2007 Graduation - Baccalaureate Ceremony

Pedro Noguera, Faculty Speaker

It is an honor and a privilege to have been invited to address the 2007 class of graduates from Steinhardt. Commencements are always special occasions; one of the few rites of passage that we recognize and honor in this country. Like other rites of passage it is steeped in tradition, hence our robes, the music, the procession, the pomp and circumstance, etc. However, it is also a time to reflect upon the education you have just received and to contemplate what lies ahead. It is also a time when families, friends and loved ones get to share in the joy and satisfaction of your accomplishment. So, even if you'd rather be somewhere else right now, think of this activity as nothing more than a way to show your parents and loved ones that you weren't just partying and having a good time for the last few years. You have completed this part of your education, and reaching this milestone is a cause for celebration.

The pursuit of one's educational goals is often a solitary journey. I often compare it to running a marathon. As I know from experience, no one can help you to get through a marathon. Running the race, and most importantly, finishing it, is all on you. Knowing that there are others out there cheering you on doesn't make the race any less challenging, but it can lift your spirit. Certainly now that you've crossed the finish line and are ready to celebrate, it is good to share in the joy of your accomplishment with those who have been supporting you - financially, emotionally and spiritually.

After the celebration is over many of you will quickly turn to the important question - what comes next? For most, the practical matter of finding a job, hopefully one that pays well and matches your knowledge, skills and newly gained expertise will be the first priority. Unless you are either very well off or a true aesthetic, figuring out how to support yourself is by no means a frivolous matter for you or your parents. After all, you've invested time, money, blood, sweat and tears to get you to this point today. So it is reasonable to expect that you should be able to apply what you've learned and earn a decent living as you do.

However, my hope for you is that you will not merely settle for a good job. My hope is that your aspirations will allow you to think beyond your need for employment, and make it possible for you to consider how you might use your education to make a living and make a difference. I realize this is a tall order, one that forces you to think beyond your immediate needs to the broader needs of our society and of the world. But to do anything less means that in effect you will accept things as they are or hope that someone else will do that which you are either too scared, too lazy or simply too selfish to undertake. Thinking about how to make a difference takes empathy, altruism and compassion. It also requires a degree of audacity and a healthy ego. To see yourself as a person who can make a difference forces you to consider what it will take for you to have the ability to have an impact on the world.

Clearly, this is a tall order, even for a graduate of NYU. However, if you don't think "big" and begin to imagine ways that you can help to make the world less unfair and unjust, and begin to conceptualize strategies that reduce, even if just to small degree, the amount of misery, suffering and hopelessness that characterizes our times, then you are essentially leaving that task to someone else. History is usually made by the rich and powerful. This is why in this country we learn history through the experiences of Presidents, generals, industrialists and billionaires. Occasionally, ordinary people who might otherwise have blended in to the great mass of humanity possess courage, intellect, creativity and imagination to change the course of human events. What distinguishes such individuals from the rest is their willingness to seriously consider the possibility of intervening in the course of human events in ways that contribute to the overall betterment of humanity, followed by a commitment to act.

Think for a moment of Harriet Tubman - an illiterate, disabled, female, slave. She single handedly led hundreds of slaves to freedom, and when asked how she managed to do it she said she would have freed more if they weren't afraid. Or Helen Keller - another woman who was born blind, deaf and mute, who went on to become a major labor leader, or her teacher Annie Sullivan who without any formal training taught Helen to read, write and communicate. Then there's Delores Huerta, another female labor leader, who along with Cesar Chavez organized some of the most marginalized workers - migrant farm laborers, into the United Farm Workers.

The list goes on, and on, of ordinary people from humble origins who whose efforts impacted to course of history. Of course, the reason why we can remember such individuals are because such heroism, innovation and courage is rare and isn't manifest very often. It is far easier to focus on yourself; your need for a job, housing, a life partner, new clothes, perhaps a pet, anything that will make you feel good about yourself. After all, some of you may feel you deserve to be rewarded now that you've completed your education, and that you deserve to have a chance to kick back and chill, at least for a little while. If this is the path you choose, you'll find lots of reinforcement for such a selfish and superficial choice. (I guess I have revealed what I think about that choice.) You don't have to stress yourself out by worrying about the war in Iraq, Global Warming, genocide in Darfur, poverty and injustice in America. Thinking about such things might just depress you and detract from your ability to fully enjoy yourself. Isn't it more pleasant to cheer for your favorite contestant of American Idol, lose yourself in the latest episodes of Lost, Gray's Anatomy or even the Simpsons? Why worry about the world when it's so much easier to just ignore it and have a good time?

I imagine that some of you may be nodding your heads in agreement. "Don't worry, be happy" is not a bad motto, unless of course your education has left you hopelessly aware of what's going on around you. Undoubtedly, some of you already have a nagging sense of moral responsibility that compels you to understand why things are as they are and to do something to contribute to the betterment of our world. Why for example in a wealthy nation like our own we have so much trouble providing health insurance to all in need and a decent education for our children? Or why we now find ourselves in a bloody war without an end in sight, a war that for those of you who will become educators, will force you to consider what advice and guidance you will give to your students who are tempted to serve? If all your education has left you with is an aspiration for a comfortable life then something is wrong. Remember, you are graduates of Steinhardt not Stern. Your chances of landing a big corporate job and a big fat paycheck are unfortunately pretty slim, and if you were in it for the money all along then you got some bad advice along the way.

Hopefully your education has prepared you to contribute to the betterment and advancement of society and the world, and stoked your desire to do so. But maybe, you can even do more. Maybe if you have the courage and creativity, you might even do something significant and noteworthy. Having served as a professor for almost 20 years now at three major universities, I have had the privilege of working closely with students who have gone on to do amazing things. Students like Tony Sillard, who after completing two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya was so struck by his students' utter poverty and their desire for an education that after returning to the US he sought to do more to help them. Teaching in Oakland he came up with an idea: to have his students in Oakland work in partnership with his former students in Kenya. The non-profit he created - Global Education Partnership, got students in Kenya to produce beautiful handmade arts and crafts, which were shipped to his students in Oakland, who sold the goods and split the profits with the students in Kenya. In the course of the exchange, the students in Kenya and Oakland learned about managing a small business, using the internet to manage inventory and distribution. Today, Global Education Partnership has expanded to Guatemala and Indonesia.

Then there's Maria Brenes, who after graduating from Harvard moved back to her home-town, Los Angeles, where she started a non-profit called Inner-City Struggle. During a time of intense racial conflict and even rioting between African Americans and Latinos, Maria's organization has been training high school students in conflict resolution so that they can respond proactively to the tensions in schools. Today, her organization is widely recognized as one of the most effective in the City at preventing the spread of racial violence.

There are others: Moisha Baji who works as a program officer for the United Nations investigating human trafficking in the Dominican Republic and Haiti; Shawn Ginwright who established a youth leadership mentoring program to counter growing youth violence in Oakland, California; and Brian Osbourne who was just named superintendent of schools in South Orange Mapelwood.
I cite these individuals as evidence that ordinary people can do extraordinary things to intervene and make a difference. Each of you has that capacity as well to draw upon your creative talents and your intellect to make a positive contribution to the world.

I issue this call, this suggestion, not to detract from the happiness of the moment but as a reminder that once the celebrations are over and the sober task of contemplating next steps begins, you will be forced to make a choice about how to live. My hope is that some of you will choose to live in ways that make life better for others. I make this call because our planet needs it and because I am so impressed by the talent and potential in this auditorium.

Each of us has the opportunity to do something to leave the world better than we found it. I am not hear to tell you what to do only to suggest that you do something that allows you to use your education, your talents and your intellect that contributes to the greater good.