2020 Commencement Address

Congratulations, class of 2020. This is your own very glorious day. And what a day it is! A real, in-person commencement…in Central Park no less, the quintessential New York City setting. This is a day you earned…a day you deserve.

You know, at commencements, it often falls to a college president to provide a piece of parting advice—perhaps even wisdom—as we launch you into what is called “real life.” However, yours is a class that has had more than your share of so-called “real life.” You grew up in the shadow of 9/11…and seemingly endless war. You have lived through economic turmoil and witnessed repeated outbreaks of violence and blind bigotry…sweeping environmental destruction…threats to our democracy—and now, of course, the pandemic, which, like it or not, will always be part of your identity. That is just the short list and that, I think is really “real life” enough.

Yet in the midst of this gloom, this daily drumbeat of bad news, good news—hopeful news— arrived last February from 126 million miles away. On that day, NASA landed a new robotic rover on mars whose assignment was nothing less than to discover whether life—in the form of ancient fossilized microbes—ever existed there. Now this was hardly our first trip to mars. For decades, mars has beckoned—and prompted dozens of missions from countries around the world. But this one, coming while the pandemic was putting its lethal footprint all over our own planet…this one particularly captured my attention. That is because the new rover, which has generated so much hope and excitement, is called Perseverance and that reminded me of you. We all know what perseverance means: you lived it.

As it happens, NASA’s perseverance—a little vehicle the size of a car—was actually named by a 7 th grade boy from Virginia who won a contest that NASA sponsored to give it a name. There were 28,000 entries from children in schools across the country. In his winning essay, this boy wrote, “we as humans evolved as creatures who could learn to adapt to any situation, no matter how harsh. We are a species of explorers and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere. We…as humans, will not give up. Even faced with bitter losses…the human race will always persevere to the future.”

That, surely, is what each one of you has done in order to be here today. In the face of an unfathomable and unfair fate, you focused on your future. Step by step, you walked through uncharted territory; you adapted, you faced down setbacks and disappointments. Together, with your classmates and professors in Zoom-rooms, Webex conferences, Google meets… and alone, in the privacy of your bedrooms or kitchens or attics, you explored, you created, you learned…and in the end, you completed your studies. For 15 long months, you persevered. We watched you with admiration and growing pride as you succeeded in completing your F.I.T. journey. You taught us the power of perseverance.

Class of 2020…you inspire us. You give us hope for a better future. I wish you much joy as you continue your journey…and I wish you Godspeed.