 And I would like to welcome everyone to the celebration of our graduates. It's always so much fun. I'd like to give an especially warm welcome to our MLIS graduates, our MARA graduates and our Informatics graduates who are able to join us today. And although the pandemic is improving, there are still many challenges. So you've done a marvelous job in successfully completing your program and graduating. And I would now like to introduce our Master of Ceremonies and the Director of the School of Information, Dr. Anthony Chau. Thank you very much, Linda, for your continued leadership and also your 34 years of commitment to the iSchool. Quite incredible. Good evening. It's a true honor and privilege to preside over my first online virtual celebration as the new iSchool Director. Welcome to tonight's festivities. Special thanks to Alfredo Bethany, TC, Gina, Taryn and all of the other staff that have worked so hard to make this event a success. Now let's start off with a hearty congratulations to all of our iSchool graduates. What I'd like you to do with a term chat on graduates, please drop your name, degree, area of work, LAS profession and maybe city and state and the chat if you're willing to say hello so we can recognize you. So as the graduates are dropping their names and their locations, it just gives you an amazing indication of how diverse we are. And I see one of our faculty as well. We'll just give it a few more seconds. Well, special congratulations to all of our graduates. Hearty, congratulations for me. Those of you panelists, feel free to use your clapping hands. It's wonderful and thank you for joining us tonight. What an amazing group and we're so excited for all of you to be joining the field. We have a saying here that information is everything. Given the data, technology and information renaissance that we are in, your skills and career possibilities are pretty much endless. Those who may have given you a hard time for earning a library degree do not understand that your role, our role is more important than ever. Increasing literacy rates, especially in underserved communities, book banning, attacks on Roe versus Wade, anti-LGBQT plus laws and policies, inequitable access to the internet, broadband access, the socioeconomic and digital divides that are only getting larger, fake news, cyber attacks, misinformation, spyware, malware, et cetera are our real threats today and into the future. Maybe we need to amend our slogan to quality, vetted and safe information is everything. All of you are needed to help to ensure this type of information and data is available and equitably accessed. We have much work to do. As you proceed into your new opportunities and careers, your new high school degree affords you, let me leave you with a few parting words of advice. First, health and wellness. Please set aside time each day to focus on your own health and wellness. There are always more people to help, more data to analyze and more problems to solve, but you are the most important and we want a healthy and happy you. Two, in your own life and career, work extremely hard and treat everyone well with kindness and respect, especially those that do not afford the same to you. Success is very much an outcome of doing the right thing, the right way, and the adage you reap what you sow is very valid and true over the marathon we call life. The turtle always tends to win in the end. The road to accomplishment of goals is long and hard, both professionally and personally, and in order to accomplish your goals, you must put in the work and dedication to get things done, especially when it often looks hopeless. Find your mountaintop. Keep an eye on that mountaintop that you wish to climb to and don't stop until you reach it. Three, help more people. You are now considered elite, not elitists, as you leave SJSU with a graduate degree. You are trained, invested with knowledge, skills, and abilities, and attitudes that will allow you to identify, study, and solve problems at an advanced level. Use this to help others, especially those most in need. And to quote a world-famous philosopher, Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility. So I offer congratulations to the class of 2022. I am so proud to be standing alongside you, in person, online, in virtual reality, in mixed reality, to continue fighting the good fight to ensure people have access to high-quality information they need to make decisions and improve on their own quality of lives. You are joining over 11,000 iSchool alumni across the globe. I urge you to please stay in touch and let us know how we can help you, continue to flourish, and be successful. And I also wanted to share, before I introduce our Dean, that doing some statistical analysis, I discovered that we are number one in the nation in terms of Hispanic Latino students. We're number one in the nation in terms of Asian Pacific Islander students. And we're also number one in the nation in terms of total number of Black and African American students. I'm proud to say that because we are truly, not only the largest iSchool in the country, but also the most diverse iSchool in the country. So congratulations again, in joining those 11,000 plus iSchool alumni. So now it is my true honor to introduce you to my friend and boss, Dean of the College of Professional and Global Education, Ruth Ward. Thank you, Director Anthony Chow. We certainly have an amazing school. As Dean of the College of Professional and Global Education, celebrating our graduates is one of the most special events for me. So I'm so happy to be able to share this time with our graduating class, with friends and families, and all the faculty and staff who supported our graduates. Class of 2022, a warm congratulations on the culmination of your graduate degree. To the 720 graduates today, you have demonstrated your resourcefulness and resilience by completing a demanding course of study in the midst of a global crisis. We are so impressed with your calm determination and commitment to finishing what you have started. Through the School of Information, you have been exposed and immersed into experiences, ideas, and knowledge that have prepared you well into this digital and information age. All of you have chosen vital 21st century disciplines with numerous opportunities to put your knowledge to practice, whether it's here in Silicon Valley or in your own home communities across the state, the nation, and the world. I know you will go very far and you will take your communities with you. With our School of Information graduating more than 10% of all library information science professionals, you will soon be joining your fellow alumni in libraries, museums, think tanks, schools, government agencies, technology startups, creative agencies, social media firms, nonprofits, and more. You will no doubt be significant contributors and leaders in these organizations and institutions. And now, I want to invite you to pause and remember with immense gratitude, every person that supported you and cheered you on in your journey to get this to this moment. Do pause and really think about them and thank them. Yes, thank your moms, dads, partners, spouses, kids, grandparents, friends, and mentors. This celebration is made even more special by your loved one's presence throughout your journey. We, the faculty, staff, and administration of this college are so very proud of you. We cannot wait to see your future achievements. Congratulations once again and cheers to all of you. Thank you, Roo, for your warm remarks. Next, I would like to recognize our two college associate deans. First is Sandy Hirsch and the other is Nami Shukla. Sandy, who has been the high school director for over a decade and was likely the chair for many of you during your time with us, would also like to say a few words. Sandy? Thank you so much, Dr. Chow. And as the past high school director, I am especially thrilled to celebrate with you today and to offer my heartfelt congratulations on your incredible accomplishment. Your hard work and dedication have led to the completion of your degree and have in turn opened up a world of exciting opportunities. You have mastered key skills that are in high demand in today's workplace, whether you are working in a library, archive, school or nonprofit or other information organization. I can't wait to see how you use these important skills to make a difference in the profession and in your communities. Congratulations again. Thank you very much, Sandy. Next, we would like to introduce the recipient of the Ken Haycock Award for exceptional professional promise. And this would be our high school student for a few more days, Kristen Pease. Thank you. Hello and welcome. San Jose State University, high school dean, Dr. Chow, Dr. Main who serves as intern director for just about all my time here. SJSU High School Faculty, Administration and 2022 graduates, congratulations. We did it. Thank you all along with Dr. Haycock who made this award possible for your guidance, encouragement and support. In 1997, Michael Gorman wrote a book, Our Singular Strengths in which included a rephrasing and revamping of Reagan-Anthony's Five Laws of Library Science. It was an audacious undertaking and not, in my opinion, entirely successful even after cutting him slack for severely underestimating technology's future. But one of the rephrasing struck me and stuck with me from the moment I read it. Gorman rewrote the third law, every reader his book to read I Will Be the Connection between the users of my library and the materials they need. That idea of being a connection has informed every step of my MLIS journey. I decided to get a graduate degree, a master's in MLIS in order to make a career change from television to librarianship. Now in show business, people talk a lot about the power of information, the importance of knowing something first, of knowing the right people and then guarding that information within silos of companies and networks and agencies. But at SGSU, I learned that the true power of information is made manifest by sharing it, not hoarding it. Librarians are a bridge between a library's gifts and its community. Sharing knowledge is what librarians do, grounded in a deep belief in the power of ideas, in the good of a well-informed community, in the benefit of a curiosity stated in an intellect stimulated. Whether through improved discoverability, broader accessibility, wider outreach, or increased literacy, librarians facilitate the spread of knowledge in public libraries, academic libraries, special libraries and school libraries. Taking the knowledge and the sharing of knowledge seriously is perhaps more important now than ever. Just as we are all able to share tonight's ceremony together, yet apart online, so too does more and more information become a click away on the internet. For the first time in history, we can easily reach outside our own life in the round, as Dr. Chapman described it, and put information into our own created context. Today, following Reagan-Anthony's Third Law means more than putting the right book into the right hands, it means helping to create networks of information. As David Weinberger put it in his book, Too Big to Know, no longer can we tease apart information, communication and society. For me, and I suspect just about everybody else in attendance tonight, helping to create those networks of information is exciting, and joyful, and a little bit intimidating, but mostly well worth the work put into earn a master's in library and information science. Doing that work semester by semester, I expected to learn the tools of the librarian trade, cataloging and classification, collection management, user services, and then as I began to focus on academic librarianship, those expectations broadened to include learning about scholarly communication and bibliographic instruction, research methods. Yet, some of the most impactful lessons that I learned were also the most unexpected. Perhaps I've been jaded by years in Hollywood, a business known for swimming with sharks and professional tantrums, but the sincere commitment to collaboration and cooperation among my classmates was a revelation in every class, in every blog, every discussion board, webinar and conference. I witnessed future librarians and future information scientists living the promise of information as power by sharing knowledge with each other. Generosity of my classmates in exchanging lived experiences, successes and failures has done as much to shape my academic and career goals as assigned coursework. All the most more remarkable, I think, considering it was done over Zoom from around the world and rarely ever in real time. As an high school graduate, my expectations are shifting yet again. Mainly, I expect to get a job as a librarian at some point and my hopes have been further refined. Librarian Peter Moorville wrote, the information that's hard to find will remain information that's hardly found, which I believe, and I believe to be true for librarians themselves. My hope for us all is that we leave SJSU with a belief in the power of shared knowledge that never wanes, that we continue to ask for and offer help with an open mind and open heart and stand where we may be found in real life and online. Here's hoping we go forth with our new degrees and continue to champion for creativity in all its formats and freedom in all its forms. And may we never take for granted the opportunity in front of us to be a connection that makes a difference. Thank you all and congratulations. Truly wonderful remarks, Kristen, thank you so much. So next, it is my great privilege to introduce to you Patty Wong, the president of the American Library Association, new friend, city librarian for the Santa Clara City Library and iSchool adjunct faculty. Patty. Thank you, Anthony, for that great introductions and congratulations to the class of 2022. So can you imagine a world in which you had to wear a mask most of your waking hours and where you can identify your colleagues from the bridge of their nose up? And now in this new environment, we sometimes don't even recognize our colleagues except in that context. This class is one of the most versatile, the most innovative and creative and tenacious and resilient because of the challenges you faced as classmates and colleagues in this most unprecedented time. You have weathered Zoom fatigue, multi-tasking to the nth degree and sequestering in place for extraordinary lengths of time along all of that wonderful coursework and innovation that you've created as teams. You've learned to collaborate with your colleagues and have developed new tools and resources and ways of learning. Where this experience as a badge of honor on your resume? And one of the things that I wanted to do today is to tell, if I could tell my younger self something that was important, what would it be? And I wanted to put this in the context of the current state of the profession and what that holds for us. So here are a few things I wish my younger self knew after I received my MLIS. Number one, everything changes. What we know to be true is that change is constant. What we know is that the way of life in libraries and information centers and archives and schools pre-COVID is no longer our North Star. We can no longer be satisfied with past traditions. Our new normal is one of reinvention and vitality and reinvestment in ourselves, in our mission and in our communities. Our new normal is one where community needs outstripped staff complacency and conventionality and comfort. Our communities will share their voices with their feet and make choices about how they receive and seek and process information and where they choose to invest in those conduits. These outlets may not include information centers who insist and cling to older ways. Number two, library work is community work. Libraries can and perhaps should be part of the community's cultural evolution, but they don't need to be at the center. Perhaps libraries should, libraries, information centers, archives should consider a different kind of role moving from transactional to transformational, from awareness to action to activism. What is our place in community building as activating or creating environments and tools for going beyond community outreach to community engagement? Part of the greatest opportunities we have within our own communities is just showing up. Show up when and where you can in your volunteerism, in your workplace and your community will benefit. What does embeddedness look like in your communities? And remember that partnerships enhance the work. Number three, equity, diversity and inclusion is an imperative in our work in libraries, not just as it should, but as a must. Our role in continuing to represent communities and our lens of equity that we bring access enables us as a calling to stand with our colleagues to make the change that we seek. Number four, libraries, information managers, those that are interested in archives and school librarians, we are all champions of advocacy and community and staff engagement. I would be remiss if I didn't mentioned the current need to pay attention to the rise in bookmaning. The role that we play in collection development and professional assessment and development of collections and materials is incredibly important. The assault on the freedom to read and to read freely is something that we need to be mindful of and to always champion intellectual freedom. There have been more than 700 bands this last year alone, more than 1,500 challenges. That is more than we've ever had in the past 20 years. So I hope that you join us at Unite Against Bookmans.org to support the work and to continue. Advocacy also means volunteering where and when you can in our profession. I encourage you to be a member of your state chapters wherever that may be and to advocate and participate in committee work and in governance. Remember that language is important. It counts as purveyors of the word in a variety of formats be that advocate for literacy at all levels, especially from the perspective of equity. Number five, positioning through strengths. What sets you apart? What's your superpower? Lean into that. Your skills and strengths are such strong assets that you bring to whatever situation that you may be in. And you have not only wonderful experience through this program, but you bring integrity and a sense of commitment to information and the betterment of the world. Remember that you do not have to be like someone else in order to be noticed. There will be an inclination sometimes in your life to mirror someone you admire. Be comfortable in yourself. Develop your own top 10 and reframe from the mimic. Number six, lead from every position. Don't walk alone. The most effective leaders work with and through others at crucial times. And not everyone will be a director someday, but if you want to, there are so many colleagues out there that will help you get there. Number seven, invest in yourself. Create the world you want to see. Let disappointments give you clarity and vision and a sense of vulnerability where we learn from our mistakes with grace and kindness. Remember, you are capable. You have allies. Seek a mentor. Be a mentor. Create inspiration and pay it forward. Manage change. Don't let it manage you. Remember that your response is the only thing that you can control. Fill your life with critical thinking and appreciative inquiry and intellectual curiosity. That continuing education and commitment to learning that you carry with you forward will be such a strong value as you continue in your life and in your profession. Don't settle though. Make sure that you go after the things that you want. And as Dr. Chow said, please take care of yourself. Self-care is so important. Do what you love. Number eight, your passion is so important and so critical to your engagement and your betterment of the community that we live in. Number nine is very quickly, what does success look like for you? As an exercise, I challenge all of you to do this. Think about what the legacy you want to leave. As you enter the profession and in your career path and in your life, jot it down. Look at that list regularly over time. Don't leave things just to happenstance. You have so much to offer. Number 10, ambassadors. Sometimes you are the only one in the room. What impact can you make on your new colleagues? You represent the profession at its very best as San Jose alum and as a member of this great class. Be that ambassador. You are all leaders in your own right. Wear that proudly. You have a passion for the work and we are so proud of you. Carry yourself as an executive everywhere. It is what actually the iSchool is known for. As I look at all of you and I want to share with you, congratulations again. I see the future influencers of our profession and I am so proud of the changes you make continually and continue to push us all to be and do better. Enjoy the journey. It is uniquely yours. Have fun. Congratulations again. And thank you. Thank you so much, Patty, for your vision and your leadership. Wonderful remarks. Our next keynote speaker is Eileen Vadrin, former chief data officer for the Air Force and currently the senior strategic advisor for data to the federal CIO, office of management and budget, the White House. Eileen. Thank you for inviting me here today. Dr. Chow, Dr. Main, Dr. Hord, Dr. Hirsch, Dr. Sukla, faculty, staff, friends and family and graduates of 2022. I am truly honored to be included in this very important day. It's truly amazing. My name is Eileen Vadrin and today I have the honor to be serving as the senior strategic advisor for data to the federal chief information officer. If you've ever heard me speak, you'll likely hear me say data is a team sport and all of you are part of this team. Our graduates would not be here today without an amazing support team. So I'd like to first begin by thanking all of the friends and family, faculty and staff that have helped get our graduates here today to help them celebrate this major milestone because you are part of their team. But when I was asked to come here today, I was really trying to find the right words and it said that data has always been part of my leadership journey. So when I really started to think about what I could offer today's graduates, I started to look at my journey from enlisted soldier to senior strategic advisor to the federal CIO and what wisdom could I share with our graduating professionals. My son is a rising college senior and he will always offer what he calls data points when he wants to get his attention or my attention to make his point. And although I love large numbers, today I'm gonna offer my big three data points. The first data point is one lesson that comes from my dad and we've heard it today already, love what you do. My father didn't have the opportunity to go to college. He worked in construction and it was not his love. He did this work to care for his family. And I know that there are many of you here today that are graduating because of the opportunities and support of your hardworking families. So data point one, if you love what you do, it's not work. And it aligns exactly with what Steve Jobs said in a commencement address at Stanford. He told graduates, you've got to find what you love. You work, your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. And if you haven't found it yet, keep looking, don't settle. And as in all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And I look back, my dad wasn't a tech giant, but he was correct, find the work you love. That brings me to the second data point and I call that be ready. When I graduated from Ithaca College, data science wasn't even an area of study. However, my love for quantitative analysis was always part of my journey. I like to say it's been always part of my core DNA. Early in my career, I served as a transportation officer in the United States Army. And one of my first assignments was a platoon leader in a large truck unit in Mannheim, Germany. My soldiers spent a significant amount of time changing very large tires, very physical work. My soldiers love serving their country, but most didn't love changing tires. I remember calculating tire costs, the cost per mile. Today, condition-based maintenance is an industry best practice. But as a leader, I was just using data-driven insight to influence decision-making to optimize performance. The more I integrated data-driven insights into my decision-making, the more I continued to study leading edge tools and techniques, as we have all learned over the last few years, the world will change. And we need to be ready with state-of-the-art skills and a passion to seize each opportunity ahead of us. So data point two is be ready. And it brings me to data point three, dream big. It sounds very simple, but today I have this honor to serve as this senior strategic advisor for data. The day I graduated, I had no concept that that was possible, which also brings me back to data point two, you have to be ready. After serving in the Army, I pursued opportunities in industry and in academe. But after September 11th, I returned to federal service, specifically to support the intelligence community in various assignments. First at the Defense Intelligence Agency, next to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and then in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, all amazing opportunities to perform important work. Then one day, I received an email about a new program called the White House Leadership Development Program, an opportunity for federal career employees to work at the highest levels of government and to work across federal agencies on priority goals. It sounded like an amazing opportunity, but what were the chances of being selected for a program like this? I went to my mentor, and my mentor told me to dream big, go for it. She didn't ask me if I was going to apply. She told me apply exclamation point. I was also told to be part of the solution. It was a game-changing opportunity to my career. I was selected to participate in this program with a cohort of 14 fellows, all from different federal agencies, leading initiatives at the federal level across federal agencies. And this experience became a springboard for my selection to serve as the chief data officer for the Department of the Air Force, which today is a military department with two military services, the United States Air Force and the United States Space Force. It's hard to imagine a career as a government agency chief data officer when I graduated, the chief data officer position really didn't exist in the federal government and enlisted soldier to a senior executive. And I got here by following what I love and following the data. It illustrates also extraordinary opportunities to work and serve in public service. Today, the office of the federal CIO is driving data innovation across the federal enterprise. The recent presidential executive order on transforming federal customer experience and service delivery to rebuild trust in government includes improving the efficiency and effectiveness of data sharing and support processes among federal agencies with state and local governments. It's about maximizing the value of data to support the American people in a secure and trustworthy manner. I wanted to highlight this because to operationalize this vision, it takes the skills of the graduates today in the class of 2022. So in closing, today's graduates are just beginning a new journey. I hope you continue to love data as much as I do. I hope you will continue your lifelong journey to continue to learn, to be bold, to be intentional and to be ready for the opportunities that lie ahead of you. Remember, life is not a TikTok video. It is, this is your one and only life and this is your opportunity to dream big. I started as a Walt Disney World intern many years ago and we always talked about what Walt Disney would say. And one of his famous statements is you can design, create and build the most wonderful place in the world but it takes people to make the dream a reality. Congratulations class of 2022. You are ready. Thank you so much, Aileen, for your words of wisdom and your service to our country. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us. And I know several of our graduates are looking for positions. So thank you so much. Once again, a heartfelt congratulations to all of our 720 high school graduates which to put into context is larger than the entire enrollment of all other L.S. programs except for two other programs. Many thanks to our guests and celebration speakers for taking the time to share your wisdom with all of us. We also have arranged an after party in our virtual reality space. And so I just wanted to mention if you haven't tried it, it is quite fun. It's super easy, browser based. It will not require you to download or install any new software. It does work best in either Mozilla Firefox or Chrome browsers. If you're not sure, give it a try. The link to the VR rooms will be made available in chat at the end of the ceremony. So take care and be safe and enjoy learning more about our 112 graduates who submitted a profile. Our celebration video will run for 20 minutes and the chat will be turned on for best wishes and congratulations. At the end of that video, that will conclude the celebration although we hope to see many of you in our new virtual reality space after party. So once again, thank you so much for joining us.