Hi Mom and Dad.
A shout out to Mom and Dad.
[Danny Wegman] It is my privilege to welcome you to this ceremony which recognizes and celebrates
your graduation.
Allow me to offer a few words that I hope may be helpful to you. First, do what you love
and give it your best. Find the best people to help you achieve your dreams.
Partner with them. They'll help you achieve heights you never thought possible.
Give credit to others. Few achievements are entirely your own and you will find that
following this simple philosophy will also benefit you, often in surprising
ways. You can accomplish anything if you don't care who gets the credit.
[President Seligman] You're as ready for life's challenges as any class we've graduated. You've learned the value
of the gifts we can provide you. Critical thinking, perseverance, the value of
working with others,
your personal commitment to Meliora. If there's a great philosopher I like to
cite and quote it's Aretha Franklin. RESPECT. Respect those who work with you.
Respect those who you meet for the first time. Respect those who are different than
you are. Respect people and they will respect you.
[Ulrik Soderstrom] Congratulations 2016! We made it. We
haven't come together as an entire class on this quad since Convocation, Freshman
year. I remember sitting anxiously in my car on Freshman Move-In Day of August
of 2012. I was excited for the things to come but I had no idea the community of
students in our class I was about to meet. I am honored and proud to call 2016 my
family. I'm so excited to watch over the coming years how we continue to make our
mark on the world, "Making It Ever Better". 2016, we've all had our own
adventures together on this campus. This will always be a special and cherished place.
[Erica Fee] I am here to tell you the real, honest, unvarnished, naked, quivering truth
about how to plan for success once you leave UR today.
This is serious.
There is no plan. Once you leave UR today, there is no real way to set a success
for a plan for success and for most of you success will be about the opposite of
planning. Being adaptable and fluid as you make your path but always staying
true to who you are. Basically I'm here to caution you about the dangers of
rigid planning because you are constantly evolving and changing. The
plans you make today will ultimately be carried out by a version of yourself
that you don't fully know yet.
Your plans at twenty two will not be the same as they are at thirty two and they will change
every decade or sooner. You have something very good going for you right
now and it's that you don't know everything and that is a beautiful thing
because you can take risk. You can take chances. You can throw it all on the line
now and the plans they will adapt as you go.
The days of joining a company and staying with it until you retire are gone. You
don't know where the road is going and while you should plan for your immediate
future and have overall goals, leave yourself some breathing room too so
that the plan doesn't govern you. There's nothing more but all that for a speaker
at these sorts of events to tell you "Just Shoot for the Stars" while your plan
to Shoot for the Stars has probably changed since freshman year and it will
change again and again and again and I'm here to tell you that's okay.
You're Liberal Arts education her at UR has prepared you to adapt. Now you must take the challenge
to leave your minds open so that you can.