After living more than a year of social distancing and virtuality due to the pandemic, students of the EGADE Business School in Monterrey met again in person to celebrate the end of their graduate studies.

By JOSÉ ÁNGEL DE LA PAZ | EGADE BUSINES SCHOOL

Last night, EGADE Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey held its first in-person graduation ceremony since the start of the pandemic.

After living more than a year of social distancing and virtuality due to COVID-19, more than half of a select group of 449 graduates of the classes of June 2021, December 2020 and June 2020 of the EGADE's site in Monterrey met again in person in Tec de Monterrey’s Borregos Arena to celebrate the culmination of their graduate studies.

Some of the graduates chose to follow their graduation virtually through EGADE’s transmission on Facebook Live or the site live.tec.mx.

Graduados, les deseamos lo mejor en su trayectoria #EXATEC. 🎓 💙 Muchas felicidades y éxito en sus próximos triunfos, recuerden que @EGADE siempre será su casa. pic.twitter.com/DLtzsWYoxz

— EGADE Business School (@egade) July 1, 2021

The 14 specialty, 422 master's and 13 doctorate graduates, taking part in the ceremony represented diverse entities in Mexico and 14 countries (Germany, Argentina, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, the United States of America, France, Guatemala, the Netherlands, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela), and included successful entrepreneurs and business leaders from key industries of the country.

The presidium comprised Juan Pablo Murra Lascurain, Rector for Undergraduate and Graduate Education at Tecnológico de Monterrey; Osmar Zavaleta Vázquez, Interim Dean of EGADE Business School; Laura Zapata Cantú, Associate Academic Dean of EGADE Business School; René Cabral Torres, Interim Associate Dean of Faculty Development at EGADE Business School; and Daniel Maranto Vargas, Director of EGADE Business School, Monterrey site.

During the ceremony, which was carried out under strict protocols of hygiene and safety, the names of the graduates were read out one by one, as well as the diplomas and double-degree programs that they had accredited and the honorable mentions for excellence awarded (equivalent to summa cum laude).

On hearing their names, the graduates walked onto the stage and greeted the presidium and their course companions from a distance, as well as their guests, who witnessed the ceremony from the stands.

Leopoldo Cedillo Villarreal, CEO of Grupo Proeza, was the guest speaker.

"Today, they are not only celebrating the termination of their postgraduate degrees in administration or finance, but they are also receiving a degree in resilience and adaptability, that also has a very high value for the market and for the complex world in which we are currently living," said the executive.

Osmar Zavaleta, Interim Dean of EGADE Business School, congratulated the graduates for this important professional and personal achievement.

"Companies need to adapt their business models to constant disruption and innovation, as well as to new consumer trends, so in the coming years new challenges and uncertain environments will put these young people to the test once again, but I am sure that the lessons learned in their postgraduate studies at EGADE Business School will help them to define new sustainable business models and exercise the leadership that our society requires," said Zavaleta.

Alicia Soto Burgueño, an EGADE Business School MBA graduate, gave a speech on behalf of the graduates of the classes of June 2021, December 2020 and June 2020.

“We are all distinguished by three things: motivation, discipline, and sacrifice. We all have a unique engine, a 'why' that keeps us going. That motivation was what inspired us to start and kept us going,” said Soto Burgueño.

The ceremony culminated with a message from Juan Pablo Murra Lascurain, Tecnológico de Monterrey's Rector for Higher Education, who underscored the importance of the graduates' vision and positive expectations of the world and the future. He also noted that the titanic tests facing society regarding health and climate change generate opportunities to imagine and create a better future for the organizations and communities of which they are part.

"Remember that, in the swearing-in ceremony, you committed to being leaders who transform your environment to build a better society, to being ethical and pursuing ideals that lead you and others to reach your full potential," said Murra Lascurain.

With these new graduating classes, the total number of academic degrees awarded by Tecnológico de Monterrey's EGADE Business School grew to 7,073, thus fulfilling its firm commitment to contribute to the formation of purposeful and conscious leaders, men and women capable of generating shared value and transforming society.