Nationally syndicated columnist Charita Goshay offers the spring class words of wisdom.
The Stark Campus alumni family welcomed its newest members Sunday, May 12, during the annual spring commencement ceremony at Umstattd Performing Arts Hall.
More than 100 graduates participated in the event, celebrating their pinnacle academic achievement.
鈥淣ow is the time to excel personally and build upon the academic success you have achieved at Your Hometown University,鈥 said Denise A. Seachrist, Ph.D., dean and chief administrative officer. 鈥淵ou will always have a home at 麻豆视频 Stark.鈥
In total, 麻豆视频 at Stark conferred 408 degrees, consisting of master鈥檚, bachelor鈥檚 and associate degrees.
Repository staff writer and GateHouse Media nationally syndicated columnist Charita M. Goshay served as the commencement speaker. Goshay, a 麻豆视频 alumna and award-winning journalist, also is a founding board member of Habitat for Humanity (East Central Ohio) and a graduate of Leadership Stark County.
Below is Goshay鈥檚 speech in its entirety:
So, what can I tell you today, that you don鈥檛 already know?
Think outside the box? Just say no?
Somewhere along the way, you got it; you figured it out. You assessed your options and came to the conclusion that education is the game-changer. You understand that education is, as Malcolm X once put it, 鈥淎 passport to the future.鈥
I know that some of you put on your funny hat on this morning, looked in the mirror and marveled at the sight.
Don鈥檛 let anyone kid you. What you鈥檝e managed to accomplish is a very, very big deal.
So, I鈥檓 not here today to offer you some magical plan on what you should do now.
I鈥檝e come to praise you.
Because, if there鈥檚 one thing I鈥檝e learned from 29 years in journalism, it鈥檚 that everyone has a story.
We鈥檝e never met, but I know that there are some former foster kids sitting among you.
I know some of you were fed a steady diet of doubt and cynicism as children and were told 鈥 more than once 鈥 that you鈥檇 never be anything.
I know that a few of you are here as part of a plan to rebuild your lives, to change a trajectory that was headed toward nowhere.
Others of you are here to finish what you started, and to set an example for your children.
I know some of you are here against insurmountable odds, overcoming situations that would have crushed the rest of us mere mortals. There are capes underneath those robes, I just know it.
I can鈥檛 advise you on how to live out the rest of your life鈥 The dirty little secret of adulthood is that none of us really knows what we鈥檙e doing.
But I will encourage you.
I want to encourage you to stay curious.
I know that maybe right now, the last thing you want to do is pick up a book, but reading is the closest thing we adults have to magic.
I encourage you to travel when you can. Cross paths with different people, races, languages and cultures. You will find that we are not as different as you think, and that kindness abounds.
I encourage you to do something every once in a while that scares you to death 鈥 like giving a commencement speech.
I encourage you to freak out your family by doing something unexpected, maybe even insane. Run for president.
I encourage you to consider public service. Despite all you may read and hear, public service remains a noble calling.
Always keep in mind that a 鈥済overnment by the people鈥 can only be as good as the people running it.
We need young men and women who still believe in this grand experiment; who still hold enough faith in this country to serve it.
In the book of Proverbs, it is written that a person鈥檚 talents makes room for them. I encourage you to take your talents, take what you鈥檝e learned at 麻豆视频 and apply it in making our world a more fair and just place.
Though it may set you at odds with those you know and love, I encourage you to continue to embrace your authentic self. If you do so, I promise you, you will find your tribe.
I encourage you to find ways 鈥 no matter how small 鈥 to get and stay engaged in your community, in order to make it better. There鈥檚 enough ambivalence in the world.
Look, I know some of you have a U-Haul trailer hitched on the back of your car, which is idling in the parking lot, and it鈥檚 aimed at Florida, or New York City or Chicago.
I get it. But I would encourage you to consider remaining here in Stark County. We need you.
Stark is growing smaller, older and poorer, and we need your youth, your vision, your talent and your potential.
We need your energy, your ideas for new businesses, technologies and services not yet in existence.
Before Steve Jobs was Steve Jobs, he was just another college dropout, building a company in a garage.
Why not you? Why not here?
We鈥檙e no pikers. Ohio has produced eight American presidents. It also has produced such people as Thomas Edison, John Glenn, Victoria Woodhull, Steven Spielberg, Jesse Owens, and now, you.
I want to praise you for not listening when you were told 鈥淲ell, you know college isn鈥檛 for everyone.鈥 While that may be true, it clearly wasn鈥檛 true in your case鈥
I praise you for your persistence.
It is said that at the end of the day, it isn鈥檛 intellect, or talent, or even sheer dumb luck that separates the successful from the others; it鈥檚 persistence.
Now, I know we鈥檙e living in an era when we鈥檙e supposed to tell our children that they鈥檙e special. Allow me to burst your bubble. You are not. But what you are is someone who鈥檚 come to understand that we all are responsible for making the most of whatever opportunities we have been given.
There are so many truly extraordinary and gifted people in the world who will never have the chance to wear a cap and gown, but it doesn鈥檛 make them any less valuable.
Imagine how much better off we all would be were they, too, were given the opportunity to contribute.
Currently, the United Nations reports that 263 million children and young adults are not enrolled in school of any kind. According to Global Citizen, a child whose mother can read, is 50 percent more likely to live beyond age 5. If every mother on the planet had a basic education, there would be 1.7 million fewer children suffering from malnutrition.
Education is that impactful.
I praise you for answering that call from deep in your heart to go farther, to do better; for your willingness to embark upon the harder, less-traveled path that will pay off for you in ways you cannot yet fathom.
I praise you for watering your own souls.