Graduates Embarking on their Journeys into the Global Economy
Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ) held its 2014 commencement ceremony on Sunday, June 8 at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, Tokyo. The TUJ ceremony was part of the 127th commencement of Temple University, which took place on May 15 at the main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The commencement in Japan was attended by two delegates headed by Tilghman H. Moyer IV, Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement, together with Mr. Steven S. Maloney, Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs, Consul General, U.S. Embassy Tokyo. Mr. Robert Noddin, President & Chief Executive Officer, AIG Japan Holdings KK, who is also a regular member of the TUJ Board of Overseers, said during his keynote address, “You’ve learned the immeasurable skill in a variety of ways to ask the simple but very intimidating question, ‘why’?” Mr. Noddin added, “The one thing you mustn’t do from today forward is to avoid pressing all the buttons that ask the question ‘why’?”
Total number of graduates in the TUJ Class of 2014: 207
- Associate of Arts: 4
- Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Business Administration: 127
- Master of Laws: 45
- Master of Business Administration: 6
- Master of Science in Education: 19
- Doctor of Education/Doctor of Philosophy: 6
At the ceremony, four graduating students gave speeches on behalf of the undergraduate and graduate programs (Education, MBA, Law). They spoke about their memories of life at TUJ and their future ambitions. See interviews with the four speakers here.
The event was streamed live on the internet, allowing friends and family from around the world to tune in and share the experience with the graduating students. (See archived video here.)
This year the combined commencement at Main Campus and Japan Campus honored a total of more than 9000 graduates, the largest number of graduating students in Temple’s history. At TUJ, a total of 207 students graduated from the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree programs.
Temple University was founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell* as an informal adult-education institution to supplement his Baptist Temple ministry. Today Temple has 17 schools/colleges, and more than 38,000 students including those at TUJ. Temple students can apply to three campuses (Main Campus, Japan Campus, and Rome Campus) for an intra-university transfer, and graduate at either Main Campus or Japan Campus. Since 2005, the year TUJ was officially recognized as a Foreign University, Japan Campus by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the number of international students who apply to TUJ directly from overseas and complete their studies without leaving Japan has increased. More than 60% of students at TUJ come from outside Japan.
*Russell Conwell – Temple’s first president, born in 1843. He gave the famous speech “Acres of Diamonds” more than 6000 times in his life.