Comments from the Student Speaker

Thank you to Chancellor Oblinger and congratulations to all the students being recognized tonight. It is an honor to be here tonight and you should feel accomplished for not just graduating from a world-class university, but excelling at it. I also want to recognize the parents and faculty mentors that have had such a tremendous impact in our lives while here at state. We would not be here tonight without your guidance along the way.

I want to speak to you briefly tonight about something I have seen exemplified over and over again during my time here at NC State. Leadership. Leadership by this group here tonight has proven the tremendous quality of both you as students and as NC State as a University. All of you have demonstrated leadership while here at NC State. Academically we are all leaders as evidenced by being invited here tonight to celebrate us graduating with honors and those who have received national recognition for their hard work.

When I was a freshman, there were whispers about a few guys who made a bet to run from the bell tower to the Krispy Kreme, eat a dozen doughnuts and then run back. Now the Krispy Kreme Challenge is an annual charity event with over 5,000 participants and that raised over $35,000 this past year for the North Carolina children’s hospital.

In addition we have seen students take charge as undergraduates and tackle global issues between attending their economics or chemistry lecture and making late night runs to cookout. We have seen them work to end global hunger, create an inexpensive tuberculosis test, uncover important genetic secrets behind cancer, and many other great things which I could list. Not only that, students here have been leaders in the community building homes for the poor and tutoring young elementary students in Raleigh. We saw a group of dedicated students this past spring close Hillsborough street for an entire day and promote a host of environmentally friendly activities.

Let me remark that while you all have shown tremendous leadership while at NC State, graduation is not the time to stop and remark on all that you have done. Rather we must continue to lead and tackle difficult problems in the future. We need you to be the engineer who creates a solution to our energy problems, the diplomat who negotiates peace between warring countries, the entrepreneur who creates the next google, the doctor who finds new cures for our diseases, the politician or social worker who closes the poverty and achievement gap, and all of us who will be called upon to educate the next generation so that they and we may succeed together.

This sounds intimidating, but let me relay a little trivia I picked up this past weekend. In the 1960s, we put a man on the moon for the first time, and it was something that everyone had thought to be impossible. The average age of those working on the Apollo missions to put those men on the moon was 26.

I know you have all done wonderfully thus far; that is why we are here tonight. I say all this because I also know that you have the drive and leadership to make us succeed both now and in the future. So when we all cross the stage on saturday and get our diploma, do not think that this is the time to rest on our laurels. Rather look forward with the opportunity to lead us all into the future and into a better world. Be the great leaders that we know NC State graduates are.

Thank you and congratulations.

 

by Ryan W. Going