Commencement Speech
Michelle Bachelet's (former president of Chile) speech can be viewed at: http://www.american.edu/media/2010_Commencement.cfm
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ext of Speech
AU SIS Commencement Speech Draft #10, Graciela Lopez
Bienvenidos y felicidades, congratulations to all graduates here today. On behalf of my fellow students, I welcome our families, friends and professors. Thank you for your guidance and helping us to get through these last few years. President Kerwin, Dean Goodman, and distinguished guests, thank you for honoring the School of International Service graduating class of 2010. I also extend special thanks to all of our mothers on this Mother’s Day weekend. In particular thanks to my mother who as a law professor, poet, and jazzercise instructor, inspired me to be authentic. One thing I learned from her is that the more gratitude you have in your heart, the more you will have for which to be grateful. I am especially grateful for the opportunity to serve as one of the messengers for this commencement ceremony, where I can be an inspiration for mi hermanita, Evalina.
As graduates of SIS, many of us have chosen to serve the international community. For the next few minutes, I would like to speak with you about the importance of diversity to the mission of service for which each of us has prepared. Here at SIS, we have learned that diversity is a good thing, but let me push this concept a step further and suggest that diversity is essential for service. When I say diversity, I mean our individual and unique experiences of gender, race, sexual orientation, ability, language, immigration status, and socio-economic background. If we are going to address our most pressing issues, we must come together to communicate our diverse perspectives. Individually, our perspectives are limited; together we illuminate our collective path to a better world.
This reminds me of the story of the blind men and the elephant. A group of blind men were asked to describe an elephant. Each touched a different part of the animal, "Hey, the elephant is like the trunk of a tree," said the man who touched his leg. "Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the man who held the tail. "No, it is like a huge wall," said the man who felt the belly. They began to argue about the elephant and each insisted he was right. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched a different part of the elephant. Actually the elephant has all those features.” This story demonstrates the challenges that arise when we only use our limited perspectives to address complex problems, such as global poverty, environmental degradation, peace, and the defense of the rights of all minorities. Just as the blind men failed to realize that the parts of the elephant are connected and make one body, we too must open our minds and hearts to each other to realize the issues we face are connected.
In my personal journey at SIS, it took me a few years to realize that I was not always listening to others. During my freshman year, I was the only Chicana in most of my classes, and I felt like my perspective was not being heard because I had such a different cultural background from everyone else. During a class discussion, I shared how when I was younger I wanted blond hair and blue eyes, since I never saw representations of beautiful Latina women in themedia. When the conversation shifted away from bias in the media, I felt frustrated. In retrospect, it was I who was not listening to what others had to share; I was only listening as it related to my own story. I remember when I first learned to let go of my internal monologue so that I could engage with my classmates. My moment of realization happened in one of my courses in which we were discussing gender, a topic of particular interest to me, since it is my minor. When it was my turn to speak I realized that what I had planned to say was nolonger relevant to the discussion. After listening to the students who spoke before me share deep personal experiences, I let go of my original comment, and opened up as my classmates had, enabling me to be more present in the class discussions that followed. Rather than judging other’s comments as to how it related to my experience, I was now part of the dialogue.
As graduates of SIS, we have learned that our struggles are interconnected, but so are the solutions. It’s the first rule of ecology, “Everything is connected to everything else.” We cannot reach a solution without each other. When we go out into the international community with the best of intentions to “help others” let us remember Lilla Watson, an Aboriginal Australian who said, “If you have come to help us, you are wasting your time, but if you have come because you have realized that your liberation is bound with mine, than let us work together.” We must work together and listen to each other to address our global problems. We must listen to perspectives that differ from our own and respect all points of view. There is a story behind every view. Together we can build respectful and diverse communities that transcend the barriers that hold us back. Service begins with each of us, but success depends on all of us juntos. Congratulations class of 2010! Todo es possible!
