Master in International Cooperation and Development

"Dear professors, dear colleagues, dear Families and Friends, good evening.

I am deeply honoured to have been given the chance to address all of you tonight on behalf of my fellow classmates of the Master in International Cooperation and Development. Although it is impossible to fit all of the emotions, fears and joys that we have experienced in the past year in five minutes, I will do my best to bring to you a little piece of MICaD.

I know this may definitely sound cliché but it truly seems like yesterday that we all met in a cold January day in the ASERI courtyard. We were a group of different people, coming from different countries and experiences. We had different backgrounds and visions of the world. Still, we all one day decided to apply to this very course at this very university. Now, I could not be happier that we all did. I have had the chance to meet some of the most interesting, smart, funny and hard-working people in my whole life, and I am glad I have had the opportunity to live this experience with all of you. We grew to be friends, in some cases even more than that, and for this I am incredibly grateful.

Now we are finally about to hold our longed-for diplomas in one hand and hopefully later we will have a bottle of prosecco in the other. However, the road to this cheerful moment has not always been easy.

This year has been a rollercoaster and as any rollercoaster ride we have experienced highs and lows. We have shared incredible joys and happy moments together, both inside and outside ASERI's walls. However, we also went through uncountable sleepless nights working on papers, group works and preparing exams. Not to mention the long and sometimes, if not most of the times, frustrating internship scouting and applications, which we discovered to be harder and more stressful than we could have ever imagined.

It was hard, and it should be hard, because in life nothing is given and everything has to be earned. Nevertheless, every obstacle challenged us to do better, not to limit our minds, to think creatively and to work harder. And we succeeded. We have been conquering the world: From Africa to Asia, from Latin America to Europe, we have been given the opportunity to show everyone else who we are and what we are capable of.

I would like to thank the ASERI faculty, for giving us the opportunity to experience a 360° approach to International Cooperation, with professors, doctors and experts coming from many different work and life backgrounds and with different visions of this field. You all contributed and succeeded in giving us a little bit of order in something as messy and fascinating as only international cooperation could be and helped us grasp the notions and methodologies of the very slippery concept of development.

I would like to thank Cristina and all of the administrative staff for always being there for us when we needed you the most and for leading us through our time at ASERI. And a special mention goes to the coffee machines downstairs for giving us loads of much needed caffeine during our long days at university.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for allowing me to live this beautiful experience, I would not be standing here, if it were not for you. Thank you to my friends and all those who have been standing by my side during this past year: you have always been there for me no matter if I was at my best, at my worst or at one of the many different shades in-between the two. You either are crazy or you must truly hold me dear.

My last words are for us, the MICaD class of 2017. We made it. We made it to this point together and although our paths may not go in the same direction, this is not a goodbye. I am sure that at one side of the globe or the other we will meet again, and I will look forward to that moment. We must be proud of who we are and who we have become. We chose to pursue a career in a field which can truly make the difference, to make something that matters with our lives: now it is the time to go out of that door and change the world, day by day, little by little.

Thank you all for the attention and have a great evening."

Mattia Borelli