University Convocation: Address to the Class of 2019

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Class of 2019, welcome to Lehigh. We have something very important in common: We are all first years. I’ve been on the job less than two months. So we are beginning this adventure together, and I am confident we will all find that we have made the right decision.

Lehigh University is celebrating 150 years of excellence in education, and 4 years from now, you will be our 150th graduating class. (I predict this special status will also confer upon your class 4 wins against Lafayette in football.)

I was educated in the 1970s, a different time than yours; yet like you, my generation faced a variety of domestic and global challenges. Perhaps both our generations can ponder the accuracy of the line from Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One (many of you read that book this summer, right….): “You were born at a pretty crappy time in history. And it looks like things are only gonna get worse from here on out.”

Fortunately my parents believed (as do yours) that education was the most important gift they could give to their children and that education was the key to addressing the challenges faced by the world. I stand before you thoroughly convinced of the power of education. You are about to embark on a wonderful experience at a great institution.

But what will you make of that experience and how will you choose your path?

I am a fan of 1970s music. (How many of you have even heard of, let alone seen, an 8-track player? I am sure they have one on display somewhere in the Smithsonian.) I want to quote for you lyrics from the most famous and popular song of the group Ten Years After (its only top 40 hit):

“I’d love to change the world
But I don’t know what to do
So I’ll leave it up to you.”

You are at Lehigh because this is decidedly not your motto. You are here to learn, to explore, and then to go out in the world and lead.

This was Asa Packer’s vision for students when he founded Lehigh. It is the community you have chosen to join. I think the most succinct expression of this theme was made by a very famous Lehigh alum, Lee Iacocca, who said this:

“Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don’t just stand there, make it happen.”

But what does it mean to get an education? Is it simply a prescribed set of courses to fulfill a requirement for a major? Is it just checking off items on a list, and once all the boxes are checked you are an educated person?

My favorite contemporary author, David Mitchell, writes in his book Cloud Atlas, “There ain’t no journey what don’t change you some.” You will find that you will change over these next 4 years, but how wide a net will you cast to fully explore what you can become?

We ask that you push yourself outside your comfort zone: Make use of the student life curriculum, your bLUeprint, as a plan to explore the five foundations: creative curiosity, identity development, inclusive leadership, collaborative connections, and professional growth and success.

Explore what our three undergraduate colleges have to offer, engage in our international opportunities, work with a team on a Mountain Top project, undertake independent research, contribute to service efforts in South Bethlehem and beyond. The volunteer opportunities through our Community Service Office and our brand-new Center for Community Engagement are many and varied, and you’ll be amazed how good it makes you feel to lend a helping hand. 

I urge each of you to act on your curiosity. As Brian Christian wrote in The Most Human Human (many of you read that this summer as well…..):

“The highest ethical calling, it strikes me, is curiosity. The greatest reverence, the greatest rapture, are in it.”

And I ask that you look after one another, respect and learn from the differences among you, and help one another succeed. You are joining a community with a lot of privileges; along with those privileges come responsibilities.

As I pondered what advice I might share with you all on the eve of your Lehigh careers, I recalled a scene from the 1989 movie Dead Poet’s Society – and if you have not seen this movie, it is worth the time.

Robin Williams plays John Keating, an English teacher at Welton Academy in the northeast United States in 1959, and the movie tells the story of how he inspires his students through his teaching of poetry. In an early class, Professor Keating jumps up on his desk, and the script goes as follows:

KEATING
Why do I stand up here? Anybody?

CHARLIE
To feel taller.

KEATING
No! (Keating rings the bell on his desk with his foot.)

Thank you for playing, Mr. Dalton. I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.
(Keating glances around the classroom from atop the desk.)
You see, the world looks very different from up here. You don’t believe me? Come see for yourself. Come on. Come on!

(Charlie and Neil quickly rise from their seats to go to the front of the classroom. The rest of the class follows them. While Keating continues speaking, Charlie and Neil join him on the desk and then Keating jumps down.)

KEATING
Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way. Even though it may seem silly or wrong, you must try! Now, when you read, don’t just consider what the author thinks. Consider what you think.
…You must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, “Most … lead lives of quiet desperation.” Don’t be resigned to that. Break out!

I encourage each of you to break out, to find your own voice, to prepare yourself to go out into the world and do something. There is a great support network in place here to help you: faculty, staff, alumni, your fellow students. Take advantage of it.

So welcome to Lehigh, Class of 2019. I look forward to seeing you around campus and hearing all about your adventures on South Mountain. Best wishes to you all!