Honor’s Breakfast Remarks
May 7, 2005
Northern Michigan University

Dr. Leslie E. Wong
President

Thank you, Fred. Welcome, guests of our graduates. We are happy to have you with us today.

Congratulations, soon-to-be NMU alumni! This morning we celebrate your accomplishment of graduating from college, in fact, graduating with honors.

Think how hard you worked to get here. Nobody is just handing you a diploma - you had to earn it. I know you didn't wander onto the NMU campus and by accident earn a degree - one with honors no less. It was a goal set and, with a lot of work, a goal obtained. Congratulations and job well done.

Graduation always makes me think harder about my own work. And I inevitably and predictably think about you. Have we treated you well? Pushed your edges? Helped you push your own edges? Have we set in motion your ability and obligation to change in ways that you wanted and to some degree in ways you don't want? All that rhetoric aside, the most important question that recurs to me involves both our obligation to you and your own obligation to yourself. The question goes like this:
"Has your education helped you think with the same degree of complexity as the world is around you and the world you want to be in?" and please don't take my question too superficially. Imagine underestimating the complexity of issues around you. You'll never, "see the wave that hit you". Equally disturbing is over thinking an issue. How frustrated have you been when you obsess and obsess and obsess. The ability to judge the kind of thinking you need, employ it, evaluate your strategy and change it if needed, is a very powerful way to think. That's why we ask you to take classes away from your major. It's not that everything will help you with an immediate goal or a far off one. The issue is exercising your thinking so you know the "how" as well as you know the "what". And while you may have experienced a thing called boredom, I can tell you, from first hand experience, as a University President, I wished I paid more attention in my government and economic classes. The classes I appeared to blow off really impact my activity now. Please don't ever underestimate the breadth of your education.

And more personally for you as NMU's honor graduates, think about the potential of what lies before you professionally and personally. Picture in your mind other situations where you would define yourself as reaching the top. Now, let me tell you that no matter what you just envisioned, I can guarantee that the possibilities of what you can accomplish from here are greater than what you can imagine. But to reach those highest heights, you must continue to do what you did at NMU: set high standards, work you tail off - THINK EFFECTIVELY.

Consider your potential to act as a change agent in your profession, your community, your church and social organizations, and your world - whatever you define that to be. At Northern, the faculty and staff have helped you develop the skills you will need to succeed in your chosen career field - those are important. But just as important is Northern's role in helping you broaden your awareness of world issues, enhance your level of tolerance for people and perspectives different than your own, and expose you to new intellectual ideas. The so-called "real world" that you have potential to play a leadership role in is a complicated one. It is certainly not a place for those easily intimidated or looking for shortcuts. I mean this sincerely when I say, go forth and conquer. The NMU faculty, staff and alumni know you are ready to do so.

Despite the fact that you have completed the requirements of your collegiate degree program, I have one more homework assignment for you, and it's not an easy one because it may take you a lifetime to complete. Here it is: whatever you desire the world to be, actively live and teach the very same. If you say that you want to live in a peaceful world then be an advocate of peace. If you expect the world to be a fair place, then be fair and upstanding in your own actions. If you would like others to respect your ideas and opinions, then be accepting of others. You must be willing to work as hard for the "greater good" as for your individual professional and personal gains.

Continue to demonstrate the same level of exertion as you travel down your life's path that you did to earn honors at the collegiate level. Your hard work will bring about many goals to celebrate. Remember the old saying that nobody falls TO the top of the mountain, you must climb to get there.

Wherever the journey goes, remember that Northern travels with you. Keep in touch with us. We'd like to share in your next milestone moment and the many more that will come after that.

Congratulations, Honors Graduates.