It happened again. It’s summertime. With the summer has also come the time to say goodbye to the 43rd UNEP/UNESCO/BMU International Postgraduate Course on Environmental Management for Developing Countries (EM43 class) as “current participants” and welcome them as ” CIPSEM Alumni”. The closing ceremony was as usually quite emotional, flourishing that feeling of “I made it”. But no, wait, something was different. Oh, yeah!
For the first time we had a virtual ceremony. The worldwide disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the shut-down of the on-site activities for this course. Nevertheless, an online and virtual program was developed and implemented so the group could finish their studies and receive the well-deserved certificate.
Many words have been said during the ceremony as “challenge”, “effort”, “computer”, “friends”, “home”, “happy”, “grateful”, “online”, “dedication”, “sad”, “action”, “world”, “future”, “loss”, “family”, “lonely”, “nature”, “care”, “together”, “contact”, “winner”, “time”, “work”, “experience”, “concern”…and so on. Such words can really be considered the essence of this group. However, the most important thing here is that you, us, we really made it. It was a big challenge but a great learning experience for all of us, especially a learning experience about ourselves.
We hope that, globally, people also took the chance to ask themselves as we took now: “What does it really matter to me?”… And as the EM43 class highlighted during the ceremony, now is the time to act and to take better care of our nature. Anyway, the season has changed, it is time to go home, to be at home, and give our best.
What more to say? It was a pleasure. All the best. Take care. See you soon. Well done. Thank you!
UNEP/UNESCO/BMUV course program 