 Welcome, everyone. Welcome, everyone. Please have a seat. I'm Michael Barr, the Joan and Sanford Wilde Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. It was a pleasure to meet many of you yesterday at our graduation open house, to see many of you from a distance in the big house. And it is my honor to welcome you here this afternoon for our 2018 commencement ceremony. My first is Dean. I'll begin by briefly introducing the members of the platform party with more to say about each of our speakers later. With me on stage is our keynote commencement speaker, innovator, activist, philanthropist, the distinguished David Bonette. David, we're so honored to have you here. We look forward to your remarks. We're honored too to be joined by one of the University of Michigan longtime leaders, Vice President for Student Life, Royster Harper. Royster, thank you so much for being here. I'm pleased as well to be joined by a number of my faculty colleagues. We have Elizabeth Gerber, our Associate Dean for Research and Policy Engagement. Ford School Professor John Cicciari, who directs our International Policy Center and will be reading the names of our graduates as they cross the stage. Starting on my left, Professor Alan Dierdorf, who's directing our undergraduate program this year. Professor Brian Jacob, who's the director of our PhD program. Professor Paula Lance, our Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and director of our master's program. And we have Professor Megan Tomkins-Stang, who has been elected by our graduating students to deliver the faculty address. We also have with us two wonderful students elected by their classmates to provide the student commencement addresses, our soon-to-be Ford School MPP graduate, Juan Jaime Castilla, and BA graduate, Seo Jung Kim. We are gathered this evening to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of 193 truly outstanding students. As Dean, I have the great honor of talking with you about these wonderful graduates, these smart, engaged women and men who will be leading our communities for the next half century. I'm so glad that your sons and daughters, your friends, your colleagues, are graduating from a school of public policy now, at this point in our history. We all know that these are challenging times for our nation and for our world. We see fractious, debased political discourse all around us. We see gridlock and partisanship in our nation's capital. We see an increasing mistrust in institutions and leaders. We see loud challenges to evidence, to facts, to expertise. That landscape, those challenges. That's why now, perhaps more than ever before, policy schools and policy professionals are beacons of hope for our future. Our school is named for the University of Michigan's most distinguished graduate, America's 38th president, Gerald R. Ford. In 1938, Gerald Ford was studying law. War was looming across Europe. Ford was an ardent isolationist. Yet three years later, when America entered World War II, he volunteered for the Navy, where he eventually saw action in the Pacific and served with distinction. After the war, he returned to Grand Rapids. His perspectives on the world had been transformed. He successfully ran for Congress in 1948 as a vocal challenger to the isolationist foreign policy of the longtime incumbent in his district. Decades later, reflecting back on the impact of that war, President Ford said, some people equate civility with weakness, compromise with surrender. I strongly disagree. I come by my political pragmatism the hard way, for my generation paid a very heavy price in resistance to the century we had of extremists, dictators, utopians, and social engineers. Civility and compromise are not weakness, not surrender. They're essential to democracy. They're essential to building coalitions that can effectively advocate for social change. At the Ford School, we are committed to playing a leading role in rebuilding a public discourse that is bipartisan, evidence-based, and inclusive. We believe in a civil, civic discourse, one that must begin with a shared understanding of and belief in facts. And so our graduates have learned to analyze complicated data sets, to think analytically, to evaluate costs and benefits. They know their stuff, and that's a firm foundation to build on. Civility too requires communication, and so they've learned to speak and write clearly and persuasively. And it requires empathy. Our graduates have learned to think critically, ethically, compassionately, to listen, really listen across difference. In the years to come, we'll be growing our work in this area. We'll host public events that model reasoned in evidence-based dialogue. We'll help to train our students to bridge difference, productively discuss contested topics, and negotiate. We'll engage in problem solving to help tackle some of the world's toughest problems. And we'll show our country how powerful a truly diverse and inclusive community, one working across difference to solve those problems. Just how powerful that can be. Now I'd like to tell you a little bit about our world-class faculty and outstanding staff who have worked so closely with our graduates these past two years. Our faculty hold joint appointments all over campus. Economics, political science, sociology, math, history, business, law, social work, education, natural resources, information, urban planning. Their expertise is broad and it is deep. They are thoughtful, enthusiastic teachers and mentors. And they are actively engaged with critically important public policy challenges here in our community and around the world. The Ford School professional staff are also a source of our school's strength as well. Our terrific staff team recruited, counseled and supported today's graduates. Let me please ask all Ford School faculty and staff to stand. Please join me in thanking them. What an amazing group, what an amazing group. There are others in this room that I want to acknowledge that deserve thanks and recognition. That's all of you. Our audience includes over 800 family members and friends along with some 400 others who are tuned in to our live web stream. You've raised these students. You've nurtured them, counseled them and consoled them. Our students would not be here without you. Graduates, please take this chance to thank your loved ones for their support over all these years. Now let me tell you a bit about these amazing students, what they've given to us and to each other and how they've changed the Ford School for the better. 113 students have earned a master's degree. They hail from 16 different countries. Between them, they speak an astounding 23 languages. They include a Rumsfeld Fellow and our first ever joint degree student with a prominent Costa Rican business school in Kai. They lead highly active student organizations. For example, the International Policy Student Association which among other things led an ambitious trip to the United Nations last month. Another group is called SKIP, our Students of Color and Public Policy who organized a tremendous, that's right, who organized a tremendous set of high profile events this past year and helped the school celebrate Black History Month. Coherts of students often end up describing themselves as a family. How's this for a family? No fewer than four babies were born to our master's students while they were here in school. Two married couples are among our graduates and tomorrow morning, a couple who met here at the Ford School will exchange their wedding vows at the Michigan Union. Congratulations. Let me tell you a little bit about the 78 students who have earned a Bachelor's of Arts in Public Policy. Asked recently to reflect on our BA graduates, a staff member sighed and said simply, I love them. They have been part of the university's finest liberal arts programs. In small classes with Michigan's top faculty, our BA curriculum trains students to think critically and across disciplines, to understand policy challenges and to develop solutions. Today's BA graduates include a Rhodes Scholar who spoke at this morning's University commencement. And let me tell you, she did a wonderful job. 17 Phi Beta Kappas and 21 Angel Scholars. They include founding members of an exciting new student group called We Listen, designed to foster empathy and dialogue across difference. They include students who participated in our first ever policy course and study trip to Costa Rica this year. They write for the daily, lead campus-wide student government, advocate passionately and wisely for the causes they believe in. These students are truly the leaders and best across a wide variety of activities on campus. They are also apparently very, very serious about broom ball. Two-time captain. We celebrate as well. It's my job to embarrass the speakers. So watch out, David. We celebrate as well two students who have earned a PhD in public policy and economics, an innovative program for students who want to pursue research careers in social science disciplines and who see themselves as deeply committed to the study and improvement of public policy. Taken together, the classes of 2018 are serious students, hard workers, dedicated leaders. Nearly all of these students entered the Ford School just before the 2016 election. In the wake of that election, we've seen political divides widen and xenophobia and racism increasingly emerge. It's been a challenging couple of years on campus in many ways and perhaps especially for a community such as ours that is so engaged in civic life and in politics. That is why our work is so urgent. That is why the graduates before you are so essential. That is why we must redouble our efforts to become a beacon for diversity and inclusion, for a civil civic discourse, for tackling the world's problems together. Last month we hosted an inspirational speaker, Kumi Naidu. He was the leader of Greenpeace International and later this summer is gonna become the next president of Amnesty International. Kumi told a story from back in 2004 when he was working with a global call to action against poverty, trying to construct a broad base grassroots coalition for change. Two of his key constituencies in that effort were the women's movement and the faith-based movement. Two groups committed to social justice but divided over the issue of abortion. Kumi worked with them until they could find a solution. The two groups argued and fought until they finally came up with a way forward. The phrase, the global call to action against poverty is committed to reproductive health. That statement was less than what the women's movement wanted. It was more than what the religious community wanted. But both of them could live with that compromise in order to work together on poverty and both of them felt at the end of the day that the other group had been heard. Kumi said, I think it's about managing difference and respecting the difference. The challenge of a coalition is whether we can bring people together across those differences where we focus on the things that we agree on. Kumi paused and then he went on to say, and always there are many more things that we agree on than we disagree on. I've known Kumi a very long time since he fled the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1987. We've been friends since graduate school. We were housemates together. I'd say that we sat in a graduation hall like this one just like you are doing today, but neither of us managed to make it to our commencement ceremonies. Let me just say, I have been where are you graduates are at this moment in your life. And you're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. You may not figure things out right away, but trust your training and trust your classmates. Keep listening for allies, keep fighting for change. To all of our graduates, we need you to do this work. Build bridges, respect differences, look for values you can agree on, create constructive coalitions to get things done. Your time at Michigan is drawing to a close and you are probably having some mixed feelings about that. You might not miss the weather, certainly not today. And surely you're looking ahead, commencing, excited for new challenges and new cities. But I know you'll miss a lot of things from your days in Ann Arbor. At the very least, Dominic's, Rick's, Charlie's, Diego's dog, Sophie, Saskia's sugar cookies, our unofficial Mr. Congeniality, Mr. Yu. You'll miss the free food that appears throughout the academic year. Maybe you'll miss our pop-up food trucks smoking out the law school, donuts and coffee. Of course, most of all, you'll miss each other. Next year, your friends and classmates may not be close by. But I promise you that the ties you've made here, ties forged in dialogue and hard work, as well as in fun, will endure and will help sustain and propel you. Graduates, we are proud of you and we're all going to miss you. Congratulations and best wishes to the classes of 2018. Go Blue. Thank you. Thank you. I am delighted now to be able to introduce to you our keynote commencement speaker, David Bonette. David is one of the most successful and distinguished technology entrepreneurs and philanthropists in America. He launched GeoCities, an early social networking platform back in 1994. He has dedicated his life to creating positive change through community building and social activism. He grew up in suburban Chicago, earned his bachelor's in business administration at USC and his master's in finance at the Ross School right here at Michigan. While he lived in Ann Arbor, he worked as a volunteer hotline counselor for the university's lesbian and gay male program office, now called the Spectrum Center. In addition to serving now as chair of the David Bonette Foundation, he is a member of the president's advisory group at Michigan, a presidential trustee of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, a board member of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. And by the way, he also has quite a full-time job running a successful venture capital fund focused on early-stage tech companies. Since 1999, his foundation has provided funding, state-of-the-art technology and technical support to hundreds of innovative organizations and institutions. Among his philanthropic priorities are cities. He has a deep commitment to addressing the challenges faced by great American cities. And so his foundation has established partnerships with the Ford School, with UCLA and NYU, partnerships that send the best and brightest graduate students to work for cities, the cities of Detroit, LA and New York. Launched in 2011 here at the Ford School, Bonette Fellowships are competitively awarded to three incoming master students each year. Their prestigious award comes with two years of tuition support and, most critically, a funded internship in the City of Detroit Mayor's Office, working directly with a group executive on the Mayor's policy priorities. The Bonette Fellows have worked to analyze Detroit's housing inventory, evaluate urban agriculture initiatives in the city, spearhead a community service volunteer initiative for elderly residents, launch a graffiti removal project, and much, much more, specific and strategic work that taps into the Ford School training to improve the lives of Detroit residents. Earlier today, we hosted a launch at my home for David Bonette and the Bonette Fellows, current students, graduates, and alumni. In the careers of those alumni, we see the lasting ongoing impact of David's gift. Among them is the executive manager of the Crime Intelligence Unit for the Detroit Police Department, an associate director in the city's Housing and Revitalization Department, a policy analyst for Detroit City Councilmember, and the state representative for Michigan's six district now running for the state Senate. They and many others are committed, well-trained leaders and public servants whose lives were forever changed by David's generosity. We're deeply grateful to David for his generous investment in the work of the Ford School and in the lives of our students. Please join me in welcoming Mr. David Bonette. Thank you, and thank you Vice President Harper, Michael Dean Barr, assembled faculty, students, parents, families, and congratulations most, especially to you, the Ford School class of 2018. I'm very honored to be here today for a number of reasons and I'd like to call out two people that are here tonight that are extremely special, both to me personally and to the University of Michigan. In 1971, Jim Toy founded the Human Sexuality Office, which became the lesbian and gay male program office and is now the Spectrum Center. 1971, Jim Toy founded the first Human Sexuality Office in any institution of higher learning and it was here at the University of Michigan and it really established Michigan in the forefront of the lesbian and gay civil rights movement. Along with Judge Judy Levy, who was a judge of the District Court of Michigan, Judy's a Michigan graduate and Judy and I both were volunteers working for Jim Toy when we were here at school and it's an honor to have you both here. I'd like to recognize Jim and Judy, thank you very much. I recall with great fondness when I stood in your place to receive my master's degree from the Ross School. The sense of hope and anticipation you feel today is genuine and will play out in many ways, mostly positive and mostly quite far from how you expect the future to turn out from today's perspective. With over a quarter century experience since my own graduation here at Michigan, I know personally that no one job or experience lasts forever. Not the positive ones and thankfully not the negative and challenging ones. You will be tested in ways you can't even imagine and you leave this university well equipped to embrace the opportunities ahead and deal with the challenges you face. As Dean Barr mentioned over the last 15 years my foundation has invested nearly $5 million in scholarships and internships here at Ford and sister programs at NYU and UCLA. Now philanthropists are forever looking to data to prove the value of their programs. And I know that subjective observation is not the same as hard data, but having spent time with graduates here and these fellows I emerged with the knowledge that our grant program could not have been wiser, more efficient or more timely. And we really can't celebrate another graduating class from this esteemed institution without acknowledging President Gerald R. Ford. One of the great privileges of my life was becoming friends with Senator Teddy Kennedy and it was Teddy and his niece Caroline Kennedy who presented the Profiles in Courage Award at the President Kennedy's library to President Ford in 2001. In remarking on that day, Senator Kennedy said of President Ford, Jerry Ford understood that you can work with your opposition, you can stay true to your principles and you can get something done and the country wins and the people who are involved with it win. He understood, I think, a very important concept of political life today that is rarely recognized in something we haven't seen in recent times. There is few times, I think, for those in public life that they take the difficult challenging decisions in the face of the wrath of the people and in their time are vindicated so thoroughly as President Ford was. A reporter at the time noted of President Ford encouraged that it reminds us that heroism doesn't always win the onlooking crowd's attention. It reminds us that the jury room of history tolerates no hurried verdicts. It reminds us too that columnists and commentators can often be wrong, especially when they agree and especially when there is a touch of self-righteousness to their consensus. History can be funny that way. Our ability to look back and appreciate it, perhaps revisit our judgments on those who have gone before and the decisions that they or we did and didn't make. But today is really, of course, about our future, your future and our country's future. When I drove away from Ann Arbor that May Day after graduation and headed back to Los Angeles where I had done my undergraduate work at USC, I had no idea that there would be technology on the horizon that would change the world and most certainly change my life. I spent the next decade or so in a career in software and tech doing what so many of you will do, working my way up through a number of organizations and positionings, building relationships, not networking, not connection, but real relationships. And it was the power of relationships and power of community that propelled me to create my internet company geocities.com, which at the time became a very popular community-based social networking site in the early days of the web. My idea for geocities was all about my passion for empowering others, giving everybody a voice and a chance to contribute and participate in the new medium of the internet. Through my own experience in business and in life and in coming out as a gay man, I saw how powerful it was to stand up and have a voice, to be able to meet other people of similar interests, share my thoughts and ideas in an open and welcoming environment. Geocities.com went public in 1998, four years after I founded the company and we were acquired by Yahoo a year after that. As so often happens in business, technological advances and the passion of zeal and zeal of younger startups ultimately eclipsed the success of geocities. But what's left is the legacy of a company that enshrined and validated the concepts of user-generated content and the power of community and social networking. And while it is tough to believe almost 25 years have passed since I founded geocities, the challenges, the enormous challenges facing those who followed in our early social networking path were on full display a couple of weeks ago as those of you who may have saw Mark Zuckerberg testifying in front of Congress. Most everyone in this audience today depends on Facebook, Instagram and other sites for keeping up with one another from celebrating your relationships and touting your latest professional or academic achievement or simply posting moments in time. But as I listened to the testimony that day, Mr. Zuckerberg and the senators seemed to have very little in common. Indeed, they had a tough time communicating with one another, almost as if they were speaking different languages. I don't mean to make light of it. Cyber privacy and security is a serious challenge and something we must be vigilant about. But it's tough to do that, to take on the serious challenges of this world when you spend so much of your energy not listening but simply waiting your turn to speak. If we are to succeed as a society, as a people, as graduates, as Dean Barr said, we must get better at hearing one another. Whether we are discussing policy or technology, it is not effective or acceptable for us to speak past one another or over one another. That can, as we have seen far too often, only lead to rank or confusion and chaos. You chose the Ford School for its curriculum and core values of community, integrity, service, action, and leadership to advance and improve our world. I suggest adding listening as one of the more critically important values on that list. Throughout my career as a business person, philanthropists, and civil rights activist, I've learned three things that have helped me be successful in achieving meaningful social change. First, I mentioned, and as Dean Barr said, is really just to shut up and listen. Really listen, listen hard, ask questions, and then listen more. When you listen more, you learn from others. Listening creates trust, and trust is the key factor in successful leadership. As you identify where you want to make your mark, what social justice cause matters most to you, the best way to make a difference, and the best way to make a difference is to become an expert in all facets of your chosen field. The way to become that expert is learning and listening to everyone who has an interest in the process and outcome. Someone once told me that the power of deep listening empowers others with their own voice. I can assure you this is true. So first, empower others by listening. Second, I'll share with you a phenomenon that is real and powerful and one that I wouldn't have recognized, but it happens too often not to pay attention, and that's the concept I call, thank you for telling me no. In my professional career running an early stage tech fund as well as my job as the chair of a nonprofit grant making organization, inquiries stream in daily from entrepreneurs looking for capital to help grow their business or from social service organizations looking for grants to help fund their important work. Of course, we're unable to say yes to every funding request that comes our way, but what is part of our culture and part of what we can do is let someone know our response right away, especially if it's no. As a result, my approach is to respond right back to the ambitious entrepreneur or passionate nonprofit leader and let them know that their request does not fit within our current focus or priority, and if we can, we direct them to other potential investors and funders. Almost invariably, we get the response back, thank you for telling me no. We appreciate you letting us know where we stand. Showing someone the courtesy of a timely and definitive answer, even if it's no, gives them the ability to move on to other prospects without spending further time in psychological energy, wondering when and if you'll give them an answer. If someone feels like their request has been listened to and thoughtfully considered, then telling them no can be the most helpful contribution you can make. This same concept applies to interpersonal relationships, by the way. Sometimes the hardest and most difficult thing to do is to tell someone, no, we're not interested or no, I'm not able to help you with that. As hard as that is, you do yourself and the other person a tremendous service to be clear and unequivocal in your viewpoint. I'm speaking of respectful and responsible behavior and the perception thereof. As fellow missionaries for social justice, our effectiveness is directly in proportion to our honesty, candor, trustworthiness, and personal accountability. Third and lastly, you've all undoubtedly faced difficult personal and academic challenges along the path that brought you to this point. Some of those challenges you've conquered and learned from and some of them left you with a feeling of frustration and despair. The benefit of career and activism and philanthropy has taught me is the philosophy is that there is no problem you can't give your way out of. I lost my point, I lost my place. There is no problem, put another way, excuse me, put another way, commit to develop a problem solving lens that includes service to others. What I mean by that is embodied in the legacy of President Ford who led by embracing the spirit of public service in the pursuit of common good. He truly gave of himself to others. Now, not every problem has a solution but we can bring to the problems we face a true duty, commitment, and passion to look outside ourselves for the solution. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others? Graduate of the Ford School are taught the tools you need to apply rigorous scientific methods to the pressing social problems of our day and prepare you to answer the question posed by Dr. King. As you tackle the inevitable challenges in your chosen field of endeavor, remember these three things that will help ensure your success. Empowering others through listening, developing a culture of personal philosophy of accountability, letting people know where you stand and approach problems with the commitment to develop a solution through personal service to others and to society. Now more than ever, our great country needs your generation to lead us forward, to show us that lifting others up lifts us all and to beat back the current culture of divisiveness and fear mongering. I'm humbled and grateful for the opportunity to speak with you today and my serious wishes for your future success and a very warm welcome to the wonderful network of alumni of our beloved University of Michigan. Go Blue. Thank you, David. What a wonderful message to leave us with and to inspire our students and all of us. My job now is to welcome to the stage members of one of the University of Michigan's outstanding acapella groups, the Dix and Janes. They'll perform two classics from the University of Michigan songbook for us and we'll look forward to having them come up now. That was great. Thank you. It is now my honor to tell you a little bit about the member of the faculty who's gonna be speaking now. Each year the Ford School's graduating students are asked to elect people to play key roles at commencement. One faculty member is chosen to speak to the class. I speak for free. And both sets of graduating classes choose a representative student speaker. As the faculty speaker, the classes of 2018 elected professor Megan Tomkins-Stang. And apparently you still agree. Megan has taught the Ford School since 2011. Her research and teaching interests center on the influence of private sector and philanthropic actors within the nonprofit sector, particularly in the field of public education. Megan received her PhD in education policy and organizational studies from the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. She was one of five faculty from across the university recognized with the 2018 Provost Teaching Innovation Prize. The award is given to faculty members who have developed innovative approaches to improving student learning. And this prize was based on her work with our student on philanthropic giving. I'm delighted to welcome her now to speak on behalf of our faculty. Please join me in welcoming Megan. Class of 2018, seniors, where are my seniors? Yeah, MPP and MPA students, PhD students, families, friends and loved ones. It is such an honor and a thrill for me to be up here. Thank you so much for having me be part of this important moment. And it seems I think a fitting occasion to pay homage to the words of one of the greatest poets of our time, the artist formerly known as Prince. Yeah, you know, dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life, but first to graduate the class of 2018. Can I get a name then for that? So in all seriousness, think about it. Think about the words dearly beloved for a moment. Words like these are used to welcome people, to bear witness to milestones in life from births to weddings to funerals, occasions for ceremony, for celebration and community. And so as we celebrate this momentous milestone, I think we should pause to honor exactly who your dearly beloved are. They're the people who have invested in you in this room, who've been your sources of sanctuary and support, who have stood by you as you have pursued your goals, achieved great success and triumph, achieved or sorry, transcended struggle and disappointment. Your dearly beloved are your parents, your family members, your partners, significant others and spouses, your friends and community members, your children. Where's Angelica? Where's that baby? Yeah, there you go. Thank you. All of whom are gathered here today to pay tribute to your phenomenal accomplishment. And dearly beloved, your graduates deserve every accolade you'll hear about them tonight. There are so many superlatives that I could share to convey the depth of my pride in them. And as a parent, hi girls. I know there's nothing better than when people tell you great things about your children. But as an educator, I think the best way to do that is to tell you about what I've learned from them. And where's Benit? Yep, thanks for this idea. So what have I learned from the class of 2018? I've learned what it is to be truly committed in the face of great challenge when the statistics and the demographics tell you one thing and you choose to pursue your goal anyway. Your graduates have shown up time and time again and they have shared of themselves in the class and in the community. They've shown up even as they have endured the toxic stress of racism and prejudice, of entrenched power and discriminatory politics. They've seen barriers to the world that they want and they've committed themselves to disrupting and dismantling them. They've committed to interrogating the institutions that constrain their civil and human rights and they've committed to building the institutions that, in the words of Martin Luther King famously, bend that moral arc of the universe towards justice. They've reimagined a future where things have changed, where the smug inertia of the way it's always been has crumbled and a newer, more just future has emerged and they've committed to spend their lives working for it. That's the first thing I've learned. I've also learned what it is to be courageous in the face of stigma. Your students have lived their lives authentically. They've spoken openly and honestly about their experiences with mental health, with anxiety and depression. They've changed the conversation about gender identity, sharing their experiences as LGBTQ and IA. They've shared their stories as first generation students, as low income students, as immigrants, as non-traditional students who've taken different paths along their educational trajectories and in doing so, they themselves have become true educators, opening the minds and the hearts of their peers, community members and their professors, allowing us to attempt to become allies in our own right. And they've done this whilst ensuring that they put the communities in which they work at the center of any process they're involved in, ensuring that we're not making policy based on our assumptions and points of view, but rather based on the contributions of those who are most affected by the work. And I've learned what it is to find common ground. I've seen your students engage in discussion around the most contentious of topics that are difficult. I've seen them begin to learn to speak across difference as we've heard about today, to listen with empathy, to others diverging beliefs and distinct lived experiences. And in a time of great political and personal division in our society, I've seen your graduates come together in advocating for policies and movements that are making our society healthier, safer and more equitable, especially for vulnerable and marginalized populations. I've seen them grapple with issues of great importance to our global future, from international trade to healthcare, to criminal justice reform and climate change. And more importantly, I've seen them unite around shared principles that transcend these topical areas, values like the fact that the zip code of one's birth should not determine their future. That all children, that all children, not just children who look like mine, deserve access to a highest quality public education. The gospel truth that black lives matter. And that love is love is love. Thank you. And I've also learned that the soft, say it with me, the soft stuff matters. Come on, you guys know me better than that. Though, okay, so through my interactions with students, I have learned to listen, to really listen to the perspectives of others, even when those perspectives might be at face value, antithetical to my own values. And I've learned to reexamine my ideas of what is right, rather than claiming some objective truth. I've learned to offer grace instead of judgment, to consciously try to cultivate the trust that we heard about earlier, to foster the conditions for discussions that give us the space to become the people that we're meant to be. Speaking up, making mistakes, respecting one another. And I've learned above all else that teaching is not a transactional relationship. Teaching is not just instruction, it's emotion and it's heart and caring about people and investing in others as human beings. And on, thank you. And on that note, I'd like to share a brief quote by one of my favorite writers, William Derisquitz, that aptly describes the bonds that I have so been blessed to have with Ford School students and our shared learning journey. Socrates remarks that the bond between a teacher and a student laughs a lifetime, even once the two have parted company. The feelings that we have for the teachers or the students who have meant the most to us, like those for long lost friends, can never go away. They are part of us. And the briefest thought revives them. And we know that in some heaven, we will meet again. And so, class of 2018, dearly beloved, as we gather here today to get through this thing called life, I do look forward to the time when I meet you again in some heaven. But before that, I hope to continue learning from you as you run for office, as you conduct rigorous quantitative and qualitative research, as you lead nonprofit organizations and philanthropies, as you engage in community organizing. I'm so honored to bear witness as we celebrate you and your tremendous accomplishments. And if you'll forgive me, I think Prince would endorse my quoting them, that life is just a party and parties were meant to last. And so tonight, I do hope that you celebrate this milestone like it is 1999. So thank you. Congratulations to the great class of 2018 and go live. Let me just say this to the classes of 2018. You have a good taste in speakers. Now we're gonna hear from another student that you have selected, a student that you have selected to speak from the BA class of 2018, Sojung Kim. Sojung Kim graduates today with a BA in public policy and a minor in political science from the College of Literature Science and the Arts. At the University of Michigan, she has worked for the poverty solutions initiative, the Michigan Daily, M-City and America Reads. As a Michigan in Washington participant, she completed internships with the US Department of Transportation and the US House of Representatives. She is the elected BA student representative on the Ford School's Alumni Board. After graduation, she's gonna be returning to Washington, DC as the 2018 Thomas J. O'Brien Policy Fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation. Sojung is in every way a credit to the Ford School. She's even helped bring athletic glory. She was the two-time captain of the school's intramural broom ball team, Go Betty Waps. I'm so pleased to welcome her to the podium. I'm so excited to stand on this step stool facing what would ideally be 77 of my dear peers, our families, the staff, faculty, writing instructors, friends and graduate students who have supported us all this way. Thank you to everyone here and especially to my loving mom for my life and everything in between. I'd like the audience to know that tomorrow is her birthday. So I will begin the student remarks by drawing our collective attention to the pivotal leap year of 2008. Why am I being nostalgic? Well, a few cool things happened then. 2008 was declared the international year of the potato. What else of note? We had an economic recession, a presidential election, the summer Olympics, but more personally, the Ford School admitted its inaugural class of 53 undergraduate students. That's right, 2018 marks 10 years of us college kids making our presence known in the student lounge. This of course means the BAMPP rivalry lives on to face its second decade in holiday skit jokes and bar crawl shirt designs. But today we sit here together politely, perhaps restlessly or reflectively. I've certainly been doing a lot of reflecting these past few weeks, taking meandering walks, reviewing old assignments for writing samples and being plain old sentimental, which brought me back to my Ford School application essays. Paraphrasing a bit, my sophomore self wrote, public policy as Ford teaches it and as I understand it is wedded to academic research, professional communication and compassion. Did I predict these past two years well? I would say so, yes. My classmates and I have been indoctrinated with the ship and 320 mantra, preferences policies and institutions hang together in a rough equilibrium. We edited down a lot of crisp and pithy memos. We hugged each other as the real world erupted and we marched in streets together towards higher ideals. My heart certainly won't let me forget problematizing every minutiae through true dialogue as my 495 class did, granting out $42,000 with Professor Tompkins staying and as generations of 40s do, discussing human rights and reparations in Professor Henry's seminars. We would be lying to ourselves and shutting out the last two years of our policy education if we said public policy is easy. It is so darn messy. It gets messy because people are messy and because people care deeply, we must listen to them all the more. These are stakeholders, implementers, legislators or the observant epistemic community. Sorry, jargon translation, the knowledge community of academics and scholars such as our esteemed professors here today in their full regalia. But there was something else I had not expected to gain at the corner of state and hill, something softer than a soft skill. If we consider how our policy priorities emerged, they likely came from experience, maybe anger, intellectual awe or humble inspiration. Our chosen niches and fields feed on our raw curiosity for contested public goods and elevating quality of life. I now realize what underlies research, communication and compassion. Those three buckets of a policy degree I had hypothesized two years earlier is just passion. That gut and heart for the hard work of rigorous policy intervention will keep us young even 20 years after the international year of the potato. Now let me be clear, I don't want you to leave here today feeling like a self-satisfied wonk. We all know there's so much more to learn and uncover beyond four focus area classes. We all know there's so much, I'm proudly speaking to you now from the same Rackham stage where Stephen Levitt of Freakonomics delivered the Forest School Centennial talk. While closing out his remarks, the economist applauded policy scholars for catalyzing political action with their expertise and relentless nerdiness. So let's earn that praise. I'm confident that we as graduates will carry on with the nerdy wonkery that delights or frustrates us. I believe it is our imperative to influence policy. That is where we are going and what we work toward. Tangible change is best fueled by inner growth and passion, evidence-based perhaps, but community-driven at best. I encourage us all to feel a little feisty, read up, reach out, then go out there and make some change. Thank you to my rockstar cohort for the honor and delight of learning beside you and from you with deep trust, ultimate respect and the highest of expectations. I tip my hat to you. Let's go Peacock Blue. Thank you, Seo Jung. The master's class of 2018 has elected Won Haime's Castilla to speak on their behalf. Won earned his undergraduate degree at Texas State University where he graduated as the top student in his Honors College cohort. He completed his MPP internship in Detroit last summer as a public policy fellow with United Way for Southeastern Michigan. While at Michigan, Won has served as a board representative of the U of M Latino Alumni Association and as a Rackham Professional Development Leader. This past year, Won served as the elected student representative on the Ford School's Executive Committee, a small group of faculty who set policy and helped make key decisions for the school. He's represented his fellow students extremely well on that committee and it's been a pleasure to work with and to get to know such an outstanding student leader. Won, it's an honor to welcome you to the podium. So before I begin, I gotta give a quick shout out to Rodrigo, Luz and Marble. Thank you, you're awesome. And to the immigrant community, the undocumented DACA students out there, don't quit, don't stop, keep going. I believe in you and your dreams. So I would like to dedicate this speech to my mentor who passed away two days before I first arrived to Ann Arbor. Thank you Dr. Toyar, I hope you are proud. On behalf of the graduating class, I would like to give thanks to the faculty, staff, students and alumni of the Gerald R. Ford School Public Policy for helping us navigate the complexities of graduate school. A shout out to my friends and peers. Thank you for entrusting me with this role. I am honored. A special thanks to my mentors for their never ending support. A special shout out to all the parents of us 40s for all that you have done. Un saludo a mi familia y a todos quienes nos ayudaron a llegar aquí, gracias. On a day such as this, many of us might be asking, why are we here? What drove us to pursue policy school? What sense does it make that individuals from all over the world will all come together as cohorts for a degree in policy? Is it the University of Michigan, or perhaps it's a top ranking program at the Ford School? I believe, however, it's a sense of a great purpose that we see for ourselves that brought us all here, powered by a burning desire for change. This drive to create change has pushed us to come to Ann Arbor to learn the skills necessary to do our part. While the weather has tried its best to scare many of us away, we are still here because we believe in our vision for a better tomorrow. Each of us at the Ford School, at some point in our lives, has encountered a moment where we realized that we wanted to do more, to be helpful in some area or become a voice for those who may need one. You see, these moments are not always some spectacular instance filled with sparkle or random light that shines out of the sky like in the movies. No, sometimes these are moments filled with anger, perhaps tears and sadness, or happy reflections of a fulfilling experience. For me, it's a mixture of all of this. So, how did I end up here? I started working as a landscaper at the age of six for my father who was eager to start his own business. During summer vacations, my hometown of Austin, Texas, saw me work in Monday through Saturday from five a.m. to late evenings. For 12 years, I did just that. And from the work I learned, both discipline and to respect everyone's work. With time, I also observed one thing that has stayed with me. No matter whether my clients were making 45K or a million a year, they all saw me the same, just a landscaping kit. For me, however, I saw them distinctly based on their income levels, their lifestyle and the manner in which they approached life. This taught me that in life, people are all in different places. After seeing this for so long, I also began to see myself from that lens. Working in landscaping taught me many things, how to communicate, how to see a project to the end, and how to appreciate the little things in life. This experience would help me surpass the upcoming obstacles in school. From that, I somehow managed to get into college, met great friends and amazing mentors. But as a first-gen student, I realized that my path seemed different for everyone else. This, like my landscaping days, got me thinking, why are things like this for us? What I came to realize is that so many students are impacted by a lack of resources and guidance. And so during college, I worked for Upward Bound, which is where I discovered my reason for even considering policy school. What I liked about the high school students with whom I worked is that they often kept it real with me. One particular student who was a focused athlete and always engaged with the community, always wanted to learn something new, stopped me in the hallway and asked me the following, Mr. Juan, do you really think that I can make it to college? I could not lie, his face demanded an honest answer. Listen, I said, is someone like me who had little guidance and direction with little to no resources and who is not the smartest can make it? Then yes, you will make it. For me, these students are a big part of why I am here at the Fort School. I want to be the change that will give high school students like those I met at Upward Bound, the ability to be college graduates. As you reflect on your time here at the Fort School, I ask two things of you. One, remember there are time together was more than answering the three questions. What are your policy interests? Where are you entering this summer and what are you doing after graduation? Two, hold on to that reason they got you here. Your purpose is strong enough to get you through your next step in life. Each of you has a different reason or story, but that same reason brought us together to prepare ourselves to take on the challenges facing our world. And remember, we are in it together. We are, as Jackson Boss would say, the Fort Fam. Thank you, y vamos azul. Thank you, Juan. That was terrific. Our graduates are now ready to come to the stage to receive official congratulations on a job well done. This year, the names will be read by John Chachari. John is an associate professor of public policy and the director of International Policy Center. He teaches courses on political institutions and post-conflict law and transition. John has an undergraduate and law degree from Harvard and a master's degree in PhD and international relations from Oxford. I'm pleased to introduce John to call the names of our graduating students. I also invite the members of our platform party to now step forward and help us congratulate our graduates. Thank you. We'll begin with our graduating class for the master of public policy and master of public administration. I'd ask you kindly to save your most effusive applause for the answer that all of the names can be heard. Rodrigo Acevedo. Fandi Ahmad. Mohamed Alharazi. Ghatot Arif Triaji. Nana Asare. Avery Avracadis. Yaya Bajwa. Hannah Baumann. Jonathan Beam. Peter Blank. Kate Blessing Kawamura. Daniel Bodding. Tuck Bui. Diego Campos. Nikta Chiti. Alexandra Clayton. Desmond Cole. Anthony Cozart. Sean Danino. Angelica Dejesus. Makhty Deb. Saskia Devries. Lu Ding. Dina Imam. Kyle Enox. Martha Fedorowitz. Diego Garcia Montufar. Savanatha Ngasawai. Andrea Gillespie. Anna Hansen. Gabrielle Jacqueline Horton. Yucheng Ho. Kayla Hoyer. Shinichi Ikeda. Juan Jaime Scostia. Wayne Jones. Christina Kauper. Nick Kelly. Omer Khan. Megan Clarek. Tatuhiko Koizumi. Matt Kretman. Anna Linhart. Olivia Lewis. Maisie Lee. Carmel Lim. Mengyu Liu. Sarah Magnilia. Abes Hassan Maki. Ayaz Mamadoff. Luz Viviana Mesa Huerta. Lydia Miller. Ryan Moya. Jacqueline Mullen. Erica Munoz Rumsey. Mary Rose Naomi. Matthew Nistopoulos. Eric Nolan. Jungmin Oh. Harold Panagian. Panagian. Preston Parrish. Natalie Peterson. Alana Podolsky. Gila Rajay. Minahil Raza. Stephanie Roman. Michelle Rubin. Kururama Sanchez Masumira. Jenelle Sanchez-Leos. Andrew Sakelsky. Tri Setoningsi. Yeon Jushin. Danan J. Singh. Shirin Nazari Smali. Gilberto Soria Mendoza. Denisha Sornam. Sean Stone. Anna Strizich. Ivy Tran. Timothy Trollop. Mariah Van Erman. Kalia Vang. Jackson Voss. Melvin P. Washington II. Masako Watanabe. Naoto Watanabe. Tomoyuki Watanabe. Alexi Williams. Wesley Williams. Carmen Yi. Karen Yaki. Jungun Yu. Jessica Youngblood. Maria Jose Zamora Chung. Allison Zimmerman. And now we'll turn to the graduating class for the Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy. Ali Al-Momar. Molly Aronson. Maria Arribas. Caroline Ayub. Caleb Beavers. Dylan Bennett. Garrett Burton. Kyle Butler. Charles Firestone Callis. Claire Chepron. Vinit Chandra. Evan Charney. Tiffany Chow. Tiara Angelique Christian. Joseph Cianciola. Victoria Colbert. Rowan Connebair. Daniel Distler. Bridget Doyle. Huck DuCoin. Lauren Farrell. Peter Fawley. Emily Fulks. Jeff Gamm. Caroline Garrow. Stephanie Marie Gushing. Ariba Hader. Joshua Lawrence Hoffman. Loreella Iginacolon. Ibrahim Ajaz. Ross Jablin. Nadine Jawad. Will German. Nia Joyner. Emily Kabashita. Uditikati. Ben Keller. Sarah Khan. Sojung Medline Kim. Irene Kwan. Samuel Jacob Lawrence. Gabriel Lerner. Kara Levy. Clara Lee. Elizabeth Warner McCooch. Joshua C. Martin. Avi Mendelsen. Camelia Metwally. Attila Aziz Mirsa. Imad Murad. Patrick Mullen Cufapoulos. Rhea Ninen. Audrey Pittman. Lisa Palmarance. Connor Priest. Katie Putnam. Grace Pinenin. Kate Reinertsen. Jill Rosenfeld. Megan E. Rowley. Jordan Sandman. Ilan Siegel. Anna Silver. Christian Villanueva. Steven Wallace. Katherine Warble. Andrew Watkins. Ella Webb. Julia Wygand. Melanie Welstein. Francesca Sarah Werner. Chantani Weersba. Emma Will. Ashley Wilson. The last of our BA and master students, so maybe our platform party will come sit for just a moment. Graduates, let me ask you. Please to stand and face your friends and family or guests in the audience. So, bachelor students, bachelor students, I have one more task for you. At this time, please move the tassel on your mortarboard from the right to the left. And now, I am proud to present to you the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Classes of 2018. Congratulations. Thank you all for coming. Let me ask you to please stay in your seats until the class is finished exiting the hall. We're going to have refreshments in the lobby. Enjoy.