Commencement 2008 Outstanding Faculty
Steven Cassidy
Here’s Some Sage Advice, from You to Me:
Dear Professor Cassedy—oh, sorry: Steve (we almost forgot: your generation invented informality, right?),
Thanks for coming to our commencement. You know, we were actually pretty bored with the idea of listening to you speak, especially after all those MMW lectures, and we really didn’t feel like hearing any fatherly advice from anyone.
So we decided we’re going to give the speech today, and you are going to listen. OK? So here goes…
I mean, what could you possibly have to say, Steve, that we might find helpful, inspiring, or even interesting?
Uhhh, hard work, good study habits, clear professional goals? Dude, do you remember what you were doing in tenth grade? No? Remember how your high school GPA took a major nose-dive? Remember the stuff you were doing instead of working, studying, and setting goals? No? Need a hint? Well, the last thing we want to do is embarrass you in front of our parents.
Let’s face it. For starters, we’re way smarter than you were. Remember how you guys thought you were so amazing if you took, like, one or two AP courses during your senior year of high school? Have you heard that, in our generation, anyone who needed to wait till sophomore year to take BC calculus and then got less than a 5 on the exam was considered to have serious cognitive impairment?
But most of all, how about the whole working-for-humanity, making-the-world-a-better-place thing? OK, now listen up good here, because we have a serious bone to pick with you. All you old flower children in your fifties and sixties think you somehow invented the whole idea of doing good, working for social justice, that sort of thing. And it’s no secret: you’re always droning on self-righteously about how you were the last ones to do that stuff. Right? Oh, we know what you think: like all we care about is texting each other, listening to our I-Pods, checking out those dirty websites on our laptops as we pretend to listen to your lectures.
But, hey: what did your generation really do, when it came to making the world a better place? Think about it. For you guys, if you went to a couple anti-war rallies, never took a bath, wore dirty cut-off jeans, grew your hair really long and never combed or washed it, mouthed off to your college professors once in a while, and listened to enough Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd, you could pretty much go to bed every night with a clear conscience… if not always a clear head.
I mean, give us a break!
See, here at ERC, we have a long tradition of really helping to make the world a better place.
- Remember the first time you taught MMW, to the first class at ERC (Fifth College back then)? There was a guy in that class who, for one of his MMW research projects, went down to Mission Bay dressed in dirty, tattered clothes, joined the homeless community for several days, and then wrote about the hardships of that community.
- In more recent years, we had Lindsay Harris (class of 2005), who founded Bridge For Africa, an organization that supports artisans in Africa by helping to market their products in the United States.
- There was Joelle Rosser (class of 2007), who, after a summer trip to Tanzania between her sophomore and junior years at UCSD, co-founded Elimu Africa, a non-profit organization that helps poor Tanzanian children pursue their educational goals.
- How about Tara Buss, who served as project organizer for the Tijuana Orphanage Project with CORE, ERC’s community outreach organization?
- And Cortney Eakin, who performed missionary service abroad and then last fall, despite the demands of being an RA, somehow found the time and energy to carry out relief work for fire victims.
- Then there’s LaCandice McCray, who organized the first “Green Week” for I-House this year and was the driving force behind I-CARES, the volunteer arm of I-House.
- Melissa Lee went to Washington, DC, on the UCDC program. There she worked on a report for the UN Secretary General on small island developing nations.
- Remember Moorisha Taylor? She enrolled in the Place Matters program in the fall of 2006, writing a research project on class and privilege among African American students at UCSD. This year she received the Alumni Association Outstanding Senior Award, in part for her leadership role in the Black Student Union.
- Or Felicia Halim, an international student and Place Matters participant, who carried out a major study of racial school resegregation and its devastating effects on minorities right here in La Jolla.
- Then there’s Chelsea Ambort. In addition to being an NCAA All-American fencer, Chelsea participated in the Mexican Migration Field Research and Training Program this past year and went to work for the Casa Cornelia Law Center here in San Diego. Talk about service! Casa Cornelia provides pro bono legal services to some of the most desperate people in our city: members of the immigrant community who are seeking political asylum, who are victims of domestic violence, or who have been arrested and detained (and this includes young children) by US immigration officials.
- And there’s Nick Aldridge, who serves as a board member for Elimu Africa, the organization that Joelle Rosser founded. Nick also worked for a health clinic run by student volunteers for the underserved population in Ensenada, Mexico.
- And of course there’s Grecia Lima, who just spoke to us.
So… Steve… now that we’re graduating, we have some sage words of advice for you… Uhhh… Travel, and not just to Europe but to other places too. Volunteer. Get involved. Join a community organization. Try to do something every day that will make the world a better place for someone else. In short, be a little more like us…
Well, in conclusion, we’d like to say thanks for listening and good luck to you. And now we’d like to invite you, our families, our friends, and everybody on stage to join us in giving ourselves a huge round of applause. To the Eleanor Roosevelt College Class of 2008!!!
