashing university educated folk in my two a loted minutes. What I want to say more than anything to an audience of my cherished tolerated peers. I think the first roadblock is that the experience we have all allegedly just shared is completely different from person to person or more specifically major to major. My dear friends in illustration or film or industrial design, we all boast vastly different art school experiences. And it is precisely this fact that makes me so endlessly thankful to have chosen Nimsa as my major. Nimsa, of course, stands for new media and sound art. And if that sounds unfamiliar to you, it's because nobody really knows about it. Nobody knows about it so much that it's on its last legs, one might say. So, it feels only right to bid her off with maybe the most vulnerable thing I can say about it. I feel grateful and honored to have lived the endlessly fulfilling archetype of what people imagine to be the art school experience. I really feel like I had it. That is in no small part due to the expansiveness and support for the self-directed that you are given in droves within Nimsa. It's something special. It's a unique experience, and it is now laying its woolly head on the sacrificial mantle, looking up at the bottom line with its lamblike eyes. I hope she comes back to haunt us. It can often feel while toiling through a degree like this that you are being prepared for one future and one future only. A stressful romp of a life where you spend so many nights awake that your hair falls out at 28 living off catacly trying to get your work into a gallery once a year. Oh, well. Well, not you. No, no, no, no. I don't mean you. You obviously are unique and different and have something intrinsic that only comes along once in a blue moon. No, no. Yeah, you are going to make it for sure. That's my impression of my self-affirmations that I do in the mirror every morning. I say that whole thing sandwiched right in between all your friends don't hate you and nobody can tell when the last time you brushed your teeth was. So, I've come to the conclusion that any amount of reflecting or generalizing or pitter pattering about the experience we've all just shared is ultimately useless. We just did it after all. I don't need to remind you of it. So, instead, I'm going to leave you with some hopes for the future. Actually, sorry, this isn't part of my original speech, but I feel like I have to say it. Four years ago, I I felt like the point of everything was to struggle through life and achievement until other people's acknowledgement of my accomplishment would retroactively justify it all. That the point of everything was to disseminate everything you had inside you and now it's outside you. So now you can die and be done because you did it. You got the thing from inside you. You know, we got it. We don't need you anymore. They'll say, "Wow, there was something special, but now it's done and you're done." And like, and like that would be my reprieve. That's what I was hoping for one day or something. So like, yeah, I learned about art here, but really I learned how to be a person at all, to live in my life instead of see it as a means to an end. And that didn't come from the classroom. That came from people. I really love you guys. Anyway, anyway, my hopes for the future. I hope that when you wake up tomorrow morning, the world will feel exactly as it does today. And that when you wake up the day after, everything is terrifyingly different and unexpected. I hope we all die tomorrow. And I hope we live until we're too old to move. I hope everything changes in ways I could never predict, faster than I can adjust to it. I hope that when you look back on this, you can still feel the white paint drying in the cracks of your hands from repainting the walls. I hope the next time I see myself in the mirror, I'm kinder to the guy that keeps picking my skin. I hope that when the inevitable crumbling of all that we know and hold dear finally rears its ugly head, that your bachelor's degree will serve its purpose and provide an extra two minutes of kindling. Congratulations, everybody. Thank you, Lennox. Now, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Critical and Cultural Practices will be conferred by the and the Dean of the Faculty of Culture and Community, Jacqueline Turner, will present the candidates. Chancellor, I have the honor of presenting the Bachelor of Fine Art degree candidates in critical and cultural practices. >> Please welcome to the stage graduates for the major critical and cultural practices. Felicity May Edwards. >> Congratulations. Sun Tammy Han. Congratulations. Sophia Chamney Lavine. Congratulations graduates. The bachelor of media arts in new media and sound art and the bachelor of fine arts degrees in illustration, photography and visual arts will now be conferred by the interim dean of the audac faculty of art. Amry Abbott will present the candidates. Chancellor I have the honor of presenting the Bachelor of Media Arts degree candidates in New Media and Sound Art and Bachelor of Fine Art degree candidates in illustration, photography, and visual arts. Please welcome to the stage graduates for the major new media and sound art. Malcolm Craig. >> Congratulations, >> Miranda Firmston. Congratulations, >> Lennox Johnston. >> I now call forward graduates for the degree Bachelor of Fine Arts for the major illustration. Ellen Barnett. >> Congratulations. Savara Bazerova, congratulations. Trinity Boyd, congratulations. >> Danny Chen, congratulations. I'll take that. Thank you. >> Casemir Chupik Hall, >> congratulations. >> Winter Derby. Congratulations, Alexandra Deari. >> Congratulations, Kate Dirks. >> Congratulations, Nicole Dukarde. Congratulations. Alex Graph, >> congratulations. Sherry He congratulations >> and Negron Ibbit. >> Congratulations. >> Adil is Eva. >> Congratulations. Eugene Khan, congratulations. Autumn Kim, congratulations. Ji Su Kim, congratulations. Penny Quo, congratulations. Amber Kurs, >> congratulations. Valerie Lung, >> congratulations. Shirley Lee, >> congratulations. Tyler Leu, >> congratulations. Chin Lao, >> congratulations. Charmaine Ma, >> congratulations. Thank you. Maya Martin, >> congratulations. Ariana August Mesik, >> congratulations. Aaron Natada, congratulations. Nev O'Neal, >> congratulations. Desmond Panko, >> congratulations. >> Lan Anfam, congratulations. You look lovely. >> Athena Pzer, >> congratulations. Boya Ralph, >> congratulations. >> Allesio Rios Diaz, >> congratulations. >> Megan Robottom, >> congratulations. >> Victor Sovki, >> congratulations. >> He won Congratulations, Amelia Chipalova. >> Congratulations, >> Lana Solomon. >> Congratulations, >> Taylor Spence. >> Congratulations. >> Sawyer Speedton Harvey, >> congratulations. Faith Summers, >> congratulations. Olivia Thane, congratulations. >> Amy Kate Tobias, congratulations. >> Gia Chi Wang, congratulations. >> Kevin Watson, congratulations. Sydney Wyel, >> congratulations. Tristan Wright, >> congratulations. >> Riley Woo, congratulations. Thailand Yaya, congratulations. Linky Jiang, >> congratulations. Zoe Jiang, >> final one. Congratulations. Bowen Juan, >> please welcome graduates for the major photography. Congratulations. >> Caitlyn Agnu. Congratulations >> Lucinda Bowmont. >> Congratulations Ariana Borders Pendakur. >> Congratulations Leelu Shabanet. >> Congratulations Emma Dorne. Congratulations. Matt Fan, Congratulations, Cedraat Leu. Congratulations, Ricardo Tapia Sepedo. Please welcome graduates for the major visual arts. Congratulations. Maya Loreno Arazzada. Congratulations. Abigail Rain Boliski. Congratulations. Shauna Ariel, >> congratulations. Farah Aliyah Marie Benson, >> congratulations. >> Sophia Benson, >> congratulations. >> Nasha Bimseria, >> congratulations. >> Tyler von Blair, >> congratulations. Realel Bonet, congratulations. Margaret Browning, >> congratulations. Francesca Cabilady, congratulations. Grayson Renee Shelmeson, >> congratulations. Man key chang >> congratulations. Thank you. Victoria May Chin. >> Congratulations. J Choy, congratulations. Ashley Chung, >> congratulations. >> Ari Cisneros Montero. Congratulations, Manm Danoa. Congratulations, Carol Marie Diaz Geredo. >> Congratulations. Of course, Berlin Dirks, >> congratulations. Mera Louise Duza, >> congratulations. >> Simon Durret, congratulations. It Elliot, >> congratulations. >> Fernanda Rivero, >> congratulations. Callie F, >> congratulations. Lena Fra, >> congratulations. Riann Fudge, congratulations. Monica Molora Gansuk, >> congratulations. Nicholas George, congratulations. Chloe Monae Gillson, congratulations. Celeste Gonzalez, congratulations. >> Nari Gonzalez Coup, >> congratulations. Kitia Gonzalez Namaro. >> Congratulations. Lei Goo. Congratulations. Shintang Gu. Congratulations. >> Olivia Hannif. >> Congratulations. Zean how congratulations. Huang Bosi, >> congratulations. Giana Jasmmer, >> congratulations. Lauren Johnstone, congratulations. Sohi Kang, congratulations. Nikki Karamali, congratulations Joselyn Big and Key. >> Congratulations, Wangjun Kim. Congratulations Hun Daisy Kim. Congratulations Guptastian. >> Congratulations Shazad Lai. Congratulations Na Lamb. Congratulations. >> Margaret Lar Roio. >> Congratulations. Emma Lee, >> congratulations. Paris Lee, >> congratulations. Clemen Leon, congratulations. >> Roxanna Love Luan, >> congratulations. >> Ivana Lee, >> congratulations. You look lovely. Thank you. >> Leen, congratulations. Charmaine Lion, >> congratulations. >> Meanfang Leu, >> congratulations. >> Ray Livingstone, >> congratulations. >> Thank you. David McGelry, >> congratulations. Jeffrey McKenzie McFersonson, congratulations. Diana Martin, congratulations. Alexandra Kai Marco, congratulations. Anna Marulin, congratulations. Jamie Martin, >> congratulations. Caitlyn Madachuk, >> congratulations. Jesse >> Jesse McCyver, >> congratulations. Lou Jezrael Mendoza, >> congratulations. Sage Menam Mandrich, >> congratulations. Skyler Jade Matski, >> congratulations. >> Mina Miich, >> congratulations. >> Aurora Yol Congratulations >> Amy Nim. >> Congratulations Tweing. >> Congratulations. Alina O. Congratulations. Unsa Park. Congratulations, >> Haley Yongji Park. Congratulations, Julia Patterson, >> congratulations. Solvi, >> congratulations. Fanu, congratulations. Hannah Pon, >> congratulations. Allison Bea Chang, congratulations. Ella Marlene Quinnel, congratulations. Cameron Corai, >> congratulations. >> Orin Rainey Rhyr, >> congratulations. Oliver Lawrence Renie, >> congratulations, Anita Oxana Rogolski. Congratulations. >> Kimberly Campbell Ronnie. >> Congratulations. Sage Roth, congratulations. Kaylee Samson, >> congratulations. Hope Scott, >> congratulations. Rubia Sadiki, >> congratulations. Caitlyn Sims, >> congratulations. Calla Sodor, >> congratulations. Mave Stinson Ogorman. >> Congratulations. >> Kian Suazo. >> Congratulations. >> Shu Juan. >> Congratulations. Alex Wang Chung, >> congratulations. Alexis Wait, >> congratulations. Axel Winterberg, >> congratulations. Haley Wispinsky, >> congratulations. >> Gabriella Yan, >> congratulations. Ayin Jen. And last, but certainly not least, Yuir Jiang. This concludes the formal awarding of degrees. Some candidates recommended by the Senate for degrees today are unable to be present and their names have therefore not been called. I now admit them to the appropriate degrees as shown in the program. Will the graduating class please rise? I congratulate each and every one of you on the completion of your degree. This is truly an impressive achievement. I would now like to ask your family, friends, and everyone assembled here to join me in a round of applause for the graduating class of 2026. Wow. now. Okay. Okay. Now, now I invite you, the members of the graduating class, to reciprocate by applauding your family, friends, faculty, and staff, and all those who helped you reach this goal. Yay. Graduates, please be seated. I would now like to call on Vipe Academic and Provo Deianne to deliver closing remarks on behalf of the board of governors. Thank you, Chancellor Thomas. And I just have to say you all are so amazing. It just I'm so happy to be here. On behalf of the board, it's my privilege to welcome you to the celebration of your achievement, creativity, and promise. As we mark this milestone in your journey, we also mark an milestone for Emily Carr as a whole. This graduating class is the largest in our university's history, which significantly reflects the growth and resiliency of the exceptional community to which she belong. As you step forward today, you do so as a part of a creative legacy that is only becoming stronger thanks to each of your individual contributions. The board of governors has the honor of guiding Ylicar University's long-term vision. That vision includes a university where art and design have the power to drive change and become a reality through your efforts. Nowhere is this inspiration more at the forefront than at the show, where your talents, ambitions, and commitment to innovation are in full display. Often we think of innovation as the realm of technology, labs, algorithms or even engineering. But at Emily Carr, innovation goes beyond those ideas. It lives at the heart of how we ask questions, how we make meaning, and how we imagine what is possible. Innovation means bringing something into the world that didn't exist before, which you all do, and using creativity as a force for dialogue, inclusion, and transformation. The spirit of innovation in each of you as you push boundaries, take risks, and think forward. All defining traits of this graduating class of all of you. It's not just your numbers that set you apart. It's the diversity and depth of the work that you've created while you've been here. It's the way you've responded to a rapidly changing world with curiosity, resilience, and bold new ideas. The role of the board of governors is to ensure that Emily Carr University remains a place where creative leadership can flourish and a place where students are not only equipped with the skills they need to succeed but empowered to shape the world for the better. Graduates, whether you're starting a new profession, launching a practice, or forging your own unique path, remember that the world needs what you've learned here perhaps now more than ever. It needs your imagination, your empathy, and your commitment to questioning and creating. Congratulations on behalf of the board of governors. We're all incredibly proud of you and can't wait to see how you continue to evolve your work, your voices, and your expertise. Thank you. And congratulations to the class of 2026. Thank you, Vice President Deianne. This brings to a close today's convocation ceremony. On behalf of the entire Emily Carr University of Art and Design community and the many honored guests who have joined us here today, I would like to thank you for coming and wish you a wonderful rest of your day. Congratulations to all graduates and a special congratulations to all who supported you in your educational journey. I'd like to take a brief moment to offer a heartfelt thank you to everyone who made today possible. Our student services staff, our IT team, ceremonies and events, and colleagues from departments across ECU who have lent their support. We're also grateful to our friends here at UBC for their collaboration and generosity. I'd like to invite all guests who are able to please rise and remain standing until the platform party and the GA graduating class of 2026 have recessed. Graduates will be marshaled to the rose garden. And I just like to remind the graduates to please return your rented gowns to the gas part at the flag pole plaza. Thank you very much and congratulations to all of you. Woo! you. Oh, glory. Oh, you Rock. Opio. Happy mock. Thank you guys. Happy birthday. What's happening? is that? Oh my god. All right. You did it. Oh my god. I'm ready. Here we go. I need something nice. Good morning.