Montgomery County Community College Commencement Address

Brian C. Mitchell
Blue Bell, Pa.
May 17, 2007

Thank you, President Stout. I am grateful to you, to Chairman Bitner, and the trustees for inviting me to speak here tonight.

Members of the Class of 2007, Maryjane and I are honored to participate in one of the most important days of your lives. 

To you, the faculty and staff of Montgomery County Community College, and to you, the friends and families of the graduates: Thank you for your support of this fine group of students, whose hard work reaches its culmination tonight.

Higher education
As president of Bucknell University, and throughout my career in higher education, I have been in the audience of quite a few commencement ceremonies. I confess I deliberately lost count some time ago.

I want to assure everyone here tonight that this extensive experience taught me one very important lesson – keep it short.

I am well aware that I am not the main attraction. I know that you cannot wait to enjoy with your families the moment when you walk across this stage. So I will try to speak for little more than 10 minutes. I hope that you enjoy my remarks. Either way, you can be sure they will soon be done.

Night to shine
Members of the Class of 2007, I am here to speak to you. It is, after all, your night to shine.

Today you join an elite circle of the 35 percent of Americans who hold an associate’s or higher degree.  Only one of every three Americans has attained what you will attain tonight.  And many of you, I suspect, are among the first in your families to attend college. That is exclusive company, and membership does have its privileges.

Your education gives you the knowledge and confidence to begin a career or to pursue further studies. Your income potential will rise, and you will be more agile on the job market. I believe the technical term is “street cred.”

Get in the game
But credentials and career prospects are one matter. How you live your life is another. I do not pretend to know the answer of how best to do that. But I have been blessed in my life to have heard some pretty good advice that I would like to pass on to you, and it is this:

Get in the game.

It comes from the best commencement address I ever heard, which was given my friend Chris Matthews, the television news analyst and host of “Hardball.” It is advice that is short, sweet, and useful. Not a bad combination.

It is that simple. Get in the game.

Determination
You may be wondering why I am telling you this, so here is my reasoning. Sometimes graduates believe that their degree is a magic wand and that success will easily come their way. But in reality, your success depends on your own determination and will. It requires the same work ethic and spirit of hope that took you through Montgomery County Community College, and perhaps allowed you to combine your education with job and family demands.

When you leave this campus, degree in hand, take a deep breath, and jump in.

I warn you, though: At first you may feel as though you are living someone else’s life. I know because I have felt it too.

Conventional wisdom
You may have guessed from my accent that I am from Boston.  I grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts, a working-class immigrant industrial city, raised in a world where second sons took a job in the civil service, became a lawyer, or joined the priesthood.

According to conventional wisdom, I probably was not supposed to get my Ph.D. in history, write a book, or become a university president.

But I realized I wanted other options, too, and I saw that education would give me those options.

Hard work
Despite moments of self-doubt, I had this feeling that it was worth paying attention to the hard work I saw all around me.

Being Irish, of course, I am also stubborn.  I mean that as a joke. That is just a stereotype. I think stubbornness is something that we all share when we want something enough. I kept pushing myself, especially in situations where everybody else in the room seemed to come from a different background than me.

You can do the same. You can apply for jobs or transfer to four-year colleges with confidence. You can start your own business. You can use your skills as a volunteer and help change lives. And yes, like it or not, you can even be a college president. Although, President Stout and I would probably advise you to consider that path with some degree of caution.

Never let up
Seriously, though, that you have proved that you have what it takes to get in the game. Now it is up to you never to let up.

If you are smart, and apparently you are because you are here tonight, then you are also humble. You may therefore wonder whether you are truly good enough to put yourself out there. It is a reasonable concern, and one that I hope to put in context by telling you the story of Ron McNair.

As a child of the 1950s in rural South Carolina, Ron McNair had two loves: outer space and the saxophone. He surely stood out in his community, where he picked cotton and tobacco to help support his family.

Intellectual gifts
But Ron had intellectual gifts and a very encouraging mother. He graduated as valedictorian of his high school class and won a college scholarship. Nevertheless, even then doubt nearly held him back. He wondered whether he could succeed.

Then a counselor’s encouragement changed his life. The counselor told him: “I think you are good enough.”

Those words gave Ron the courage to study physics and to win academic honors and another scholarship, this time to pursue his doctorate at MIT.

Compete with the best
And again, even after all he had accomplished, Ron felt intimidated. Ultimately, though, he decided that he would not run away from the challenge. “I had to compete with the best,” he said.

Ron did more than compete. He thrived. He ended up earning one of the greatest challenges possible for anyone on planet Earth: he earned an invitation from NASA to apply for the space program.

Did he succeed? I think you can see the pattern.

Achieving dreams
In 1984 he became the second African-American astronaut to travel in space. During his lifetime, Ron often spoke about his belief in himself as being the real key to achieving his dreams.

“The true courage of space flight is not strapping into one’s seat prior to lift-off,” he said in one commencement speech. “It is not sitting aboard six million pounds of fire and thunder as one rockets himself away from this planet. The true courage comes in enduring – persevering, preparation, and believing in oneself.”
“Not only are you good enough,” he told the new graduates. “You are better than enough.”

Tragically, Ron died in the Challenger shuttle explosion in 1986.

Made a difference
His life was far too short, but Ron McNair made a difference – because he got in the game.

Today I am here to tell you that you are good enough to get in the game, in whatever passion you choose to pursue.

I also am here to ask you to remember what you already know, that your education is not just about you. Your knowledge, your skills, and your great creativity have the potential to benefit the lives of everyone around you.

Responsibility to society
Ron McNair became a hero because he set off in pursuit of discoveries and innovation beyond all realms of imagination – and for the sake of human progress. He recognized that with ability comes responsibility to society.

So when you get in the game, get in there not simply for yourself, but for the sake of the team.

If you go into business – become a great leader and manager. If you go into healthcare, know and care for your patients. If you go into technology, work on ideas that provide useful innovations. Education – inspire your students. Government, human services, criminal justice – uphold the highest standards of compassion and fairness. Whatever you do, wherever life leads you, give it your all.

There is infinite joy in knowing that you are contributing to something much greater than yourself, that your skills and ideas are needed and valued by many.

Special spirit
There is a special spirit on this campus. When the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation chose the partnership shared by Bucknell University and Montgomery County Community College for a new kind of student transfer program, it recognized the drive and potential of the students here. Of you. All of us at Bucknell recognize it. So do employers and other universities. We believe that community college graduates like you have the potential to become the leaders of tomorrow. Getting there is up to you.  Please do not hold back. Get in the game. You are good enough. You are better than enough.

Thank you and congratulations. I wish you all the best.