Bright minds for exciting times
Innovative thinkers, tomorrow’s problem solvers, leaders who shape a more sustainable and fairer world: There was much praise for the 285 Bachelor’s, Master’s and MBA graduates at ESB Business School’s graduation ceremony last Saturday. Together with their families and friends as well as guests of honour, they celebrated the completion of their studies and the start of a new chapter in their lives. There was plenty of good advice and a final collective hurrah together with the traditional tossing of the academic caps.
As the evening’s keynote speaker, Julia Ruf, partner at the auditing firm KPMG AG, gave a concise summary of the mood in the hall: “I still remember all the different feelings I had back then when I sat on your chairs: relief, joy and pride, but also melancholy and uncertainty.” The ESB alumna used her own biographical and professional milestones to encourage the graduates. “A career is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. So start from where you are, use what you have learned and do what you can.”
The fact that major tasks await the graduates of ESB Business School was a recurring theme throughout the evening. “You are among the people who can change the world for the better. You are ideally equipped not only to master the future, but to actively shape it,” said Reutlingen’s Reutlingen’s Mayor Thomas Keck. Professor Dr Hendrik Brumme, President of Reutlingen University, agreed: “Great challenges await you in the future. We have done everything we can to prepare you well for them.”
ESB Dean Professor Dr Markus Conrads gave a humorous retrospective: “Admittedly, we didn’t always make it easy for you. We tortured you with demanding exams, you had to take exams in foreign languages and when writing papers, you constantly asked yourselves: Am I really writing what the professor wants to hear?” But, the ESB Dean continued, studying was also a time of great freedom and light-heartedness. For the next few chapters, he hopes “that one or the other pearl of wisdom that we professors were able to share with you will help you in the end.”
The graduates looked back not only on seminars and lectures but above all on the sense of community among ESB students: “Studying at ESB was the best decision of my life and it breaks my heart that this chapter is coming to an end today. Yet I am leaving with the best gift ESB could have given me: a new family”, said Bachelor graduate Lucia Albesa Boix. Sina Musch agreed with her on behalf of the Master’s programme: “ESB brought us all together here and gave us the freedom to tackle challenges together. We will remember this time for a long time to come.”
Looking back and looking ahead, emotional moments, musical interludes and festive speeches characterised the graduation ceremony at ESB Business School. A familiar tradition also took place this time when at the end of the ceremony 285 graduates tossed their academic caps into the air in front of 750 guests. Franziska Ibele, President of ESB Alumni e.V., summarised the future mission of the graduates: “To all you managers, founders, leaders, parents and creators of tomorrow: carry the ESB Spirit out into the world. It needs it today more than ever!”.
