Congratulations to our 2016 graduating class!

We hope it's not so much au revoir, as à bientôt, for even as the graduates scatter to the four corners of the planet, they become members of our alumni community as well as, as per one of the graduation speeches, Geneva's greatest export.

In a thoughtful and entertaining speech to his classmates at LGB, graduate Leo Hotham picked up the theme, often discussed by alumni, of what it means to be "international". He and his classmates, he said, thanks to their education at Ecolint, don't categorize themselves by nationality.

"...thinking from the point of view of a citizen of the world rather than one of a particular country allows us to abandon nationalist motives and find solutions to help everyone. [...] And the school’s ideals ring truer every time I contemplate the world in which we live. This education has given us a viewpoint largely unclouded by nationalism. This is the main gift we have received here, I like to think, not only from the school itself but from each other."

His closing remarks, were particularly well received:

"Many would argue that Geneva’s greatest export is luxury goods, or even chocolate. But I’d say without a doubt that international students are Geneva’s greatest export. A new generation of internationally-minded, progressive millennials that have been endowed with a mission to solve the problems of world.

And that, my brothers and sisters, is what we’re going to do. Let’s go make that list of esteemed LGB alumni a lot more impressive!"

The complete text of Leo Hotham's speech can be found here.