and now the point in the ceremony when we award
our honorary degree recipient.
We like to invite Jarrett out here.
I wish to invite Jarrett up and Dr. Patty [inaudible]
honorary degree recipient during my conferral.
Today, we confer an honorary degree
on Jarrett Krosoczka,
an award-winning author and illustrator.
Jarrett writes books with humor and heart,
qualities that have made his titles perennial favorites
on the bookshelves of homes, libraries,
and bookstores across the country.
He was first published at the age of 23,
and now has dozens of published books to his credit.
His titles includes several picture books.
His widely popular lunch lady graphic novels
in the Platypus Police Squad.
Most recently, Jarrett shared his own story of growing up
amongst family addiction in the young adult graphic memoire,
'Hey, Kiddo', which won a national book award,
which was a national book award finals in 2018.
He is a two-time winner of the Children's Choice Book Award
and has been in the finals for the prestigious
Will Eisner comic industry award.
Realizing that his books can inspire young readers beyond the page,
he founded School Lunch Hero Day,
a national campaign that celebrates school lunch staff
and Platypus Police Reading Squad, a program in which police officers
read aloud to children in schools and libraries.
A constant advocate for arts education,
Jarrett also established
the Joseph and Shirley Krosoczka Memorial Youth Scholarships
which fund art classes for underprivileged children
in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Jarrett Krosoczka, it is my honor and great pleasure
to award you with the Degree of Doctorate of Arts.
[applause]
Thank you so much for this incredible honor for both the degree
and to be here addressing you in this moment.
My grandfather, he grew up in the 1930s during the Great Depression.
I grew up in the 1980s during the Age of Excess.
Thankfully for me though, my grandfather raised me.
He raised me instilling all of the values that he had gained
while coming of age with nothing.
On many occasions during my youth,
I couldn't help but feel othered.
I figured I was the only person being raised by grandparents.
I was the only person who didn't have their mother and father at home.
And my mom was addicted to drugs and she was in jail,
and my father was absent, he took off before I was born.
So I knew my family didn't looked like my peers,
and it's certainly didn't looked like anything I'd seen on television.
But what a gift that was.
All I can truly need is to be loved unconditionally,
and how lucky I was to have that.
My grandfather would often say to me,
"When I'm gone, I hope that you remember
the value of hardwork that I taught you."
Of course then as a kid, I would mostly just roll my eyes.
But now as a parent myself, I mean I get it.
As a parent, you want nothing more,
nothing more than for your kids to grow up
to be independent and stable,
and of course happy.
When I graduated from college,
I moved to Boston,
and I was trying to get my children's books published.
And at least once a week on a phone call, my grandfather would ask,
"Do you have a job yet?".
To which I reply, "Yes. I write and illustrate children's books.".
And then there'd be a pause,
and my grandfather would cordially ask,
"Well who pays you for that?"
And I would respond, "Nobody yet,"
but I was working on it.
And also now in retrospect,
I realized there was so much love in that,
because he never asked me if I had a real job,
he wasn't belittling what I was trying to achieve
but he wanted to make sure that I was compensated
for what I'd hope to accomplish.
And yes, it did take a lot of work.
I submitted my work and my illustrations, my stories
to publishers for two years with no interest from any of them.
I have a folder filled with rejection letters
from some of the finest publishers in America.
But because I was constantly working on craft,
drafting new stories,
because I was relentlessly submitting my work to publishers,
my first children's book was published in June of 2001,
and at my very first book signing,
at [inaudible] Booksellers in Western Massachusetts,
my grandparents held court in the center of the audience,
and they were beaming.
I now have 40 books published,
and much of that can be credited,
thank you to all of that work that my grandparents
put in to me, and of course all of the teachers I had along the way.
But more important than any profession success that I have met with,
I found love and I'm the father of three children,
and I've been able to break the cycle of trauma and addiction
that surrounded my youth.
[inaudible], thank you.
[applause].
And our house is as chaotic as anyone's,
my children are 10, 7, and 2,
and it's a love-filled house that can be attributed
to another important lesson that was instilled to me,
family first and always.
And now I truly know what my grandfather was getting at,
it was never what my grandfather expected of me,
it's what he had hoped for me.
And in this audience right now, there are several nervous caretakers
who helped get their graduates to this point,
and as much as I know you'll want to hound them
in the months and the years ahead,
they still need your love and support.
And for the graduates, please remember
that when your elders are nagging you about what your next step will be,
what your next job will be, what your next move will be,
it isn't what they expect of you,
but it's what they hoped for you.
And I hope the very best for you
as you all leave this phase of your life behind you,
and are propelled into the world,
and you begin to write your own stories.
And stories are truly all we leave behind.
Our actions and our love
will live in the hearts of our loved ones
and exist in the stories that are told
for generations to come.
So work hard
as you craft your own story, but always remember
to love as hard as you work.
Congratulations Class of 2019.
Thank you.
[applause]