"We were the Beginning": Parami's first graduating class on building something from nothing

Eaint Thet Hmu, Class of 2026

There is something quietly significant about being the first.

Not just for the students, but for the university that bet on them first. When Parami University opened its doors, it did so without a graduating class to point to, without alumni stories to share, and without the kind of track record that makes choosing a new institution feel like a safe decision. And yet students came. Eaint Thet Hmu was one of them.

At Parami University's 2026 Commencement Ceremony, Eaint Thet Hmu addressed her fellow graduates, faculty, family members, and supporters with a speech that kept returning to one idea: that the Class of 2026 did not just receive an education. They grew alongside the institution that provided it.

"As we are building ourselves, Parami is building itself along the way."

It is an honest observation about what the first cohort of any university actually experiences. Parami offered something real enough to earn their trust and their enrollment fees, their time, and four years of their lives. What the students gave back was something harder to manufacture: the willingness to be first, to work without a blueprint, and to represent a university that was still earning its name.

That was not always a comfortable position. The Class of 2026 studied through electricity shortages, internet cutoffs, political uncertainty, financial instability, displacement, and grief. Eaint Thet Hmu did not frame any of that as heroism. She framed it simply as what happened, and as proof that showing up consistently, even through difficult circumstances, eventually added up to something.

She described one moment that made this concrete. After her team organized a Public Speaking Panel Discussion through a student-led club activity, a panelist approached them to say: "Your team is very professional and works efficiently. I am very satisfied with my experience. Parami students are brilliant." What stayed with her about that moment was not just the pride of it, but the contrast. She remembered thinking, earlier in her studies, after being corrected for contacting her academic advisor through a Workchat application instead of proper email: "I don't even know how to communicate professionally." From that small correction to leading a team recognized for its professionalism, the distance felt significant.

That kind of reputation does not come from one class alone, and Eaint Thet Hmu seemed to understand that. Parami set the standard, created the environment, and pushed its students toward that level of professionalism. The students carried it into the world and reflected it back.

"Parami is not perfect. Like all of us, it is still growing. But what makes Parami special is not perfection. It is persistence."

The evidence of that persistence was visible at the ceremony itself. As the Class of 2026 graduated, the Class of 2028 held its own Associate Degree Commencement, and Parami welcomed the Class of 2030. The institution is growing, and doing so on a foundation the first cohort helped prove was solid.

The speech closed with something larger than institutional pride. Eaint Thet Hmu expressed hope that her class would be remembered not only as Parami's first graduates, but as the generation that kept learning while the world around them was falling apart and that proved that even in the darkest circumstances, young people from Myanmar could still dream, build, lead, and rise.

"What we built here was never small. We were the beginning, and the story is still growing."

It is a story built on mutual trust. Parami created a space worthy of its students, and this first cohort stayed, learned, and proved that the foundation was solid. For every class that follows, they leave behind something far greater than institutional pride: the undeniable evidence that the bet was worth taking.