Sherra E. Kerns
V. P., Innovation and Research
F. W. Olin Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Convocation / Commencement Address

Arizona State University , East Campus
delivered at
Wells Fargo Arena, Tempe AZ
December 16, 2004

Congratulations! It is wonderful to share this very important day with you. Today, you've earned a distinctive credential. Your degree is a passport to a wide variety of futures, and not only those you've studied and prepared for. In fact, the unexpected is the thing the most likely to happen in life. Doors will spring open; well planned paths will have surprising turns. You may yet discover that your passions and your life's work are in areas that are outside the boundaries of your current plans. Yet, whatever happens, your achievement, which we honor today, opens the passageways to what you will become.

This year, as President of the American Society of Engineering Education and also in roles on behalf of Olin College and ABET, I have been privileged to meet with many inspiring people – people from Europe, South and Central America, the Russian Federation, and the People's Republic of China, and also, of course, I've met many people from our own country and our neighbors in Canada and Mexico. It has been a year of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to speak with top ministers of education, leaders in business, aspiring professors (young and old), and students from all over our globe.

I believe there are some coherent messages I can bring you today from this wide world of ours I've been traveling. Everyone recognizes that the world is, well, “shrinking” is frequently used; I think that “increasingly interdependent” is a more accurate description. We can now transmit information almost instantaneously to almost anywhere on the globe at very low cost. And jobs are shifting across borders and oceans. Things are changing more and more rapidly. It is hard to keep track and even harder to evaluate the quality of information that's coming in from all sides.

But you've got help. Lots of folks have contributed to your preparation for entering this realm of exploding information and shrinking distances: your parents, your professors and your friends have given you time, energy and thoughtful attention – yet we all realize that our best efforts will fall short of teaching all the lessons you'll need to navigate the challenges and opportunities that will come your way. You will need, increasingly, to wisely identify those from whom you accept advice and counsel, and you will need to be your own teacher.

Here are a few pieces of advice I'd like to pass along:

• Learn 100 words in 5 languages – it is amazing what a difference it makes when you honor people by speaking just a bit of their language. One hundred words is a small number –you can do that by learning to say Hello, Thank You, Goodbye, name the days-of-the-week and numbers, learning how to get a hotel room and pay a dinner bill. It's really not much. And, if you only learn two, “Thank You” is the most important phrase.

• Value technological education and its intersections with business and cultural studies. If you don't pay attention to these three together , you are likely to fail to do the best job you can of transforming your ideas into meaningful contributions. And those contributions are needed. As Albert Einstein said, “The world we have created has problems that cannot be solved thinking the way we used to think when we created them.”

• And here is a very important one: Stay awake. You've already learned that being asleep can cause you to miss classes, or exams, or worse perhaps, but this is different. I mean keep your senses turn ON. The miracles of nature and great works of humankind are all around you all the time, and we miss far too much. The greatest among us throughout our history have noticed and expressed the evident truths that others had missed. Most of us spend entirely too much time sleepwalking.

• And while as you are awake and aware, do not be afraid. Fear steals energy and many too many brain cycles. Care is good. Fear limits your potential.

• Keep learning – learn about the inventions and knowledge that will be created throughout your lifetime – things we haven't imagined yet. The fronts of knowledge are rapidly expanding. You have been well prepared; still you will be presented with numerous problems that you've not previously encountered, and you will continue to contend with many you already know all too well. Remember this: you know how to learn and apply judgment – these skills will be called on frequently.

• Be brave.

• I'm coming toward the end now. I have a last concept, a lesson I've learned that is my graduation gift to you: You can be a hero. In all you do, carefully consider and choose your sphere of influence. You may become an example of excellence within a small realm; there is much reward in giving your best. Or you may choose a broader realm, which I'd call “citizenry” – and take on the task of being a positive influence on many. This will draw on what you've learned in school, and also on what you've learned in other parts of your life – we don't focus much on teaching how to contribute as a citizen in most college classrooms . To achieve this, you'll need to figure out lots on your own, and through the examples of others.

• A few among you will become heroes, and by this I mean an inspiration for broad change and growth; a person who demonstrates feats of courage, and nobility of purpose. To become a hero is a wonderful goal, whether you are a hero of the world, your community, or your family . Heroic acts require informed, creative thinking, wisdom, and broad perspective. Heroes are guided by the small voices within – the personal ethic and courage that informs our most important choices. Too often, for too many people, this sense of what is right to do, can be out-shouted by everyday needs and groupthink.

There was a great TV commercial aired about the time you started your education. It showed a simple sequence of photographs, supposedly of the same person, a male, throughout the many stages of his life – at least 7 shots spaced many years apart – and you could see that this person changed his presentation of “who he was” as he aged. The tag line for the commercial was “the trick is getting smart enough fast enough to do yourself some good.”

You are now among the approximately 1% of all people on this globe who benefit from completing a college education. You have not only attended a strong school, but one that is determined and well positioned to grow in size, influence and focus over the next few years. This is great news for you, because, in 20 years, when someone asks where you earned your degree, you will say Arizona State University and the University will then be even better and stronger than that it is now, because your achievements will have attracted talented and determined people to this place. And, in turn, you will benefit from the reputation of this school throughout your career.

Well, I've given a lot of advice tonight, and mine is probably not the only advice you'll get. Reme mb er what rings true to you. Keep your eyes focused forward. Don't let your future be limited by imagined walls. I hope that each of you strives to be a hero on your own terms. Stay awake, aware and keep an ear tuned to your own small voice. ….and don't forget the 5 languages.

I wish you the very best.