A total of 62 students graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCUQatar) at its 2016 Commencement Ceremony held on Monday.
While 55 Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degrees were conferred in fashion, graphic, interior design, painting and printmaking, and art history, seven Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees were presented in design.
The latest batch has brought the total number of VCUQatar alumni to 566. Qatar Museums chairperson HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was present at the ceremony.
Dr Gail Hackett, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, told the graduates that “through you, the world will come to know this region for its profound advances in art and culture and innovation”.
She advised the graduates that failure should be expected as they join the world of work, because they would have to take risks if they want to succeed.  
“Make failure your springboard and keep going,” she insisted, “because failure is just another word for experience.”
The keynote speaker was Arnold Wasserman, the chairman of the Idea Factory, an innovation consultancy based in Singapore and San Francisco. He began his keynote speech by asking the graduates to consider the concept of future.
“Is the future simply whatever happens to us next? Or is it something we deliberately create?” he said. “The future you are graduating into is an exponential future.”
“What that means is that everything is happening faster and at an accelerating rate.
For example, human knowledge is doubling every 12 months. And that curve is accelerating. An IBM researcher foresees that within a few years, knowledge will be doubling every 12 hours as we build out the Internet of things globally.”
This, Wasserman explained, means innovation and design will have to grow accordingly.
“Design gives the tangible form to valuable ideas,” he said, and he encouraged the graduates to design solutions for global peace, food, water and natural resource security, universal health and well-being, justice, equity, life-long learning, creative opportunity and sustainable prosperity.
Mark Bermejo, the Class of 2016 Valedictorian and Wurood Azzam, Salutatorian addressed the audience. Bermejo has a long VCUQatar family history. His brother studied graphic design and his sister studied fashion design at VCUQatar.
Following the speeches, Provost Hackett presented the graduates of the MFA degree with their diplomas. VCUQatar Dean Akel I Kahera then presented the graduates of the BFA and BA degrees with their diplomas. Dean of the VCU Honours College, Dr Barry Falk honoured the nine students who completed the vigorous programme to graduate from VCU Honours College.