graduation speech
Our youngest graduated with a masters degree today. She was in a small program of only 21 students. Students came from 11 nations. This was the speech by one of the students.
IPS Graduation Remarks: Advice for the Class of 2012
First, on behalf of the class, I’d like to welcome all the guests: friends, parents. Thank you for coming to our graduation ceremony, some of you from very far away. We really appreciate the effort. More importantly, thank you for the support each of us has received over the last two years. It has been an interesting journey, and we couldn’t have completed it without you.
Let me also welcome, and be the first to officially thank, our IPS program administrators, affiliated faculty, and advisors. In particular, thanks to Dr. Stedman, our Director, his deputy, Sara Tung, Sara’s predecessor, Sihla Koop, and the indescribable Jonathan Achter. Each of you has been very patient and flexible, guiding us through this program masterfully. Many thanks for that.
And finally, let me both welcome and give heartfelt congratulations to the IPS class of 2010. Congrats on an amazing two years, guys. We did it!!
So, I have to admit, I solicited a bit of advice in advance of this speech, though not all the input I received was entirely helpful. One of my D.C. colleagues declared that, if I started to talk about how “IPS can change the world,” I should walk away from the microphone immediately. A business school friend suggested I should do my speech in Dr. Seuss rhyme … but he’s a MBA, after all, so I shouldn’t have expected serious advice.
Several of my classmates gave me advice, too, suggesting I “keep it light” and “keep it short,” which I’ll definitely try. A lot of them also gave me great advice, but not until this morning. Thanks guys – really helpful. Plus, the advice I got was things like: “say ‘Evan is totally awesome’” or “make sure you pepper Sadika throughout your speech.” So … there you go, guys, you’re in there.
I did, however, hear something surprisingly useful from Dr. Stedman. At the end-of-the-year party he asked me what “pearls of wisdom” I planned to offer today. Now, I fully understood his question was laced with sarcasm, but I’ll admit, it did get me thinking.
Over the last two years, our class has learned a lot from our Stanford experience; a lot from each other. And, being a committed policy student, it seems only right that we should try to leave our world better than we found it. So, I figured it might be useful to pass on some of our lessons learned to those who will follow us.
So, some pieces of advice – 8, to be exact - for the incoming IPS class of 2012:
1 – Embrace your diversity. Take it from our class: it is a good thing. We have a small cohort - there are only 21 of us - but between us, we represent 11 different countries, have worked on 6 different continents (Megan may have worked in Antarctica, I can’t remember), have experience in various sectors of the economy, and bring to Stanford broadly different skills. And yet, even with all these differences, we are a unit. More than maybe any other program here, we fit together. So, class of 2012, just know that your class’s diversity will be not only your strength, but also your glue.
2– Take golf, fencing, scuba diving, kickball, a day off – something, anything, that will keep you fresh. Take advantage of the fact that you live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. You are in California. California is awesome. Don’t waste it.
3 – Recognize you will need your classmates; if you are doing this alone, you are not doing it right. In our class, we are each better for having known each other; we are each better from having learned from one another. Stick together, because, really, you don’t want to get lost in the sea of Stanford engineers.
4 – Take a breath and take stock. At some point, you will think you are stupid, feel under-prepared and over-matched, but you will be wrong. Our first quarter at Stanford, we all felt a little overwhelmed, a little desperate, finding solace in little else beyond our statistics textbook that was – no kidding - full of cartoons. But the source of our discomfort was not stupidity – it was growth. Use it. Don’t panic. It’ll only sting for a little bit.
5 – Go to San Francisco. It is much cooler than Palo Alto, and cheaper, too. Plus, it’ll keep you away from undergraduate frat parties that will all too quickly have you “barking” like you did at the University of Georgia (ahem – Tyler).
6 – Forget about your GPA … because everyone else will. If you only take classes that play to your strengths, if you only focus on what you think you want to know, you will have missed the point. This is an interdisciplinary program; you are here to broaden your perspective, not confirm it. In our class, each and every one of us challenged ourselves, and in doing so, succeeded in proving our worth in a way a GPA will never capture.
7 – Go to math camp, despite the fact that it is exactly as cool as it sounds. You will get to meet your classmates, get free food, and maybe re-learn some calculus. Also - come better prepared than I did - I was armed with only my “Math for Dummies” book and drugstore calculator. Purchase a TI-83 – trust me on this.
8 – Think about your future, but don’t let ambition sabotage you. At Stanford, you will be surrounded by people - students and faculty, alike -who have had brilliant careers and who seem to have been destined to achieve great things. But remember: they became great because they were good at what they did, not what they were going to do. Don’t be so anxious about becoming something better than you are now, when what you do today will make you who you are in the future
There are lots of other bits of advice – like get a bike with gears for the Law School hill … live in Rains or be friends with someone who does … ask Professor Bulow to throw out the orange juice before his pricing class … or plan a study trip to somewhere you never thought you wanted to go. Obviously, with two years of material, I could go on.
But, in the spirit of keeping this short, let me just close by again saying thanks to my classmates. We will all take so many great things away from our Stanford experience, including, and perhaps most importantly, our connection to each other.
Thanks for the last two years; I couldn’t have done it without you, and certainly wouldn’t have wanted to.
Congratulations, class of 2010!
You are so going to have a good life with all these seeds you are planting. It's tough, but so worth it. You just seem to be in the right place at the right time. There's an unmistakable air of rightness in your post. Even though it's tough and it's tiring, you're doing what you want to do. I think you are amazing 
Rewriting your life takes a bit of work.
