Mary Sue Coleman: Good afternoon!
Congratulations to all the students who will leave here today as alumni of the University
of Michigan.
This is one of the most notable moments in lives I know will be filled with extraordinary
events.
Graduates, can you believe that this day has finally arrived, admist the final exams, the
holiday shopping, the family gatherings, the overall frenzy that we know as December in
America, you have completed this stage of your education and are receiving your diplomas
from the U of M.
We couldn’t be happier for you.
You believed in yourself, you believed in your professors, and most significantly believed
in the future that demands talented and creative people.
You spent your days at Michigan during the most severe economic downturn in both our
state and nation since the depression.
Your tenure has been coupled with an atmosphere of political divisiveness defined by bitterness
and stagnation.
It would be understandable if you graduated and entered the world jaded, angry, and a
little bit anxious.
There is after all a certain comfort and security that comes with being a college student.
You would not be the first Michigan student to think about staying just a little longer.
Allow me to quote an earlier U of M graduate.
“I feel so at home in my little Ann Arbor that I am beginning to sink down roots here,
and I have a hard time imagining my leaving it.”
There was a young man named Raoul Wallenberg who earned his degree in Architecture in 1935.
This year, 2012, has been the centennial of his birth as well as the year of your graduation.
What Raoul Wallenberg said next when he thought about lingering in Ann Arbor was beyond mature.
"But I am not doing anything very useful here."
There comes a moment in your case today when it's time to move on to that next challenge
for Raoul Wallenberg the obstacles he faced after graduation were unlike anything ever
encountered by a Michigan alumnus.
As a Swedish diplomat working in Budapest during World War II he was an eye witness
to the fear and brutality of the Holocaust.
An eye witness but not a bystander, rather he repeatedly risked his life to rescue thousands
of Hungarian Jews from the Nazi death camps.
He pulled them from cramped moving boxcars.
When Nazis forced prisoners to walk to the camps Wallenberg chased after them, shoving
food and medicine their way.
He found countless ways to shelter terrified men, women, and children trying to survive
and what was by then the last surviving ghetto of Jews in Europe.
He rescued some 100,000 of them, more human beings than any one person has ever saved.
At one point, frustrated that he could not do more, he apologized for saving only the
young.
“I want to save a nation”, he said.
“I want to save a nation.”
Those are searing words.
I am not sure any of us can fathom Wallenberg's bravery or the source of his moral courage.
He was and is a hero of the highest order.
He showed us more than any Michigan graduate that one person can make a difference.
What does Raoul Wallenberg have to do with your diploma or how you lead your life, starting
tomorrow?
You share a heritage.
You have walked the same Diag, relaxed in the same Michigan Union, and been entertained
in the same magnificent Hill Auditorium.
More significantly, you have experienced a transformative education that goes well beyond
the classroom.
It is one that stressed critical thinking, the diversity of ideas, the critical necessity
of a global perspective.
As Wallenberg himself said of Michigan, “I really feel that I have learned something.”
A fascinating report was issued earlier this week about what the world might look like
in 2030 - a time when you will be fully into your careers, your families, and personal
passions.
Analysts say the upcoming years will be shaped by an overarching global trend, individual
empowerment.
The middle class will grow, more people will be better educated, and new technologies will
present untold opportunities for both work and play.
This is a world where more than ever individuals will make a difference with their creativity
and their actions.
These individuals will be you.
The world will look to you as graduates of one of the great universities for solutions
to climate change, new models of public education, innovative cures and therapies, and the leadership
that is the hallmark of Michigan alumni.
Like Raoul Wallenberg you cannot imagine the challenges that will await you, you cannot
predict how you will react, but you can and must draw on the knowledge that you, like
this great humanitarian, really have learned something.
When you reflect on being a member of the class of 2012, know that it was the same year
the University of Michigan celebrated a graduate who changed the world.
Carry with you the long-held Michigan values of service, commitment and a readiness to
lead.
Believe that you, like Wallenberg and as educated, empowered individuals can and will make a
difference in transforming our state, our nation and our world with your ideas and actions.
So, for today, goodbye.
For tomorrow, good luck.
And forever, Go Blue!
[Applause]