- Four years ago, I was possibly the most eager
prospective student that Pomona had ever encountered.
(crowd laughs)
Armed with a tattered packet of questions
for everyone I met, I ended each conversation
by asking, "How has Pomona made you who you are today?"
Throughout my college decision process,
I wanted to understand how different colleges
shaped students' lived realities and how
those lived realities helped them to shape the world.
Although we each had separate journeys to Pomona,
we may have asked ourselves similar questions along the way.
Who am I, what do I value, and
how do my values align with Pomona's values?
I chose Pomona because we are intellectually curious.
These professors here invest deeply in students' lives
because, here, we are growing the empathy
and innovation needed to conquer society's challenges.
And, today, as we depart on our separate journeys,
we ask ourselves, "How have I grown,
and how can I make this vast and complicated,
and unjust world better for others?"
Today, some will say, "You made it!"
To congratulate us for all that we
have overcome and achieved.
But, when I say, "We made it,"
I like to explore a different meaning of the phrase.
First, what have we made during our time together?
Second, how does what we have made
reflect how we have grown and
how we can make this world better for others?
So, what have we made?
Together, we made a community
that defies narrow narratives of success.
In high school, I often questioned the value
of my pursuits, because my community
defined their value by their prestige.
But, at Pomona, I was surrounded,
for the first time, by people
who unapologetically pursued many passions
without concern for prestige.
Beyond challenging narrow definitions of success,
we've also challenged narrow paths to success.
We do so by challenging the presumed unrelatedness
of our multi-dimensional pursuits
and by exploring how their interplay equips us
with intellectual, emotional,
and social resources to pursue our dreams.
As a result, we've built a community
that defines the liberal arts, not
as anti-preprofessionalism, but rather
as being continually reflective about
how we can transfer insights among various experiences.
A conversation I had with a senior studio art major
on the pre-med track highlights the powerful interplay
made possible by embracing a non-traditional path.
She shared, "It's not adequate
to say that art has changed how I think.
Art has changed what I value and what I perceive.
Pursuing art has helped me to internalize the truth
that progress isn't a series of leader check boxes.
Art returns to itself, and I see that paralleled
in research as well, in which you're constantly thinking
about material again and again
and where you can go next with what you have now."
She then shared that, through pursuing art,
she practiced the ability to notice
and connect details in others' works,
and this ability enables her to perceive
and to speak about patients' unspoken experiences.
Her insights thus capture how our community values abilities
beyond the academic and the extracurricular.
Together, we have come to value the emotional intelligence
needed to bond individuals who may otherwise never interact.
And we have come to value the conscientiousness needed
to navigate difficult conversations.
What else have we made?
We have made our day-to-day lived realities
known to each other.
For some of us, college was the first time
that we encountered people whose day-to-day experiences
are very different from our own.
Through identity group events, TSL articles,
and demonstrations, we have illuminated
the intersecting identities that inform
how we benefit and are harmed by the assumptions of society.
For instance, Money Matters Week
challenged the myth of meritocracy
and revealed how class enables access to
and entitlement to certain opportunities.
In response, we made changes
that reflect these lived realities.
When we made decisions, we asked ourselves,
"Who is not at the table, and how can we
consider their lived realities?"
After the election in 2016, ASPC worked
with the Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid
to communicate Pomona's continued commitment
to undocumented applicants.
When concerns were not being addressed,
we made spaces for conversation,
and we made sustainable solutions.
For instance, members of the Glee Club discussed
how students are impacted differently
by gender-specific performance attire,
and they created a new attire policy
that recognizes and celebrates fluid gender expression.
When communities were not recognized,
we carved out structures to ensure
their creation and continuation.
Thank you, in particular, to the graduating leaders
of our veteran, religious, queer, international,
native, multi-ethnic, multi-racial,
academic, and other communities.
And when all of this was not enough,
we gathered signatures and stories
and showed up with actionable steps for change.
During Reading Days last semester,
two incredible women of color,
Kay Calloway and Sagarika Gami, organized--
(crowd cheers and applauds)
- -organized a demonstration to advocate
for survivors of sexual violence.
In three days, they mobilized hundreds
of students to look beyond their studies,
to push Pomona to prioritize survivors
and to take measures to end sexual violence on campus.
Our advocacy catalyzed Pomona to create an alumni group
offering pro-bono legal aid to survivors
and to actually start working
towards a 7C Title IX policy.
To those who have channeled frustration
into writing and mobilizing and negotiating,
and rewriting and remobilizing and renegotiating,
thank you for diving deeply into this unrecognized fight
to make this place better for others.
By learning to fight for each other's lived realities
within our league college bubble,
we learned to fight for equity beyond these gates.
Together, we have made so much.
We have made a community that defies narrow narratives
of success, and we have made our lived realities known
and actionable to each other.
And through the mundane and the meaningful,
the everyday and the extraordinary,
we have also made so many memories.
Working together in the morning glow of every breakfast
and putting off work by going to snack,
(crowd chuckles)
falling asleep despite drinking your AMA Te
that depletes us of our flex at alarming rate,
and persevering through the nights and the mornings
that blend together and feel like a marathon in a sprint.
Plotting birthday fountainings and being plotted against
despite experience with our friends' tricks.
(crowd laughs)
Admiring each other from afar
and exploring each other's rich inner worlds.
Abandoning responsibilities to continue
unexpected conversations and mustering the courage
to begin difficult conversations.
Basking in each other's brilliance
and remaining loyal in the not-so-brilliant moments.
And, most importantly, celebrating each other's victories
and coaching each other through the disappointments.
Stepping in as family, particularly
when there is loss within our community,
and promising to stay family beyond these gates.
What we have made points to how we have grown
and provides us with experiences and courage
to make this world better for others.
And, beyond sharing what we have made,
I'd like to thank those who have made the journey
to this moment possible.
To our housekeeping, grounds, and dining hall staff,
thank you for nourishing us, for decorating--
(crowd cheers and applauds)
- -for decorating the dining halls during the holidays,
and for maintaining so many beautiful spaces
for us to work and to study.
To our staff and administrators across the institution,
thank you for managing every detail needed
to sustain our educational experience,
including the detail involved
in our beautiful celebration today.
And to our beloved professors, you have expanded our worlds.
Thank you for introducing us to histories and narratives
that are often overlooked, for welcoming our questions,
and for epitomizing engaging teaching and research
while inviting us to co-create knowledge with you.
Thank you for guiding us through difficult concepts
and ideas and equipping us to interrogate
those very concepts and ideas.
Thank you for helping us to identify interlocking systems
of domination, and for preparing us
to deconstruct these systems.
Furthermore, you have been our steadfast cheerleaders
and our very dear friends, often believing
in us until we believed in ourselves.
Thank you for helping us to create our own definitions
of success, and for nurturing our ability
and desire to be lifelong learners.
Thank you for inviting us into your hearts
and your homes, for attending our games and performances,
and for expanding our dreams while showing us
that they are so within our reach.
And to our families in every sense of the word,
thank you for showing us your love across oceans
and time zones and languages.
Your formidable sacrifices have made
this education possible.
And, on that note, happy Mother's Day.
When reflecting on my time at Pomona,
I'm so proud that members of our community advocate
for what this institution can and should offer
for students, regardless of their identities.
However, I'm even more proud to see graduates
take ownership of the spaces they occupy once they depart.
Today, we become those graduates.
Pomona has helped make us who we are,
but we have also made Pomona what it is,
and we are ready to make the world beyond Pomona.
Dear class of 2018,
we made it,
and we have made incredible intellectual
and institutional changes along the way.
I cannot wait to see what we make
with the friendships that we have made,
the experiences and knowledge that we have obtained,
and the incredible accomplishment we have attained
for ourselves and all whom we love.
Thank you.
(crowd cheers and applauds)