Dr. (HC) James Riady, UPH Founder welcomed new students of the 2019/2020 batch at the UPH Festival on 14 August 2019 by inviting them to take advantage of the talent and to contribute significantly for world development.

James Riady explained that change is rapid and development in the industry from the Industrial Revolution to the 4.0 Industry Era has seeped in every sector of human life.

James Riady explained, “We have exciting new changes occurring today. Globalization is happening everywhere. Today, we have a driverless transportation system. Our handphones are much more sophisticated than space capsules, which were seen as sophisticated at its time. Our economic system is a global economic system, where all countries are allowed to participate. The most important thing today is that money is no longer the tool for payment. Previously, when I was in university, everyone was talking about capital or how to build as big capital as possible and what is the best way to mobilize capital. Today, capital is no longer the biggest asset being fought over in the world. Today, it’s all about talents. If you have talents, ideas or notions that are beneficial and supported by a credible sponsor, you will receive as much money as you want.”

He emphasized the significance of talents by motivating students to show their best talents here at university because this will be their biggest capital in moving forward and contributing to the future of our nation and world. He challenged the new students to start committing at the beginning of their journey at university.

He challenged, “Every one of you has one, two or three main talents. Use those talents. At this UPH Festival, I want to challenge you: Will you use to live your life as an observer? Are you going to observe the world from the corner of the room, or will you use this moment at UPH Festival to commit to using your talents and becoming the main players in this rapidly changing world?”

James Riady ended the speech by inviting students to take advantage of their time here at UPH to its fullest.

He ended, “Use every moment and make sure that you do something significant every day. Don’t waste your time. Chase after your best talent. Spend your time here exploring your talents that are being shaped by God. God bless you all.”

The welcoming event for new students continued with a symbolistic surrendering by the UPH Chancellor to Faculty Deans. The Chancellor also executed a symbolistic inauguration process by giving a smartcard to each faculty’s representative student.

New students continued by participating in a distinguished guest speaker session led by the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs General TNI (HOR) (Purn.) Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, M.P.A. and General Head of Partai Solidaritas Indonesia, Grace Natalie. UPH hopes that through the festival that we can prepare the new students for campus life and to encourage them to explore each talent to contribute to world development.