 It is my great honor to welcome you here this afternoon. On behalf of the entire Ford School community, as we honor and celebrate the 186 students who graduate today. Graduates, you did it! Through your hard work and perseverance, you earned a degree in public policy from the University of Michigan. We made it to this moment together. Should we take a group picture? Should we do a selfie? Okay. I brought my phone. We are. We would be remiss if we did not take advantage of this moment. Okay. Let me start with some introductions. First, our wonderful keynote speaker, our friend, the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Michigan, Mr. Garland Gilchrist. Garland, we are so grateful to have you here and look forward to your address. Also, here on stage are members of the Ford School faculty. Colleagues, my heartfelt thanks to you for your brilliance and for your dedication to our students and the mission of our school. Please join me in thanking the amazing faculty of the Ford School. Now, a special note is a longtime Ford School professor who is here celebrating his last commencement ceremony as an active member of the faculty. Barry Rabe is one of the world's foremost experts in the field of environmental policy. Barry, let me say a little bit about Professor Rabe. We've been fortunate to have him here at Michigan for what has been a monumental career of nearly 40-plus years and counting. He's known as one of the Ford School's very best teachers, respected and loved by generations of students. Let please join me in congratulating again Professor Barry Rabe. I also want to sing the praises of our terrific team of staff who serve and deliver on our mission. Many are here today having organized our celebration with true Ford School collaboration. Please join me in thanking our staff for their hard work and creativity and for all that they do for our community. So next, I want to introduce a few folks on stage by name. First of all, our outstanding associate deans are here. First, Jenna Bednar, who also leads our work on resilient democracies. And Jeff Morinoff, who directs our Detroit Metro Area Community Study. Jenna and Jeff, what can I say? It has been an honor and joy serving alongside you this year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So leading our academic programs, our economist, Katherine Dominguez, who is director of our PhD program, political scientist, John Hansen, who directs our Masters of Public Policy and Masters of Public Affairs programs, and social demographer, Paula Lance, who directs our BA program. And public finance expert, Stephanie Leiser, will read the names of the graduates as they cross the stage. Macro economist, Alan Dierdorf is also in the house to proudly hood our PhD graduate today. Welcome. And our colleague, social demographer, Natasha Pylkowskis, was elected by the graduates to speak on behalf of our faculty. And finally, I present the graduates who are elected by their classmates to speak today, soon to be Ford School MPP graduate, Romero Garcia, and BA graduate, Zainab Ahashemi, graduates and friends and families of the Ford School. I have the honor of opening our remarks today. And I am here to deliver a praise song in the midst of a storm. In May of 2001, famed author and Nobel Prize winner, Toni Morrison, and I'm going to invite our platform party to take a seat and get comfortable. Thank you so much, colleagues. In May of 2001, famed author and Nobel Prize winner, Toni Morrison participated in a conversation at the Connecticut Forum, an outlet for unscripted conversations among experts and thought leaders. Morrison was asked by the moderator, journalist Juan Williams, the following question, how do you survive whole when we are all victims of something? Now while I quibble with Williams' use of the word victim, I do not quibble with Morrison's answer. She replied, quote, it's a nice, big, fat, eastern, western philosophical question. How do you get through? You don't survive whole. You just survive in part. But the grandeur of life is the attempt. It's not about the solution. It's about being as fearless as one can and behaving as beautifully as one can under completely impossible circumstances. It's that that makes it elegant. Good is just more interesting, more complex, more demanding. Evil is silly. It may be horrible, but at the same time, it's not a compelling idea. It's not a new idea. It's predictable. It needs a tuxedo. It needs a headline. It needs blood. It needs fingernails. It needs all that costume in order to get anybody's attention. But the opposite, which is survival, blossoming, endurance, those things are just more compelling intellectually, if not spiritually. This is a more fascinating job. We are already born. We are going to die. So you have to do something interesting that you respect in between. What you have done, class of 2024, is that you have blossomed under completely impossible circumstances. You have come of age as students during a global health crisis At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, you went through moments in which your survival, or the survival of your most vulnerable loved ones, was something that had to be pursued with painstaking care. In fact, the members of our BA class were seniors in high school in May of 2020, marking the graduates' right of passage in a moment in which to gather, to celebrate, was understood to be risky. Graduates, you developed your tools of discovery and fine-tuned your personal north stars, your sense of direction, while the world has felt off kilter. When countries, communities, and even taken for granted bedrocks like democracy are feeling precarious and under siege, you are tuned into the climate crisis more than any other generation, and you have a deep sense of justice after witnessing events both at home and abroad that have outraged you. You are bracing now for an election season, both here and abroad, when the only certainty is uncertainty. And many of you have dealt with impossible circumstances right on your doorsteps, with personal, family, intergenerational, and community trauma taking up residents and threatening to derail you. You have been called to grow up, to mature, to compartmentalize enough to achieve under completely impossible circumstances. And in that context, what did you decide to do with the in-between, that moment between birth and death that Morrison invokes when we each have our opportunity to do something interesting? You have chosen to serve. You chose to pursue a Ford School education. Students, you've heard me describe our education many times as a three-legged stool. But some of your loved ones might still be a little curious, a little uncertain, about exactly what you've been learning here at a school of public policy. So allow me to give a brief tutorial. A Ford School education is about policy analysis, policy communication, and policy leadership. Policy analysis is the use of evidence, quantitative and qualitative data to call balls and strikes, to understand what is working and what is not as we seek desperately needed policy solutions to our most pressing challenges. Policy communication is the use of oral and written expression to explain, elucidate, and to open the door for more people to be informed about the issues that affect their lives. And policy leadership is the integration of our analyses, our values, and our voices to offer a constructive way forward and to bring people along through inclusive, servant leadership. Forties, you have puzzled your way through economics and statistics, through values and ethics and policy writing, all while adding tools for your mission of influence. You've been so compelling to engage and so compelling to teach. And now this Ford School education is the stool on which you stand. You've prepared yourselves for the careers that you believe you want and for the careers that you have not imagined yet, but that the times demand. You've carried the hopes and dreams of your forefathers and foremothers, your ancestors, and your angels, and you have represented them admirably. You have broken bread with your classmates in that space that we affectionately call the Becky, and you have made Wild Hall your home. And you have done it while the days brought unbridled joy and broken hearts. Great clarity and deep confusion, unwavering commitment and unsettling ambivalence. And you have grappled with all those tensions and contradictions and nuances because you knew that after the storm lives the praise song. The praise song. After the clash, after the thunder, after the lightning eventually lives the break. Lives the moment when the clouds part and sun streams through and we bask, we bask, we bask in that light. We celebrate and we congratulate each other. But beloved 40s, we know that despite the beauty of today, so many storms we face are not over. So I ask you, can you find joy in the midst of a storm? When we do not know the time and place when the storm will break. Can you sing a praise song when the tempest is raging and the billows are tossing high? Can you sing a praise song despite your struggle and in your moments of pain? Can you sing a praise song in the midst of completely impossible circumstances? To be clear, while a praise song might have religious or spiritual connotations for some, hear me when I say that I mean praise song in a deeply secular way. It means a job well done, a moment of celebration. It points to a conviction about how we will confront our challenges, that we will celebrate ourselves and each other, our opportunities and our journeys. When we praise, we do not forget. When we praise, we do not paper over. When we praise, we affirm. When we praise, we are seen. When we praise, we see each other. Beloved 40s, today we sing a praise song for you. We lift up your curiosity. We lift up your brilliance. We lift up your humor. We lift up your questioning. We lift up your support of each other. We lift up your service to the Ford School community. We lift up the ways you represent yourselves when you engage with employers, with community stakeholders, with policy leaders and said proudly, I am a student at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. We lift you up, class of 2024, and we praise the way you have shown up and have contributed so much to the story of this school. Graduates, be as fearless as you can, but in the words of Toni Morrison, behave as beautifully as you can under completely impossible circumstances. It is that that makes it elegant. Good is just more interesting, more complex, more demanding. Good requires us to sing a praise song for ourselves and for our neighbors, even when we disagree. God, good asks us to sing a praise song in the midst of a storm. Good, actually great, is the Ford School way. Take care, be well, and no matter what storms come your way, thrive, my dear Fordies, thrive. Because the grandeur of life is the attempt. Thank you. And now, I am honored to introduce our keynote speaker, the Lieutenant Governor of Michigan, Mr. Garland Gilchrist. Born in Detroit and raised in Farmington, Mr. Gilchrist earned a degree from the University of Michigan in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. He went on to success at Microsoft with community organizing and in city government. Governor Gretchen Whitmer selected him as her running mate in 2018, and since taking office, Mr. Gilchrist has applied his engineering talents to solving key policy problems. He co-chaired a successful bipartisan task force on Michigan's jails, for example, that resulted in a set of 20 reform bills passed in 2021. Mr. Gilchrist also led the state's successful effort to reduce racial disparities in COVID cases and mortality. Please join me in welcoming to the podium Lieutenant Governor Garland Gilchrist. Thank you, Dean. How y'all doing? Ford graduates, which one of y'all is ready to go change the world? After many years spent diving into policy, you are ready to go out into this world. Apply your principles to the issues that matter. Solve real problems and make a choice to make a difference. Today, I wanna talk to you about that choice, about how you can continue the Ford School's mission and what it means to be in a community that is dedicated to the public good. But first, on behalf of my partner in public service, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, I want to acknowledge a few people. First and foremost, my good friend and the Ford School Dean, Dr. Celeste Watkins-Hayes. Congratulations on your first year. She acknowledged the faculty and the staff of the Ford School. I do wanna give a special shout out to my friend, Dr. Luke Schaefer in Poverty Solutions. Thank him for helping and all of your colleagues for helping challenge and shape the graduates here today. I do wanna give a shout out to all of the parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, man-laws, friends, acquaintances, pets, all of you who supported our graduates today. I wanna acknowledge and ask that the graduates give them a round of applause because it took a whole lot of work to get you all here. Nobody graduates alone. But I do want all of our graduates to hear directly from me. Congratulations. This is amazing. Now, as Dr. Celeste Watkins-Hayes let you know, I am a Wolverine, a double engineering major who graduated 19 years ago. That sounds so much longer when I say it like that, 19 years ago. But the years I spent here, they shaped and sharpened me and made me the person in public servant that I'm here today. It was here on this campus that I learned to ask better questions. I was challenged to push the limit to my understanding. It's where I began my journey as a leader and began to understand my potential all while having the best years of my life. I know that the Forest School has played a very similar role in your journeys for many of you. And I heard a couple of the stories. I heard about Professor P's fan club, Monday motivational emails with fake jail forequotes. This is college, so I know about all the free food that can make almost a full diet if you can subsist on collagen. Grad students who took over the student lounge from the undergrads and undergrads who pressed on to use the microwave anyway. Simulations where you played real life policy makers during the most demanding events you will face in your careers. You had to deal with stats and policy analysis, values, ethics courses, and the class that bubbled up to me to most complaints was Econ 330. I thought that might get a reaction. But you made it, and you made it off the strength of your minds and your work ethics. Your ability to face challenging questions with rigor, vigor, and care. Students here engage in these intense and intellectually challenging disagreements, but y'all still came together at the end of every day. You push each other to be better, to think deeply about ideas and values, and consider the impacts of every policy on communities and people. You stoke curiosity, ask these hard questions, and you shared your dreams and lives with each other. But there's something I wanna explore with you today just for a few minutes. See, I think the core tension of every public policy choice is pretty basic. It's who gets to say yes, versus who gets told no. Now, it may feel more complicated than that sometimes, or maybe even most of the time, but I would argue that no matter how esoteric, or technical, or nuanced a policy choice is, that's basically what it boils down to. Now, the most important word in this construction is who. So we wanna break that down, but I wanna tell you a little bit about who I am to start. Now, we talked about that I'm a software engineer by training and at heart. I started as this skinny kid on the east side of Detroit. Anybody here from Detroit? Thank you, I appreciate that. This skinny kid on the east side of Detroit, whose grandma bought me a computer when I was five years old to use him between basketball games. And I took that love of technology to be a developer at Microsoft for four years and helped to grow the SharePoint business of the fastest growing business in that company's history. But what y'all may not know about my story is I actually left Microsoft, I quit Microsoft a week before I got married. And it'll be 15 years, this year I'm still married. I worked out. And I spent the next five years of my career as a community organizer. I worked with people across the country on campaigns at the local, state and national level for social, economic, racial and environmental justice. Protecting and strengthening voting rights across the South. Expanding healthcare access to low income people here in the state of Michigan. Fighting for immigrant rights in Arizona and Alabama. Now this work and the work throughout my career as a public servant has taught me at least two important lessons. The first is that decisions made by people are the ink that flows into the pages describing our past and present. The status quo is the result of decisions made by a group of previously empowered people. Now that group of people's biases and privileges and circumstances and imagination or lack thereof shaped those decisions. This set of people, the set of people who get to say yes, stands in contrast to those who were not empowered. The people who are in a fewer in many ways, very different from those who made those decisions and shaped that reality. These were the who that got told no. But who do we tell no? People we're scared of, uncomfortable with, disagree with, don't know, are angry with, what are the labels that we put on these feelings? Racism, sexism, prejudice, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, classism. What do all these terms have in common? They give empowered people a personal excuse to say no, to exclude another person or a group of people and to slam the door on their rights and their future. Now on both sides of that slam door stand two visions for the future, set apart by how an unwilling vision from one group and how unwilling they are to share what's possible, juxtaposed against the other's hunger for safety, access, and the opportunity to realize their dreams and ambitions. The latter seeks to walk through an open door. They seek a fair game to play and a real chance to win. But the results of that door being shut are the policy failures that plague us right now. Not enough livable, affordable homes. Families struggling to transcend a cycle of poverty that they did not create. Dismantled systems of mental health that have left people unsupported and ground down into jail sales and addiction. These are all situations where those who had the power to say yes, instead said no to people ready to be their best. But urgently and importantly, this is where all of you come in as a new class of public policy professionals. Y'all are different and you're ready and you can and must make a different choice. Now that leads to the second lesson. Despite those previous decisions, you, a different set of people, can make a different set of choices. That can make a different set of outcomes more possible for more people. So you can understand that the people who are closest to the problems are the ones who best understand the possibilities. When we position these people as the ones who get to say yes, we shrink the set of people who are told no. We open the door to more people. And opening that door means listening to each other's voices. It means recognizing the precursors to policy change, which at times include peaceful protests, peaceful agitation, peaceful activism. In fact, there are many students across the country right now making their voices heard. Now we have an obligation to stomp out hate when we see it, sustain an open environment that protects people's right to excess their beliefs and ensures the safety of our fellow citizens and students, especially those who have been marginalized. When we channel our voices in good faith, productive and constructive ways, the table is set for change to occur. This is true at the national level, the state level, and yes, even at the campus level. Peaceful demonstration and principal negotiation have preceded women securing the right to vote, reproductive rights being enshrined into the Michigan Constitution, the legal recognition of same-sex marriage across America, explicit civil rights protections for Michigan's LGBTQ plus community, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Affordable Care Act of 2010, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Now, as a student here, I participated in, helped organize and lead peaceful demonstrations. In my case, it was in 2004 when our undergraduate admissions policies were challenged all the way up to the United States Supreme Court alongside our law school. We organized actions from the Ambatana Lounge in South Quad. We chartered buses to D.C. alongside the United States Student Association for our day in court, which was the first time I ever saw the Supreme Court steps. We stood tall and strong against everything from so-called affirmative action bake sales in Angel Hall to racist cartoons in the Michigan Daily. Now, my experience on this campus, and then as a community organizer, however, led me to where I am today, to serve as the first Black Lieutenant Governor in the history of the state of Michigan, fighting to open the door, fighting to open the door to access and possibility for more people across this state. My experience has taught me how to make positive change from where I sit right now, addressing our state's biggest challenges. Governor Whitmer and I announced, for example, the largest investment to build housing in the history of the state of Michigan. We've secured almost 40,000 new jobs in a re-imaginado sector and made Michigan a national leader in the clean energy race. And we have increased access to mental health services by retaining or recruiting hundreds more mental health workers to support our people in Michigan. Now, over my career, I learned something that I hope you'll discover in yourselves. You can be a leader who stays true to your principles. You can demonstrate how to make a difference. As professionals graduating from what I would like to believe is the best public policy program in the country, you have a responsibility to make a choice. To stand by as unsolved problems create inequity or to step forward and to do something about it. You took that first step forward by completing your journey through the Ford School. But this is not just a choice you make once and forget about. This is something you have to recommit to every single day. You know more than most that public policy can be hard. The pull of cynicism at times feels easier and more attractive than that of earnest sincerity. But the side of sincerity is the side that makes a difference, even when it feels impossible. So let me tell you another story. This time for my time as lieutenant governor. In the early stages of the pandemic, in part thanks to our partnership with the Ford School and the School of Information and our School of Public Health, we saw unsettling data that indicated that COVID-19 was disproportionately impacting the black community and all communities of color in the state of Michigan. And I knew this and saw it personally. 28 people in my life died of COVID. Friends, mentors, my AU basketball coach, associate minister of my church, the oldest person in my family on my father's side. And I knew that was true for so many people. We knew that we didn't have time to waste for more people to get sick and more people to pass away, just because of their identity. We had to address these racial disparities directly and intentionally. We had to bring together the best minds in Michigan to solve this problem and save lives. Michigan was the first and only state in the country to make that explicit choice. And over the course of the pandemic, the racial disparities task force that I chaired got to work immediately, distributing millions of tests and masks, held thousands of vaccination events, developed mobile health clinics to bring care directly to neighborhoods that needed it most. And this task force achieved its mission. Michigan outperformed the nation in tackling racial disparities. In 2020, Black Michiganders were dying at a rate of almost 23 people per 10,000, significantly above the national rate. In 2021, we went from 23 to 16. And in 2022, we went from that to nearly 8.6. Our choice, that decision to address racial disparities rather than turn our backs on them, saved lives and made a difference and helped make our response strong. This is one of my proudest achievements as Lieutenant Governor because it positioned people to be successful post pandemic. Now you, the Ford School Class of 2024, you are what we need and who we need right now. You are that new, different, more inclusive, more representative, more imaginative, more courageous, more connected, more grounded and more responsive group of leaders who can see and elevate those who have been previously ignored and shut out so that they realize the truth about their power, the fact that despite the barriers in their way, despite the boundaries that may surround them, they were never actually not powerful. You can remind them that they have the power and they must use it and that you can use your expertise and energy to channel this collective power in the direction of progress and potential. You are leaving this ceremony to begin the next chapter of your life and career, defined by the Michigan difference as the planet's best equipped prospective public policy professionals. Your charge is to live up to the Ford School's mission of dedication to the public good. Every tool you have, it can either break or build, it can either hinder or help, it can either empty or embrace. So at every decision point you encounter, position the most inclusive version of who gets to say yes to the biggest possible future. Now is the time to prove that policy does matter, that we can get things done, that we are able to realize our greatness and that everyone can have the brightest possible future available to them. Thank you so much for having me, congratulations. God bless you. I welcome the future we enter together. Thank you, Garland, appreciate that. Appreciate that. What you are hearing and what we heard so beautifully are the ways in which policy leaders have challenged those completely impossible circumstances and found ways to create the possible. Thank you. So now we've got a musical treat up for you next. Our music this afternoon is being provided by the talented Ann Arbor Community Jazz Band. Please join me in welcoming them back to the stage to perform a Michigan classic. Thank you so much, let's give them another hand. Thank you so much, community high band. Each year the Ford School's graduating students elect people to play key roles at commencement. One faculty member is chosen to speak to the class and our BAs and masters graduating classes choose their representative student speakers. As the faculty speaker, the class of 2024 elected professor Natasha Pilkowskis. Natasha is an associate professor of public policy here at the Ford School. Her research considers how demographic, social safety net and economic shifts in the US affect families and children with low incomes. At the Ford School, Natasha teaches courses on poverty, inequality, and anti-poverty policy. Natasha received her masters of public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and her MA and PhD in social welfare policy from Columbia University. I'm delighted to welcome her now to speak on behalf of our faculty. Natasha. And now we're in a class of 24. Congratulations, class of 24. First, a quick shout out to the students who organized to get me selected as commencement speaker. You demonstrated your skills and your talents and your questionable tastes. But in all seriousness, on behalf of the faculty and staff, I want to congratulate you all on this important day of transition. And in particular, I want to recognize and thank your friends and family for helping get you here today. I have had the distinct pleasure of teaching many of our graduate and all of our undergraduate students over the last two years. You've been subjected to my many jokes and my glittery gifts, my attempts to keep you awake in class, but beyond all the silliness, I hope that you have learned a lot while you have been here at Ford. And I want you to know that you have also taught me many things about how you view the world and your place in it, the importance of engaging in broader debates even when we might not want to, staying connected with world events and the university more broadly. And perhaps, most importantly, you taught me the meaning of quote, your outfit eight and left no crumbs. For those of you over the age of 30, this means that your outfit looks good. Okay, I just want to do a quick shout out to the undergrads. You finished high school in 2020, started college during a global pandemic. We all faced many challenges adapting to online settings and our fears of getting sick, but you also had to navigate starting college entirely online, trying to make new friends, while also finding ways to engage in the college experience. And you did it all from your dorm rooms or your rooms at home. And you did it, you succeeded. You should feel proud of your persistence and resilience. I know I am proud of you. We're proud of you and I'm sure your parents and friends are too. So most of the graduate students and the undergraduate students all arrived at Ford two years ago, right when the COVID restrictions were being lifted. We got to start taking off our masks, interacting in person again, having events. And I think that many of you likely formed closer bonds with each other and even perhaps with me, because we all got here, you were getting here just as the COVID constraints were being released. And boy did some of you let go. Me too, me too, me too. I can't really explain what a distinct pleasure it was for me to go back to teaching all of you in person, being allowed to throw out my dumb questions and my silly jokes and actually hear if you thought they were funny. Teaching you all allowed me to find the joy in teaching again. And so I thank you all. As I was preparing this speech, I was trying to think about what deep wisdom I might want to impart on this important day. And I was struck by three things. First, when I was sitting where you are now, both when I was graduating from undergrad and when I was graduating from my MPP, there is no way I would have predicted that I'd be standing here years later. It's very hard to predict where life will take you. Some of you figured out your next path. Many of you haven't. And I promise you, it will all work out, just maybe not in the ways that you expected. When I was finishing undergrad, I'd never even heard of public policy. And now I'm a professor at the best policy school ever. Go blue. My point is it's okay not to know what you want to be when you grow up. You have a lot of time to figure this out. And if you try something and you hate it, it's totally okay to change your mind. I saw a meme the other day that said, people often mistake me for an adult because of my age. And I thought, yep, I'm still figuring this stuff out and you'll figure out your stuff too. Life will likely take you in many unexpected directions and it will be a beautiful thing for all of us, your friends, your family, your teachers to witness. One of you may be a state senator, or perhaps you will be a Supreme Court Justice. Or if you're really lucky, you'll get to teach future cohorts of policy school students. Second, when I was graduating from college, there was a song making the rounds called Wear Sunscreen. Google it later, it's totally worth it. It's a graduation speech set to some music. Okay, but the song is just a series of small tidbits of advice like wear sunscreen, floss, stretch. So I was thinking about what sage advice I might want to give you that you can promptly go on to ignore, just like my teaching. I had some really obvious thoughts, like exercise, drink water, travel, wear grippy socks on hardwood floors. That's a lesson I learned while falling down the stairs, but you probably know these things already. But because I have reached that time in my life, when it is time for me to go to my year school reunions, I want to implore you to do a better job of keeping in touch with your fellow 40s than I have done with my former policy school friends. You're sitting in a room right now with what are probably some of the most interesting individuals you will ever meet. And they still liked you despite the fact that you didn't really know how to take care of yourself or the way you acted in Ford while you worked on late night problem sets. Your friends in this auditorium will go on to do incredible things. Keep track of them and follow their progress with amazement. I recently lost a friend of mine from my MPP program. And in her celebration of life, I discovered even more awesome things she'd done that I didn't know about because I hadn't done a very good job of keeping in touch. So go connect on LinkedIn and Instagram or whatever, but also reach out to each other once in a while. Come back for those reunions. You'll be so impressed by everyone's careers. That said, watch your 40 friends move on with their lives and watch their many achievements. But remember, you never see the full story. My resume only shows my successes and there have been many failures along the way. And I know it seems hard to believe, given how awesome I am. But I too had a hard time finding a job. I'm a professor at the best policy school in the world, but first I had to get rejected from something like 50 jobs. So while all your friends will impress you with their very impressive feats, don't feel disheartened, don't compare yourself in where they are and don't let it stop you from realizing all the incredible things that you two are doing. Success will look different for each of you and will be on different scales. But remember you were admitted to this school because you deserved to be here and I have faith that you will go out and change the world in your own ways. Okay, my final piece of advice is inspired by talks we saw a few weeks ago at the Dean Symposium. Cecilia Munoz and Stacy Abrams both touched on two important aspects of leadership in life that I thought were pertinent to our policy school students. So I'm just gonna steal them, but with attribution please don't forget your citations. You are mostly Type A overachievers who will likely go out to be leaders in this world. Munoz and Abrams both spoke about how as leaders you will need to make decisions that are not always well liked. I was particularly struck by something that Munoz said, a note. She said this as the former director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House. She said, not to derive your sense of self or get your love from work, but get your love at home. And she said this in the context of how to make tough decisions, but I think there's an important lesson here that ties in with something that Stacy Abrams said about losing. Abrams talked about how losing provides you with a deep learning experience and doing things and not winning doesn't mean that progress isn't being made. Both were essentially saying that as leaders, you'll go out in the world and you will lose and you will make unpopular decisions, but the support that you need will come from your friends and family, many of the folks who are sitting here today with you. So this all ties back to my last point, which is keep these people. They will support you through your trials and tribulations as they will likely be going through many similar things themselves. It has been my genuine pleasure to get to teach so many of you. And as I speak on behalf of the Ford faculty and staff, I remind you to also keep in touch with us. We get to shape just a small part of your journey, but don't forget us when you've moved on to bigger and better things. Part of what makes Fordy so special is your desire to make the world a better place. And we like to hear about how you were doing just that. And so it is with great pleasure that I congratulate you as you move on and go out and make positive change in this world. Work hard, remember to have some fun, and most importantly, go blue. Thank you, Natasha. That was wonderful. Our next speaker was elected by the undergraduate class of 2024. Zainab Alhashimi was raised in Dearborn, Michigan. She earned a B.A. in public policy and graduates with honors. She is a first generation college student and a daughter of immigrants. She's been very involved in local politics and policy from a young age, including managing and winning city council and state legislature races working for the Wayne County and Michigan Attorney General's Office and serving as a city of Dearborn Library Commissioner. Most recently, Zainab interned at Guide House Consulting and she started a full-time position at Guide House this summer. We're very excited. During her time at the Ford School, Zainab has left a lasting positive mark on our community and on so many around her. I'm so pleased to welcome to the podium Zainab Alhashimi. Dean, thank you so much, truly. Sorry, I'm gonna adjust this for a second. Can you hear me all right? Wow, big crowd. Okay. As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh. May the peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you. Faculty, friends, family, friends turned family. I wanna thank you so much for being here tonight. I have had the honor of sharing the last few years with some of the most talented, compassionate and intelligent people I have ever met. I know it's not obvious, but I'm talking about my cohort. I kid, I kid. But seriously, I've been reflecting a lot on commencement and I keep asking myself what it means to be a graduate. What it means to possess a paper which says you, we, I am a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Ford School of Public Policy, no less. And I think at its core, a public policy education is supposed to equip us to be agents of change, to advocate for those who cannot, to safeguard the future and the wellbeing of others and to protect and uplift the communities in which we live, work and serve. This degree specifically is a mantle of responsibility. It extends to us a level of credibility and authority and in return asks us to meet the challenges of our generation. Since we matriculated in 2020, a mere six months after the onset of a pandemic, we've been thrust into a world where it seems that every deteriorating crack and crevice, every disparity in every single sector has been illuminated. And we find that this, in fact, is the world our education was meant to prepare us for. To train us to deal with racial injustice, to deal with the criminalization, to deal with the brutality and the violence that led to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. A degree that is supposed to train us with how to act, how to respond, how to feel when we lose Brian Frazier, Alexandria Verner and Ariel Anderson to gun violence at Michigan State University. A degree that is supposed to prepare us for conversations about unions, about people power and income inequality, both right here on the University of Michigan's campus to nationwide strikes. And now, once again, this public policy degree calls on us. As we get back to back, televised images of some of the most gruesome violence in Gaza, as we witness the death, the destruction of over 33,000 Palestinian souls and the 1,200 Israeli lives who were taken too soon, this degree calls on us and it asks us to choose. To choose to speak up thoughtfully and intentionally. To choose to act, to choose to look and not turn away. To choose to humanize, to choose to work beyond our dissonance, work beyond our pain because there are lives at stake. A life is a life and a life is sacred. What a task we're charged with. What a responsibility, what a privilege. For better or for worse, whether earned or not, this degree grants us a level of credibility and authority, one that should not be taken for granted or taken lightly. Going into college, I'll be honest. I don't think that I understood the sheer weight of this degree. In my formative years, I saw the world through a lens of stark certainty. Everything was either right or wrong. You were either with us or against us. But life has a way of humbling and of teaching. As I've matured, I've come to understand that the world is infinitely complex. There are no easy fixes or quick solutions, no band aid to make all the hurt go away, change takes time, and requires us to meet the world where it's at, to meet people halfway, to embrace compromise, and yes, to engage in genuine dialogue. I know, crazy, right? And that was a hard understanding to come to. It took a lot of mental and emotional and intellectual work to be comfortable saying I think there are ways to move the needle forward and progress even incrementally by working across fault lines because there is no inherent honor or righteousness in simply being obstinate. And just as I thought I was coming into my own on that, you, Michael Hort, once again, showed me my capacity to go. Because although I still hold these convictions true, there's a challenge, a contradiction. There's a hard thing. Now, today, more than ever, it is evident that there are some differences and some truths that are just too important to paper over in the name of working across difference and in the name of dialogue. Because, yes, working across difference may help quell dissent. It might even achieve a level of peace, but it is also, at times, a coercive form of peace. A coercive peace that looks over the asymmetry of power and the asymmetry of pain. And that imposition of coercive peace is far more violent than sitting with tension or discomfort. True peace and harm repair demand more than superficial dialogue or surface level acts of unity. So I ask myself, and I ask you, what is a better and truer way of working across difference look like? I don't yet claim to know the answer. But some inclination in me says perhaps it's about starting smaller and more locally. Sometimes the far away and the grandiose is seductive, but it's also ignoring what's right potentially in front of us. The capacity to wield the credibility and the authority of our degrees is not reserved for some far off place. The potential to make change and to be stewards of the public good does not end when we turn off MSNBC, when we flip out of the New York Times app or clock out of our nine to five. Graduates, if we are to achieve beautiful, brilliant, brave, and extraordinary things, if we wanna solve poverty, eliminate drug addiction, reform healthcare, if we wanna protect people, uplift people, empower people, if we wanna make a difference in the world, we need to start with our own. With our families, our friends, our neighbors, we need to find ways to exhibit empathy and compassion in the day to day, in the mundane, because all politics are local, all policies people and all people start at home. For myself, I know I will keep working to do what I can to make my hometown of Dearborn, Michigan, continue to be the most beautiful city in America. That's right. Dearborn, this is all a love letter to you. It is from you I learned loyalty, resilience, grit, hard work. It is from you I learned what it means to be an American, to be an Arab, to be a Muslim. It is from you I learned to love. It is from you I learned to be human. Ladies and gentlemen, class of 2024, my fellow graduates, the leaders and the best, thank you so much. Congratulations and go blue. Thank you, Zainab. The MPP class of 2024 elected Romero Garcia to speak on their behalf. Romero has earned a masters of public policy with a concentration in international policy. He completed his required summer internship with the Aspen Institute's financial security program where he conducted analysis of the American insurance market and brought together insurance industry leaders for discussions about financial inclusivity. Romero has been a leader during his time at the Ford School. He was the graduate student representative for the university's government relations advisory committee and served as co-chair of the Graduate Student Governance Committee. Before entering the Ford School, he was director of constituent relations with the Michigan House of Representatives. Romero holds a bachelor of science in psychology from Central Michigan University. Romero, it's an honor to welcome you to the podium. I'm still processing Zainab's speech. That was really amazing, wasn't it? That was really powerful. Wow. Buenos tardes, bienvenidos. Y gracias a todos por estar aquí. Good afternoon, respected faculty, proud family, loved ones, esteemed alumni, my fellow graduates in policy. Today marks both an endpoint, but also a beginning, a moment to celebrate our achievements and anticipate our future challenges with rightful optimism. I stand here before you deeply honored to speak on behalf of the 2024 MPP graduates of the Ford School. To earn my master's degree, it's a first in my family. A milestone that just a few generations ago was unimaginable. This speech, my degree in the pursuit of the better good is dedicated to my grandfather. He was a brave man who journeyed to this country in pursuit of a better life. A story much familiar to many of us and a testament to the power of resilience. He came to this great nation, seeking escape from the depths of poverty and the harsh conditions of a Mexico, steel healing from civil war and colonial impacts. He endured gunfights and the relentless sun beaming down on his back as he picked onions and melons from your sense of bag. He found himself inside of a broken system, a policy failures that led to immense hardship. He believed with just a little bit more hard work and a great risk he could lift our family out of the cycle of only making enough to follow the next crop. Two months after I started at the Ford School, my grandfather passed away. My sister, she called me with news just before we were about to take our first microeconomics exam. I remember walking into that classroom. My mind so clouded with grief that the exam was suddenly more than just a grade. It was a small test of my ability to persevere through life's unexpected and often painful challenges. I have no idea what that grade was, but you guys know sometimes persistence can mean a B minus. Throughout my time at the Ford School, like so many in our cohort, I've encountered numerous challenges. And to be honest with you all, to share something that I've kept a secret for most of my cohort, during that first semester, I failed 510. And Professor Shobita Parasarathi can attest to that. But each setback, it taught me valuable lessons about persistence and working through adversity. What sustained me through these times was not just academic resources, but the profound sense of community within our cohort. This community, it wasn't just a group of peers. It was a family that uplifted each other through a lot of challenges. Many of us have come from distant places, taking on the risk of grad school and moving to a small Midwestern town, not knowing anyone. We tried to look out for each other in a very, very Ford School way. And that's with food. No, but seriously, think of all the times that we have spent eating together. The Shabbats with endless flowing wine, breaking fast with fresh dates at Iftar, lasenas latinas con toda la gente, global forties, potlucks, with endless food from around the world, Jerusalem Garden from Career Services. You see, like the Dean said, it's an old, old tradition to break bread with others, to get to know them. And that's what we've tried to do, countless times over the past two years. You see, because food, like policy, is something that we try to embody at Ford. It's a sense of belonging, knowing that there are people who care deeply, not just about the issues we study, but about each other. It has been fundamental to our growth within the policy space itself. In this community, we are reminded daily that we are not alone. Our shared belief that we can make a difference has been a grounding force, transforming each challenge from a personal struggle and risk into a collective journey. See, I began my journey here with uncertainties about my place at such a prestigious institution, yet what I have found was not exclusion, but an inclusive community that embraces diversity, not in identity, but in thought, perspective, and experience, true values of effective policy makers. And yet, as we step into this world, we carry forward this sense of collective responsibility and commitment to support each other, a trait that is ever more necessary now in a world waiting for us just outside this auditorium, a world that sees many daunting challenges, inequality, inaccessibility, market failures, exploitation, corruptions, systems of oppression, threats to democracy itself. All with different interpretations, yet somehow the most humbling thing about being a policy graduate is we know not to see these things in black and white, but to ask the hard questions and continuously challenge our own thoughts that lead us to understand its complexities. They force us to confront uncomfortable truths, and yet this is something we do not shy away from, but rather we embrace it. When we came to the Ford School, we thought we would get the answers to many of the hard questions. Instead, well, we may have gotten some of the answers. We were given the tools to better ask new and sometimes even harder questions, pushing the boundaries to what generations previously thought unimaginable. Aside from challenging our own thoughts and confronting uncomfortable truth, one of the biggest responsibilities we hold as policy students and alumni is calling out the systems of violence and harm that we are witnessing globally, including the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Our unique positions as policy graduates allow us not only to identify these systemic issues, but to change the policies that perpetuate global impacts. We have the knowledge and determination to reshape these systems. And as we move forward, let us take the lessons of resilience, of risk, of community, of thoughtful analysis and the responsibility that we have learned here and let's apply them wherever we go, because after today we are forever students of policy. Let's continue to support each other to challenge the status quo and to make our mark on the world. You see, the path ahead is by no means easy, but together as 40s, we are undoubtedly ready for the challenges ahead. Gracias and thank you. Thank you so much, Vermeerro. We are now at the moment that families and friends have been looking forward to all afternoon. Our graduates are ready to come to the stage to receive official congratulations on a job well done. Please try to hold your applause to the end and families, please do remain seated to keep the aisles open for our graduates and staff. You'll be able to order a professional photo of your graduate after the ceremony. This year, the names will be read by Professor Stephanie Leiser. Stephanie's expertise is in public finance, budgeting and financial management. And she has a particular interest in tax policy, business taxation and incentives and local government fiscal health. Stephanie teaches courses in public budgeting and financial management, nonprofit financial management and microeconomics. She earned her PhD from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. And back in 2005, she herself earned a Ford School MPP. I am now pleased to introduce Stephanie to call the names of our graduating students. First, I invite our doctoral student to stand and move toward the stage. And I invite my colleagues, Alan Deardorf and Catherine Dominguez to assist with the first, putting the first graduate. Diane Vaught is earning the Doctor of Philosophy, Public Policy and Economics. Her dissertation title is Essays in International Economics. Her dissertation committee includes chairs, Matthew Shapiro and Kyle Hanley and additional members, Sebastian Sotelo, Andre Lechenco and Alan Deardorf. She will be taking a job as an economist in the Office of Economic Policy in the Treasury Department. I'll now introduce our Masters of Public Affairs and Master of Public Policy graduates and invite my colleague, John Hansen, to come up across the stage from me to present our graduates with their class photo. Amanda Nab, Alejandro Villafuerte, Sharif El-Meki, Ruth Archer, Ardianza, Dinda Ayuningchas, Dominique Baeta, Cindy Bond, Abbey Berndes, Brittany Baros, Gabe Baskin, Julia Block, Zanzhong Budiardo, Emma Carter, David O. Castro, Chaowen Cheng, Lisa Chung, Emma Rose Cohen, Charles Maximilian Collins, Hannah Cumming-Brown, Sophie Daudon, Nicole Zall-Enriquez, Alhan Fokker, Andrew Pons-Prague, Colleen Gaffney, Romero Angel Garcia, Elizabeth Frances Gelman, Jake of Matthew Gillis, Yoh Koibuchi, Rebecca Hagos, L. Hammer, Allison Hope Hanley, Ami Hasebe, Arith Hadameyan Hasebuan, Maureen Rosanne Hilton, Feng Kai Hung, Anna Sophie Hoppe, Erin Thompson Howe, Katie Highland, Ineda Husey, Emma Jabour, Buna Yacupovic, Dimas Jayadipura, Keenan Kebani, Yuya Kamon, Noel Kerr, Ayaka Konishi, Abigail Kowalczyk, Dimas Nofiantoro Wahiu Baxono, Rebecca Leder, Megan Lago, Caroline Hall Leland, Ty Lee, Flor Azul Lorenzo, Shun Lu, Mingyu Lu, Ria Macy, Jared Mandelbaum, Rifki Mulana, Aaron McDonald, Olivia Morris, Paulo Mutia, Moriah Nachinauz, Melissa Nelson, Haley Neuenfeld, Anna Dawn Nguyen, Lauren O'Hare, Jorge Luis Perea Fabian, Alexandra Perez Garcia, Sarah Phalen, Javi Pinheiro, Anna Verdine Pomper, Lindsey Gray Quint, Paloma Ramos, Francisco Enteria Macedo, Amy Roach, Oishi Saha, Kali Sackwa, Zoe Salami, Juan Francisco Sandoval, Jenny Shearer, Gregory Severin, Akmali Silatonga, Moushri Sinha, Eva Therese Padmaida-Situmorong, Jeffrey Situmorong, Aaron Stark, Alexandra Stavros, Shawn Michael Steele, Taylor Stenson, Genki Sugawara, Danika Swigart, Gabriel Sylvan, Rana Adil Tasavur, Mayu Ulenu, Christiana Sarah Verdellis, Carmen Wagner, Catherine Waters, Edward Paul Weber IV, Sarah Wells, Yunone Chui, Yulia Yafimenka, Jordan Damit, Derek A. Ziegler, Ling Feng Zong, Zi Zhou. I'll now introduce our BA graduates, and I invite my colleague Paula Lance to come up across the stage for me to present the graduates with their class photo. Alexa Albanese, Zainab Haider Alhashimi, Nathaniel Lider Arba, Malika Azar, Megan Baer, Yatin Bhatt, Ishan Biswas, Noah Bhatt, Kevin Brewey, Cameron Calder Bonacor, Catherine Berged, Kira Elizabeth Burns, Gretchen Carr, Alexandra Carvajal, Sophie P. Clark, Dimitra Calovis, William Conley, Olivia Grace Davis, Barry Dechtman, Yasmine Alcarsa, Juan Carlos Carraro, Claire Wangkai Gallagher, Nicole Goelenberg, Eva Hale, Lee Hannibal, Sophie Hart, Mira Hurley, Hannah Schwartz Yacht, Christian Giuliano, Alexis Yunchai, Lydia Kato, Malak Kaleshu, Maxwell Katz, Ayla Kaufman, Vanessa Kiefer, Kayla Klein, Margaret Louise Koberstein, Joshua Reese Landgarten, Samantha Marie Lange, Nora Lewis, Zoe Philip Logus, Ruth Bernice Lynch, Aiden Mekar, Grace Ming-An Martin, Emma Frances McGarrigan, Ann Mouaw, Neil J. Nakash, Josephine Marie Ness, Gina Nimmer, Jennifer Pena Losa, Abbey Ratner, Nicholas Rhea, Rose Riley, Andrew Roman, Kendra Casey Rosati, Evan Rocker, Mia Raub, Shuba Mitra, Banerjee Roy Chaudhury, Sarah Scheinman, David Schnell, Parker Short, Alexandra Spath, Dean Spiegel, Ashwath Subramanyan, Micah Henry Sweet, Andrew Wilbanks Toit, Isabella Tomlinson, Athithi Ira Vijendra, Charlie Vogel, Casey Zabar Wachtel. Thank you, Stephanie, and thank you all for coming today. We'll close with a song in a minute. Please stay in your seats until all of the graduates have processed out of the auditorium, and then I hope you'll join us outside on the plaza to continue the celebration of our graduates over dessert. And now, graduates, please stand and turn to face the crowd. We all have achieved something wonderful, but as we can see, you didn't get to this moment by yourself. Will everyone rise if you are able? Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, spouses, partners, sisters, brothers, friends, faculty, staff, neighbors, and everyone else here offering their support. Graduates, please show your people some love. BA students, at this time, please move your tassel on your mortarboard from the right to the left. And now, I am so very proud to present to you the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Class of 2024.