Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School
Commencement Speech
June 9, 2007
Robert A. Kennedy, President, University of Maine
• Thank you for that nice
introduction.
• It is a pleasure to be here in South Paris again. The University of
Maine has a great many alumni and other friends who live in this
beautiful part of our state and it is always so nice to be here.
• When I visited Oxford Hills High School last year, and I was greatly
impressed by the students I met and by the integrated, visionary
approach to education that I saw—a tremendous credit to the community
and the school administration.
• It is truly an honor to be here.
• First, my heartiest congratulations to the Class of 2007! You have
reached a significant milestone, and I am sure you are ready in many
respects to move on to exciting new things.
• I'm sure that you realize that education – what is behind you and what
is ahead of you—in any form – is the key to your future. Your earning
potential, your ability to contribute meaningfully to society, your life
to a large degree, will be determined – to a very significant degree
extent – by your education.
• In Maine, we are fortunate to have a wonderful set of options for
continued studies. Maine prides itself on access to higher education,
and the windows to opportunity provided by that access.
• There are plenty of reasons to stay in Maine after you leave here, and
I hope most of you will. Stephen King—UMaine's most famous
graduate—spoke at our graduation a couple of years ago and he gave his
Top 10 list for our graduates and numbers 8, 9, and 10 on his list were:
Stay in Maine.
• Maine is a wonderful place to live and to work. And I truly believe –
because I am surrounded by evidence of it every day – that our state's
future is extremely bright.
• A group called the Brookings Institution took a look at what Maine has
to offer, and it issued a report last year. It shows some very positive
trends in our population—with people looking for a quality place to
live—and choosing Maine. Perhaps surprisingly, people in the 25-40 age
range are moving to Maine in the largest numbers, or – in many cases –
moving back to Maine in large numbers.
• Because of the Internet and other communications advances, people are
now often able to live and work where they want to, rather than where
they have to. This is great for our state, because there is no better
place to live than right here in Maine.
• At UMaine, we currently have xx 73 students from the eight towns which
are part of this school district, studying, working, living and thriving
at the University of Maine.
• We have students from 47 states and 76 countries—from all over the
globe. UMaine is one of the most diverse places in Maine, and we are
proud of our students. They work hard and their enthusiasm for the
future is infectious.
• We are equally proud of our wonderful faculty, which includes some of
the world's leading experts in areas like climate change, composite
materials, Eastern religions, literacy and forest products.
• It is, as we say, a "great place," and it is a resource for people all
around Maine – not just our students—but business owners, community
leaders and people with all kinds of issues that require the expertise
of a state university to help solve.
• You are also in a great place here—a school where you, the members of
the Class of 2007, have learned about the Periodic Table, Nathaniel
Hawthorne and Quadratic Equations. Just as important, it is where you
have gained skills and perspectives. Perhaps most important—to use a
cliché—you have learned how to learn.
• You should take some time to reflect upon how you have changed during
your time here—and to think about the people who have influenced you—and
helped set you on the path to future success. And, you should make sure
to say "thank you" to parents, to teachers, to friends and to others who
share in this moment with you.
• At UMaine, we had a president in the ‘40s and ‘50s who served a
record-breaking 24 years, and he was legendary. I've kidded in the last
three weeks that I made may be best known for making the decision to
hire a new basketball coach named Cindy Blodgett!
• Cindy graduated from Lawrence High School in Fairfield in 1994. She
was a great basketball player, leading her teams to four state
championships.
• Then, she chose UMaine over Notre Dame and Colorado, two of the top
schools in the country for women's basketball. More great success
followed. Her UMaine teams played in four NCAA tournaments; she led the
nation in scoring twice; she went on to play in the WNBA.
• Cindy is – by any measure – one of Maine's greatest athletes ever. She
is certainly a UMaine legend, and we believe she is going to be a
terrific coach.
• Here's what has made Cindy Blodgett the great success she is. She
works harder than everybody else. It's as simple as that. When our men's
basketball coaches used to arrive for work in the morning, they'd walk
by the gym and hear a ball bouncing. Invariably, it was Cindy alone in
the gym, working to get better.
• She was already the best player on the team, and one of the best in
the country. But she was driven – she still is driven – by a desire to
be all she can be.
• And, she was much more than a gym rat. UMaine gives a Dean Smith Award
each year – actually two, one to a man and one to a woman – to the best
student and community citizen among all our athletes. It is not usually
one of the truly elite athletes who gets this recognition. But, as you
may have already figured, Cindy Blodgett did. The reason was the same.
She worked at her studies just as hard as she did at her sport.
• Cindy relayed a story to a large alumni group we had on campus last
weekend. She said that the question she is getting most often is "are
you worried about the challenges and the expectations ahead?" And Cindy
said that her answer always is: "no, but the women on the team should
be!" Isn't that a great answer, because, ultimately, it is the players
on the team who have to meet the challenges. ahead.
• Cindy's story proves that hard work leads to good things. Her example
is a good one for all of you.
• If you do, you will be a success.
• Success can be measured in lots of ways, but it all comes down to our
personal expectations for ourselves, setting our goals and doing what it
takes to achieve them. That's within the grasp of all of us, and the
potential for achieving success – of setting goals and starting toward
them – is particularly exciting on milestone days like this one.
• Preparing for today caused me to think back to my days as a high
school student in rural Minnesota. I grew up in an area not unlike this
part of Maine.
• Like many of us who graduated a while ago, I wish I had appreciated
certain things more. I know I could have paid more attention to certain
things, and learned more.
• But what I truly appreciate now is my teachers. From this perspective,
I can see how much I learned from them, and how their influence on me
has carried through many years, and many twists and turns in my life.
• At commencement time at UMaine, I often ask our students about to
graduate what was the one thing that they enjoyed most about their
college experience, and they invariably say their relationship with the
faculty. And I can't think of an answer I would rather hear.
• You are at a point now where you should begin (and I stress that word
– "begin") to think about your future careers. As you contemplate this,
think about teachers and others whose professional lives are based on
helping others. That may or may not be your career choice, but certainly
it is a noble one—one that you have benefited from more than you can
possibly know right now, and one which, I hope, you will support in your
many years ahead.
• USA Today had a recent story about college graduates, who sometimes
take jobs just to pay their bills, and that is understandable. The
article offered some suggestions about moving past that point in one's
career, and about the true value in finding a career that we really
enjoy.
• I have been able to do that, and I can't stress enough the joy and the
opportunities that my work has brought to my life. My wish for each of
you is that you will find a career that brings you happiness, and
rewards you in ways that are truly important.
• To a large extent, I believe this comes down to looking outside our
own personal interests – in effect, to being unselfish. Teachers are a
good example of this. They thrive on helping others, and that in itself
can be intensely rewarding.
• One more point for you to consider – the importance of leadership.
• Communities have leaders. This one has a principal, teachers, and a
student council president, legislative and community leaders, and so on.
• In our cities and towns, in our civic organizations, in our places of
worship and in our workplaces, leaders are everywhere. Sometimes their
roles are specifically defined, sometimes they just sort of emerge.
• And, as you have most likely observed, some leaders take
organizations, institutions and communities in a positive direction,
while others go the other way.
• Each of you has the ability to continue as a leader, or to become one.
You have a baseline education, you have some life experiences and you
have abundant opportunities in front of you.
• At each turn in life – and there will be many – I hope you will look
for the opportunity to lead, in a positive way. I hope that you will try
to influence those around you to do better and to be better.
• And I hope that you will build communities where education, hard work
and the personal satisfaction that comes with selfless pursuits are all
valued.
• Thank you once again for the invitation to be here, and
congratulations, Oxford Hills Class of 2007.
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