YOLA – President of American University of Nigeria, Dr. Dawn Dekle, has charged newly admitted students to focus their energies on service to humanity and not on money or material acquisitions.
At the University’s 2018 spring semester Convocation and Pledge Ceremony last Monday, President Dekle counselled that there is more satisfaction by counting acts of service than by counting money.
“At AUN, service is one of our core values, and each of you will have the opportunity to serve during your time here.”
Parents and guardians joined the new students, who come from 27 states of Nigeria and from the Republic of Cameroon, as they took the AUN Community Pledge of ‘Truth and Absolute Integrity’, an important tradition in American-style universities.
President Dekle, who conducted the new students’ formal induction at the library auditorium, inspired them with wise sayings from two iconic Americans–one real, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the other fictional, Benjamin Button.
“Everybody can be great… because everybody can serve…You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love,” she quoted from King, a civil rights champion, who would have turned 89 on January 15.
Dr. Dekle continued: “[January 15] is a day of citizen action volunteer service, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., and we take inspiration from this.” She then added that the King Day has relevance with AUN.
She went on to quote excerpts from the film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” starring Brad Pitt: Throughout the movie, Button is aging backward, beginning as an old man and growing ‘younger’. When his daughter is born, he knows he will be dead before he can give her his guidance as a parent. So, Benjamin Button wrote a letter to his daughter, urging her to go on and make the best or worst of becoming what she wants. “I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”
With those words, President Dekle told her audience: “My wish for each of you is to step into your greatness, to live out loud, and make your lives a masterpiece. Welcome to AUN!”
A high point of the ceremony–the 26th pledge ceremony since AUN began admitting students in 2005–was the presentation of the 2021 class sash to each of the new students.
AUN admits students twice a year–in the fall and spring semesters.
The American University of Nigeria hosts advanced technological infrastructure and digital content delivery in all taught subjects, which have been fully accredited by the NUC. Accredited programs are: Law, Accounting, Business Administration, Finance, Management & Entrepreneurship, Marketing, English Language & Literature, Telecommunication & Wireless Technology, Information System, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Economics, International & Comparative Politics, and Mass Communications (Communication & Multimedia, Advertising, Print Journalism, Television/Film, Multimedia Design.)
