 One, two, one, two. Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs, Steve Worshaw, President of the Student Government, Avi Kolkha, President of Student Senate, Daniel Wren, Former NCSSM Chancellor Jerry Borman and John Frederick, Chair NCSSM Board of Trustees Henry Quo, Class of 1982, Vice Chair Board of Trustees Brian Bailey, Class of 1984, Board of Trustees members LaVonia Allison, Steve Griffin, Tom Foundation Board Member Brad Ives, Class of 1982. To convocation this evening. Convocation begins the signal for the start of the school year. I hope each of you has had a great first day of classes. I believe this is going to be an outstanding 2014-15 school year. I again want to take an opportunity to thank all of our distinguished guests here this evening. And it's wonderful to have so many of Rebecca's family and friends here to speak. We're really happy that you're here. And also want to again thank our Emeritus Member of the Hackman who are here, Members of our Board of Trustees, our Heads of School, Chair Borman and Tom Frederick. Thank you for being here. You all being here. And students, I hope seeing everyone here this evening helps you understand the type of community, the type of legacy that you're a part of. This evening marks NCSSM's 35th Convocation. About this time in 1980, first class of 150 juniors was here on campus. Preparing for the first year of exactly sure along with the faculty of staff who was also preparing for what they were not exactly sure was going to happen. But what they hoped would be the year to explore the infinite possibilities that lay ahead of them in this new idea, this new opportunity, this new school. They were looking for the infinite possibilities that the newness of NCSSM would bring to them. Fast forward 34 years and hear you all sit 680 students from the classes in 2015 and 16. From what I understand, you are now sitting in a much more comfortable setting than those 150 students were back then. You should do a little bit of research and hear those stories. But I bet you still have some of the same feeling that the students in the class of 1982 have. You're not exactly sure what to expect, but you have hopes of the infinite possibilities that lay ahead of you this year at NCSSM. Much has changed over 34 years. Many of the people, much of the things. But what has not changed is that you are here with talented students all across North Carolina. You're here with outstanding faculty and staff. You're here with the tremendous support of our state and the many friends of our school. Because the case for students here 34 years ago, you will find that these are the key ingredients to infinite possibility. I want to take this opportunity to welcome our speaker, Rebecca Bupwald-Japosa back to NCSSM. It's great to have you here. Thank you for making the trip to be here with us. We will hear more about Rebecca's career in a few minutes, but I believe you will be very interested in all that she has done and accomplished in her short time graduating. Since graduating from NCSSM, I'm looking forward to her helping inspire us as we start this school year. I think it's fantastic when we have a one-night comeback in NCSSM to speak to current students. It gives all of you a chance to imagine, to see yourselves and the possibilities that lay ahead of you, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now. To this point in your life, you've worked very hard to achieve success and lay the foundation for your future. Every student in the auditorium has a success story to tell, but you would not be here tonight. Not all of your stories are the same. You come from all over this great state of North Carolina. 85 of North Carolina's 400 counties are representatives here tonight in the auditorium. And you bring with you a diversity of experiences that make you all different people. But you all share a common commitment to learning, to being successful in school, and in your desire to accept the greater challenge. And that's why you're here this evening. So again, I welcome you to our 35th convocation classes in 2015 and 16, and look forward to an outstanding school year with you. At this time, I'd like to introduce Steve Warshall to introduce our guest speaker. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Roberts. Before I introduce Dr. Buck Walton-Posey to you, I would like to let you know who the people are. Her family and her friends who have joined her with us, joined with us to hear her tonight. We have Ms. Jean Buck Walton, one of her grandmothers. Ms. Petrie-Tipp-Posey, you're called. Another grandmother. Ms. Maureen Dunlap, your aunt. Mr. Daniel Berencine, who's the next partner. Ms. Shane Trucklin, my friend. Mr. Juan May, Ms. Trucklin May's husband. Mr. Carwood Woe, who is also here with Ms. Trucklin on. And finally, Ms. Ashley Cunnite, class of 2004, and here is still a good friend of Rebecca. Please welcome them tonight. We have to read the article about Rebecca being a stentorian. It's quite a list of accomplishments. I'm not going to list all of those. But I do want to mention a couple of them just in case you have any chance to read the article with me. She is a graduate from the class of 2004 from NCSSM. She attained her undergraduate degree from Harvard College and her doctoral jurisprudence from Yale Law School. She interned in the White House Counsel's office and completed a civil rights fellowship in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut. She has a one-year federal clerkship on the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the highest military court in the U.S. after which she will clerk for one year for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the first circuit. She served as Deputy National Press Secretary of the Democratic National Committee during the 2008 presidential election and co-authored 40 more years how Democrats were ruled the next generation. Clearly the authors thought that was going to happen with civil rights. She writes on topics from religion, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation to the Supreme Court and health care for publications including NPR where she interned for legal affairs with correspondent Nina Totova. The Nation, the Atlantic, the Paris Review, the Daily Beast, the Civic Standard, the Huffington Post and CNN. She provides political and legal commentary for national and regional radio stations and has appeared on MSNBC. She has also served in national advisory boards for generation progress and advocates for youth. She has been named one of the Blammer Magazine's top 10 college women of the year, the Heria's Truman Scholar for Public Service and the Henry Bruce Scholar. It's in just 10 years that she graduated from Science and Media. That wasn't everything she came out of. We are indeed fortunate to have Rebecca here tonight. Please give her a warm welcome back to NCCC. Sir Warshaw, thank you to my grandmothers, my aunt and her partner and my friends from Science and Math in the Durham School of the Artsville who have come tonight. When Vice Chancellor Warshaw asked me if I could deliver the convocation address, my first thought was yes. The second was, am I that old? No, of course is the answer. But I graduated from Science and Math in 2004. Most of you were probably still drawing on things you should not have been. So was I. There are photos. My dorm room walls usually had everything from molecules to timelines of western civilization on them. On post-it notes, not on the wall itself. So I'm really glad and very honored to be here. I'm also slightly relieved. Friends who do not get to go to Science and Math are sick of hearing me talk about Science and Math. Not only do I get to talk about Science and Math today, at Science and Math, you have to listen. So here's how this is going to go. I'll start by telling you a little about my life after Science and Math. In part because that's what most tweets I receive are questions. And in part because I think you're more likely to be patient with me, as I tell you about things that are not directly, immediately related, earlier in this speech. Then I'll talk about my life and yours at Science and Math, because by then you'll be tired of listening to me and I'll have to get your attention back. Then I'll talk about your life after Science and Math and you should definitely be interested in that part of this speech. Conventional wisdom is that most people in their 20s and 30s who still talk about high school are still talking about it because that's when they peaked. They were prompting or prompting or whatever. I'm still talking about high school because Science and Math is the reason that whatever my peak is, it will be higher and greater than anything I could have anticipated for myself before I came here. That would be true for you too. The narrative of my life that I tell when I'm not supposed to still be talking about high school starts with college. I talk about the night that I became interested in electoral politics, about election night 2004. I went into Boston where Secretary Kerry and Senator Edwards were supposed to be giving a victory speech. I stayed until 3 a.m. It was of course raining. For those of you considering college in New England, Massachusetts rain is not like North Carolina rain. It is awful. After hearing the election results, we trudged out. And of course I actually become interested in politics while at Science and Math, but I didn't yet understand much about electoral partisan politics. My household was not particularly political, or at least it was not liberal meaning. I was interested in policy issues, not parties ultimately. But the election mattered to me because I realized that the types of policies and laws that I really thought would be good for this country were now going to be on hold for at least another four years. What clicked for me was this. Elections are the foundation of public policy. I could study all I wanted, write as often as someone would publish me, and I didn't need much if there were policy makers who were willing to listen. Any of my various hallmates or teachers would tell you, patients has never been my strong suit. So, immediately after the election, I wrote to a political consultant, James Carville, President Clinton's campaign manager. If you watch any political commentary, Carville is the one with the Louisiana accent you can barely understand. I still barely understand him. Why he hired a teen-year-old with no political experience remains unclear. It may have had something to do with the impassioned email I wrote to his office. Didn't he know Senator Perry should never have written off the South? They lost voters in the Southwest and Midwest for the same reasons they were losing voters in North Carolina and Virginia. It could also have been something else. Assistant later told me that she misread Harvard and thought I went to Harvard. They never would have hired me if they knew I went to Harvard. I don't blame them. I worked that summer after my freshman year at a restaurant now far from safe money and then took off to D.C. And then for the next three years, I split time between D.C. and Massachusetts. I got to work on campaigns in Europe and South America, which was awesome except for the time I got malaria. But thankfully, I had Dr. Branson, who seems to have had survived worse than the way of tropical diseases and parasites, so I was not too concerned. By 2008, I understood a lot more about electoral politics. And that election night, I was the deputy national secretary of the Democratic Party. That night, President Obama delivered the speech I'd waited four years to hear. And this time, I was very happy to be awake at 3 a.m. It helped that it was not raining. Two months later, I went back to college to finish. I applied to law school. People asked, don't you just want to do campaigns? I didn't. I got into politics because I cared about advocating for good policies and laws. Campaigns played a valuable role in that process. But I'd rather work for a non-policy directly than now. So I went to law school in London. This is a story that involves a lot of luck, or what seems to be luck. I'll be the first one to tell you that there was luck involved. Carville's assistant misreading Harvard, for example. But what often appears to be luck is actually a constellation of other factors. NCSSM isn't just one of those factors. For me, it was the main factor. In 2018, I was better prepared to strike down on my own. More willing to trust my gut than most of my peers to just write a letter and take a semester out from college. It's largely because of science and math. Partly because it's a residential school. But a lot of people go to boarding schools. I'm not going to give you a list of reasons why these other boarding schools are not as good as NCSSM. It wouldn't be classy. It would also take too long. I want to talk instead about the reason science and math is fantastic. The ways that you can and should take advantage of your time here. The ways in which the school is responsible for my preparation for life after science and math. And along the way, I will also mention things about your experience here that could be difficult. Things that I found hard. The first draft of the speech didn't mention these things. Why would you invite someone to talk about what did not go well? Because, as extraordinary as this place is, not everything will go well for all of you all the time. There will be rough patches and disappointments and drama and vitrails. At least, I think that's how I remember high school. That might just be not the problem. In any case, it's probably a good thing to start the year with a voice saying that's okay too. So here's my advice. The challenge science and math offers is not just academic. It's personal. Can you entertain another way of thinking about something? Can you allow your own views to evolve? Can you let yourself fail and evolve from failure? I hope so. Six things to keep in mind. One, this may be the first time you're not the best of a subject. That happens. Chemistry and physics were very humbling experiences for me. As was mathematics. When Dr. Allen wrote me a letter of recommendation for college, I can only imagine she said something to be effective. Rebecca will never be a chemist. But, previously, someone worked so hard for a good grade this course. I did not see the letter. I'm just speculating. But thanks, Dr. Allen, for all of your guidance for the extra help and for that letter, whatever it said. Two, science and math may be the first time that you encounter people who have had opportunities, experiences, and advantages that you didn't know existed. When I got to Harvard, I doubted myself all the time. I'm a graduate of prep schools and the musicians who trained in the yard and the Olympians who rode. On my first day in Yale, during our convocation, the dean asked everyone to please raise a hand if they had a parent who was a lawyer or if they had experience in the legal profession. It seemed like most hands went up. The good news was I had a head start on getting over it. College was not the first time that I'd run into people who seemed a lot more poised and polished than I was or had experience I couldn't or didn't have. So, when you give the temptation to be intimidated or maybe jealous, hold it back. Let yourself learn from your peers. Meeting, living with, and working beside people with very different backgrounds and experiences is a very important thing. And your experience, your opportunity to do so here is unique. When I was in science and math, being yourself and owning your experiences and achievements did not seem like a competition. No one was reporting it over me that she had already taken an APE con or he had a lot of event. We were in it together, others' experiences enriched my own. That would be true with your time here as long as you were committed to making it so. 3. This is one of the best opportunities you'll ever have to develop lasting meaning for friendships. The friendships I developed here have lasted more than a decade. Mostly because of, sometimes despite, bonding experiences on families. Like the snowstorm that resulted in half the school trying to sled down the hill in a subsequent trip to the ER. The friend who ended up in the hospital loves this story by the way. She says like it's the sweetest thing ever, you let me bleed all over your coat. My friend made it, the coat didn't. I told her that I probably shouldn't tell that story today. She said there's nothing wrong with that story. Sledding is harmless, it's not like we planned to break my nose. On another memorable occasion, a friend on third Brian announced she liked bangs. She was recruiting someone to cut her hair. I became convinced that internet instructions for cutting hair were infallible. How hard could that be? Hard. The result is suboptimal. Fortunately, due to the strength of our friendship as established in Science and Math, she forgave me almost immediately. She didn't say, however, now we know why you didn't get into the Harvard School of Hospitality. We bonded over all sorts of things. We had a series of tower outages, and everyone worked in them all the way together to get things done. We had all-wide dance parties, in which I was allowed to participate despite not being able to dance. Very kind. I remember we went to Ninth Street to get municipia since after we turned 18. These are memories, not suggestions. The Chancellor and Vice Chancellor will truly regret inviting me if you all go break or kiss your noses. Or, because you have become, or will become, a much more tightly knit community than other high schools, you have a much greater opportunity to meet a difference in your friends' lives and behaviors. I asked one of my best friends to share her favorite Science and Math Memories. One was the day she came out to me. Because of where she's from and the experiences that she had, she was really worried about it. Then she said, I told you, can you react like it was totally normal? She felt safe and accepted. I am grateful that that was something that I could give her. And in return, her support made my own process of coming out years later much easier. It may be that here, you're faced with decisions and situations others don't face until adulthood. I did. You may encounter peers who struggle with depression, or eating disorders, or addiction, or you may experience these things. I hope you don't face any of these things, but you could. I'm grateful to have faced these things in an environment in which there are people and resources available to help. I can't urge you enough to take advantage of the support available. And with these challenges and others used as an advantage, that means that the decisions you make and the actions you take to help others here may have greater meaning and consequence than any other juncture in your lives. Five. Appreciate that these are some of the best, most involved teachers you'll ever have. Not only are your teachers more impressive, more qualified than the other self-teachers, they're more dedicated. Dr. Igalis helped me prepare for the A&P US History exam on her own time. Dr. Morrison, who never actually had me as a student, adopted me anyway. I've gotten messages from him on several planets. My net-fizz teacher was the one to teach me how to pick out a prom dress. Halterneck, not strapless. If only I had listened. And when I got sick of my senior year, teachers found a way to help me out here. Teachers here come in early and stay late. They read academic work line by line. They read college essays line by line. That doesn't happen in most places. Not in high school or ever. Teachers here are overall more open to and interested in forming mentoring relationships than anywhere I've ever been. I benefited from that enormously. You can too. Six. Take the chance to fail and learn how to move on. One of the reasons I was surprised to be invited back to Science and Math is that I was not, for me, a model student. I wrote a lot of rules. A few were literal rules, actual rules. Teachers, administrators, stylized them, they were sorry. More often I just did things a little differently. Sometimes because I didn't know better. Sometimes because I was stubborn. But often in a good way, because I was in an environment where instructors reinforced the idea that testing moments and exploring boundaries was a good thing. Succeeding in Science and Math is not about being perfect. It's often about being willing to be imperfect. If you don't understand, ask the question. Admit your limits. You'll have to hit your limits to push past them. In general, just be willing to try, even if you're not sure you'll succeed. In whatever your path, you'll be better off for that willingness. When you open yourself to the many new experiences you can have here, you gain the opportunity to find what one teacher calls a place of grace. Your sense of self here for that will carry you forward. And here's my advice for after Science and Math. When you leave Science and Math equipped with all of these advantages, be yourself. Usually people just say, be yourself and expect that phrase to self-execute. It's more complicated than that. So I have some more specific advice. Please, please do not exaggerate your life. You will be tempted. A lot of people do it in little ways and big ways. The obvious reason not to do so is this. It's wrong. But you're also setting yourself up for a fault. You could get caught during an interview process. I know a woman who sits on a scholarship can almost beat this and is in one of her favorite hobbies, I think, to test applicants on languages they'd like to be fluent in. This has happened to me. Not failing, but being tested. If you're not found out at an interview, you could get caught later. But most of the time, this is the best reason not to be tempted into being inauthentic, your best asset is authenticity. If you've begun from a foundation of insincerity or insecurity, you've thrown that away already. The other piece to being yourself is this. Trust yourself. Don't ask why me. Ask why not me. Many of the choices I made along the way seem risky. What if the car bill internship didn't work out? What if I'd lost my job after leaving school for the campaign? In part because of science and math, I was confident enough to take calculated risks. And I was confident that I was up to the opportunities that I was given. John Updike said, four years was enough of Harvard. I still had a lot to learn, but I had been given the liberating notion that I could now teach myself. Whether you're going to Harvard or UNC, or UNC State, you go already having been liberated in this way. At NCSSM, all of the advantage was all the perks of science and math, learning new classmates, building relationships with teachers, becoming more confident. These require keeping an open mind. So does the challenge that comes after. Your generation is going to see faces serious with false dualisms. In fact, it's already starving. In politics, it's red and blue. In policy, it's idealist and pragmatist. Academia has theory and practice. It's minorities' rights by race or ethnicity or religion or gender or sexual orientation instead of just human rights. And these all boil down to us and them. The challenges that we face across local, state, and national borders differ in details. But the crises that these past two years from economics to other demographics have demonstrated how tightly linked our lives are becoming. Your education and science and math will help you begin to think more broadly about your lives and those of others, about your capabilities and those of others, and to recognize the connections among us. It's important that you embrace this opportunity to expand academic and personal horizons. Because there is no them. There is only us. Communities from local to global. There are only 16 fighting challenges for a willingness to work together. Look at what's happening in Ferguson, Missouri. We're seeing, for example, what happens when they're in an effort to connect, to understand, to think about a greater community. What's happening is very much about fall schoolism among us and them. It's a failure to see that we're all part of the same people. Same American people with same rights, shared experiences. It's critical that you begin thinking about how to approach and handle these issues because soon it will be your generation, the class of 2015, the class of 2016, that has to address them. In the meantime, over this year or two, be grateful, be proud. Remember that it is okay to keep talking about where you went to high school when you went to a high school to raise the science and math. Thank you for making part of this gang best of luck. Your story is an incredible example of the diversity of opportunity that is available and the opportunity and experience that is available to all the students. So, distinguished faculty, guests, and students, it is my honor to welcome you here to the beginning of another unique and extraordinary year. So good afternoon and congratulations to all of you. Juniors, for your acceptance of the inaugural of the essential first steps on each of your journeys that will truly come to be the greatest challenge that is the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. And to the seniors, welcome to round two. For you, this convocation represents the beginning of an end to your two years here at SCSM and to the 12 years from kindergarten to college. Now, all of us have a long school year ahead of us. We feel both momentous achievement, arduous tasks, and most importantly, life time. But before we spring head first onto the road ahead, here are a few things that I hope we'll all keep in mind. I know many of you have made it here by virtue of your competitive spirits and individual ambitions, but if there's one thing I've learned after a year of housekeeping, work service, American studies, and living on the fourth floor, it's that no characteristic embodies the SCSM community better than the spirit of collaboration. While built on a strong academic foundation, SCSM is sustained by the resilience of its community and the camaraderie of all students, the athletes, students, scientists, musicians, programmers, painters, and mathematicians. This last year has taught me that often times your greatest asset comes not from within yourself but from those around you. Always remember that just as double the recite of Hogwarts, here at SCSM, help will always be given to those who ask for it. While most of us probably would never have the same hat or a long white beard, or at least maybe not until you have the notion of a drummer, rest assured that your peers will offer you the wisest of advice and be the ones that tell you they can, even when all others tell you they can't. From the long conversations with your counselor and late night tutorial sessions with your chemistry teacher, to the anti-failing American studies Facebook groups, to the French shoulder you cry on after that impossible business test, you'll find yourself with so many people to thank individual for your success. Don't get me wrong, this is not the time to be very dependent but rather to utilize the invaluable resources around you as a foundation and a base that will allow you to reach higher and see further than you could ever on your own. Never rest on your laurels but continue to strive to achieve the same spirit that led you here today. In clicking I accept this April we not only accepted entrance to one of those prestigious schools in the country but also accepted ownership of your success. Whatever you're calling NCSTEM will be to you exactly what you make it. So I challenge you today to make it the absolute best thing you deserve by pursuing all of your intellectual and personal curiosities. To take that self-defense class to sign up for all of those clubs before finding a true passion or to follow up on that crazy idea for something like making colored paraphernal work getting money for solar panels around campus. As you continue your journey to science and math, don't forget that inspiration can come from just about anyone. In fact it was Kanye West that taught me the final right to remind what I have for you all today. We all know our goals in life, our missions, our destination, the figure of light at the end of the tunnel. But just like street lights on a highway shining moments in life pass us by endlessly. It's easy to see life as a constant race that requires speed, endurance and endless competition to edge ahead of those next to you. It's easy to see NCSAM like such a marathon with colors at the finish line and you'll find yourself burnt out before getting there. So remember that the journey is just as important as if not more than the end itself. Never forget the shining lights the late nights with your friends shivering through happy half in the middle of the winter just because or sprinting down 9th street to eat the sunset. We'll encounter some of the biggest challenges that were lives during our time here like trimester exams, college applications and well, food, enough to love. Even in the middle of the second try when work and sleep become mutually exclusive or when breakfast or even lunch doesn't make the cut for things you think you have time for don't ever give up. Know that your darkest times will not define you because you struggled, but because you made it through. Along with 679 of North Carolina's best to light the way to the end no matter how many apes you take or how well you do on your SAT you'll leave here with an experience to last up a lifetime. Something that can never be taken away and will often take you further than any number on a resume you will. So make the best of your time here. Remember what you learned from your teachers your friends and yourself. Let's make it a great year. Thank you. I'd like to say thank you to Rebecca again for being here and speaking with us this evening and sharing her words of inspiration from what she was a student to now as she's a professional. Thank you to Abby for your words as well. I really appreciate those. One of the things that always amazes me and I guess now after four years of being here shouldn't. When you hear alumni whether they're class of 82 and class of 2004 or Abby who's the class of 2015 they talk about their experiences there's so much in common and that's something to be proud about as an institution after 34 years that we can say that. I also want to thank our honored guest who are here this evening for being with us to share 35th Convocation at NCSSM all of our faculty and staff who every day as you can hear from what Rebecca had to say do things that make this place what it is for all of you that are here. Thank you for getting this school year off to a great start and all the members of the classes in 2015 and 16 thank you for being here and accepting the greater challenge and continuing the tradition of excellence that is the North Carolina School of Science and Math that you've heard some of this evening. The start of the school year is always filled with great excitement and with possibilities that come with starting anything new. So as you experience learn, wrestle with joy all that lies ahead of you this year I want you to remember what got you here. Your commitment to learning your motivation and your drive to challenge yourself to your highest ability and beyond. NCSSM as has been said earlier you will have greater educational opportunities greater challenges than ever before. Every one of you has the talent and ability to be as successful here as you have been throughout your entire school all of your education to this point. I want you to know that you have the support of every member of our faculty and staff and that you will not find anywhere a better or more committed group of professionals that you will hear. You'll have the support of the alumni who have come before you who each year give back to the school of their time their talents and their treasure so that you will have better opportunities than they had when they were at Science and Math. However, with all of the support you will have at NCSSM it is your commitment to being successful that is most important more so than anything else. So as we begin the 2014-15 school year remember this year is yours for the challenges that we'll present yours for the learning that we'll offer and yours for the infinite possibilities before you. I look forward to working with each of you this year into your great success. I hope everyone after we've recess will enjoy joining us on the Brian Long Court Reception an opportunity to talk with our speaker and others. So again, as we start the 2014-15 school year I have a great year and I wish you all the success in the world.