Advice to Graduating Students: “Never Choose Your Heroes Lightly” |
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Columns - A Voice From America | |||
Written by Ernie Delfin | |||
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 19:41 | |||
It is another June, the beginning of summer, and also the month of many commencement exercises in our high schools and universities. I have attended many of them since my own graduation from I have heard many commencement speeches (I have also delivered several such speeches in the past), and many of these speeches in my view do not leave much to remember after they were delivered. Most likely, many of us do not even remember the name of our commencement speakers and their “words of wisdom” they tried hard to impart to their audience. I often wonder what criteria school administrators use in choosing a speaker. Let me highlight a point: The prestigious P oliticians are also invited to be the commencement speakers. The majority of them, unfortunately, are not worth the time (and honorarium fees?) listening to them as there are no enduring challenges that really move the students’ imagination. Who then can be great individuals who can dispense some relevant and inspiring commencement exercises to any graduating class, be it a high school or college? A few years back, the Orange County Register editorial said: “that commencement speakers should be people of principle who understand how our present world really works, who are honest thinkers, preferably doers, who have insights into the basic debates of life and who can deliver such message reasonably well.” That editorial gave an example of several people, including an inventor, Burt Rutan, who has designed 38 new airplanes in his three decades of hands-on involvement in aviation. Inventor Rutan has been featured by 60 Minutes and that interview captivated millions of people. His SpaceShip One won the Ansari X-Prize by flying beyond the atmosphere and repeated the feat a week later. Two of his designs were on permanent display in the Smithsonian Air and I have been fortunate to have met and listened to a variety of great people who inspired many people like me to aspire higher, to hitch our wagons to the stars. I have met and listened to many-accomplished heroes, like an astronaut who was in the moon, Buzz Aldrin, in our financial-services convention in In my opinion, a great commencement speaker should be an individual who had actually changed the world for the better. One such a person would be someone like former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy who has moved, inspired and challenged people us to dream, and to dream BIG! JFK challenged my generation to go to the moon, to join the Peace Corps, and stop asking what the country can do for us but instead ask what we can do for our country! I challenge all graduates everywhere as they enter the real world to “NEVER CHOOSE YOUR HEROES OR ROLE MODELS LIGHTLY!” Your choice of heroes and role models have indelible marks in your lives. You become what you become largely because of the people and ideals you pattern your lives after. Be that SOMEBODY who made a difference to the world! # # # E-mail the writer at: ernie.delfin@gmail.com or drbannatiran@yahoo.com
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 May 2010 19:44 |
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