Commencement 2008 Senior Remarks
Grecia Lima
Congratulations class of 2008, for your well accomplished journey. We are among the privileged few who got to be part of this institution and embark on a journey of self-discovery and intellectual growth. We all have very different stories, when it comes to the challenges or obstacles that we might have had to overcome in order to accomplish this journey. However, I believe that the different type of challenges that each of us have faced creates different stories, but not different human beings. The essence of Eleanor Roosevelt College is that we have different stories – that we are unique individuals – but more importantly the continuous struggle for inclusion and recognition of everyone’s common humanity.
I remember the exact time when I chose Eleanor Roosevelt. I was confused and surprised with the six college system of UCSD. As an immigrant who came to this country at the age of 13, the historical figures after whom the colleges are named were unfamiliar to me, and this made the choice a little more difficult. My high school teacher, Ms. denDulk, looked over the screen and immediately said: “Eleanor Roosevelt first!” Ms. denDulk shared with me her story as a Dutch immigrant to this country, a story that paralleled my own. Like me, she didn’t speak English well when she came. She attended and overcrowded and underfunded high school, and she told me that she frequently felt an overwhelming sense of alienation and degradation that made it a struggle for her to pursue higher education. But my teacher’s pursuit of education was inspired by her idol, Eleanor Roosevelt. She grew up admiring Eleanor Roosevelt for her impressive intellect and her active role in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With a look of hope in her eyes my teacher told me, “Eleanor Roosevelt fought for the rights of all people with the fundamental awareness that we are all part of the human family and she demanded that societies guarantee equal protection, recognition and inclusiveness for all human beings.”
After hearing my teacher’s description of Eleanor Roosevelt, I could not help but wonder how much my own idol sounded like Eleanor Roosevelt. My idol, she has never been recognized by the press and may never be written into history books. But my idol – my mother – fought for her children’s education and recognition of their humanity, with an intensity that I have never seen in anyone else. In that moment I had no doubt that I wanted to be at a place where we cultivated those beliefs of equality, recognition, inclusiveness and justice for all; the beliefs that my mother taught me with her example, and the beliefs that other amazing people, like Eleanor Roosevelt had showed us by their leadership.
To be honest, when I first got here I thought ERC had pulled a bait and switch on me! They used the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt to lure me into attending the most challenging college at UCSD. The Making of the Modern World Courses seemed, well, never-ending. And it seemed like such a hassle to have to squeeze regional specialization courses into my already busy major course load! However, now that I am done with the panic and stress, I am thankful for the curriculum because it gave me the opportunity to have a historical perspective of the world and answer more Jeopardy questions. But more importantly, it gave me an opportunity to develop a level of knowledge that has left me confident in my abilities to effect positive change in our world. I think this is the greatest gift that a college named after Eleanor Roosevelt could offer its students.
The humble advice that I would like to offer to my fellow graduates, as we enter the next phase of our lives, is this: continue to live out the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt. I hope that our learning does not end once we leave this institution, but rather that it becomes a life-long pursuit, which will cultivate actions with a strong determination to improve our own communities, wherever they may be. And through our collective efforts at the local level, we will see changes in society at large. I also hope we all carry with us a deep commitment to mutual understanding and recognition of everyone’s common humanity. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Understanding is a two way street” and “we are afraid to care too much for fear that the other person does not care at all.” But let us, care anyway, have honest human connections in which we openly listen to each other, replacing walls of human division with bridges of understanding, in that small but firm way creating change in our communities.
I thank every one of you for the uniqueness of your story, the differences in your journey, but most importantly I thank you all who understood, sought and together built the bridges of understanding here at the University, our community. It was because of those bridges that our institution became a little bit less ordinary and a little bit more extraordinary. Let's create extraordinary communities and through that an extraordinary world! Thank you.
