It is a pleasure to be here today to address the graduate students of Duke University at this convocation. Duke is a place where you can make great things happen “ and I want to share my perspective on what it will take to make the most of your graduate education here. Before the heartfelt advice, I'd like to comment on why it is so important that you do succeed.
In the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you that I went to graduate school because I learned during various summer jobs and internships, I didn't really like to work for anyone else “ My boss, the provost, will attest to that. I wanted autonomy mixed with a bit of authority to help me make a difference. I knew getting a doctorate would be helpful in obtaining this opportunity. You know, some of the major challenges facing the world today are not that much different from those we struggled with when I started graduate school 25 years ago. In the late 70's and early 80's we had the world's first energy crisis, the hostage crisis, we wondered in amazement as women crossed half court, and ascended to the supreme court. There was a concern about products and manufacturing jobs going off-shore.
In the U.S., we offset the declining enrollment in science and engineering by attracting the talent of foreign-born engineers “ America has always benefited from this global influx of the world's best and brightest. And we welcome in particular our graduate students who have traveled far from other countries to attend Duke university.
Since 1980, the U.S. has doubled its reliance on foreign oil. What may have appeared to be a singular act of violence has escalated to a full blown war on terrorism. High tech products and mainstream engineering jobs are being produced in increasing numbers outside the U.S.
Federal funding of basic research and fellowship support for domestic and foreign graduate students has decreased dramatically since 1980 in real dollars, particularly for the physical and social sciences, and engineering. Furthermore, since 2001, there has been a tremendous shift in funding away from basic to very applied research.
OK “ perhaps the problems are similar, but they seem more complex and they feel more acute.
In 2005, 2 out of 3 people on the planet live in the developing world, and by 2050 it is estimated that this number will grow to 8 out of 9.
40% of the world does not have access to clean water,
1/3 have never sent an email and are not connected
1/6 lives on less than $1 per day,
And we are in danger of losing the entire continent of Africa on our watch.
Addressing these and other global grand challenges will require new ideas, new patterns of behavior and approaches that if the most talented graduate students at this university do not discover and uncover, then who will?
Fortunately the way in we educate students in graduate school HAS changed since 1980. The emphasis is no longer solely on the individual investigator “ as it is widely accepted that tough problems require integrating the expertise from a variety of disciplines to produce bold solutions that are adopted by society.
This is the intellectual drive behind Duke's $100 million, 322,000 sq. ft. Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences, where engineers, clinical physicians, basic scientists and artists are working together to develop new information in cross-disciplinary research initiatives such as genomics, photonics, Duke immersive visualization environment, novel drug delivery, nanomedicine, biologically inspired materials and material systems, and integrated sensor systems for monitoring human health and the environment.
It is also the motivation for the French Sciences Center which will open next year, and the Hallmark of many successful Centers and Institutes at Duke, including the newly formed Center for HIV, Aids, Vaccines and Immunology (CHAVI) by Duke physician/scientist, Dr. Barton Haynes.
I've always told my graduate students that problems are opportunities “ and the hardest part of the master's or PhD is finding that opportunity.
I'd like to share with you three stories that illustrate the qualities that in my view are critical to maximizing the opportunities you will have here, and for making a difference with your graduate education.
The first is about an undergraduate who entered an outstanding engineering school in the Fall of 2002. His parents wanted him to follow in the family business, yet his real passion was composing music.
There were several late night calls between the parents and the student, and the parents and the dean, in which the dean tried to convince them it would be better for their son to follow his passion “ than take a spate of required courses that held no interest for him. In the end, the student dropped out of engineering and began composing music full-time.
Within three months he had several commissioned pieces including a Violin Sonata, String Quartet, and Serenade for Violin performed by members of a major symphony orchestra. He is currently a finalist an international composers competition, and this spring, his first symphony will be premiered by the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra in Kiev, where is a composer in residence and the webmaster. He will also graduate from college.
This young man had the courage to follow his passion doing what Frost wrote about in The poem,
"Two Tramps in Mudtime"
"But yield who will to their separation
My object in living is to unite
My avocation with my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where Love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the Future sakes."
When you love what you do, and do what you love, love and need unite to produce genius.
The next story is about a woman who went to college at age 60. Her parents emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland at the first turn of the last century. Her life paralleled that of Francie Nolan's in the book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" “ which is a fairly accurate, if not pleasant depiction of what this woman endured growing up Irish and poor, during the depression in New York City.
At age 9, she lost her Mother. Later her Father died leaving her an orphan, and a single parent to two younger brothers. She dropped out of school, and got a job working as a secretary in Bloomingdale's department store, in fact she WAS Sam Bloomingdale's secretary.
She worked during the day to care for her brothers while and attending night school. In 1936, she graduated from Jersey City High School, and voted mostly likely to succeed, and most theatrical “ small wonder.
When the war broke out, her brothers joined the Army, leaving her free to marry and raise a second family. After bringing up seven children “ all of whom went to college, and most to graduate school she decided to go back to school to further her own formal education.
Like Francie, she loved school and understood at a very young age that in America, "Education made the difference". And to quote from the same book “ "Education would pull them (as immigrants) out of the dirt and grime".
She understood college was a privilege, and after waiting 42 years it was finally her turn to explore what Eleanor Roosevelt called "the beauty of her dreams". It was the start of a new career, after all she had already been the family doctor, lawyer, nurse and later on head of the corporation.
She was committed to maximizing her educational opportunity by being prepared, challenging established dogma, her professors and fellow students, even at the risk of failing. She persisted in the pursuit of a college education something she hadn't ever taken for granted.
The last person I'd like to tell you about was diagnosed with a fairly serious kind of cancer in her first semester in graduate school. If it was an early stage cancer, there was a very high probability that she would survive. If her diagnosis was in the later stages, the prognosis gave her less than two years to live.
It may sound a bit maudlin, but during the diagnostic staging, she and her friends used to wonder out loud over beer and pizza, "if you only had two years to live, what would you do? The consensus was - buy a 'round the world plane ticket and travel the world, hopefully dying happy and content in margaritaville.
Finishing graduate school wasn't on their top ten “ "If you only had two years to live what would you do" list.
This student however had other aspirations. She was committed to finishing her experiment, her dissertation, and making a contribution to the scientific body of knowledge in her field. She too loved what she was doing, and was doing what she
loved. It was her "margaritaville".
These stories originated from one family, crossing three generations and nearly 100 years in time. The challenges they faced were different, but the qualities that made them succeed are the same: Passion, persistence and commitment.
The older woman was my Mother, the young man her grandson, my nephew, and the graduate student was me.
We shared an unwavering belief in the power of one, and that anyone can make a difference.
You have a finite amount of time here, don't waste it by lacking the courage to study what you love. Do take on tough problems, and question things stated as fact or conventional wisdom.
Like Doc's advice to Peekay in the "Power of One",
"Always in life, an idea starts small, it is only a sapling idea, and the vines may come and choke it so it cannot grow and it will die before ever knowing it was a big idea “ the vines are people that are afraid of originality, or new thinking. Most people you encounter will be vines “ always listen to yourself, it is better to be wrong, then to follow convention".
Don't settle for the little ideas, that when strung together could "pass" for a dissertation or body or work. This is the time to be bold, passionate, and contrary. If not now, then when?
Don't settle. Stay focused. Commit to what you love (you will know it when you FEEL it)