Congratulations to you our 2009 graduates. It is an honor and a pleasure to add my voice of congratulations to the many you have heard today. This is a special day for me as well, for I arrived at UVM in 2005, the same year as most of you. You are my class.
Graduation day is one of my favorite days of the year for it signifies a beginning ripe with the promise of possibilities - of roads that you can now travel, of a life that will be forever changed. I speak to you today about the importance of expanding your horizon, of being willing to have your comfort zone challenged. This is inevitable for each of you because you have not chosen easy professions, especially during this time of global economic uncertainty and, thus, family instability, emotional turmoil, job loss, and renewed calls for a system of education that is better equipped to prepare the next generation of leaders, scientists, educators, and service providers. It is now your job to assist in meeting the challenges that we face and prepare us for what will be the "new" world--a "new" world that is all about broadening horizons--a "new" world filled with hope.
The "new" world has begun and you have made it possible. Four years ago, I shared the words of a poem written by a 12-year old boy who is now 16 - my son. He began his poem with "I am from the rainbow of black and white" and ended with "I am from the new beginning, which life will set to its own choices, In my mind dreams will become true, And moments will be remembered forever."
Who would have known four years ago that his words would become more real than ideal? Who would have predicted the rainbow of possibilities before us, before you? For the world as we once knew it, no longer exists. A man who is from the rainbow, President Barack Obama, now leads this nation. You, our graduates, are from the new beginning - a new beginning that is filled with possibilities, of hope for the future. With you, the hopes and dreams of those who have come before you are closer to being realized.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stated that, "all we need for [injustice] to rise is for good people to do nothing." You did something. You held high the rainbow - a rainbow filled with the promise of tomorrow and the hope for a new world. You pushed wide that slither of an opening in which hope was trying to burst forth. You stood firm and said, no more, we want more; we will have more. You stood tall and picked away at the barriers that separate - the barriers that force people to choose sides not based on values or principles, but narrow minded beliefs about who is acceptable, who is deserving, and who is chosen. You are part of a new world that brings people in from the margins - the young, the homeless, the elderly, the uneducated, the jobless, the sick, the poor. You have yelled from the rooftops that you will not be defined by convention. You have been clear in stating that you will determine the terms by which you will defined, how you will communicate, and how you will live your life.
I am humbled by your passion, your commitment, and your call to action. The driving force behind your passion and action is an undeniable feeling of hope. To have hope, is to be free of the tyranny of silence. To have hope means never again.... The world will be what you make it to be - what you need and want it to be.
For four years, many of you have heard me say that you are the rock upon which this country will thrive. You have chosen areas of study that are absolutely critical for the health, economic, and political well being of our nation. For there would be no lawyers, doctors, economists, educators, nurses, scientists or so many other professionals without teachers. Families for whom such basic needs, as food and shelter have not been met would crumble from the weight of their problems without the expert guidance of social workers or counselors. Students, be they PreK-22, would not be able to successfully navigate the halls of their childcare centers or academia without the guidance of leaders in higher education. And, no new knowledge would get generated without that contributed and yet to be contributed by our newly minted doctoral colleagues. Without your knowledge, expertise, and commitment to service, the walls of our nation would come crumbling down.
You are the gatekeepers for building on the moral fiber that lives within us all and is needed to ensure that a rainbow of possibilities become the norm in this country. You are the dream keepers and the hope makers. You have chosen to do something. To be known for something. You have chosen to focus on hope, to allow opportunities to rise and take hold, to make a difference. You have chosen a noble profession. You have chosen a profession steeped in notions of social justice. You are our hope for the future.
Hope is more than an ontological need. As Aristotle proposed, "hope is a waking dream." Hope is important to the very fabric of who we are as individuals and as citizens of the world. It is now your task, as practicing members of your profession and as world citizens, to assist in the unveiling of opportunities of hope for others, to reach out your arms to others, to make a difference.
I would like to share the passion and conviction of hope of one of our graduating students with you. Recently, one of our students, Natalie Adams, presented me with a copy of a pictorial and narrative analysis of difference as represented by young people attending a camp for young people with disabilities. I was struck by the normalcy of the activities in which they engaged, much like but also different from those described by Phillip Ortego. With each picture, expressions of hope were readily visible on the faces of those forever immortalized in the pictures. As Natalie wrote, "We should all subscribe to the notion of a shared world and the broadest possible notions of humaneness, difference, and normalcy." The young people attending the camp were different, yet not so different for they, like each of us in this College, believe in the promise of tomorrow. They like each of us believe in a shared world of possibilities. They are like the rainbow - stretching across the horizon, for each new day, each new rainbow is a wonder to behold - a symbol of never ending hope. It is through a fundamental belief in the power of hope that each of us, like the campers, comes to appreciate the value of being able to dream. Henry David Thoreau stated, "If one advances confidently in the direction of his or her dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he or she has imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in coming hours." I encourage each of you to live the life of your dreams, to resist falling prey to what someone else's notion of a life well lived might be. The choice you have made, to make a difference in the lives of others, will mean the difference between the realization of a dream for you and maybe someone with whom your path crosses or the deferring of dreams. Don't defer our dreams. Go after your dreams, go after them now!
You have the power, through the work that you will do, to teach another how to dream, especially someone for whom dreams have been deferred. You have the power to make what one dreams a real possibility - life, as you know it is much richer, much broader, and more authentic. A life that is authentic is what we at UVM - your professors - hope for you.
It is also hoped that we at UVM have reinforced your need to dream, to hope, to think, to believe in the seemingly impossible. As Anais Nin said, "Our life is composed greatly from dreams, and they must be brought into connections with action. They must be woven together." Each of you came to UVM with dreams about a future filled with success, what I hope each of you found was more than a path to your dreams, but a way of discovering yourself, and the role that you can and will play in each of your various communities - work, home, community, and play.
I look around this room today, at this moment, and I see a room filled with people who have dared to become part of a civil society - who did not just "sit and learn about the world" as Langston Hughes would say, but who learned and then acted. I see, in you, a group of people who are partners in the creation of your education, a group of people who took intellectual risks or social risks. A group of people who were not afraid to work with the more unruly child in the class, the one who seemed unmotivated, but simply was too hungry and too traumatized by the hand they had been dealt to appreciate that his or her dreams could turn what is believed to be a life of unfulfilled possibilities to one that is filled with hope. I see in you a group of people in took part in creating this new world in which we now live.
Continue to challenge anyone and anything that will deter your dreams or lead you to lose hope. Continue to break down the barriers of injustice. Continue to stand tall. Continue to hold fast to the values of our land grant mission. The career paths that you have chosen are far from glamourous, they are in fact entail a lot of hard work, but the career paths you have chosen serve the good of our country and the world. You have chosen to be servant leaders. I know I speak on behalf of the faculty, administrators, and staff in the College of Education and Social Services when I say I am very proud of who you are today and what you will become in the future.
The work that you will do will encourage many children, youth, and families - those on the margins and those skirting around the margins - to, as Langston Hughes would say, "Hold fast to dreams. Because if dreams die like the broken wings of a bird - they cannot fly."
You are ready to take on the world. As you leave UVM you take with you our hopes and dreams for your future. May the spirit of John Dewey, Jane Addams, Erik Erikson follow you and the wisdom of Marjory Lipson, Charlie Rathbone, Phyllis Paolucci-Witcomb, Wang Juefei, Garet Allen-Malley, Mary Lou Razza, and Tish McGonegal inform you as you attempt to get at the root of a problem, help a young person know how it feels to have an aha moment when trying to solve a difficult problem, or simply try to solve the problems that a part and parcel of our social world, to not only understand it but also to maintain hope in it so that the universe that is now our rainbow will allow for all possibilities - even a rainbow that is black and white - a rainbow that, with each passing storm, glows bright at the dawn of a new beginning, of new possibilities, of a world filled with the promise of tomorrow - a world of hope. Graduates, I leave you with the words of our young poet, "Dreams will become true and moments will be remembered forever." Graduates of the Class of 2009, we congratulate you. Dare to dream, Dare to believe. Dare to make a difference.
Last modified June 05 2009 11:56 PM
