 to the iSchool's fifth virtual convocation ceremony. I'm Dr. Sandy Hirsch and it is my privilege to serve as professor and director of the School of Information. Today represents the culmination of all of your hard work and I'm extremely proud of each and every one of you. Today we are gathered for a convocation, which is a calling together. I am joined by graduating student speaker, John Luke Christensen and our invited convocation speaker, Luis Herrera. I am delighted to have them both be part of the ceremony today. We will end today's convocation with a special video dedicated to our graduates that was prepared by our student leaders. We are here today together to celebrate your achievements, which you accomplished with the love and support of dear family, friends and colleagues. Many of you thanked your parents, siblings, spouses, partners and children and even your pets on your graduate profile page of the virtual convocation website. It was really heartwarming to read on your posts. I hope that those special to you have joined the session to celebrate with you today. Family and friends who are online, please post a congratulatory message on your graduates page after the ceremony. You can also hear each graduates name read out with their degree on the virtual convocation website. You will find the recordings of today's speeches on the virtual convocation website within the next couple of days. This is our school's 50th convocation since we first achieved accreditation from the American Library Association. Our mission is to educate information professionals who contribute to the well-being of our global communities and to expand the library and information science knowledge-based through research and scholarship. There is so much to celebrate as a school. One of the many highlights of this academic year is that our school became the 97th member of the iSchools organization, a consortium of global information schools dedicated to advancing the information profession and supporting the iSchool movement. As part of the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant to investigate the potential blockchain technology, we offered a MOOC, which is a massive open online course on blockchain and decentralization for the information industries. And we had an enrollment of nearly 1,000 participants from all around the world. We also expanded our programs with the addition of a third master's degree and MS in informatics, which will begin this fall. Our students under the direction of Professor Bernier founded a new student group focused on helping first-generation students navigate graduate school. Today's student speaker, John Lou Christensen, was also instrumental in the formation of this group serving as its first student president. Another highlight is the publishing of the International Directory of National Archives, a feat tirelessly worked on by faculty, alumni, and students. Our program offerings cover the gamut of career opportunities in the information professions. We offer a nationally ranked and accredited MLS degree, the teacher librarian credential, an advanced certificate in strategic management of digital assets and services, a post master's certificate in library and information science, and a gateway PhD program. This is the third year that we have graduates who have earned the MLS or MARA degree and the advanced certificate in digital assets and services at the same time. Today, we honor graduates from all of these programs. We are celebrating the achievements of 580 students who are graduating today. Since all of our programs are delivered online, we have students from all 50 states and six countries. We are grateful that they have entrusted their education to us. Our graduates today represent a good cross-section of the overall student body, representing the United States, Canada, and Lebanon. Our graduates frequently commented on their graduation profiles that they enjoyed having the opportunity to meet people from all around the world in their classes. One student explained, while in the program, I had the opportunity of working with students from around the world, especially from the United States and Korea. We respected and learned from each other's diverse cultures. We shared our experiences and shared the different work environments and career pathways. Another student shared how learning with students from all around the world helped her to understand the ways public libraries are similar and differ in different areas of the country. The diversity of perspectives present in our online programs is also a unique benefit for our students. A graduate explained that the breadth of exposure to new ideas and differing worldviews has greatly brought in my own field of thought. It is gratifying to see how well-prepared our graduates are to serve our global communities. Graduates also expressed that if it weren't for the flexibility of the online format, they would not have been able to obtain their educational goals. For example, graduates shared some of the things that they liked best about online learning were being able to work a full-time job in the evenings and complete coursework at the early hours of 3 a.m. Listening to lectures in bed and meeting people I would never have contacted with otherwise. Getting to know some incredibly brilliant fellow students and learning from very supportive and creative professors. Finishing my MLIS at the pace I chose and during the hours that worked for me. And also being able to complete internships and gain valuable experience while completing my coursework. I also appreciated our graduates' honesty in their comments about what they're looking forward to next now that they've completed the program. Common responses included relaxing, reading for pleasure, free time with my family, no homework, catching up on sleep and traveling. I hope you will visit our virtual convocation website and browse their graduate profiles. We offer our students a broad range of courses enabling them to design their curriculum to best meet their needs and interests. As an example, our courses range from the study of early manuscripts and books to the management and curation of digital assets. We offer many outstanding opportunities for students to get involved in the school, such as serving on the editorial board of the school's student research journal, helping other students as peer mentors and participating in award-winning student chapters of professional associations. Our school offers many ways to engage with other information professionals and to keep current, such as our highly successful virtual library 2.0 conferences. As new alumni, it is my hope that you will participate in the upcoming library 2.019 mini-conferences on June 5th focused on open data and on October 30th focused on emerging technologies. These are great ways to build your professional connections, share your knowledge with others and continue your lifelong learning. Our open classes program enables professionals to take just a single class or two in our program without being matriculated students. These are all excellent ways that you can continue your professional development and connection with the school after you graduate. We also offer free online webinars featuring experts in the field on a variety of relevant topics, including career guidance. We are very fortunate to have exceptional award-winning faculty, students and alumni who are influencing the future of the information profession. Just to mention a couple of highlights, this year our alumni were selected for the American Library Association's coveted I Love My Librarian Award and library journals Movers and Shakers Award. 10 of our students were selected as 2018 ALA Spectrum Scholars and five alumni and one student are among the ALA Emerging Leaders Class of 2019. I would also like to recognize the four exceptional students who are selected to receive a Director's Award for Excellence for their outstanding efforts during their graduate program. One was awarded an intellectual inquiry to Karen Bliss. One was awarded in diversity and inclusion to Victor Betts and one was focused on innovation and that was awarded to Karen Nice Wender and one was awarded for a building community and that was awarded to Jennifer Castle. I would like to acknowledge our faculty who are joining us today and our staff who have worked hard to ensure that everything runs smoothly in the iSchool. We all work to support you in your education and as you enter the professional world. As San Jose State University graduates, you bear the responsibility today and tomorrow for demonstrating the impact that librarians and information professionals have on the well-being of their communities, whether it's in college and university environments, government environments, school environments, public library environments or corporate environments. Congratulations to all of you. You've done it. You should be proud of your accomplishments. We certainly are. Each year, the faculty invites us students who best exhibits the most exceptional professional promise for leadership to address the convocation. This student receives the Ken Haycock Award for exceptional professional practice and is asked to serve as the graduate speaker. This year's speaker is John Luke Christiansen. John Luke came to our school with his bachelor's degree in history and a minor in anthropology from Cal State Fullerton and very shortly after that, he started his MLIS studies at the iSchool. When asked why he decided to pursue an MLIS degree, he said it was because he wanted to be in a field that could influence positive change. He also felt that the MLIS degree would give him the flexibility and breadth of knowledge to have a successful career in a variety of fields and future endeavors. As an MLIS student, John Luke especially valued the variety and diversity of subjects he studied and the skills he developed. He has thrived academically and was invited to join the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society for his excellent academic record. John Luke definitely made the most of his time as a student in our program. In addition to the academic courses he took, he also completed an internship and actively engaged in student leadership opportunities. His internship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory led to a full-time position there as a records management specialist. He began this full-time position while he was still a student. When he started the iSchool, John Luke wasted no time in getting involved in student organizations. As a new student, he immediately jumped into a leadership role in the Special Libraries Association Student Chapter as the assistant programming director and Southern California liaison. And he later, he served as vice president, president-elect, president, and then past president of the SLA student group. John Luke is now serving as director at large, a membership director for the Southern California chapter of the Special Libraries Association. In addition to his deep involvement in SLA, John Luke has also served as the founder and first president of a new student organization that I mentioned before called the First Generation Student Group. This important student group was formed to provide social and professional support to students who may be the first in their families to pursue post-secondary education. I am pleased that even as John Luke is celebrating his completion of the MLIS degree and the Advanced Certificate in Digital Asset Management Services, he's already looking ahead into the future and how he will continue to grow and advances in information professional. He plans to pursue several certifications and possibly a PhD. As John Luke and all the rest of our iSchool graduates launch the next phase of your careers, I look forward to hearing about all the ways that you will be at the forefront and will be making a difference in your communities all around the world. It is my pleasure now to present John Luke Christensen. Thank you, Dr. Hirsch, for your kind words and generous introduction. It has truly been a pleasure to get to know you and work with you over these past several years. I would like to express my gratitude for your dedication to the school as well as the programs and students it serves. I would also like to extend a special thank you to all of the members of the administration, faculty and staff who have each contributed to getting us here. We could not have done it without you. To be awarded the 2019 Ken Haycock Award for Exceptional Professional Promise is an incredible honor that I will be forever grateful for. This would not be possible without the generous contributions of Dr. Haycock himself, whom I would like to personally thank for his dedication to the profession and advancing future generations within it. Each of us here today was, in one form or another, inspired, supported and believed in by someone. To all those people, I thank you on behalf of the 2019 graduating class. To my extended family, friends, peers, colleagues and mentors who have supported me all these years, I can say nothing more than thank you from the bottom of my heart. Personally, I cannot express in words how grateful I am to my best friend and greatest champion, my husband, Devin. Your unwavering support throughout this adventure has made it all possible. I look forward to the next great chapter of our life together. Today, I want to ask each of you to think about information within a somewhat different context from our usual theories and practices of organization, access and so on. Instead, I would like you to think about information and the power that it possesses. I think we would all agree there's no singular definition for the term information. If you don't believe me, just ask my group of information professional colleagues who broke into roaring laughter this past week when I asked them all for their favorite definitions. It was almost a bloodbath. However, I beg you all to indulge me in one definition of many that I believe is relevant and accurate for the context of my words today. Personally, I believe information can be defined as any tangible or intangible object that has the ability to communicate something when experienced. Broad, I know, but I think it works. For the definition of power, I look to the ideas of the French historian, anthropologist and philosopher, Michel Foucault, who argued that quote, power is everywhere and comes from everywhere. End quote. He argued that power is without its own agency or ability to act and instead is manipulated for both good and bad by those with agency. For him, knowledge is the key to guiding power in a manner that allows for it to exert influence within a society. So what does that mean for us? For me, applying these two definitions for information and power equate to a world where information is all around us. Like power, information is in everything we experience and engage with. Information is the delivery system for imparting knowledge that allows agents of power to exert influence within society. In other words, information leads to knowledge and knowledge leads to power. Think about it this way. Consider everything you know, even the seemingly smallest of things. Now think about how your life would be different without that knowledge. In turn, consider everything you don't know and how different your life would be if you did. Think about how even the seemingly smallest of things for most, like being able to read has a profound influence on your abilities in life. Think about the freedom that that knowledge gives you over your own life and even the lives of others. Personally, I have seen this in my work helping to found the iSchool's first generation student group with Dr. Anthony Bernier. I have seen and experienced firsthand the challenges that come from not having the information and knowledge to navigate unfamiliar worlds. I have also seen how helping others to gain the knowledge and information I lacked has empowered all involved toward a better future. For me, this is the power of information. But why does this matter here and now? Today, we celebrate our official entrance into the field of information professionalism. We are declaring that we are exceptionally skilled and knowledgeable about the systems and mechanisms for creating, identifying, preserving and disseminating information. This also declares that we have a more direct connection than others to one of the most significant sources of power. To me, this comes with the responsibility to act and to act in a way that provides for the betterment of our society. Most importantly though, I think this responsibility comes with something even greater, which is opportunity. Whether a children's librarian who works to inspire the young to find their own power and knowledge or an archivist who preserves the historical record to ensure that the future has greater potential than the past, we all have the power to be positive influences. In an information abundant world, we live in a time when misinformation, disinformation and yes, even lack of information have resulted in the climate of political, social and economic hardship for so many. I believe that the information profession is fundamentally one of service where we strive to fulfill the needs of others no matter how small or large. Therefore, I want to challenge us all to think about how in our own ways we can use our power to contribute to making the world better. Even if that is just one person at a time. And in doing so, I want us to especially focus on the ways that we have now been empowered to empower others. For those of you who don't know, I have had the incredible opportunity of working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and for the California Institute of Technology at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is the honor of a lifetime for which I will always be grateful for many reasons. However, two stand out above the rest. First, I get to work with an organization who according to the law that established it has the primary purpose of existing for, quote, the benefit of all mankind. End quote. Second, I get to jointly work for an organization whose motto is quote, dare mighty things. End quote. This motto stems from the words of President Theodore Roosevelt who said, quote, far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat. End quote. For each person, the definitions of mighty and glorious may be subjective. But today I ask you all to join me in saying congratulations to all of us on our glorious triumph in achieving these mighty accomplishments. So whether your future careers involve mighty acts like serving those in need, inspiring or assisting people of different generations or backgrounds towards greater knowledge, working to preserve the past or innovating for the future, go forth and do so with your fullest potential. Use the information, knowledge and skills you have gained throughout your time at the high school and beyond to exert your power in a manner that empowers others and allows you yourself to serve and dare mighty things. Thank you. Thank you very much for your terrific words. I know that they were very inspiring for all of us. So thank you and congratulations again. It is now my honor to introduce our school's 2019 convocation speaker, Luis Herrera, who is San Francisco Public Library and a librarian emeritus. Luis holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Texas at El Paso, a Master of Library Science from University of Arizona and a Master of Public Administration from Cal State Long Beach. Luis believes that libraries are a vital government service that enhance and enrich the quality of life in our communities. He says that his personal vision is to promote public libraries as innovative and dynamic learning organizations. There is no question that Luis has lived up to this vision throughout his impressive career in public libraries. Luis got his start in public libraries at the El Paso, Texas Public Library, but then worked for nearly 30 years in public libraries in California, at Long Beach, San Diego, Pasadena and most recently San Francisco. During his 13 years as director of the San Francisco Public Library, Luis was an inspiring and accomplished leader, overseeing a massive renovation and construction of branch libraries, hiring a full-time social worker to address homelessness and mental health issues in the library among many other major accomplishments. He has worked tirelessly in professional service roles. He is currently serving as chair of the American Library Association Center for the Future of Libraries Advisory Board and on the Institute of Museums and Libraries Board, which he was appointed to by President Obama. Throughout his career, he has been deeply involved in several professional associations. In addition to serving as a council member for the American Library Association, he was elected as president of several associations, the Public Library Association, the California Library Association and Reforma. He is past chair of Cal Humanities and a founding member of the Digital Public Library of America. He has also served on numerous communities, steering committees, advisory boards, board of directors and trustee roles. Additionally, he served on our iSchools International Advisory Board and provided excellent guidance to our school. He has received many recognitions for his distinguished service and contributions to the library profession. He received the Library Journal, Librarian of the Year Award, as well as several awards for the contributions he has made to communities, such as the Community Partnership Award from the Urban League. More recently, the San Francisco Public Library received the Library Journal, Library of the Year Award and Luiz received the Award of Merit from the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society. Luiz is an innovative thinker and an inspirational leader who is always willing to try new things and adapt to changing environments. All important characteristics of successful information professionals today. I am very excited that Luiz Herrera is here to share his thoughts with our graduates today who are just launching their new careers in the library and information science field. It is my great honor to introduce Luiz Herrera. Thank you so much, Dr. Herz, for that very generous and warm introduction. I feel like I'd love to begin my career again and get very excited about it. So good afternoon, everyone, and congratulations, graduates, on reaching this wonderful milestone. And John Luke, I want to also add my congratulations to you for those impactful words. Well done. Thank you, Dr. Herz, for the invitation to offer remarks to this virtual celebration. It's an honor to celebrate your accomplishments. And I know that all of you will join me in extending our gratitude to those who have supported you in this endeavor, your spouses, partners, parents, family and friends, and, of course, the professors and staff at the San Jose State University School of Information. I am really thrilled for all of you because, as you mentioned, I completed my 40-plus-year career in library science. But I know that all of you are just about to embark on an amazing experience. And it's great to know that the library field continues to evolve in a dynamic and relevant way. I entered the profession a long time ago, not quite the age of dinosaurs, but prehistoric. You know, the days of card catalogs, the CD-ROMs, microfiche, and one elective class in computer science. You get the picture. It was a time when we could only envision how computing would change the world in our profession. All of you, on the other hand, are part of a new generation of library professionals equipped with expertise in a broad knowledge base that has prepared you for the digital world. What I don't envy is that you're also entering the field at a time when we're facing challenges on many fronts, strife and fragmentation in our nation and across the globe, challenges to our privacy, so-called fake news, growing disparity and inequality, and even a backlash on the merits of technology. What does this mean for the value of libraries and librarianships? And what difference can you make as you enter into your career? Well, I don't have the answers for you. I'm gonna try to offer perspectives on what made the profession great for me, and perhaps get you to think about how you can have an impact as a librarian. In a way, I'm going back to the future, little old school. I was not destined to be a librarian. I am the accidental librarian because I came across the career through happenstance. In fact, my first experience in libraries was pretty awful. It started off great. My twin brother and I went on a class visit to our neighborhood branch. It was a brand new library, and we took out books. As children of immigrants, we were unfamiliar with the rules and systems of the public library. We didn't understand that books were borrowed, so we never returned to books. It was at a time when libraries actually had truant officers that would go to your home to return unreturned books. Every day that summer, we dreaded anyone knocking at our door, fearing that it was the library police. Thankfully, they never came, but it certainly made for a lousy summer. We didn't go back to the library for many years afterwards, and I've always had this institutional fear of libraries. I think my penance for that transgression was becoming city librarian at San Francisco. So my journey began when I was accepted into a fellowship program at the University of Arizona, geared to train bilingual, bicultural librarians to serve underserved communities. That scholarship changed my life forever. The program under the auspices of Dr. Arnulfo Trejo was called the Graduate Library Institute for Spanish-speaking Americans, or GLISA. Thanks to GLISA, I was exposed to core values that guided me throughout my career. I learned about social justice, and equity is core values. And I also benefited from the great pioneers who sought to make librarianship more inclusive and representative. Leaders such as E.J. Josie, Elizabeth Martinez, and Betty Terrock. It wasn't always easy because inclusion sometimes rang hollow in libraries in our profession. But now, I'm proud that our profession has embraced this value and is more attentive to examining our service models, our collections, and our staffing with a vision towards racial equity and diversity. I was also fortunate to have had a career that has literally taken me places from China to New Zealand and Australia, Brazil. My library adventure, I guess, was no accident. It gave me the experience to advocate for libraries all over the world. Yet my most meaningful adventures happened in my own state of California as I worked in remarkable libraries in great cities that weave the beautiful tapestry that is our state. From Long Beach to San Diego to Pasadena and finally, San Francisco. The opportunity for success for you is profound, and I'd like to share with you what worked for me and it begins with another story. So, going back to my first job as a school librarian, it was my former middle school in my hometown of El Paso, Texas. I took great pride in teaching library skills to students during class visits. One day, I gave students an assignment to search for a book title using the card catalog. One particular student was having a difficult time and came to me explaining that he couldn't find the book. I didn't pay much attention, but simply told him to get me the call number and we'd look for it together. The next thing I knew, he came back with a torn edge of the card catalog with a call number. He took me literally. I realized then that information skills take time to learn. The discovery for the young student was about learning to access information as simple as it seems. And so long ago, that story is etched in my mind as core to my values about information literacy and empowering our youth and our community. Today, with the attack on principles of democracy, this value resonates more than ever before. And in this era of fake news, the value of access and authenticity becomes more critical. Eliminating barriers was also embedded in my librarian DNA as were the values of equity and inclusion and intellectual freedom. Although these values were consistent throughout my career, they came to the forefront in a significant way during the last years of my tenure. I remember the 2016 presidential election and the outcome that led rise to immigrant bashing and hate mongering. My staff and colleagues in many other libraries wondered what role libraries would play during this time of discord and in some instances, disillusionment. In San Francisco, we took pause and recognized that libraries were pillars of democracy that could play a part in our community. We initiated the All Our Welcome campaign to ensure that every person regardless of color, creed or sexual orientation would be welcomed in libraries and to support this role in a sanctuary city. This became a movement across the country and helped reinforce the singular role that libraries play across America as bastions of freedom and democracy. As librarians, you need to subscribe to a set of values and establish your vision of what libraries stand for. Values will define you and will guide your decisions, choices and opportunities. I trust that among these values, equity, social justice and intellectual freedom will stand strong. Another aspect that I love about librarianship is that it centers around relationships and people. I love the humanity among us. In all of my career successes, I am most proud and grateful for the network of friendships and colleagues that I've come to know and relish. In many ways, they were the key to my success. I was intentional in building relationships through active engagement in their profession and I would highly encourage you to do the same. Early on, I was active in Reforma, the National Association to Provide Services to the Spanish-speaking. This organization provided a safe place for me to learn skills of networking, committee work and it also rooted my values. And my involvement as president of the Public Library Association also provided a wonderful platform to push for changes in library services and I am very proud of having been part of transforming youth services to the Every Child Ready to Read campaign. In California, we have tremendous and youthful library leaders who are making a difference in libraries through their involvement in the California Library Association. I urge you to join and find ways to share your talent. With constant change that impacts libraries, thinking about the future should be a priority. ALA took a big step in providing a forum for members to identify emerging trends relevant to libraries and the communities they serve by establishing the center for the future of libraries. I'm pleased to be chairing the center's advisory committee and Dr. Hirsch has also been active in the committee. We believe it's important to think about the future and while predicting the future of libraries is impossible, it is exhilarating to be at the forefront of change and innovation in libraries. Starting your career now comes at a crucial time. You will help define the future of all types of library, but don't feel the pressure. This should excite you and it should motivate you. And I'll offer you a couple of ideas of how you might do this. The first approach, sorry about my speaker here, my earplug, the first approach is to be a connector. With your skills, you can connect the dots and bring people and communities together. Your toolkit allows you to engage and collaborate with all sorts of people, places and things which is a really powerful asset. The most successful librarians are those that build relationships, facilitate collaborations, work across departments and agencies to forge partnerships. Regardless of the type of library setting you will work in, you will thrive by working together in teams. Connectors work across disciplines. They seek to be curious and constantly engage in learning. And above all, make sure that you build bridges towards equity and inclusion with the community you work with. The more you listen and engage with them, the greater your impact. A second way to define the future is your role as culture keeper. Throughout the course of time, libraries have been built around collections and content to preserve our identity. In defining the future, you will play an important role as culture keepers to ensure that our collections reflect our diverse communities. With your newly-owned skills as archivist and expertise in the digital world, you can contribute to build authentic collections in all formats and languages and to promote wider and greater access for all. And above all, to sustain intellectual freedom and to continue the fight against censorship. In retrospect, I am very proud of the legacy of service. My activism and willingness to take risks started movements in libraries. A movement that I am most proud of is instituting partnerships between librarians and social workers. SFPL ushered a new era of working together with a profession that shared our value of compassion to address challenging issues of people experiencing homelessness, mental health or drug addiction. Together, we took a bold move to have the first social worker recite in a main library to meet this critical need. The rest is history and now many libraries across the country, Canada and abroad have adopted, refined and even improved on the model. Other librarians too have made their own movements. Take for example Olga Cardenas from the Modesto Public Library in Stannislaus County, California. Olga is a strategic partner of Stannislaus Reads and works with school principals on ways to increase family engagement. Olga lives her mission to bring literacy programs wherever she works initiating new programs and building relationships with individuals with colleagues in the community. Then we have Jennifer Berg-Gather from Baltimore City College in Maryland who inspires students, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds to rise to the challenge. If students need extra help, she meets them at coffee shops in the evenings on weekends and school breaks. Jennifer also provides rides for students who have transportation challenges getting to school. One of her students said, and I quote, I never had someone who believed in me as much as Ms. Berg. We literally could not find an excuse she would accept for not getting our work done and she was with us every step of the way. And finally, Nia Hillman from the San Francisco Public Library, a passionate former chef, now librarian who introduced the first Biblio Bistro, a mobile kitchen cart on wheels that has reached thousands of community residents with her nutrition education program. She doesn't just make the library a better place. She makes the entire community a better place. These are but a few examples of librarians as heroes with stories of impact in the lives of people. Years from now, you will have your own stories and your career will be rich with experiences that will define you. I am optimistic that among your cohort of graduates, you will create movements of change and innovation that will inspire us all and leave a legacy in librarianship. For each of you, I wish for stories full of engagement, curiosity and personal growth. Finally, I wish you lots of fun and joy, trailblazing in your journey. Congratulations and best wishes. Thank you so much, Louise, for your inspiring words and your great advice. And I am also really excited for our graduates and what they're gonna bring to the future of the field as well. So thank you so much for joining us today and for preparing that great talk for our students and for our graduates. My pleasure. I opened today's ceremony by reminding us that the word convocation means a calling together. And today, during the ceremony, I'm really pleased that more than 150 individuals and groups joined in the ceremony to celebrate our graduates. Today also represents your new beginning as a graduate of our school's programs and the beginning of what we hope will be a very fulfilling and meaningful career in the field of library information and archival professions. Please let our school know when you land your dream job and continue to stay in touch with us in the future as you progress through your career. I look forward to hearing and celebrating your accomplishments and contributions in the future. I hope you will share your work experiences with us on the alumni career spotlight page, come to our school's receptions at professional association conferences and participate in our community impact poster sessions like the one we are hosting at ALA annual on June 22nd in Washington, DC. And other events throughout the year. With our speaker group's words of wisdom whirling in your head, anticipation for the future, smiles galore and booming applause from all over the world, we conclude this virtual graduation celebration with a very special video. Your fellow iSchool students have worked hard to highlight the many faces and personalities of the class of 2019. The video is about 20 minutes long, so please watch it and treasure every moment of this momentous day.