COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS
With your permission, first a brief prayer.
Praise be to our Creator, Lord of the Worlds, The Beneficent, the Merciful. Master of the Day of Judgment, You only we worship; To You alone we ask for help. Show us the straight path, The path of those whom You have favored.
Dear members of the Board of Directors, Head of School, guests and dignitaries, I would like to start by congratulating the Class of 2017, their proud parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends. Teachers, coaches and instructors – it is also your day to be proud – your passionate nurturing of these young minds have created the environment for them to blossom – on behalf of all the graduates – Thank You. I would like to specifically acknowledge Fr. Tim Roth and all the Marian Fathers and Brothers who have served the School for 91 years. I am thankful to the Marianapolis Administration for inviting me as the commencement speaker.
As you have heard, my name is Mehdi Anwar and I was born in Bangladesh – a country the size of Wisconsin but with a population of over 150 million – we are a rather friendly bunch. I started my PhD at Clarkson University in 1985 and Ronald Reagan was the President. At Clarkson, all students had a personal computer – and it was the best one could get at that time – a 10MHz dual disk drive Zenith PC – in computer time that was the Jurassic Period. A twenty-minute phone call home used to cost us $50 – and now it is practically free. Technology, since then, has indeed advanced, computing, communication and other systems have become more affordable, but education that makes us who we are – that cost has exponentially gone up.
In Bangladesh, I attended the premier engineering university and received a Bachelors degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. This institution had a total enrollment of around two thousand and every student was on full scholarship. If developing and some of the developed nations can provide quality tertiary education for free or at least at affordable cost – then why can’t we? Graduates, quality education at all levels from primary to tertiary (i.e. college) at affordable or no cost should be the right of all US citizens, male and female, not an option exercised by a few who can afford. Young people, who still hold on to ideals, dream of a better world, can bring changes, – make a difference; not us – we are governed by inertia and quite resistant to changes.
Think about the impact your generation has already made; You do not “search” – you Google; You do not talk – you tweet and text. Even to be able to text and understand your response I had to download “13 Important Teen Texting Terms for Middle Aged Parent.” Now I get it, KMP – Keep me posted; NMR – Not my responsibility, IDK – I don’t know, and the most confusing 39 means thank you. Keep on moving the threshold of this society and be upright and open. Enclosing oneself using walls to ward off the unwelcomed also prohibits the worthy to enter. Question the status quo, as was questioned by Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Buddah, Muhammad, Nelson Mandela and the list goes on. Yes, and as you would like to say YOLO, but our noble deeds live forever.
This graduation from high school is rather important, more important, I believe, than the future graduation ceremonies you will attend. Let me explain. Firstly, this graduation is the culmination of 12 years of schooling – the other graduations are going to be in much quicker successions: 4 years, a year and a half and 3 + years for PhD. This gives this class of 2017, ten years to make their mark. This number is my impact marker – as most of the Noble Laureates have made their original contribution or at least the idea has hatched by the age of 26 – and Yes, there are exceptions. Now you are 16 – another 10 years to articulate your initial contribution: No Pressure. Secondly, time spent in College and graduate school is short and full of distractions. In college, you are on your won – the guidance, the support, and the good will that you have taken for granted and are synonymous with Marianapolis will be missing. Education is not easy – it is difficult – you have to work hard – very hard. College gives you freedom to excel but such freedom if not properly handled could take you off course.
The next 10 years, when the seed to make an impact, blossoms; a nebulous or even a non-existent thought takes shape; could make one or more of our graduates notable scientists, economists, poets, educators, social architects, entrepreneurs and innovators – whatever it may be, has one goal; betterment of humanity, making the world a better place. That idea is inside you. Michelangelo was once asked on how he creates such fabulous sculptures. His response was: I do not create, the shape was already there, – I simply chip away the unnecessary material. The next ten years will be the process of chipping away the unnecessary material and discovering yourselves. But it will not be easy – the prerequisite to success is hard work, patience and remaining focused. It took a brilliant physicist like Albert Einstein 10 years to formulate the General Theory of Relativity after his first publication of the Special Theory in 1905. Never give up, be like the lion, once focused on its prey – will not deviate.
Advances in technology, medicine, sustainable agriculture and food security, clean water, renewable energy and the environment – all point towards humanity’s continued effort to make our existence meaningful. Our resolve to impede global warming and the resulting climate change, while being cognizant that the consequences of our inability to do so might result in the first ever environmental refugees in the modern times – will be tested. The quest has not changed – the good prince/princess successfully eliminating the fire-breathing dragon to make the kingdom a better place. Bring the prince out and go through a transformation. We all have the power as we are the best of creation, we can work hard and make a difference. A sentiment best expressed by William Ernest Henley in Invictus:
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
However, benefiting from all these advances quite often is predicated by affordability with the less fortunate and a sizeable population in the developing nations not benefiting from the advancements. Let me give you an example, a typical table top PC consumes 100 Watts, operating six hours a day for 365 days a year requires 219 kWatt-Hrs. The per capita energy generation in Nepal is about 100 kWatt-Hrs. To put it in context, per capita energy consumption in USA is around 13,000 kWatt-Hrs. In this day and age of internet facilitated education, training, and capacity building – how to design water filtration systems, how to design earthquake resistant building, for example, cannot function without a functioning and resilient energy infrastructure and the absence of such in developing nations simply widens the digital divide.
Technological advancements have just started. Compared to the last 50 years the next 50 will see advancements that will make iPhone7 look like communicating with smoke signals. A widening digital divide that if not checked, creates a bi-polar society (something like the Elois and the Morlocks) challenging the establishment of Peace, that this Class of 2017 will not accept. Peace is achieved when there is parity achieved, when humanity in general have access to the basics, food, housing and clean water, education and health, right to elect just leaders, right to practice one’s religion and being accepted.
This brings us back to the question, how do we make a difference? This is for you to define – You are your own definition.
Thanks, and Class of 2017 – Congratulations.