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As delivered.
Thank you, President Crabill. Thank you, faculty. And most importantly, thank you, class of 2007. I am honored to be here to celebrate this milestone in your life.
This is a great day for the class of 2007! It is a day to celebrate –not just that you will be getting a degree in a few minutes— BUT that you no longer have to fight your fellow students for a good parking space!
I know that many of you have sacrificed a lot to be here. Most of you wouldn’t have graduated without the support of parents, spouses, children and friends. Graduates, will you stand up, turn around, face your family and your friends, and show them how much you appreciate their support. Let’s give them a round of applause.
I know you are grateful to have made it to this day—some more grateful than others, depending on how long it took. I know how that goes—it took me 10 years to get my law degree!
I do appreciate the opportunity to be here but I also know that all of you are even happier to be here and that I stand in the way of you and your degree.
So on this great day, let me share with you just a few words.
Some of you are taking a first step toward further education at some of New Jersey’s great universities. Some of you are, in fact, fulfilling the dreams of generations by becoming the first in your family to graduate from college. Others are receiving a degree that will lead to a new career.
But whether you’re going on in college, going to work, or taking on a new challenge like the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps; whatever you are doing, you will be taking something special with you from this place—something that will make you stronger and better as a student, as a professional and as a citizen.
So I’d like to touch on three very special things that you’ve experienced here at Raritan Valley and my wish for how you carry each with you into your future.
First, look around you, at your friends and fellow graduates. The first part of what’s special about you now, as a Raritan Valley Community College graduate, is each other. My wish for you on this graduation day is that after today, wherever you choose to make your next stop on your personal journey, that you remember to deliberately and frequently make room there for those who joined you here.
Now, take a look at the administration and faculty leadership. The second thing that Raritan Valley has given you, and that I hope you’ll take with you, is that passionate, caring and demanding drive for you to succeed and achieve excellence-- a drive that starts with the extraordinary level of excellence of your professors. Think of how dedicated, devoted, and caring they have been in supporting you so that you can achieve excellence.
The consistent combination of high expectations and caring support that you’ve come to expect here at RVCC is, in fact, pretty unique. You’ll be hard pressed to find it elsewhere--not even at Rutgers.
I hope that you will take away both an unbreakable internal compass that recognizes and pursues goals of excellence as well as the self-awareness to understand and locate the support you will need to reach those goals. Most of all, I wish with all my heart that you will carry throughout your life a sense of connectedness to your community.
The spirit of service is evident on campus. From the President to the students, service and service-learning are as much a part of this place as the air you breathe.
Just this past year, students and faculty have contributed over 35,000 hours of service to the community – tackling such key issues as homelessness, hunger, substance abuse, housing, the environment, education, and literacy.
You have served in 250 community organizations locally; at the state level you are playing an active role in engaging students through College Serve NJ; and nationally you are a recognized leader in service-learning.
Recently you provided a shelter in the campus gym for victims from the recent flooding. And although many of you are juggling family, work, and studies, you STILL found time to volunteer at the shelter.Your efforts did not go unnoticed by the governor. His appointee on volunteerism and service said: “Raritan Valley Community College was truly a community service site for its county.”
And just last year, based on my recommendation, the White House placed Raritan Valley on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
At Raritan Valley, you have taken the word “community” in community college to heart.
Since the early days of this republic an engaged citizenry like this one has helped make America great. Keep it up! America needs your passion. The truth is America doesn’t have a chance to solve its most pressing problems without it.
Let me share a few numbers: 10.3 million – that’s the number of kids on any given day who have one or both of their parents in prison. And, here’s the rub: 70% of those children will end up in prison themselves without some intervention.
And do you know that there’s one, simple intervention that can cut that likelihood in half? It’s when a citizen makes the effort, to mentor one of these children or youth for an hour a week. Think about that—one hour a week to change the life of child.
How about another number: 760,000. That’s the number of young people who are in gangs – 760,000. Does it surprise you that volunteer activities like mentoring are the most likely interventions to help these kids become successful?
Today, more than 13 million children live in poverty. Martin Luther King once said, “there is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and resources to get rid of poverty… The real question is whether we have the will.” I’m here to tell you that we do have the resources to get rid of poverty—and it’s you. I hope you will always have the will to serve your fellow citizens in need.
In fact, I hope many of you will care so passionately about service that you will explore joining up with deeper service opportunities like VISTA, Peace Corps, and AmeriCorps.
Let me tell you about one of your very own who has made that choice. Erin Mather finished her studies at Raritan Valley last spring. Right now she is serving hurricane victims in the Gulf Coast as an AmeriCorps member. She says she was motivated by memories of when her own home was flooded twice by the Raritan River. And she says she wants to use the skills she has learned in the Gulf to help flood victims in New Jersey. Erin told me to tell you that AmeriCorps is a great way to make a difference while getting skills and a scholarship to help pay for your education or to pay off loans. And tomorrow morning I will get on a plane to go down to the Gulf to be with Erin and thousands of other AmeriCorps members making a difference.
And together, this week--National AmeriCorps Week—we’ll be celebrating a milestone. More than 500,000 people like Erin have become AmeriCorps members and pledged to get things done for America. Together they have served 637 million hours!
As you leave Raritan Valley, I hope you can fully appreciate the great things it has given you. In New Jersey and beyond, community colleges are the centers of hope and gateways to social mobility. At any stage in life you can come to a community college, and you can learn something new and you can put yourself on a course to realize your dreams.
It’s your job to share those dreams now with others. By being active in our communities, we move beyond our narrow interests and become part or something greater than ourselves. You have gotten a great start here at RVCC.
Before you leave tonight, I hope you will take a moment to look around the campus one final time and reflect on what you have learned, what you have accomplished, and who you hope to be in the future. I am confident that you will do great and extraordinary things.
Good luck, God bless, and congratulations to the class of 2007.
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