2021 School of Business Commencement | PSU
guests and graduates i'm cliff allen dean of the business school and i would like to thank you for attending the 2021 commencement ceremony congratulations you have achieved one of the highest personal and professional goals earning a college degree in this challenging time recognizing your accomplishments has never been more important because you represent our future i strongly believe that this generation has been provided an opportunity one that presents itself through a pair of unparalleled disruptions to our socioeconomic system even with this challenge i have never been more optimistic in any graduating class than i am and what you represent you are the covet class of 2021 what that means is not a return to past normalities but an opportunity to change systemic poverty and health systems that are harmful to almost every corner of society what covett has taught us is what we traditionally invested our resources into is out of touch with what we need to do as we come out of the pandemic you have an opportunity to completely change how we as citizens distribute our resources as you address this do it with an empathy and care because not having a robust healthcare and food system is a pre-existing condition none of us can overcome especially those nearest the poverty line you are the class that can help create an anti-racist culture in the current system lives have been and will continue to be at stake it is vital for the future of our country to have black and brown leaders nurtured empowered and present in all levels of decision-making processes we must all work to remove an isis culture going forward we must invest in black and brown communities and shift the power of the american state and the weight of an american legacy towards a more open conversation that has true listening at its core only by listening to black and brown let organizations and assisting change come from these discussions can we move forward you graduates must be part of the systemic change to make it take hold these are big requests of you but as i've said i've never been more optimistic that a graduating class has what it takes to help change the city the state and the country in a world where all people's dreams are realized thank you and congratulations portland state university awards honorary degrees to acknowledge individuals who have achieved outstanding scholarship or artistic accomplishments or perform distinguished public service during their lifetime it's my great pleasure today to present an honorary doctoral degree of humane letters to social entrepreneur and community leader cali thorne ladd ms thornladd received her bachelor's degree in elementary education and psychology from boston college and earned a master's degree in education policy from harvard university ms thornland has made exceptional contributions to portland in the state of oregon as an advocate for equity and educational transformation a former teacher and education director for former mayor sam adams miss thornladd is the co-founder of cairo's pdx a non-profit dedicated to closing opportunity achievement gaps for historically marginalized children she served seven years on the portland community college board of directors and is its immediate past chair a community leader ms thornland was appointed by governor kate brown to the early learning council of oregon she serves on the metro leadership council of the oregon community foundation on the james f and marion l miller foundation board congratulations class of 2021 i hope you can feel your strength and resiliency and power as you emerge out of a year that none of us could ever have conceived a year ripe with pandemic and racial reconciliation protests that are historic where portland was on the news throughout the nation and a realization that the world that we knew was not the world that we should be and could be a recognition that transformation is necessary for us to be our best selves all of you hold within the palm of your hand the opportunity to bring us into this new reality you are history makers change makers and leaders for our future that is yet to be decided and as i said yet to be imagined and you have an opportunity unlike any generation or any class before you to do things radically different and i believe that you can and you will my name is kali thornladd i'm co-founder of cairo's pediatrician honored to be able to speak to you today kairos is an organization that is focused on disrupting the educational space to center the humanity of children and how we do teaching and learning centering humanity matters no matter what sector you find yourself in no matter what space you lead in centering humanity is this idea of ubuntu i am who i am because of who we all are it is the belief that we are all connected with one another and that my power and strength enhances yours but my tragedy and pain also can be felt by you that you will feel whether you know it or not the pain and the hardship and the inequity that i face and so as we build our our futures as we think about our businesses our non-profit businesses um if you are a founder an entrepreneur that wants to create your own space this has to be an important feature and this matters the humanity of others matters not just because it's what makes us feel good but it's what enables us to think best do best perform best be impactful and efficient to lead best neuroscience actually tells us that our brains are wired in such a way that we are always looking to be safe that our brains are wired to protect us and so in any environment that we enter ourselves in any place that we find ourselves we are automatically scanning around to see am i safe am i okay when we do not feel safe it sends a signal to our brain that triggers the amygdala to do the fight fight or flir fear response sorry fight flight or freeze response and when we fight flight or freeze when our amygdala sets off it lets off hormones like cortisol that actually shuts down our brain it shuts down the neural connections between our prefrontal cortex and our hippocampus hippocampus is where our memory is stored the prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain that we use most it is what we use for impulse control decision making discernment higher order critical thinking skills so you see when our humanity is not seen the parts of our brain that need to be optimal for us to lead best don't actually work they don't actually function but when we feel seen and valued our brains are able to work optimally the opposite takes place it triggers hormones like dopamine and oxytocin that helps us feel connected with one another that helps our prefrontal cortex operate well so that we can make better decisions that we have better discernment that we think critically that we can remember things better that we learn better and ultimately we lead better so as you go off into the world today reimagining transforming systems and and institutions that for a long time have needed to change i hope if you do nothing else that you center the humanity of those around you that you recognize that we are wired for this this is not a nice to have it's a need to have and if we are going to be better in the future than we have been in the past we need to lead differently we need to center the humanity of one another see one another value one another understand the ways that you make others feel invisible undervalued and recognize that when you change those things within your company or organization you change the performance you change the impact you change the effectiveness and efficiency of every single employee on your team or in your workplace and when you do that you really can begin to build the change and transformation that all of us are desperate for you really can lead us into a future future where we value each other where we listen to one another and where we have institutions that can create the kind of change where all of our communities thrive i believe it's possible i believe you have it in you i believe this year built within you the resiliency and roadmap to do just that so go forth best of luck and it's a pleasure to talk with you today hi graduate students congratulations on finishing your graduate degrees you now join an exclusive group only eight percent of the us population has a graduate business degree i want to point out that this accomplishment was not only your own but likely your family friends and partners their sacrifice should be recognized to those of you thank you for your support some of you are just starting out others obtain their degree to take the next step either way it can be a little overwhelming trying to estimate what lies ahead what you have to realize though is that everyone is scared what's going to set you apart is how you can deal with that fear how you can power through it and if you have the relentless determination fortitude and sheer tenacity to transform all of that nervous energy and anxiety into courage course to try courage to take risks and courage to face failure but no matter the career you choose you will absolutely likely face a moment where you have no idea what to do in that moment be generous with yourself trust your inner voice more than ever we need people to be guided by their own senses of principle and not with the whims of a culture that prices ambition sensationalism and celebrity and even vulgarity and doing whatever it takes to win because if enough if you listen to that voice if enough of you prove that this generation isn't going to make the same mistakes as the one before it then doing the right thing won't always seem as rare or as hard or as special as wichita churchill once stated we make a living by what we get we make a life by what we give again congratulations we all envisioned our journey through our psu school of business graduate programs would look a certain way regardless of how vastly that image differed i don't think any of us imagined our roads through 2020 and 2021 looking like this for those reasons and more i say the class of 2021 is the living breathing visible representation of innovation through adversity we have made it to this day to celebrate an immeasurable accomplishment through wildfires covid19 civil rights and anti-hate movements riots and protests at no other time have people survived and thrived in conditions reminiscent of the great depression the spanish flu and the civil rights movement at the same time yet here we are the first collective to do so in the face of all this adversity we've remained steadfast in our commitment to innovation in our respective disciplines and communities with only mildly parallel historical data to rely on we exercised our strongest muscles our minds and voices in an effort to write the wrongs we see in our personal communities and the external business environment we have analyzed forecasted risk and stress tested every angle and possible solution posed in this unprecedented time our ability to receive digest and apply the knowledge and parted on us by the remarkable sva faculty and their networks will serve us largely in our paths forward tupac shakur a well-known actor author poet activist and rapper published a book titled the rose that grew from concrete i feel this is perfectly fitting of this graduating class before we go our separate ways to share our innovative ideas with the world i'd like to speak for us all when i say hold on world a new generation of leaders creators and innovators are on their way i'd be remiss to close without a huge thank you from the class of 2021 to the sba faculty staff and support team their ability to make a palatable lemonade with pretty sour lemons made this day possible for us all with that to the graduating class of 2021 congratulations we did it hello graduates congratulations while these are unprecedented times and we all wish we could be together in person i am so happy to be here with you in any way that i can be i'm eric wagner the associate dean of the undergraduate program in the school of business and there's lots i could say today what i've decided to share is that you are now part of a small minority of folks who have a bachelor's degree one-third of adults in the united states hold a bachelor's degree one-third and you are among them this is not something that everyone does but you have done it with the help of your family and friends your instructors advisors student support you have done it and you've done it during a pandemic a recent study is said that on the west coast of the united states only 25 of adults have earned a bachelor's degree so one-quarter of adults on this side of the country please remember that you can do [Music] difficult things you know that and now you're going to have a piece of paper to show that and that can never be taken away from you so regardless of how much of the course content you recall years down the road be certain that you will remember that you finished and earned a college degree during a very difficult time there are many books out there many videos that will give you inspirational quotes uh i'm not going to do that what i will leave you with is the reminder that you have it within yourself and you did it well done and we're here if you need us on you go congratulations growing up my dad tried to teach me a lot of things most of which i don't remember or chose to ignore but the one thing that did stick with me was him always telling me that no one can take my knowledge and education away from me i choose to share this with all of you because it holds true for all of us here today the fact is that we can have many things taken away from us but the one thing that we can always count on is our knowledge and education and i think that that's a beautiful thing i thought a lot about what i wanted to say today and then it came to me let knowledge serve the city i'm here to share with you two important lessons that i've learned during my time at psu the first important lesson is that life is not going to look the same for everyone we're all in different stages in our lives and that's the beauty of us coming together and there's a reason that we all have different passions and perspectives and aspirations and experiences so try not to compare yourself to someone else's progress around you because we're all exactly where we're meant to be the second lesson which i think is so important is that in order to be fully content secure and confident within ourselves we must learn to be genuinely happy for others and their successes i wish i'd picked up on this earlier but i'm so grateful to have realized this before the next chapter in my life despite the challenges we face we are all doing this thing called life together so share the spotlight and be happy for each other today we deserve to celebrate all of the hard work we've put in over the last few years and trust me i know how difficult it is to not think about how we would have liked for this day to go but it is so important that we don't let those thoughts overshadow our accomplishments we must remember our roots and how fortunate we are to be here in the first place as a first generation indian american i am so grateful to my immigrant father who has made many sacrifices along the way just to provide me with a good education and i hope that each student graduating today is just as proud of their background and their heritage we've all grown up listening to that one person advise us on certain things and while we've probably had to learn those things the hard way i think both you and i can agree that they were probably right but let's keep that between us i don't know about you but i don't want to give my dad the satisfaction of knowing that he was right just kidding dad thank you for being my biggest role model as maya angelou once said life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away so take a second to soak every moment in and now as my final words to you before we become official college graduates i want to leave you with this lead with example lead with character be compassionate live in gratitude and foster growth in yourself and in the people around you congratulations class of 2021 we made it class of 2021 we are entering an unfamiliar world we have never seen such a global event like this pandemic before however we have proven that we can accomplish what we set our minds to regardless of circumstances seventy-five percent of the way through our programs the playing field changed last year we were thrown into a new format of learning and expected to adapt overnight but look at us now we did it from all different backgrounds we were able to persevere through the chaos anxiety and uncertainty to this meaningful day a day many of us have been looking forward to for a long time i've been looking forward to this day since i was an 8th grader my mom's opportunity to go to university was taken away from her when she was 18 by a deadly and violent revolution in iran after she came to the u.s and had my brother and me my mom decided to go back to school to get the degree she was unable to obtain when she was 18. in 2011 she graduated from psu where her batch was in accounting an achievement i was able to watch as a soon-to-be high schooler my mom and her sister were the first two people to graduate from university and her family my dad was a rock to her as her husband and as somebody who had navigated university before looking at my mom i've dreamt of the day that i would graduate from university and now i stand here wearing the same cap she wore graduating with a bachelor's degree in management and leadership many of us have these inspirational figures in our lives who have helped us i encourage us to reflect on their impact on our lives and keep them close to our hearts as we move on to this next stage in our lives our inspirations help us stay true to who we are while pushing us to be bold and to grow the best piece of advice i received from my inspirational figures my parents is to be unapologetically yourself while being humbled by the experiences you've gone through class of 2021 let's show the world what we're all about [Music] hello psu graduates the psu accounting faculty wanted to take a moment to congratulate you on your momentous and significant achievement we often boast to employers colleagues family friends and pretty much anyone who will listen about our remarkable psu graduates here are just a few things we say our psu graduates are intelligent and analytical our psu graduates have strong technology skills and are dedicated lifelong learners our psu graduates are ethical and act with integrity throughout their careers our psu graduates are creative and true problem solvers our psu graduates are dedicated professionals who understand the importance of teamwork our psu graduates are critical thinkers who work hard to improve the world around them our psu graduates are resilient and determined psu graduates are leaders and innovators we could not be happier for you and your remarkable families friends who have supported you throughout your time at psu we will always be cheering you on through all your future endeavors thank you for letting us be a part of your journey we are truly grateful congratulations congratulations congratulations 2021 school business grads it has been a pleasure being a part of your learning journey and although time's been challenging you face that challenge with resilience and grit i'm looking forward to seeing the amazing and meaningful impact you will have in our community and beyond go vikes congratulations to the class of 2021. you have overcome so much this past year you're tenacious and you're resilient and i wish you luck on everything that's to come congratulations congratulations to the class of 2021. congratulations class of 2021 this is professor butler and i would like to wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors i would like to really congratulate you for completing your degree in this interesting new digital environment i think we've all become a lot more savvy so i want you to take care and i hope you enjoy the next chapter of your life graduation is quite the milestone best of luck with your future plans and remember never stop learning i wish you all the best in the next stage of your life you've earned it and i want to give a special shout out to the masters of real estate development students who are on the call first i'm going to take my hat off so you can recognize me and i want to congratulate you and your family on your graduation and i look forward to hearing good things from you in the future you won you did it enjoy these wonderful moments best wishes to everyone in every and each endeavor of your future you overcome all the tests all the assignments in the middle of the pandemic i'm so proud of you congratulations i wish your success keep following today and always congratulations i've seen you learn and grow and develop and i can't tell you how very proud i am of you for finishing this i want you to celebrate with your family with your friends and i want you to reflect as you take this next step in your life on how great an accomplishment you've just made pay this forward and make sure to take care of each other congratulations everybody congratulations
2021-06-18 14:47
