2015 Commencement Remarks
Meg Atwood
Congratulations to everyone in the audience and on the stage. This is a monumental day when we all get to celebrate the graduation of more than 800 students, over 400 of whom are participating today. Congratulations to the Class of 2015.
It is such an honor for me to be here with you. You have spent time with outstanding, dedicated, intelligent, and innovative faculty. I know that they have motivated and inspired you. So what can I add to the lessons you have gained through time spent with them?
David Letterman has shared his top 10 list with us for many years. I’ll start with my Top 10 Lessons for the College Graduate. Here goes:
10.CELEBRATE YOUR MILESTONES! Tonight we are celebrating a huge milestone, but remember to celebrate the small milestones too. All of the things that got you here tonight are the small achievements which allowed this major achievement to happen. Each of them is so important and there are many more to come.
9.FIND YOUR BALANCE! Remember when you had balance in your life? It’s time to find it again! We all know how hard you have studied and sacrificed to achieve your goal. Many of you, including my dental hygiene graduates, feel you have been in a sort of boot camp for two years. What are the things that you love to do and which make you complete? It’s time to pack up your books and connect with hobbies, activities and people again.
8. KEEP YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR! Sometimes we tend to take ourselves too seriously. We’ve found that humor helps us to learn and to communicate effectively. Enjoy your work and laugh with your colleagues, patients, and clients. Make sure to laugh as much as possible, especially at yourselves!
7. TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH! Believe it or not, you will get older! Just take a look up here as an example! Many of us have no idea how we got this old this fast! It will happen to you too! Take care of your physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health. As a Dental Hygienist, I am telling you to take care of your oral health too!
C. Everett Koop, a previous Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service said “You are not healthy without healthy teeth.” If you are not sure how, we have a great Dental Hygiene Clinic right over there in the Bio Tech Building and we would love to help you out! SMILE!
6. SEE THE GOOD AND BE THE GOOD! These are challenging times when our culture and media are focusing on the negative and on violence. Do your part to break that cycle. Pay it forward. There is a beautiful Chinese Proverb which goes like this:
Life is an echo, what you send out comes back.
What you sow, you reap.
What you give, you get.
What you see in others, exists in you.
Remember life is an echo.
It always gets back to you.
So give goodness.
5. KEEP LEARNING! You may choose to continue your formal education or you may be entering the work force immediately with a terminal degree. It doesn’t matter which you do as long as you commit to lifelong learning. Learn something new every day. Meet new people, have new conversations, share your stories. Continue to read. Learn from others. Be a scientist, no matter what profession you are in. Use the accurate science, not the junk science. You’ve learned how and where to access factual and reliable information; make sure to use it. Use your education as the foundation for your work and to guide your decision making, whatever profession you are in. This is true for responsible journalism, education, health care, business, politics, you name it.
4. BE A CHAMPION! Live your passion. What is most important to you? Sustainability, solar energy, access to quality health care, better education, gender equality, social justice? Be an advocate for what you believe in.
3. MAKE A BUCKET LIST AND START CHECKING THINGS OFF! Don’t think you are too young or too old. Diana Nyad, a champion long distance swimmer, decided to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida when she was 60. She successfully achieved her goal on her fifth attempt when she was 64; it took her 53 hours. I don’t know about you, but this would not be on my list. I did however, do my first zip line when I was 50! What is on your list?
2. THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME! SUNY Orange has become your home away from home. One of my graduates realized that in the past 2 years, she has spent more time at the college and with classmates and faculty than she has with her own family. We have become her new second family and this has become her second home. I imagine many of you feel the same. I have had a similar realization. I graduated from
SUNY Orange in 1982 after completing our Dental Hygiene Program and returned to teach several years after and have been at it for 30 years. In my case, I have spent over half of my life here. I certainly call it home and think of many of you as my family. As we prepare and graduate more students, my college family continues to grow. Maybe the Circle of Education will bring you back to SUNY Orange as it has for me and many others, including faculty, staff and administration. Regardless, we hope that you will always think of SUNY Orange as home.
- STAY CONNECTED! Stay connected to your past. Make sure to take time to reflect on your hard work and accomplishments from the past several years. Each year, I tell my graduates that I wish I could find a way to capture the growth which I see in them in two short years, from the time they enter our program to their graduation. What a gift it would be to see your own transformation. Many of you never believed that you would be sitting here tonight as a part of this community of graduates. Be proud of yourselves for your achievements, but also recognize your growth through the failures, detours, and obstacles which you have encountered along the way. Those combined experiences have made you who you are today, a SUNY Orange Graduate.
Stay connected to your friends and family. Look around you. Every person here has contributed in some way to the success of a SUNY Orange Graduate. Not a single one of you accomplished this alone. You are blessed to have had the love and guidance of family and friends who have stood by you, supported you, pushed you, encouraged you, and wiped your tears. In addition, the family members of our Dental Hygiene graduates also spend countless hours as patients in our campus-based Dental Hygiene Clinic.
It is said that two are better than one, because if one falls down, the other is there to help them up. Think of all the times that you have helped one another get back on your feet. Think how you have helped each other to learn and grow. Think also of when you worked together and how teamwork enriched your work and your lives.
Stay connected to your profession. You have worked hard to earn your degrees. For many of you, such as those graduating from the Health Professions, your degree leads to licensure and professional practice. May you all choose to become members of your professional organizations. We hope that you will participate, advocate, and collaborate to keep your educational standards and professions strong and to better serve the public.
Stay connected to your communities. You have gained knowledge, skills and values to enable you to work in your community. Use your gifts to make your community a better place: kinder, safer, stronger, greener, more diverse and equitable, better educated, culturally rich, and healthier. What will your contribution be?
Stay connected to SUNY Orange. You are now part of the legacy of SUNY Orange. We are a strong and vibrant educational community characterized by excellence and integrity.
Each year, with each graduating Dental Hygiene Class, my dear friend and colleague, MaryAnn McGinnis-Adamo, shares her father’s message. (He was a 1955 graduate of SUNY Orange.) “Always remember who you are and who you represent.” Share your success stories about SUNY Orange. Be your own success story. Do your part to represent us well.
Please stay in touch! Join our Alumnae Association, come back to visit on Family Day or attend our Cultural Affairs and Athletic Events, and join our Facebook page. We hope to see you soon!
Congratulations!!