(upbeat music)
(chattering)
(audience applauses)
(upbeat orchestral music)
(audience cheering)
(audience applauses)
(pleasant orchestral music)
(background chattering)
You're up, John.
Good afternoon, everybody.
One of our great American presidents, Woodrow Wilson,
when he was president of Princeton University
reminded his students on occasions such as this
you're not here merely to make a living.
You are here in order to enable the world
to live more amply, with greater vision,
with a finer spirit of hope and achievement.
You're here to enrich the world
and you impoverish yourself
if you forget the errand.
Today's a great day to give thanks to everybody
who made this solemn occasion possible,
to the parents and families, faculty and staff,
administrators and trustees,
but most significant of all, to our graduates.
These men and women exemplify the tradition
of Claremont McKenna College
and they are prepared to make their mark in the world.
O Creator whom we know by many names and titles,
on this sacred afternoon we come together
to give thanks and honor to these graduates.
By great achievements and profound losses,
these men and women have come to realize their gifts
and training to transform the world.
We are confident that they will enrich the world
as President Wilson charged the graduates of his day.
We remember, with great admiration, Ali Wallis Mirza,
a beloved member of this class.
Ali was known as a generous, sensitive young man
who cherished his family and friends
and who placed the happiness and interest of others
ahead of his own.
We ask that you watch over his family and friends
and let us never forget what a great gift
Ali has been to all who had the privilege of knowing him.
O God, we offer you these words of hope and prayer.
May our graduates never forget the lessons learned here
nor underestimate their potential for enriching the world.
May they always find the courage to stand
for the benefit of humanity.
May they use their gifts of intelligence to create
a more compassionate world.
May they inspire others to live more amply
by their great vision.
May they experience the peace that comes
from leaving the world better than you inherited it.
Amen.
Thank you, Father Fenton.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing
and join the graduates in our alma mater.
Maestro?
One, two, three.
("Claremont McKenna" plays)
? We're the sons and the daughters of Claremont McKenna ?
? And proud of our famed alma mater ?
? With friends of our youth seeking wisdom, seeking truth ?
? We will lead on for Claremont McKenna ?
? We have (speaking foreign language) ?
? As a motto at Claremont McKenna ?
? We always will be part of dear old CMC ?
? Ever loyal to Claremont McKenna ?
(audience cheering)
(audience applauses)
Please be seated.
Thank you, Father, for your inspiring invocation
and thank you Elizabeth for that beautiful voice.
Higher education could transcend many challenges
if every registrar could sing like that.
(audience laughing)
Well, it's a glorious, wonderfully cool afternoon
and it's great to be with you.
I'm Hiram Chodosh.
I'm president of Claremont McKenna College.
Actually just a sophomore here at CMC
and--
(audience cheering)
Thank you.
I am humbled and I am moved by the honor
to welcome you to the graduation ceremony
for my senior classmates, the class of 2015.
Class of 2015, today we turn a page of our CMC story
with your graduation.
We embrace and laugh, we stand and clap, pose and smile,
snap and click, but before we get too lost
in the noise of it all let's promise to slow the shutter,
widen the aperture, focus the wide angles,
reflect on our subjects to see, to hear, to touch,
to taste, the feel how momentous this is.
Momentous first to think of
and thank those who are not here with us,
those on whose shoulders we stand,
in whose shoulders we sought comfort,
from whom we learned, with whom we danced
and laughed and grew
and we remember those we tragically lost and dearly miss.
To Mark Kaplan from the class of 2014
and Ali Mirza from the class of 2015.
Today we remember Ali, his spirited and giving nature,
his courage and zest for life.
He completes his CMC journey here with us today.
We cannot bring him back.
We can never do enough to honor his memory
but we can take Ali with us across the stage today.
And as with Mark Kaplan and the class of 2014 last year,
this year in Ali's memory our graduates
will create space in their hearts
and in their procession.
And for both we have created a special posthumous letter
of arts and collegiates studies.
Ali's was presented to the Mirzas earlier today
in order to mark the completion of his CMC journey.
Ali's letter represents the tenth academic accomplishment
of his amazing Claremont family with Mustafa,
his dad, class of '76, Liz, his mom, graduate of CGU in '79,
and Akbar, his older brother, graduate of the class of 2013.
Would you please stand to be recognized
and let's give them all a strong round of applause.
(audience applauses)
We all know the Mirzas are just one
of our amazing CMC families we recognize here today.
We celebrate the support of our graduates by so many.
The selfless commitments, investments,
and support of your grandparents
who sacrificed so much to build a better world for you,
your parents who sheltered, fed, clothed you,
who read to you and counted with you,
who chauffeured you, even nagged and moved you
and all of your immediate an extended families and friends
who had confidence in you and shaped who you are today.
Let's give them a round of applause.
(audience applauses)
And we thank our inspired faculty and staff at CMC
whose commitment to you and your success
is without parallel and who have nurtured you,
your minds in the classrooms and labs,
your ability to compete on our fields,
courts, pools, tracks, and courses,
to freshen your thoughts and palates at the Ath,
in Collins, and at The Hub
and we thank our generous Board of Trustees,
our donors, our dedicated alumni who have worked tirelessly,
brilliantly, fiercely behind the scenes
to provide the extraordinary resources and guidance
for your benefit and success.
Graduates, let's give everyone who's supported you
a strong showing of your appreciation.
(audience applauses)
But most of all we congratulate you, the class of 2015.
You've taught me the last two years
what it means to be a member of this community
through your fun loving spirit, your great conversations,
your engaging minds, from the chutzpah to throw me
in a shallow pool of water
(audience laughing)
to your award winning research and publications,
high impact enterprises
and enumerable competitive achievements,
and we celebrate you for your
many invaluable contributions to the college,
the courage to step up to the challenges of personal
and social responsibility,
reminding everyone that it's on us
and that standing by must give way to stepping up
and stepping in.
We celebrate your team work to create
our Ashoka U Changemaker Campus
the creativity to grow opportunities
for artistic expression,
and in the midst of an incredibly busy year
the selfish, inspiring, breathless
and exceptionally hot student marathon run
for socio-economic diversity
in the student imperative through CMC 26.2.
Let's give our graduates a round of applause
for all they have taught us
and for an outstanding four years.
(audience applauses)
As two exemplars of CMC 2015,
your classmates Nick Weiss and Kayla Nonn
will now present the Latin salutation.
(audience cheering)
(audience cheering)
(whistling)
(audience laughing)
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(chuckles) (speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(chuckles) (speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(audience cheering)
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language).
(audience cheering)
(speaking foreign language).
Graduates, thank you.
Graduates, today as you cross this special threshold
your undergraduate years come to a sad yet exciting end
and you'll join the ranks of our college's alumni community.
We have one of the most engaged, devoted groups of alumni
in higher education today.
Their impact on the college
and their love for it is evident
in every aspect of life on our campus.
The history of CMC is a great American story,
a story of the greatest generation
who overcame the worst inhumanity
to generate the best in humanity.
A great generation who built a dynamic college
from the rubble in this valley.
That grand project continues today with you.
It is now my pleasure to introduce to you John McDowell,
a member of the class of 1979,
and president of our alumni association
who will provide our alumni greeting
and tell you more about your new relationship
to the college in the years ahead.
John?
(audience applauses)
Chairman Magrublian, President Chodosh,
Dr. Nafisi, trustees, distinguished faculty,
staff, parents, and especially graduates
let me be the first to welcome you,
the class of 2015, to the Claremont McKenna College
Alumni Association (claps).
(audience applauses)
You're now part of a family that stretches back
to our college's founding.
For some colleges and universities
that family stretches back for generations, but not for us.
We're young and as President Chodosh likes to say,
we're scrappy.
Our swift rise to prominence means that every member
of our family counts and now you are part of that family.
The alumni family connects you with our very first students
and since we are so young, some of our original students
are alive today.
In fact, you might have met some of them
during Alumni Weekend just two weeks ago.
But now it's time for you to become a full member
of the CMC family.
It's time for you to continue the tradition of excellence
started by our earliest students and alumni.
What does that mean exactly?
It means building on the same experience
that you had here as a student.
Just because you are graduating does not mean
that your CMC experience is at an end.
In some ways, it is just beginning.
It means relying on those around you,
your fellow alumni, really your aunts and uncles
and cousins and brothers and sisters,
to be as supportive of you as you were of each other.
So are you looking for a career connection?
Then look no further than our new EverTrue alumni app.
That's where you'll find people across the country
and around the world willing to help you.
Looking for a place to live in a new city?
Look no further than your local alumni.
They can tell you about the neighborhoods.
They can tell you about the nightlife.
And they maybe even offer a place
to sleep while you get on your feet.
But do you need a lawyer, an accountant?
Somebody needs a lawyer, okay.
An accountant (chuckles)?
A doctor or even an investor?
Well then look for CMC alumni in your area.
Each time that you reach out to your fellow CMCers
you're building family connections
and, like any family,
you're connected to future generations,
those students and alumni who will come after you.
Your job will be to keep our family relations strong
and to help those students and alumni behind you
on their path as they build on the success
that you will enjoy.
Part of staying connected with the CMC family
is to help grow our future success.
Getting involved in the form for the future
and paying attention to your support of the alumni fund
are two important ways to show your ongoing concern
and love for our college.
In closing, let me give you a couple of practical tips
for connecting with your fellow alumni.
First, when you move, use the EverTrue app,
update your address in the alumni database.
You know, across the world we have 19 alumni chapters
that hold great events
however if you live in Silicon Valley
but the database thinks you live
with your parents in Wisconsin
you won't be alerted to those networking activities.
Second, keep up with us on social media.
Facebook page, Twitter page, LinkedIn group,
it's all there for you, our alumni.
And third, return for Alumni Weekend
to reconnect with the college and your friends.
It just happened two weeks ago.
You saw how much fun we had.
You had some fun too, I think.
You'll enjoy coming back for Alumni Weekend as well.
So we're excited that you are now part
of the Alumni Association family.
Congratulations on a job well done
and on a bright and beckoning future.
Class of 2015, we can't wait to see what you'll do next.
Thank you.
(audience applauses)
Thank you, John.
I just love when someone from the class of '79
gives our students advice on social media.
(audience laughing)
Well, it's now time for this year's
class elected speaker, Clancy Tripp.
Clancy--
(audience cheering)
Clancy's originally from South Bend, Indiana.
During her time at CMC, she majored in Literature
and Film Studies with a sequence in Gender Studies
in which she completed an award winning thesis.
She's the editor in chief
of the 5C satirical publication,
The Golden Antlers.
She worked as a head consultant
for The Center For Writing and Public Discourse.
She was also active
in CMC's theater troupe Under The Lights.
This upcoming year, Clancy will be moving to New York City
where she'll be working to earn her Master's in education
at Columbia's Teachers College
with plans to teach high school English in an urban setting.
Clancy, it's all yours.
(audience cheering)
Thank you, President Chodosh.
Thank you to all of our distinguished guests.
Thank you to the professors who braved the rain
to be here for us today
in your less than breathable costumes.
Thanks to the administrators and staff
who got us to this point.
Thank you to my fantastic Midwest family,
Mom, Dad, Roe, and Moe, for giving me access
to this education, the greatest gift I could ask for.
And thank you to my West Coast family
who made the trek out here to support me today.
And, of course, thanks so much to my fellow members
of the class of 2015 for taking a gamble
and letting the class clown make the graduation speech.
I'll try to do the occasion justice.
Four years ago I made the insane decision
to apply to 19 different colleges.
In preparation for this speech,
I reread some of the essays
and it turns out I was applying to so many colleges
that I got a little bit confused.
The first line of my application to Pomona College reads,
I kid you not, "There are many reasons why I believe
"Claremont McKenna College is the right place for me."
(audience laughing)
(audience cheering)
I was rejected (laughs).
(audience laughing)
Obviously.
But even had I not made such an egregious error,
I have to believe that I would have ended up here anyways.
The age old saying holds true.
We end up where we belong.
Once I got to campus in the fall of 2011 with all of you,
I tried my hardest to be the typical CMCer.
I desperately wanted to learn how to surf
even though I am incapable of floating, let alone swimming.
I studied for Coach Hellam more than I studied
for my FHS final.
I wanted to run for every ASCMC position that existed.
I wanted the best internships
and I wanted to wear bro tanks
that would allow me to show off my sweet biceps.
(audience laughing)
My sophomore year I flirted with the idea
of applying to work at the student investment fund
which (laughs) for those of you who don't know me
is a little out of my skillset.
I never took Econ 50 and the highest math course I took
was Intro to Statistics, twice.
(audience laughing)
This desire to be the stereotypical CMCer
still hits me even now.
Sometimes I'll wake in the middle of the night
in a cold sweat only to find out
I've sleep Googled Deloitte starting salaries.
(audience laughing)
In 2012, when we were sophomores,
the Office of Student Philanthropy launched a campaign
called I Am CMC.
They plied us with food trucks and free shirts,
they rounded up dozens of students to write essays
on why they were CMC
or to share their particular I Am CMC story
in a snazzy video montage.
Several years later,
the movement is still going pretty strong.
Many of us still wear our shirts proudly
even if by now we have cut off the sleeves
or fashioned them into
more weather appropriate belly shirts.
The phrase I Am CMC still lingers
in on campus political races, forum articles,
and conversations with our parents
when we ask them to pay our dorm damages fees.
(audience laughing)
But I am here to tell you that I am not CMC
and neither are you.
One of my favorite quotes comes from Kurt Vonnegut,
my literary idol and the ultimate sassiness extraordinaire.
He once wrote, "We are what we pretend to be
"so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
At some point, for all of us, we have let CMC define us.
We all know the stereotype.
CMCs work hard and play harder.
We are competitive and type A
and our average SAT score is 3,000.
(audience laughing)
(audience applauses)
We are sporty and social
and hoping for a rewarding career in iBanking.
We're a bunch of brilliant bros.
I guarantee that there are parts of the stereotype
that apply to every single one of us
otherwise we wouldn't have found each other
and built this beautiful community.
I'm guilty of it too.
When people ask me my major,
I say literature, film, and gender studies,
the three most lucrative career options of all time.
(audience laughing)
But the truth is I'm not in it for the money.
If I was, I would have tried a little harder
to complete my application for the Robert Day School.
CMC and the stereotypes surrounding it
in some way define us all
but they're not the whole story.
We are not CMC.
CMC is us.
We define CMC not the other way around.
When visitors come to our campus
to see what CMC is like,
they see us wandering the campus,
filling up the classrooms,
starting new initiatives,
pouring champagne on Green Beach,
loving and supporting each other the best way we know how.
Look around you today and see what you have built
during the past four years.
Compare the CMC you see today
with the campus we first stepped foot on in 2011.
We have changed what it means to be a CMCer.
We have started the tough conversations
about sexual assault and social policies.
We have taken the athletic teams to new
and unbelievable levels of success.
We have started organizations and clubs
and movements and businesses.
We have tried to find meaning
and comfort after the loss of one of our own.
We have been each others' family when we needed it the most
and when it wasn't easy.
We have kept the parts of ourselves that drew us here
but we have grown into adults and leaders.
We have changed this place and, CMC class of 2015,
that's why I'm so proud to graduate with you today.
CMC, as an institution, has been integral
to all of our successes and growth.
Where would we be without the professors
who challenged us to work harder
than we ever thought we could
and who were still there for us even when we failed?
Where would we be without the administrators and staff
who supported us, stood up for us, and called for backup
when we were a little too wild?
Where would we be without the picturesque architecture
of North Quad or the opportunity to watch the sun set
from the top floor of Kravis?
All these things are important and unforgettable
and beautiful, yes, but you, class of 2015,
you are the CMC I'm proud to call home.
CMC is us and even when we leave here it always will be.
Congratulations to the class of 2015 and thank you.
(audience applauses and cheers)
Clancy, we're grateful for your mistake
and CMC is you.
CMC is you.
Well now it is my incredible pleasure
to introduce our keynote speaker, Dr. Azar Nafisi,
and to confer upon her an honorary degree from the college.
I point your attention to page 49 in your program
for the formal citation of recognition.
We've been reminded this year, tragically,
in many areas of the world and the country,
even on our Claremont campuses,
that the free exchange of ideas,
indeed the freedom of our own identities,
cannot be taken for granted.
We must sustain these principles
and urge others to do the same in the most vigorous way.
Whether we are confronting acts of violence or intimidation
in Paris or Copenhagen, in our great national cities,
or in our own communities, we have to join together
in our strong commitment to free speech
and freedom of identity.
Our commencement speaker today, Dr. Azar Nafisi,
has lived these commitments.
Her 2003 memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran,
describes her clandestine efforts to teach works
of western literature to her female students
in her own Tehran apartment.
Her book, which remained on the New York Times
best seller list for well over two years,
was a powerful, inspiring testimony to the human spirit,
a book that describes her own struggles
in Iran after the revolution
and simultaneously speaks to all of us.
Dr. Nafisi courageously sustained the life of the mind
and the power of critical, intellectual engagement
even in an atmosphere of intolerance.
Her most recent book, The Republic of the Imagination,
underscores the immense value she places
on the arts and humanities
as they compete and interact with the growing priority
on more technological and scientific endeavors.
Dr. Nafisi directs anyone who thinks
that arts and sciences are separate categories
to, she was quoted as saying,
"take another look at the Einstein statue
"in front of the National Academy of Sciences
"which reads, 'Knowledge is limited
"'but imagination encircles the world.'"
It is now my pleasure to confer our honorary degree
to Dr. Nafisi pursuant to the resolution
adopted by the Board of Trustees.
As I do that first,
I'd like to thank Professor Robert Faggen,
Barton Evans, and H. Andrea Neves, professor of literature,
and chair of the literature department
as well as director of the Gould Center
who was so instrumental
in attracting Dr. Nafisi to honor us here today.
I want to thank trustee Elissa Elbas, class of 1994,
and professor Wendy Lower,
the John K. Roth professor of history
and George R. Roberts fellow,
and director of the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights
in assisting with the hooding and citation
and diploma ceremony.
Dr. Nafisi, will you approach?
Dr. Nafisi, in recognition of your many contributions
and achievements as a leader in advocacy
for literature, free expression, and human rights,
Claremont McKenna College hereby confers upon you
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws
with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereto
in token of which we cause you to be vested
with the hood of the college appropriate to your degree
and present you with this citation and accompanying diploma.
Congratulations and thanks so much for being with us.
(audience applauses)
Thank you so much, President Chodash.
Thank you everyone for bestowing this honor on me.
I have to admit to you that I never participated
in any of my own graduations.
I remember that my father once came
and told me that your mother wants to see a picture
of you in the robe and the hat
so he took me to a, you know, photographer,
and we took a picture of me to send to my mother.
So I officially now feel
that I belong to the class of 2015.
And thank you, thank you!
(audience applauses)
Finally, finally I made it.
Finally I made it.
Thank you.
You know, every time I come to a place like this,
and I wanted to say this last night
to some of the faculty and trustees that were here
but I thought that I should save it
and say it here to you,
that one of the greatest things about books,
one of the greatest things about doing what is really
your passion in life, what you really care for in life,
is that you are always, through that passion,
and for me through my books,
you're connected to people you should be connected to,
not people who you know because of where you're born
or, you know, the place where you work
or you need funding from them
and things like that.
It is about people who share the same dreams with you.
It is about people who share the same passions with you
and the parents, I think every single parent here today
knows when I say that books are like your children.
They're conceived with love
but before they come into the world
you go through so much anxiety.
Did I go to the right doctor?
Am I taking all the vitamins?
Am I walking enough?
Why did I eat that croissant yesterday morning?
You know, how will this affect my children?
Should I sing to her or him?
You know, and all sorts of questions you have
and then you go through the labor pain
and once the child comes into the world
you think you will guide him
but he or she will take you to amazing places
and have you meet with intimate strangers
that you had never met before,
strangers who become intimate
because with them you share a common space,
you share a common dream.
So for that I am very thankful
to all of you, every single one of you here.
And every time I go to a place to talk
I try to invoke some sort of guiding spirit,
some sort of kith and kin fairy spirit
to be with me to sort of inspire what I have to say
and with this college my first connect to Claremont,
my first actual visit to Claremont,
happened in 2011 when I came here
to celebrate one of the greatest poets
of the 20th century, Czeslaw Milosz,
and, you know, so I'm sure that his spirit
is hovering someone around here.
And then there was the spirit
of one of the students, former students,
of one of your sister colleges, David Foster Wallace,
whose commencement speech I was hoping
to steal today and read to you.
And then last night I was told
that the great Irish poet, Seamus Heaney,
has also been here and has also given a commencement speech.
Unfortunately for you, I didn't have time
to steal his commencement speech
so you are sort of stuck with me.
But while we are here to invoke writers
and since I'm a writer I wanted to say
that one of the most important things I learned
over the past two days I have been here
and every time I think of a college like this
is something that James Baldwin used to say about writers.
Baldwin used to say we writers
are here to disturb the peace.
And I think that this is the main function
of a liberal arts college.
This is the main function of knowledge.
It is here to disturb the peace in the sense
that it is here to provoke you to not only have
you question the world but, in fact,
pose yourselves as a question mark,
to shed your prejudices, your assumptions,
your presumptions about the world,
to be like that little girl named Alice
who ran after the White Rabbit
and had the courage and the stamina
and the passion to jump down that hole
without knowing what will be waiting her down that hole.
As another great American writer,
Mark Twain, used to say,
"Education is unlearning what you have learned."
So I hope that this is what you are going to take away
from Claremont College.
Unlearning, a constant process of unlearning
because this is what life is all about
and the reason that life and art are so interdependent
and so closely related is, in fact,
because of that fact.
Now, I'm saying all of these things
about writing, about knowledge,
about disturbing the peace,
when the dominant sort of attitude in this country,
especially among our policy makers,
be they Republican and Democrat,
and I'm not here to give a political speech.
As far as I'm concerned, a pox on both their houses.
(audience laughing)
I didn't come from a country
where I was denied freedom of association
and freedom of speech to fall into the constrictions
of ideological partisanship.
But anyway, that was just sort of a parenthesis.
But what I wanted to say then
is that a lot of people nowadays
and a lot of people, unfortunately,
in our education policy,
they claim that humanities are irrelevant to our lives.
There are even some who have the audacity
from among the universities to tell their students,
don't go into humanities
because you won't find a nice vocation.
I just wanted to begin by this illusioning
and unlearning these ladies and gentlemen
with such claims because the life of ideas
and imagination is not just something
that you need today and then you can dispense with tomorrow.
It is not your next iPhone that you can,
you know, that you're in a hurry to throw away
so that you can buy iPhone,
I don't know what number it is now.
500?
(audience laughing)
iPhone whatever hundred.
Imagination and ideas are related to life
because of the fact that they are related
to our survival as human beings.
2,000 years ago there were men
called Aeschylus and Euripides and Homer.
We don't know anything about who those men were
but it is their words that are enduring.
Human beings became human
and then became humane
through telling the stories
because imagination and ideas
are a way of knowing the world,
are a way of discovering the world,
and we need to know the world
in order to survive in the world.
So the whole point is that that is how the foundations
of this republic of imagination is first curiosity,
that almost sensual urge to want to know
and just think that some people
want to take that urge away from us!
What does it mean to live in a world of ignorance?
So the whole point about curiosity
is, as Vladimir Nabokov used to tell his students,
he used to say to them,
curiosity is insubordination in its purest form
because, you know, we feel very good.
Curiosity should not, insubordination in its purest form
should not make you feel complacent and comfortable.
It is not going and protesting against either Bush or Obama
and then coming in front of the telly
and watching somebody saying the same things
that you just were protesting in your language in the news
and then feeling good about it.
Insubordination in its purest form
means constantly looking at the world
through the alternative eyes of imagination
and of ideas and of thought
and constantly being jolted out of your complacency.
That is what curiosity is all about.
Those who say that science,
I'm so glad you mentioned it,
those who, you know, segregate science
and its sort of wayward child, technology,
from humanities, again, they have to start unlearning too
because both genuine science and humanities
are based on this desire to know.
And on the flexibility and lack of selfishness
and lack of egotism that makes you change
if you think you're wrong
because your passion is more important
than your prejudice.
So the whole idea,
as Nabokov again, I don't know why Nabokov,
maybe his spirit, he was very mischievous.
As soon as you name other authors
he feels a little bit jealous.
Why not me, you know?
So he keeps coming to my mind.
But he himself was a well known scientist
and a poet and a writer
and he used to tell his students again
you need to have the passion of the scientist
and the precision of the poet
because if you're an Einstein
or if you're a Goethe
or if you're a Molière
or if you are Auden
or if you're Emily Dickinson
or if you're Hafez
or if you're Rumi,
whether you are a scientist or a poet
you need to have both passion and precision
and that is why science, genuine science,
goes hand in hand with genuine works of humanities.
Talking about, you know, we deal with our every day life
both things that are transient and passing
and things that are enduring and stay with us.
And in this manner, works of imagination and art
defy and resist not only the tyranny of man
but also the tyranny of time.
They remind us of our continuity as human beings
because in order to survive, and not just survive
but to live and to live a joyous, fruitful life,
then you need to know that it was something about the past
in order to understand the present
and in order to be able to project or foresee the future.
That is why literature and art are a resistance
against the transience of life,
against all these little moments
that, as we experience them, are passing,
are dying, are being forgotten.
And they register those moments so that,
like Nabokov wanted to say about his biography,
so that we will have conclusive evidence that we have lived
because oblivion is what knowledge resists most.
As the East European writer Tzvetan Todorov used to say,
only total oblivion demands total despair
so we need history, we need fiction in order to be able
to constantly renew ourselves and in order to be able
to constantly redefine ourselves.
Well, I have to now admit, you know,
people sometimes ask you in interviews,
what is your secret sin?
And the secret sin turns out to be something really mundane
like mine, I love mysteries, you know.
I'm in love with Raymond Chandler
and I love a lot of television.
I mean, I love Simpsons, I used to like John Stewart.
Yada, yada, you know.
Okay, but I remember that once I was watching Boston Legal
and as I was watching Boston Legal I thought,
oh my god, this is such reminder of Antigone.
(audience laughing)
That Antigone lives
in an episode of Boston Legal
because Antigone is also about the choice
between what you as an individual feel is your integrity.
So she wants to bury her brother for this personal sense
of integrity, to honor her brother,
but her uncle and the king and the state
want to hang him in public, leave him in public,
and she has to make a decision
and the same thing is in Boston Legal
where this young girl doesn't want
the body of her father, who was an alcoholic
and it was given to this museum so that people
will see, you know, if you drink what will happen to you.
She wanted that body taken away
and she wanted to steal, or she stole it.
Anyway, what I want to try to say to you
is that imagination and thought are not the property
of even this august place.
They came out of the need of the majority of people
and Dickens, Austin, Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Rumi,
people in my country, the country of birth, Iran,
might not be able to read
but they know Hafez and Rumi and Saadi by heart
because it comes out of the heart
and because we need the heart in order
to be able to communicate
and in order to remain human.
Now, I just wanted to do two things
and it is always wonderful to talk about democracy
until you have the microphone
and sort of move on with our celebration
and I wanted to just say that all of these things I said,
I wanted to make it a little bit more concrete
about two experiences in the two countries I called my home.
One is about Iran and the other one I want to end
with the United States of America.
You know, one of the things
that was very much shocking to me when I came,
I left US in 1979 which coincided
with the onset of the Islamic revolution.
My timing is not very good.
(audience laughing)
I remember when I went back
to Iran I went back to fundamentalism and terror
and the war in Iraq and when I returned to United States
in 1997 I returned to fundamentalism,
terror, and the war with Iraq.
So I suggest--
(audience laughing)
you be careful and not go where I go.
(audience laughing)
But anyway, when I came back in 1997
I realized there was a very different attitude
towards my country, Iran,
but towards what was now,
what is now called the Muslim world
and since I had been away for 18 years
this was very new to me.
What I realized was, first of all,
the fact was that people could not really talk
about these countries.
Every time I went somewhere
and mentioned about how the system in Iran
is oppressing us or oppressing me as a woman
they would look at me and say, "Oh, but you're Western."
Or they would say, "It's their culture."
And then they should say we shouldn't
be talking about it.
And this in academia, by the way.
We shouldn't be talking about their culture
because, you know, that is the way they live.
First of all, let us unlearn you of these illusions.
It is their culture and because it is their culture
you should be talking about it.
Now, when I first went to Hopkins
some of my colleagues would tell me
you're really very lucky.
You're a woman and you come from an Islamic society.
You get a great job, go to women's studies
or Islamic studies, and I would tell them
you go to women's studies and Islamic studies.
I want to study the dead white males
(audience laughing)
because of the fact
that ideas have no boundaries,
because of the fact that the republic of imagination
is the only republic in this world
where, no matter from what nationality,
gender, religion, or ethnicity you come,
you knock on every door and that door opens to you.
You can knock on Dante's and talk to Dante.
You can knock on Rumi's door and talk to Rumi.
You can knock on Hafez's door and talk to Hafez.
The whole idea of culture is
that it should be constantly renewed and re-seen
and redefined through the alternative eyes of the others.
That is how we unlearn and learn,
by talking about one another.
It is one of the greatest insults to people
who believe in Islam to say that you can't talk about them,
they are different from us.
It's their culture.
Now, another thing that I realized about their culture was,
okay, what is this culture you're talking about
that we shouldn't be talking about?
The first thing was that in 1979
the countries that, you know,
they were countries called by their names,
Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia,
Indonesia, countries with Muslim majority population
but, as in the case of Iran, the majority of them
had very, very diverse ethnicity
and religious minorities and atheists
and Marxists, in fact.
You know, those countries, you know,
when you name someone by their name
you give them specificity, which is what fiction does.
You don't generalize them out of existence
but now I came back to United States
and all of the sudden these countries have evaporated.
They were all Muslim world
and by being Muslim world we did not respect them,
we did not respect their religion.
What we did, we eliminated all those specificities
because we don't call Great Britain and Germany
and France and United States the Christian world.
We call them by their names.
(audience applauses)
Thank you.
Thank you.
(audience applauses)
So the whole idea was that Ralph Waldo Emerson
was in love with the Persian poets.
He has a poet about the Persian poet Sadi.
He thinks that Hafez was the light of the world.
Goethe, the best known German poet,
he was in love with Hafez.
He has a (speaking foreign language) on Hafez,
a book on Hafez.
Matthew Arnold was in love with the epic poet Ferdowsi
and in return, and today in this country,
the British poet Dick Davis, who teaches at Ohio State,
falling in love with Iran is one of the best interpreters
and translators of Iranian literature
and that is why you guys can be reading Iranian literature,
because these others fell in love
and when you fall in love you don't specify.
I used to think that I would like
to fall in love with a man 6'10".
(audience laughing)
Blue-green eyes, no mustache, okay.
So far, so bad.
(audience laughing)
Then I fell in love with a man who was 5'8",
brown hair, and a bloody mustache.
(audience laughing)
You know, you don't know.
You don't know.
When you choose your vocation,
you choose because you fall in love and you don't know why.
And then the world changes, doesn't it?
Your peace is disturbed.
You can't sleep at night.
Is he thinking of me?
Does he like my eyes?
What should I wear tomorrow?
You know, all of this.
And also the sun on the leaves, on the flowers,
on your friend's hair has a different color
because you're in love.
That is how life should be lived
and that is how a life of knowledge is lived.
So, to make this very long story short,
let us see, what was the culture that they were saying
is so good and what was Iran's,
I won't go into Egypt and Syria and Lebanon and Iraq,
but all you have to do, even Wikipedia can give you
examples of what these countries were all about,
you know, that all of them are such ancient histories.
Taliban doesn't have to bomb the Buddhas
so that we, in the West, know that they had that culture.
Iran doesn't have to kill
a young girl called Neda Agha-Soltan
so that the West would know that such a girl,
who was in love with Wuthering Heights,
lived in a city named Tehran
but the culture that they assign to these amazing countries
with such amazing culture,
my father used to tell me that Iran is an ancient country.
It has been invaded many times, times and time over,
but one of the only way we
have kept our identity is through our poetry.
Our history is written through our epic poet, Ferdowsi,
going back from the mythology of 3,000 years ago
right until the Arab invasion in 7th century.
But what do they say about this culture?
When the Islamic system came into being in Iran,
the first thing that they did was to,
I say delete, I forgotten the name for it,
was to cancel the family protection law
which protected women at home and at work.
They reduced the age of marriage for females
from 18 to nine, then after women protested
and fought for many years they elevated it to 13.
They brought something that never existed in Iran
which was the punishment of stoning people to death
for what they called prostitution and adultery
but polygamy and temporary marriages where a man
could rent a woman from five minutes to 99 years
was left free and they called this Islam.
I want to ask you, who insults Islam?
Someone who says this is not religion
or someone who says do not insult my culture?
And the issue of the veil was never in Iran
about whether the veil was good or bad
although everyone has the right to say
they don't like the veil or they do.
The issue of the veil was about freedom of choice.
It was about the fact that no power on earth,
your father, your husband, or state,
has the right to tell women how to dress
and how to appear in public.
(audience applauses)
I'm so sorry.
The whole idea about these countries
is that they first things they target,
be it Soviet Russia, be it Fascist Germany,
be it North Korea, is the right of women,
culture, and minorities.
That is their first targets.
And this was the first targets in Iran.
Now, I will very shortly, I mean, you can see all of this,
fortunately, through social media,
but before that we had books
and I would have preferred that.
(audience laughing)
But the whole point,
when women, feminists, tell me that I'm Western,
this is how I respond to them
and I just give you this response and then we move on.
I respond to them that a thousand years ago,
in 11th century, two books were published
by two great Iranian poets.
One was our epic poet Ferdowsi
and the other one was by a man Fakhraddin Gorgoni.
They're both translated by Dick Davis.
The fact was that in these books we had some
of the strongest women, some of the most independent
and liberated women you could find anywhere in the world,
that these women not only chose their husbands,
they chose their lovers for one night,
that the book Vis and Ramin
is about this young woman who,
before she's born, she's promised to the king
and she tells the king, "I am too young for you.
"You are old.
"Go and find someone your own age to play with."
(audience laughing)
It was the inspiration for Tristan and Isolde
and all the other stories like Romeo and Juliet
that came out and in this story,
Vis is far stronger than either Juliet or Isolde.
Vis, the nurse is far better.
God, I wish you'd know that nurse.
She tells Vis, she says you have never made love to a man
to know how great it is
and you should, you know, fall in love,
give into this man who loves you,
who is the king's younger brother,
so that you will really understand the meaning of love.
And it is one Romeo and Juliet type story
that ends happily ever after, I'm glad to say.
So the whole point that I'm trying to say
is that then in 1936 the first woman
who unveiled in Iran was not westernized.
She didn't speak English or French.
Her name was Tahereh.
She belonged to one of the most respectable
religious families in her town.
She married a man who was also very orthodox
and Tahereh became one of the leading lights
of the new religion in Iran which was called Bábís
and later is just called Bahá'ís
and Bahá'ís today in Iran are treated
the way Jews were in Nazi Germany
and one day among her followers,
Tahereh takes off her veil
and says the universal event has arrived.
They say that two men among her followers
were so shocked by seeing her face
that, rather than killing her, they cut their own throats
and I always use this metaphor.
What is it in the appearance of a woman
that makes these powerful men wanting to kill them?
If they want to survive, these women can't survive?
That is the power of what Václav Havel says,
the power of the powerless.
That was the power of the African Americans
during the Civil Rights Movement,
the power of women, the power of everyone
who is fighting for their freedoms.
What is it in these helpless people
with no weapons that wants these rulers to kill them?
So I just wanted to end by saying
that when I talk about Iran,
when you talk about another culture,
the whole idea, a lot of people come to me
and say, well, what can we do for Iran?
One of the things you can do for Iran
is just please read about Iran.
Know the history.
Know the erotic language.
Know the dances.
I wish you were at my son's wedding to see the dance.
And eat the wonderful food.
Know that the Iranian poets in 14th century
like Hafez were criticizing the orthodox clerics
saying hypocritical clerics who drink wine in private
and flog people in public.
In 14th century we had an obscene poet named Ubayd
that in Dick Davis's Faces of Love,
Norton could not publish the book for them
because they said we cannot teach it in colleges like yours.
The obscene poet, Iraj Mirza,
at the beginning of 20th century
is one of our most beloved poets
and he directly targets the hypocrisy of orthodox religion.
Who does this remind you of?
Mark Twain, for heaven's sake.
Remember Huck?
Remember Miss Watson?
The whole idea is that, in a country like Iran,
as in a country like Soviet Union or North Korea,
brutality is so obvious,
the matters, the injustice that we know it is brutal.
What about this country?
Are we all just land of the free and going to stay free?
That is the question that Iran poses to you,
that you have not, in fact, been free.
That freedom, like happiness,
needs to be constantly pursued,
that from the War of Independence
to the Civil War, to the Civil Rights Movement,
and the Women's Movement, and the minority movement,
to today you constantly have been pursuing freedom
and people have died for it.
Hundreds of thousands of people in this country
have died for it.
When women came out, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Sojourner Truth came out,
they told them women's place is at home.
That is what Bible says.
And Mark Twain, in Huckleberry Finn,
gives you, and from then on the greatest American novels,
one after the other, give you what is the greatest threat
to this great country.
Conformity.
Conformity.
Complacency.
Every single villain in that book is a conformist.
You begin with Miss Watson, a nice, church-going woman.
Not one minute's hesitation
to sell a man's children down the river.
Violence doesn't just come from Hitler and Stalin.
Violence exists in all of us if we allow it.
It is both the heroism of the ordinary people
and it is also the violence of ordinary people
like Aunt Sally who makes good jam,
who loves Huck, and who considers a black man's death
as nobody dying.
As the Spanish poet, Antonio Molina said,
if a member of Gestapo can have a normal face
then any normal face can belong to the Gestapo.
So what I want to end with, yes, yes,
everybody's getting, please start coughing.
I'm leaving now, yeah, yeah.
(audience laughing)
So what I want to say, at the end of this talk,
is that the whole idea of American novel,
the greatest American novel,
the imaginary map of America,
they become like the moral guardians of the American.
They reject, like Huck, wealth.
They reject the hypocritical kind of religion and morality.
And they make independence of mind their sort of center.
So at this time of crisis,
there's time of disruption,
there's time of crisis,
you go into the world,
you don't know what kind of jobs you will have,
but you're also part of a new world.
You also have the privilege of defining this crisis,
disturbing the peace, not giving into the complacency,
and I hope that, along with Alice,
you will jump down the hole and,
along with Huckleberry Finn, you choose to go to Hell
but do the right thing.
Thank you so much.
(audience applauses and cheers)
Thank you, Dr. Nafisi.
(audience applauses)
Thank you for your fierce and brilliant example.
Thank you so much.
I ask that all candidates for the Master's Degree
and the Bachelor's Degree please rise.
All candidates.
(audience cheering)
Please rise.
(chattering)
Mr. President, upon the recommendation of the faculty
and with the approval of the Board of Trustees,
I now have the honor to present the candidates here today,
together with others, who,
having completed all the requirements,
are to receive the degree of Master of Arts and Finance
and the degree of Bachelor of Arts as appropriate.
By the authority vested in me as president
of Claremont McKenna College,
upon recommendation of the faculty
and with approval of the Board of Trustees,
I now confer upon you the degree
of Master of Arts and Finance
and the degree of Bachelor of Arts as appropriate.
Graduates, please move your tassels from left to right
with your right hand and be seated.
(audience applauses and cheers)
You may be seated.
Before we continue with Dean Warner
and the conferring of degrees,
I want to let you know that we will pause the moment
when Ali Mirza would have been called to receive his degree.
Following that pause, Dean Warner will call his name
and then we would like everyone to rise
in support of his family and friends.
Following that brief celebration of Ali
and all he means to us,
Dean Warner will continue with the next name called.
Thank you.
It is my honor to recognize the graduates
receiving a Master's degree.
Ladies and gentlemen, please come forward
as your names are read to receive your diplomas.
Samuel Alexander Bagroth.
(audience cheering)
Dylan Scott Carter Campbell.
(audience applauses)
Christopher Lee Darling.
(audience applauses)
Hartadonata Harianto.
(audience applauses)
Kyle Steven Howard.
(audience applauses)
Iyoosh Jilani.
(audience applauses)
Calvin Jang.
(audience applauses)
Kavya Joshi.
(audience applauses)
Geoffrey Shao-yu Liu.
(audience applauses)
Charles Abdul Hamid Owens.
(audience applauses)
Andrew Daniel Faro.
(audience applauses)
Henry Kin.
(audience applauses)
Naveen Ram.
(audience applauses)
Vishnu Madipalli Redi.
(audience applauses)
Sai Svarup Revanuru.
(audience applauses)
Sinchay Sung.
(audience applauses)
Chun Wun Si.
(audience applauses)
Aaron Christopher Vocaro.
(audience cheering)
Chi Wong.
(audience applauses)
Victor Shang.
(audience applauses)
David Yong.
(audience applauses)
Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome your applause
for the Master's class of 2015.
(audience applauses)
It is now my honor to recognize the graduates
receiving degrees of Bachelor of Arts
and Masters of Arts in Finance.
Ladies and gentlemen, please come forward
as your names are read to receive your diplomas.
Brian Andrew Vivilaka.
(audience cheering)
Michael Floyd Cornell.
(audience cheering)
Philip Stark Crawford.
(audience cheering)
Karthik Doss.
(audience cheering)
Akiko Yoshida.
(audience cheering)
Vahin Khosla.
(audience cheering)
Jason Tann Kimora.
(audience cheering)
Sara Mostatabi.
(audience cheering)
Andrew Nam.
(audience cheering)
Keerthana Sai Nuna.
(audience cheering)
Dante Andreas Quaso.
(audience cheering)
Cameron Andrew Whiting.
(audience cheering)
Wishan Shi.
(audience cheering)
Vickie Yang.
(audience cheering)
Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome your applause
for the BA/MA class of 2015.
(audience applauses and cheers)
(audience cheering)
It is my honor now to recognize the graduates
receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
Ladies and gentlemen, please come forward
as your names are called to receive your diplomas.
Mohammed Amin Abdul Rahim.
(audience cheering)
Charles William Lucas Agnew.
(audience cheering)
Richard Yongjay Ahn.
(audience cheering)
Scott Edward Anderson.
(audience cheering)
Antonia Evo Antonova.
(audience cheering)
Henry Ernest Appel.
(audience applauses)
Rahtik Ashokan.
(audience cheering)
Elizabeth Ann Augustine.
(audience cheering)
Christian Alessandro Ayala.
(audience cheering)
Shaysha Esse Bakendra Takande.
(audience cheering)
Vedahi Bansal.
(audience cheering)
Ashley Jusak Barnhill.
(audience applauses)
Nadia Stosija Barulich.
(audience cheering)
Daniel Joseph Freifeld Beer.
(audience cheering)
Caleb Bentley.
(audience applauses)
Cameron Robert Bernhardt.
(audience cheering)
Elon M. Bernstein.
(audience cheering)
Nikhil Bomby.
(audience cheering)
Mark August Bloomberg.
(audience cheering)
Marie Bradvica.
(audience cheering)
Dane Morrison Brown.
(audience cheering)
Alexander John Hubert Bruger.
(audience cheering)
Allison Frances Busacca.
(audience cheering)
Sloane Caldwell.
(audience cheering)
Laura Elizabeth Campbell.
(audience cheering)
Daniel James Caesar.
(audience cheering)
Sian Chai.
(audience cheering)
Kelly Chan.
(audience cheering)
Banal Chandi.
(audience cheering)
Alexander Joshua Chang.
(audience cheering)
Alice Wong Chang.
(audience cheering)
Elizabeth Caroline Chapin.
(audience applauses)
Erin Elizabeth Shavonne.
(audience cheering)
Jia Shang Chan.
(audience applauses)
Asim Naringenin Triplecutti.
(audience cheering)
Yun Je Troy.
(audience applauses)
Diana Maria Chuka.
(audience cheering)
Grace Victoria Coburn.
(audience cheering)
Megan Carrie Coleman.
(audience applauses)
Michael Philip Connell.
(audience applauses)
Haley Elizabeth Connor.
(audience cheering)
Anthony Matthew Contreras.
(audience cheering)
Kimberly Marie Coons.
(audience cheering)
Madeline Grace Crawford.
(audience cheering)
Matthew Alan Crawford.
(audience cheering)
Braydon Robert Crockett.
(audience cheering)
Miriam Elizabeth Cruise.
(audience cheering)
Kenneth Michael Cudanin.
(audience cheering)
Caleb Dean Cunha.
(audience cheering)
Brandon Hamilton Deort.
(audience cheering)
Lindsay L. Davidson.
(audience cheering)
LillyBelle Kaulai Deer.
(audience cheering)
Evan Keefover Dion.
(audience cheering)
Andrew Dobbs Kramer.
(audience cheering)
Andrew Warren Dobbs.
(audience cheering)
Joseph William Dorn.
(audience cheering)
Jackson Stewart Doyle.
(audience cheering)
Samuel Iwagumi Dunham.
(audience cheering)
Louisa Celine Dunwoody.
(audience cheering)
Kathryn Marie Echavia.
(audience cheering)
Elizabeth Davis Egert.
(audience cheering)
Michael Condon Elhart.
(audience cheering)
Amelia Paras Evrigenis.
(audience cheering)
Christopher Joseph Fang.
(audience cheering)
Nadeem Uden Farooki.
(audience cheering)
Elizabeth Jean Farr.
(audience cheering)
Elena Maria Faust.
(audience cheering)
Reid Garrett Furubayashi.
(audience cheering)
Christopher Thomas Garter.
(audience cheering)
Sarah Elizabeth Gabriel.
(audience cheering)
Sophia Rose Galant.
(audience cheering)
Janelle Kimberly Garcelon.
(audience applauses)
Aman Goes.
(audience cheering)
Dana Marie Gibson.
(audience cheering)
Rita Gilas.
(audience cheering)
Elizabeth Christine Janeli.
(audience cheering)
Benjamin Thomas Goldberg.
(audience cheering)
Sarah Marie Carol Gonzalez.
(audience cheering)
Michael Anthony Goes.
(audience cheering)
Harris Kristanto Gozali.
(audience cheering)
Jack Richard Grodal.
(audience cheering)
Chandrika Gupta.
(audience cheering)
Stephanie Lia Haft.
(audience cheering)
Janice Emmeline Han.
(audience cheering)
Elise Hansel.
(audience cheering)
Petra Chiputra Haroon.
(audience cheering)
Lauren Nicole Henderson.
(audience cheering)
Sophia Claire Harriet.
(audience cheering)
Marcel Stefan Height.
(audience cheering)
John Joseph Benjamin Ho.
(audience applauses)
Valerie Ting Ye Ho.
(audience applauses)
Jeffrey Adam Hawkhauser.
(audience cheering)
Kristen Barbara Howard.
(audience cheering)
Christian Connor Hocksey.
(audience cheering)
Allison C. Hu.
(audience cheering)
Alvin Jeffrey Wong.
(audience cheering)
Tess Elon Hubbeling.
(audience cheering)
Je-yong Ha.
(audience applauses)
Jenna Hussein.
(audience cheering)
Carina Teresa Wang.
(audience cheering)
Midori R. Ishizuka.
(audience applauses)
Ria Jen.
(audience cheering)
Hasham Musa Jamel.
(audience cheering)
Yo Sung Ju.
(audience applauses)
James Cabellas II.
(audience cheering)
Kelsey Elizabeth Mercado Cading.
(audience applauses)
Sho Kenneth Kajima.
(audience cheering)
Emily Ellen Kahn.
(audience applauses)
Sumer Kandari.
(audience cheering)
Yersinia Amanda Kasmir.
(audience cheering)
Julia Ann Keenan.
(audience cheering)
James Edward Kelly.
(audience cheering)
Lauren K. Kenny.
(audience cheering)
Brian David Key.
(audience cheering)
Ju Yun Kim.
(audience applauses)
M.J. MinJun Kim.
(audience cheering)
Madison Marie Knob.
(audience cheering)
Danielle Marie Knot.
(audience cheering)
Derrick MuMing Ko.
(audience cheering)
Yen Fong Ko.
(audience cheering)
Rose Ellen Coper.
(audience cheering)
Allison Nicole Krugman.
(audience applauses)
Sung Mo Ku.
(audience cheering)
Sarah Amyshiraishi Kukino.
(audience applauses)
Samantha Nicole Kuhns.
(audience cheering)
Samantha Rose Lapier.
(audience cheering)
Jasmine Wiley Erica Lai.
(audience applauses)
Jessica Olivia Laird.
(audience cheering)
Adrian Saihay Lam.
(audience cheering)
Hester Hoy Ting Lam.
(audience cheering)
Isabel Caulier Lane.
(audience cheering)
Benjamin Isaac Lawson.
(audience cheering)
David March Leathers.
(audience cheering)
Edward Kevin James Leathers.
(audience cheering)
Susie Le.
(audience cheering)
Martin Penamatsu Lefor.
(audience cheering)
Isabel Suneco Lester.
(audience cheering)
Andrew Palmer Levine Kuhn.
(audience cheering)
Nathan Yanin Levine.
(audience cheering)
Liyang Le.
(audience cheering)
Shinju Nancy Le.
(audience cheering)
Juwan Le.
(audience applauses)
Su Yuan Lin.
(audience cheering)
Palin Liu.
(audience cheering)
Boris Chon-yin Lo.
(audience cheering)
Molly Renee Loftis.
(audience cheering)
Shelby Catherine Long.
(audience cheering)
Elena Ann Lopez.
(audience cheering)
Emma Britt Ludlam.
(audience cheering)
Ye Luo.
(audience cheering)
Andrew Hamilton MacPhail.
(audience applauses)
Julian Ecker Mackey.
(audience cheering)
Samuel Arnulfo Malagong.
(audience cheering)
Karan Malik.
Karan Malik.
(audience cheering)
Kasvi Malik.
(audience cheering)
Nicholas Evan Marino.
(audience cheering)
Mackenzie Nicole Mars.
(audience cheering)
Brianna Victoria Massiel.
(audience cheering)
Ashraf Haleem Mathkour.
(audience cheering)
Alexander Anthony Marrow.
(audience applauses)
Keira Megan McAndrews.
(audience cheering)
Charles Andrew McGregor.
(audience cheering)
Sean Lawrence McAvaney.
(audience cheering)
Nikita Mahindra.
(audience cheering)
Alexander Jordan Mendoza.
(audience cheering)
Samuel Philip Meyers.
(audience cheering)
Abigail Rose Michaelson.
(audience cheering)
Cora Rebecca Miller.
(audience cheering)
Ali Myumi Min Abida.
(audience cheering)
Ali Wallace Mirza.
(audience applauses)
Thank you.
Joshua John Mitler.
(audience cheering)
Christian Udodi Mapato.
(audience cheering)
Charles Richard Montgomery.
(audience cheering)
Regina Olga Mullin.
(audience cheering)
Neeti Nagar.
(audience cheering)
Noreen Ali Nanji.
(audience cheering)
Joshua Warren Naon.
(audience cheering)
Suchith Nareddy.
(audience cheering)
Nicholas Brandon Nassey.
(audience cheering)
Joseph Kelly Newman.
(audience cheering)
Christian Charles Neumeister.
(audience cheering)
Monique Winn.
(audience cheering)
Mark August Nitzel.
(audience cheering)
Devin Michael Nishizaki.
(audience cheering)
Kayla Ann Nonn.
(audience cheering)
Philip Wells North.
(audience cheering)
Alex David Nuffer.
(audience cheering)
Ian Eugene O'Grady.
(audience cheering)
William Albert Ostermyer.
(audience applauses)
Gabriella Denise Oser.
(audience cheering)
Chubik Hall.
(audience cheering)
Sheila Yvette Panez.
(audience cheering)
Melanie Caroline Payte.
(audience cheering)
Henry James Jackson Pellicoro.
(audience cheering)
Margot Sarah Penn.
(audience cheering)
Samuel Victor Parella.
(audience cheering)
Felipe A.Z. Peterson.
(audience cheering)
Samuel Frances Pitcavage.
(audience applauses)
Sridhar Poddar.
(audience cheering)
Jeremy Ishmael Porter.
(audience cheering)
Chase Michael Pribble.
(audience cheering)
Costa Alexander Saltis.
(audience cheering)
Corrine Jessica Raglin.
(audience cheering)
Christopher Joseph Rama.
(audience cheering)
Sanjana Vejay Rau.
(audience cheering)
Zane Pavlich Ravenholdt.
(audience cheering)
Chad Ian Redman.
(audience cheering)
Shawn Harold Raymer.
(audience cheering)
Bradford Kresge Richardson.
(audience cheering)
Cameron Christo Ridley.
(audience cheering)
Erin Kathleen Vokalack Ristig.
(audience cheering)
John Michael Rizzo.
(audience cheering)
Daniel McDonald Roberts.
(audience cheering)
Grace Elizabeth Rodriguez.
(audience cheering)
Rebecca Lynn Rosenthal.
(audience cheering)
Alexandra Joy Ruark.
(audience cheering)
McClatchy Jack Ruskin.
(audience cheering)
Erica Sun Yun Sa.
(audience cheering)
Michelle Lynn Sape.
(audience cheering)
Mya Hammons Sandelow.
(audience cheering)
Martin Richard Sartorius.
(audience cheering)
Kimberly Oy Wa Skamin.
(audience cheering)
Theodore Connor Schlagel.
(audience cheering)
Haley Jane Schultz.
(audience cheering)
Talia Samantha Segul.
(audience cheering)
Elena Ruth Sagara.
(audience cheering)
Sarah Lucia Servene.
(audience cheering)
Anshu Sha.
(audience cheering)
Sachin Prakash Shah.
(audience cheering)
Virage Shastri.
(audience cheering)
Sally Sheerer.
(audience cheering)
Jacob Alexander Shimkus.
(audience cheering)
Patrick John Schultz.
(audience applauses)
Ali Sadiki.
(audience cheering)
Jennifer Leigh Sitton.
(audience cheering)
Evan Alexander Saul.
(audience cheering)
Logan Pardo Solomon.
(audience cheering)
Alexandra Radeen Sonnet.
(audience cheering)
Tyler Alan Sonomacher.
(audience cheering)
Haley Lilian Sparks.
(audience cheering)
Collin Joseph Spence.
(audience applauses)
Stephen Clay Spencer.
(audience applauses)
Charles Lorang Spinosa.
(audience cheering)
Mallika Srinivasan.
(audience cheering)
Jonathan Steven Starr.
(audience cheering)
Madeline Leigh Stein.
(audience cheering)
Sydney Ann Stevenson.
(audience cheering)
James Russell Stevic.
(audience cheering)
Timothy Theodore Storer.
(audience cheering)
Marissa Amico Suehiro.
(audience cheering)
Arvin Suresh.
(audience cheering)
Christina Marie Sutherland.
(audience cheering)
Philip Takaki Suzakowa Sang.
(audience applauses)
Sarah Elizabeth Schwartz.
(audience cheering)
Kyle Ryan Tanguay.
(audience cheering)
Olivia Tay.
(audience cheering)
Abinaya A. Thenappan.
(audience cheering)
Isaac Lawrence Thomas.
(audience cheering)
Jared Scott Rickart Thomas.
(audience cheering)
Joshua Aaron Thomas.
(audience applauses)
Benjamin Faulk Tillotson.
(audience cheering)
Dante Ranato Tapo.
(audience cheering)
Jennifer Marie Torres.
(audience cheering)
Katie Trettenero.
(audience cheering)
Clancy Boyd Tripp.
(audience cheering)
David Tong Ming Se.
(audience cheering)
Jensen Richard Thome.
(audience cheering)
Benjamin Fine Waldman.
(audience cheering)
Cory Wong.
(audience cheering)
Francis Wang.
(audience applauses)
Trisha Wang.
(audience cheering)
Kyle David Weiss.
(audience cheering)
Nicholas Joseph Weiss.
(audience cheering)
Garrett Delan Wells.
(audience cheering)
Jocelyn Nicole Wentzel.
(audience cheering)
Christopher Alan Wheat.
(audience cheering)
Max Dylan Winsberg.
(audience cheering)
Warren Cody Wood.
(audience cheering)
David Charles Weich.
(audience cheering)
Donmay Shiang.
(audience applauses)
Bonnie Ye Min Yan.
(audience cheering)
Grant Yang.
(audience cheering)
Tiansal Ya.
(audience applauses)
Nicki Soy Yun Ye.
(audience cheering)
Alina Elizabeth Young.
(audience cheering)
Elham Yusuf Ali.
(audience cheering)
Jaqueline Ann Zayner.
(audience cheering)
Ladies and gentlemen, the class of 2015!
(audience applauses and cheers)
Graduates, thank you everybody, congratulations.
It's time before the charge for a few closing words
from your classmate, senior class president Abby Michaelson.
(audience cheering)
As Abby prepares for her post-graduate career
in marketing and PR, we all know she'll be successful.
Here's one reason.
Earlier this semester, she coordinated an overnight trip
for over 100 members of the senior class to Las Vegas.
(audience cheering)
And, remarkably, everyone who left got back safely.
Here's another reason.
She's done it all at CMC.
Senior class president, campus tour guide,
senior interviewer, dorm activities chair,
and the project coordinator
for The Center for Civic Engagement.
She's studied abroad in both Tel Aviv and Copenhagen.
Most impressive is her advocacy for the health
and well-being of society including, in particular,
the treatment of heart disease.
She turned a deep personal loss of her dad,
a member of CMC's class of 1983,
into a transformative service
leadership opportunity for others.
That loss has been a powerful inspiration
propelling her to lobby on Capital Hill
and in the halls of the FDA.
Since high school she's volunteered
for the American Heart Association
and campaigned for tobacco free kids,
winning National Youth Advocate of the Year
from both organizations.
Thus, it's an honor and an inspiration
to introduce your senior class president, Abby Michaelson.
(audience cheering)
Good afternoon.
As one of my final acts as class president,
I sent out an email a few weeks ago that read,
"Class of '15, a few reminders.
"Number one, nobody's perfect
"including your class president."
I had made a mistake by accidentally leaving out
the Cutest Couple That Never Was category
from the senior superlative ballot
and was asking that seniors fill out a separate ballot
just for this category.
Ironically, the guy who would end up being
in the winning Cutest Couple That Never Was,
Ben Tillotson, posted a screenshot of the email on Facebook
with the caption, "Best Class Email Yet".
Thanks, Ben.
Several comments were then posted
including a link to the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus
Nobody's Perfect music video.
The song hadn't crossed my mind while writing the email
but once I watched the video I realized
that while the lyrics are not a work of musical genius,
they were actually quite relevant
to our impending graduation.
When Miley sings, and I apologize for my less
than stellar singing skills,
? Sometimes I'm in a jam ?
? I've got to make a plan ?
? It might be crazy ?
? I do it anyway ?
We're (chuckles)--
(audience cheering)
We're reminded that all of us are in some sort of jam,
stressing out about our life after graduation.
Where will we be traveling this summer?
Where will we be working?
How much money we'll be making.
How will we ever survive without the meal plan
and chocolate covered strawberries every afternoon at tea?
Yet, as Miley asserts later in the song,
? Nobody's perfect ?
? You live and you learn it ?
? And if you mess it up sometimes ?
? Nobody's perfect ?
And we've realized that we're going to make mistakes
over the next few years.
We're going to stumble,
we're going to have rough days at work,
struggle to make rent, find our way around a new city,
but we need to all remember that it's okay
to make these mistakes, to struggle and to fail,
because these are the experiences
that will make us who we are
and allow us to grow.
And if anyone has the audacity, determination,
and attitude to overcome these obstacles,
it's a CMCer from the class of 2015.
From the first day of our road trips
to thesis fountain party,
we've all transformed into intelligent,
inquisitive, and innovative young men and women.
We've learned how to think critically,
how to lead by example,
how to network like it's nobody's business,
and even how to properly pass a bread basket around a table.
Thank you, John Feranda.
And beyond all of this, each and every one of us
has contributed in some way or another
to CMC's community, whether it be through ASCMC,
Source, the SIF, The Rose, The CCE,
or one of the many other acronyms on campus.
And most significantly, we've built a class of 2015 family.
I've seen old friendship strengthen
and new friendships for at senior events this year.
I've seen us reach out to other classmates
in times of need.
I've seen us cheer each other on at athletic games
and other competitions
and this past week in San Diego
I saw our class bond together
and celebrate our accomplishments over the past four years.
The fun we had during senior week
makes me very excited for the future,
alumni weekends, our many reunions, and CMC events.
When we reunite in the future,
I know it's gonna be a blast.
The bond we formed over the past four years
is incredibly strong, however it is up to us
to maintain it.
We must stay in contact with one another,
reach out to each other in times of need and joy.
Send Snapchats to every classmate in your contacts
when something super awesome happens
and post funny stories and videos
in our class of 2015 Facebook group
for when we're bored at work.
While we're all heading off to different cities,
countries, and continents,
it is my sincerest hope that our bond stays strong,
that our friendships thrive,
and that our love for each other and CMC never dwindles.
Class of 2015, it is such an honor to serve
as your class president for life
and to speak to you today.
I look forward to the future
and the fun times we will share together as alumni.
While Miley Cyrus' lyrics teach us
that nobody's perfect, I'd say the class of 2015
is pretty close to it.
Congratulations, good luck, and see you on Green Beach
at Alumni Weekend 2016.
(audience cheering)
Thank you, Abby.
Chairman Magrublian, Dr. Nafisi, Dean Warner,
faculty, trustees, alumni, families, friends,
and especially the class of 2015,
it is a privilege to stand before all of you today
to conclude our commencement with CMC's traditional charge
to our graduates.
When you graduate from college, you get lots of advice.
Most of it's sound, only some of it actionable.
Career advice about market or policy trends
or inspirational salvos about dreaming
or thinking big, giving back,
taking risks, changing the world.
I know this class.
You know markets and politics.
You understand risk.
You think big.
Many of you are already changing the world.
Let's talk today about the small acts,
the little questions, the micro deeds,
the pedestrian steps and how to inspire them with purpose.
So much of life, it turns out, is in the details.
Prose moves through punctuation,
Everest scales one step at a time,
strategy relies on momentary execution,
great religions call for daily ritual,
humanity moves through social graces.
Indeed, the banality of good is the most powerful antidote
to the banality of evil.
I don't mean details without purpose.
Those clutter, drag, and numb.
I mean details fused with vision, values, goals.
Purpose weaves small acts into a rich, intentional,
resilient social fabric.
The big challenges, the big ones, of environment,
water, air, energy, health, and poverty,
illiteracy, innumeracy, violence and prejudice,
the partitions that separate us,
race, religion, gender identity, culture,
can only be overcome in the end
through the emergent properties of small acts.
The simple questions to a friend in need,
"Are you okay?"
"Can I help you?"
"Did I hurt you?"
"Did I misunderstand?"
Or the humor Clancy uses to help us understand ourselves
or the different peer to peer conversations
she helped to lead or the practical steps
to greater health that Abby has worked so hard to embed
or Dr. Nafisi's courageous act of reading the book
with several young women in her apartment in Tehran.
Small acts change the world.
Small, courageous acts that align principle,
value, and purpose with the needs of others.
That will help you lead a life of greater meaning
and success in all you seek to achieve.
So I now ask our graduates to stand
so that you may receive your charge.
Let's first think about how you got here.
Your parents or others who helped you grow up
and what they did for you,
every load of laundry, every mac and cheese,
every drive to school, field, test, pool, store, or court,
every comforting shoulder when you were down,
every high five or hug when you were up.
Let's think about your teachers, your coaches, your mentors,
every red mark to correct your mistakes,
every direction from the sideline,
every encouragement, you can do it, we believe in you.
The people on our staff who cleaned your rooms,
prepared your meals, and answered your questions.
Yes, these were all small deeds with a purpose,
to grow in you the special virtues you can contribute
in turn for others.
So what does this mean for you today and on Monday?
This means calling, frequently calling, even texting
your parents to see how they are doing.
(audience cheering)
This means telling your old professors at CMC
what they meant to you, what you learned from them.
Or this might mean just picking up
a piece of trash on the street,
giving directions to someone who's lost,
apologizing in person to someone you've hurt,
always volunteering,
putting your hand up in the air to take responsibility
for a tough task at work
or to point out some wrong done to others,
putting your attention on those around you
and what you can do for them,
asking yourself what you don't know about others
and committing yourself to finding out.
So as you're thinking about your next IPO
or how you're gonna bring down ISIS,
make lots of room for the small stuff.
When you are with others in any setting,
turn to the most immediate questions.
How are you?
What do you need?
How can I help you?
How can I contribute?
Offer an ear to a friend, give up your seat
in the front of the bus,
stand up to pose a critical question,
engage, yes, as Dr. Nafisi urged, your curiosity,
read and discuss a book that goes against
the political, cultural, or conventional grain.
No matter how small the deed or task,
if you do this and do it in service of others
you will learn, you will lift those around you,
you will lead.
Now here's the easy part.
You already know how to do this.
Beneath the surface of your objective accomplishments,
within the deeper soul of your best personal experiences
you know what to do.
I observe it every day in the way you build friends,
ask questions at the Ath, pull outsiders into our community,
grow new institutions, solve tough problems,
get beneath the surface, want to make a difference.
Think of Clancy and Abby and what makes them so special,
the way they've used their wit, their service,
to make your lives better
and think of how you each have practiced that
in each of you in your own way for one another
for all of us.
Yes, we're not perfect
but this ability is evident.
Improve it, build on it, deepen it, share it.
That is your way.
That is our way.
Take that CMC across the stage with you,
across the stage today,
across the many thresholds in your life.
Contributing questions, ideas, small deeds for others.
That is our (speaking foreign language).
Helping others to build community
and lead by example,
that is our (speaking foreign language).
That is our signature.
That's the story of Claremont McKenna College.
Clancy put it best.
CMC is you.
Thank you for the honor to celebrate that today
and many congratulations to you all.
(audience applauses and cheers)
(gentle bagpipe music)
(triumphant orchestral music)
(chattering)
