 Now, it's my genuine honor to introduce today's guest speaker, Purdue alumna and retired Air Force Major General, Teresa Carter. As the first female Air Force civil engineer officer promoted to Brigadier General and the first woman to serve as the top Air Force civil engineer, Teresa's 31-year career in the Air Force was marked by giant leafs forward. She's commanded units ranging in size from 400 to 8,000 and led the Air Force's most complex, largest reorganization since 1992, which created the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center, where she served as its first commander. Teresa is now the CEO of management consulting firm TC3 Solutions in Colorado Springs, an active member of the Purdue Alumni Association Board of Directors and the Industrial Engineering Advisory Council and a doctoral student at Drexel University. She's been named a Distinguished Engineering alum, received the Outstanding Industrial Engineer Award and been inducted into the Purdue ROTC Hall of Fame. We are so privileged to welcome this remarkable alumnus back to Purdue. Please join me in greeting retired Major General, Teresa Carter. Thank you, President Daniels, for that kind introduction. I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to speak to the class of 2018. To the parents, family and friends here to honor our graduates, thanks for all that you have done to encourage and motivate them, even when the going was tough and the times were rough. To the faculty, thanks for challenging and developing their critical thinking skills. Their guidance, support and belief in their abilities were key to their success. And to the graduates, my heartfelt congratulations. I know you thought this day would never arrive, but yet here you are, sitting there with a gleam in your eye and a smile on your face. Well done. I wish you could see the view from here because it is pretty amazing. You look wonderful. So how does somebody who grew up in Albuquerque and never traveled east of New Mexico end up at Purdue? I picked Purdue sight and scene because it had a great computer science program and I could use my Air Force ROTC scholarship. The only thing I really knew about Purdue was they always seemed to ruin Notre Dame's football season. And I was a huge Irish fan. First man year I was assigned to a suite on the 8th floor of Earhart. Residence hall demand exceeded supply and suites were a way to house 10 people in rooms designed for 8. While not exactly palatial, it was home and I now had 9 instant friends. Purdue became my family. In fact, Gina Moore, the first suite maid I met became my sister-in-law. She was then and remains today my biggest cheerleader and I'm thrilled she's up there in the balcony today to cheer me on today. I toyed with many themes for my comments. But ultimately I settled on the Purdue move slogan. What we make moves the world forward. We are Purdue makers all. What a great way to capture who we are and what we do as Boilermakers. If you'll indulge me, I'd like to share 10 lessons that I think are universal and apply no matter your life's pursuit. Hopefully you'll find the advice useful and if you remember even one lesson, then I succeeded today. First be a hope maker. Things won't always go according to plan. How will you respond to a setback or help others to respond? I lasted one semester in computer science, quickly realizing it was not for me. After all, when you score a 20 on the final exam and you got 10 points if you put your name on every page, the professors are trying to tell you something and I listened. I switched to industrial engineering when I learned that human factors engineers were involved in ergonomics and cockpit design. I thought, well, that looks cool, that's what I'll study and I'll do that in the Air Force. Well the Air Force had other ideas and shortly before graduation I was assigned to the civil engineering career field. I was crushed. I didn't get what I wanted. Thankfully the comedonic cadets, Major Bruce Johnston, said no to my request to stay at Purdue, get a master's degree and then hopefully an assignment to the human factors career field. He said civil engineering would be good for me and a master's degree could wait. Like Mick Jagger always said, you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes well you might find you get what you need. Every time something good happened in my career I called Bruce and I thanked him for his hopeful message. When you give others hope, you move the world forward. Be a knowledge maker, commit to being a lifelong learner. The most valuable tools I gained at Purdue were how to think critically, ask the right questions and use a systems perspective to analyze and solve problems. Use daily, those skills helped me and provided a solid foundation as I progressed in my career. Aldous Huxley said, experience isn't what happens to you, it's what you do with what happens to you. Spend time each day reflecting on what went well and what didn't. You can learn something from every situation and you'll often learn more from the setbacks and failures, the bad leaders and the difficult subordinates. Capture and reflect daily so you'll be ready when opportunity knocks. And speaking of opportunity, be an opportunity maker. In June 2013, I became the 24th person and the first woman to have the honor of serving as the Air Force Civil Engineer, the highest ranking person in my career field. Yet seven months later, the four star general leading the Air Force said he needed me to do something different. He asked me to lead a merger which would take people, resources and authority from ten, three and four star generals and a dozen career field leaders like me. Insolidate them into a single organization supporting 80 bases around the world and do it with roughly 40% of the 900 people that were currently doing that work. It would be the largest reorganization in the Air Force in over 20 years. I spent several anxious days and sleepless nights wondering if I was up for this huge challenge. As I left for the new job the following week, my staff gave me a farewell gift engraved with a quote from Winston Churchill. To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour. It gave me hope that the toolkit I built over the course of my career had qualified me to tackle this opportunity. The jobs held, the challenges faced and lessons learned did in fact prepare me for the hardest but yet most rewarding job I ever had. Graduates, today your university is tapping you on the shoulder. This is your moment and I know you're ready to go out into the world and make it most of the opportunities that come your way. To move the world forward you must be a changemaker. The pace of change today continues to accelerate with new technology, innovation and discovery disrupting old ways of doing business and bringing communities together in a global commons. Learn to thrive on change. If you're unable or willing to change, trust me, you will get left behind. The good thing is Purdue equipped you with the skills needed to navigate change, ask questions and develop solutions. You can't move forward without changing your current position. Be a changemaker. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, don't follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Be a trail maker. Boilermakers have left footprints around the world and literally out of this world over the past 150 years. Astronauts and Nobel laureates, inventors and educators, doctors and engineers, each and every boilermaker leaves their mark on society. Will the footprints you leave inspire others to follow? Be curious. Ask why. Be a trail maker. Now maybe you have an idea for the next big thing that will transform your industry or you just made an amazing research discovery and you want to share it with the world. How will you ensure that your voice is heard? Be a message maker. Inform, instruct, inspire. Even if you're a big introvert like me, you can do it. Public speaking isn't your strong suit. Commit to practicing and improving. Volunteer for tasks that force you like this to stand in front of people and speak. Do multiple drive runs before every speech or presentation. Speak from your heart with sincerity and with empathy. Build and practice that elevator speech so you're ready when it's time to take your shot. Your message can move the world forward. Henry Ford said, my best friend is the one who brings out the best in me. And I think the best is said of leaders. The best ones bring out the best enough. Be a confidence maker. Create an environment in which people can thrive, where your confidence in them can make two plus two equals six. When someone believes in you, you feel like you can do anything. I'm standing here today because I was blessed to be at the right place, at the right time, with the right people. And together we were able to make a difference. I had leaders who believed in me, who forced me out of my comfort zone and pushed me to do things I didn't think were possible. I'd follow them anywhere. Be the leader who brings out the best in others. And you'll find it also brings out the best in you. Confidence in yourself and others moves the world forward. So how do you create that environment? Be a memory maker. Sweat the small stuff. I saw this firsthand when I spent a year on a two-mile by four-mile Aleutian Island called Shimea Air Force Base. Located 1,500 miles from Anchorage, it was the ultimate leadership laboratory. Shimea's motto is, it's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here. My team was responsible for operating the base infrastructure. During the Cold War, we were supporting a nationally tasked intelligence mission which required us to keep the runway open at all times so alert surveillance aircraft could take off with less than 10 minutes notice. Now that was no easy task when you get 120 inches of snow per year and winds often as high as 80 miles an hour. Thankfully, Master Sergeant Tom Pelfrey led my snow team and he was a miracle worker. I watched in awe as he turned an average group into the top performers on base. They made the impossible look easy. One day he invited me to his work center. They had just completed a demanding 12-hour shift keeping the runway open. His team was gathered around a small table with a simple birthday cake in the center. Tom praised his team and talked about one of his civilians, Charles Brantley, who was in his 50s and looked like grizzly atoms. A long, thick beard, coveralls peppered with dirt and grease accumulated during his shift. It was Charles' birthday and Sergeant Pelfrey led us in song. Charles literally had tears in his eyes. It was the first time anyone at work had ever celebrated his birthday. Sergeant Pelfrey's focus on the small things brought out the best in his team and they would do anything for him, even to this day. Never underestimate the power of the small stuff to make a big difference in the lives of others and to move the world forward. Be a contribution maker. I'm sure each of you in the audience have one or more goals you want to pursue as you graduate. Maybe you want to be an entrepreneur, a doctor, or for those entering the military, a general officer, or an admiral. I wholeheartedly encourage you to set lofty goals and then work tirelessly to achieve them. As Drew Brees told his boys after setting the NFL Passing Yards record, you can accomplish anything in life if you're willing to work for it. But I also want you to remember, it's not enough simply to be an entrepreneur, to be a doctor, or to be a general. What's more important is what you do as a doctor, what you do as an entrepreneur, what you do as a general. Don't chase titles or perks that come with a position. Chase the opportunities that you will have in the position to contribute to your company, your profession, or your community. Above all, whatever you do, whatever you choose to do, be a difference maker. My favorite quote comes from author Leo Rostin who said, I cannot believe the purpose of life is to be happy. I believe the purpose of life is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have it make some difference that you lived at all. Be compassionate, you'll make the world a better place. Don't be afraid to take a stand. Make a difference, make your lives matter. We are Purdue, makers all. Class of 2018, it's now up to you. Move the world forward by leading change and leaving your footprints. Move the world forward by taking that giant leap. Move the world forward by doing the right thing, even when no one's looking. Move the world forward by making a difference. Move the world forward by being a boiler maker. Congratulations, I'm incredibly proud of each of you and excited to welcome you to the Purdue alumni family. President Daniels, thank you again for the distinct honor and privilege of speaking today. I'll always cherish this moment. Ever grateful, ever true, hail Purdue.