2018 Commencement Address

Congratulations, class of 2018!

This is your own very glorious day. As I look around you---even into the distance of this great hall---I see the beaming faces of your friends and family. Behind me, your professors. We all share in this special moment; we all take pride in your accomplishments.

I want to welcome all of you: families, friends, our faculty, trustees, honorees and distinguished guests. I offer a special welcome to our colleagues from Istanbul Technical University who join us today to celebrate the 16 students who graduate as part of F.I.T.’s dual degree program.

Each person who is here today adds to the joy of this moment. You know, it inevitably falls to a college president to provide a piece of parting advice---perhaps even wisdom---as we launch you into what we call “real life.” However, yours is a class that has had more than your share of so-called “real life.” After all, you grew up in the shadow of
9/11…and seemingly endless war. You lived through the great recession…you have seen repeated outbreaks of violence…spasms of blind bigotry…sweeping environmental destruction…political paralysis. That is just the short list and that, I think, is really “real life” enough. Yet in the midst of this daily drumbeat of bad news, some surprising headlines captured my attention, headlines reminding me that there may be reason for hope after all---that if we step back and look at the larger picture, our world really is making progress, important progress. For instance, life expectancy has risen 20 years in the last half century.

Clean energy is getting cheaper. The rate of illiteracy---and extreme poverty---has plummeted dramatically. In the last three decades, the lives of more than 100 million children---100 million---have been saved by vaccinations, breast-feeding promotions and other simple treatments. In this year alone, I found a number of completely unrelated things to cheer me up---some of consequence, some perhaps less so---but they lifted my spirits and I’d like to share just a few with you as we celebrate your graduation.

First, a thrifty secretary from Brooklyn, who died at the age of 96, amassed $8 million in life savings and left it for scholarships for needy children. In Canada, hundreds of doctors demanded that their newly announced pay raises be cancelled until nurses and medical clerks got the resources they need. Then there was the awesome discovery of
a thriving super colony of over one million Adelie penguins in antarctica---seemingly unaffected by climate change. At a Walmart in a small town in Pennsylvania, a secret Santa settled $40,000 worth of layaway holiday gifts for 200 low-income families. For the baby boomers in the audience today, I think you will be happy to learn that Mr. Rogers will soon be immortalized on a postage stamp…and that Bon Jovi was finally inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

And finally, class of 2018, there is you…you and your peers across the country have cheered me immeasurably. You are tail-end millennials, and as millennials, I know you get a bad rap. But in fact, you have a gorgeous generational profile: you are the most educated generation in our history. You are idealistic, liberal in spirit and open to change. You are more ethnically and racially diverse than older generations. Indeed, you have a receptive, respectful attitude toward our vastly diverse society and its multiple lifestyles. I have watched you on campus---and seen your open-minded, egalitarian spirit and your generosity galvanized in things large and small. With your intense, demanding class schedules, your special projects, jobs and internships, you are, without a doubt, the busiest, most driven, most hardworking students in the country. Yet…you have made the time…to do your part to “heal the world”…to make things a little better…to become what Pope Francis has called “artisans of the common good.” You have exposed children in the city’s foster care system to the wonders of the arts, with workshops and field trips; you have volunteered at Habitat for Humanity and Housing Works and Ronald McDonald’s. You have raised funds to support relief efforts in Puerto Rico and reached out to your classmates from Texas and Mexico and Puerto Rico whose homes and families were struck by the wrath of mother nature.

You have made shoes for needy children and created your own Ted-talk events here on campus, tackling issues of sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. Indeed, your unbridled passion to protect our environment---and the visionary innovative projects you have initiated---have helped F.I.T. reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent and become a local institutional leader in the field of sustainability. As if that were not enough, I have witnessed your generation’s sense of purpose and your capabilities in taking responsibility for some of the day’s most difficult, divisive issues…racism…sexual misconduct…gun violence….immigration. Indeed, you and your peers across the country, as well as your younger brothers and sisters, have looked the violence…the bigotry…the destruction of the environment…in the face…and loud and clear, in ways that cannot be misinterpreted or ignored…you have said: “No.” You have raised your voices… organized and inspired huge rallies across the nation. “We are the change,” you said. And I believe you are.

Earlier this year, a young man named Xiuhtezcatl Martinez was the keynote speaker at our annual Sustainability conference. Mr. Martinez is a hip-hop artist as well as the leader of an international youth-led environmental organization called Earth Guardians. In that role, he is often called upon to speak at forums throughout the world. When he appeared before a group of young people at the U.N. not long ago, this is what he had to say: “ the hope of this generation is in our hands. What better time to be born than now? What better time to be alive than now? We are being called upon to use our courage, our creativity, our innovation, our passion to bring forth a new world…because this generation, we can change the course of history.”

Class of 2018: The hope of your generation---and that of your elders---is in your hands. You are, indeed, the change we’ve been waiting for…I believe in you…I am proud of you…and as you start on your groundbreaking journey, I wish you Godspeed.