KEYNOTE ADDRESS

In Her Own Words: Madeleine Albright Keynote Address to the Class of 2012

"Live each day with the knowledge that your actions and choices truly do count"

To the parents who are here, I suspect that your emotions are a little bit mixed. You feel both incredibly proud that this moment has finally arrived and yet also astonished at how brief the interval can seem between diapers and diplomas. To the alumni, today’s ceremony will in fact bring back memories of your own college years, which in my case took place about halfway between the invention of the iPod and the discovery of fire.

Now the theory behind a Commencement address is that an older person will share the wisdom of his or her generation with the young based on the older generation’s superior insight into life. I’m not sure that there’s a young person alive who actually subscribes to this theory. In fact if I were sitting where you are today, I might well have some very serious questions.

For example, if older people are so smart, why haven’t we done more to create good jobs so that this year’s graduating class could look forward with less anxiety and more opportunity? Why have we stood by and allowed such an unconscionable gap to grow between rich and poor in our own country and overseas? Why in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence have we done so little to safeguard the environmental health of our planet? Why do our politicians so often remind us of kindergartners who refuse to share the swings? And why are older people in general so clueless about wireless communications?

It would be natural then, if in addition to the excitement of this graduation day, you’re feeling a little sorry for yourselves because the world you’re about to inherit is a troubled one. But to those who see this imperfect request as unfair, in the words of Bradley [Bermont, RWU Student Commencement Speaker], get over it! Every generation has its burdens
It used to be that when coming of age most people had a fair idea of where they would live and what careers they would pursue, many following their parents’ footsteps or finding a niche in a stable profession. However, today stability is an alien concept. In the past decade alone, many of the brand names that flourished when you were younger – from Toys ‘R Us to Blockbuster and MySpace – have fallen under hard times. Meanwhile, such fields as law, business, engineering, healthcare, journalism and education are being transformed.
So as you look ahead, you realize that the demands of the workplace will continue to change and that maintaining a certain level of knowledge is no longer enough. Whether your primary goal is personal success, community service or a combination of the two, you will have to keep learning because there’s always more to know. For this you should be grateful because the quest to learn more is a vital part of what it means to be alive.
It is what prompts us to look at an ocean and want to find ways to preserve the miracle of life within it. To create an innovative work of art that will excite experts and non-experts alike; to design a building in a style not previously attempted; or to develop fresh strategies for taking on the international axis of evil – poverty, ignorance and disease. The desire to do everything you can with the time you have will, if you let it, enable you to reach new frontiers no matter how far from home you actually travel. But as you explore the world in this era of constant change, I advise you also to bear in mind what does not change.

I actually cut her speech up a bit, to see her speech in it's entirety click on this link...

http://pdq.rwu.edu/news/Albright-Keynote-Address