President and CEO of Laureate Education, Inc., Doug Becker, was on campus to welcome the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at his Doctor Honoris Causa ceremony on May 18th, 2010.
The ceremony is on the UEM web page, but I transcribed his speech and thought some of you would like to see it.
Wendy
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May 18, 2010 Doctor Honoris Causa Recep Tayyip Erdogan
It is a great honor, Prime Minister, for us to welcome you here to Madrid and to the Universidad Europea de Madrid. And I’d like to spend just a few minutes speaking about leadership, because it is your great leadership that has inspired us and the opportunity to invite you and honor you on our premises today.
Leadership is a combination of dreams and the ability to make them happen, the vision to decide where to go and the energy and ability to get there, and to bring others along with you. And it’s this example of leadership that you’ve shown in your personal leadership of Turkey and in Turkey’s leadership in the world. The dreams that you’ve expressed about Turkey’s participation in the European Union and specifically in creating in Turkey truly a powerful force in the world, these are dreams that are being backed up by energy, and passion, and policy and progress.
In our own small way this university here is an example of what leadership can achieve. A dream of building a top university in Spain and to make it a truly international institution, but it started just from an empty piece of land where we are today. And today it has become one of the most beautiful campuses in Spain. We’re here today only in one small building in this fantastic campus and really a symbol I believe for what can be accomplished with hard work and passion and dreams. UEM has become the largest and fastest growing and most innovative university, private university in Spain.
Now UEM was also the birthplace of Laureate and based on our success in Spain we set out to create other leading universities all joined together in a global network. Our shared principles were internationality, innovation and a focus on employability, ensuring that our students achieve the future that they set out and are able to accomplish their own individual dreams. Now we’ve created, or partnered with more than 50 universities in 21 countries that makes up the Laureate network from the United States and Latin America, to Europe and the Mediterranean to Asia. We now have 600,000 students on over 100 campuses just like you see here today. And this has allowed us to become the largest international higher education organization in the world.
The significance of Turkey to the Laureate family is immense. We see Turkey as an emerging global powerhouse and we believe that it can truly become a major center for university students from throughout central Europe and the Middle East. We’ve partnered with Istanbul, Bilgi University, a sister institution to this one here, which was one of, itself one of the early leaders amongst Turkey’s private universities. And we hope to contribute to Turkish society and to Turkey’s leadership position in the world. Mr. Prime Minister, we are honoring you for the leadership example that you set but we are honored by your presence here today. With our own mission of creating the young leaders of the next generation, we know that they will be inspired, as are we, by your example. Thank you for honoring us with your presence.
And congratulations on receiving our most prestigious award, the Doctor Honoris Causa. Thank you.
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Vocabulary:
leadership: liderazgo
our premises: nuestras instalaciones
truly:verdaderamente
powerful:poderoso
backed up by: apoyado
achieve: lograr
growing: creciente
joined together: unidos
shared: compartido
ensuring: asegurando
award: premio
Can you take a seed and make it grow? 
You're off with your friends. For an hour, for a weekend, for the summer.
Spring in Vinuesa, Soria, Spain.
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