Albion College Commencement Speech - May 3, 2025

Well, good afternoon! It’s so exciting to be here and I’m very honored to receive this degree. And most importantly, honored to have an opportunity to be here with the class of 2025! You did it! Congratulations!

And congratulations to your family and friends who are all here to share the celebration, as well. No one gets to this day on their own, and I know that today’s graduates are so thankful for all of you for your patience, and your love, and your support. And I know that all the family members and friends here are so proud of you. And congratulations to President Wayne Webster and all of the outstanding mission-focused faculty and coaches and staff for a very successful year. And by the way, congrats to conference champs in lacrosse. Way to go! Way to go, I can’t wait to see what comes next. This is fantastic! And thank you to Chairperson Joanne Miller and to all the Board of Trustees for your dedication to Albion College. And I want to give a special shoutout to my friend, Trustee Brian McPheely, for inviting me to have the opportunity to be here today. It really is an honor.

I also want to give a shoutout to a special graduate today that I know, Wally Kennedy, who I’ve known since his birth because his mom, Margie, has been a senior member of my team for over 25 years. So as Constituent Services Director, Margie’s been a huge part of my success in serving the people of Michigan. And Wally, I know that she and your dad and Maya are so proud of you. Congratulations.

Today, after a lot of hard work, and you know it more than I do, and dedication, you are becoming proud graduates of Albion College. You’ve been through a lot, including COVID, at the beginning of your college career, but you’ve made it. Being an Albion Brit means you are part of the number one liberal arts college in Michigan, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s pretty good. Being an Albion Brit means you are part of the number one public or private Michigan institution providing the best outcomes for graduates. Number one in Michigan, number one. There is so much to talk about, we’ve already heard today. But let me also say that being an Albion Brit means you are part of an organization that values people and encourages volunteering through wonderful things like AmeriCorps.

You know, I’m so impressed that one of your new programs focused on improving literacy for older adults. I understand that Tech Savvy Seniors was launched last year with Albion Healthcare Alliance, and it was featured in a recent issue of AARP. By the way, I had to smile about that, because the national head of government relations for AARP is a proud alum of Albion. My former chief of staff, Bill Sweeney, and he never stopped talking about Albion College. Being an Albion Brit means you have benefited from of the most dedicated, the brightest, and most accomplished faculty and staff and coaches anywhere in the world. Thank you for doing that.

And you know you’ve had the benefit of an incredible equestrian center and access to the White House nature center with the wonderful student farm, which as chair of the Agriculture Committee, is near and dear to my heart where you’re practicing sustainable agriculture, which is so critical today. And I’m really impressed that your community gardens offer free garden plots to students and community members. This also demonstrates your commitment to sustainability and access to healthy food for everyone. Food should be a right in America, we should all be fighting back on hunger.

Because we’re here on the steps of the Kresge Gym, which was built in 1925, I also want to take a moment to talk about what was happening here at that time. Your 1925 class was one of the first classes where women had the right to vote. Thanks, in part, to the incredible Albion alumnus, Anna Howard Shaw. This was a time where we were between world wars, in a time of great tension and great change. A time of extreme wealth being amassed by a few. Sound familiar? It was the height of prohibition, so there were no bars downtown like Albion Malleable Brewery, serving Red-Headed Senator beer or Albion Knights at the Calor. And the technology that would lead to television was just being invented, now think about that. When this was being created, the technology for television was just being invented. It’s an understatement to say a lot has changed since then.

But what has not changed is the need to lift up Albion’s motto: lux fiat. Let there be light. And that’s what all of you are about. That’s what all of you are about. Your light, your passion, your commitment to a better world is needed now more than ever. We talk a lot about sustainability these days, and sustainability is really about protecting our resources, and mitigating and managing our risk. You know, our water and our land and our air are at risk. We have burned fuels for over a hundred years that pollute our environment with carbon and other dangerous greenhouse gases resulting in the climate crisis. We need your leadership in shining a light on these risks and what we can do together to stop the pollution.

We also need your leadership to shine a light on other risks. Sustaining our democracy with our three branches of government, and our precious freedoms as Americans. Sustaining our communities as welcoming places for everyone. Over and over again today we’ve been hearing the word community. This is important. And our communities need to take a lesson from Albion about being welcoming places for everyone. We need a light to be shone on the importance of working together as people, the importance of respecting and caring about others with the understanding that these are strengths, not weaknesses. And we need to sustain our American belief that when everybody has a fair shot, everybody has a fair shot to succeed, it’s better for all of us. As a friend of mine used to say, we all do better when we all do better.

Unfortunately, our world just keeps moving faster and faster, and we’ve gone from just experiencing change to now experiencing chaos. In all of this, your voice, your courage, your light are all needed now more than ever. You know, we can’t control everyone in the world around us, that’s for sure. But we can control how we respond to it. As I see it, as you graduate you are facing three main challenges. First, how do you maintain your personal values and beliefs when everything is swirling around you. Second, how do you adapt to meet the challenges of a world that is constantly changing. And third, how do you do your part to make the world a better place. Your education at Albion has prepared you tackle all of these.

I think the most important challenge is to maintain who you are and what you believe in the midst of everything that’s coming at you. Your world is so filled with social media and streaming on a thousand different platforms that has transformed your life and all of ours. Our world today is overbooked, overstressed overangry, and underconnected in the ways that truly matter. And we all feel it.

Someone cut you off in traffic when you’re already running late, do you take a breath, or do you let a few choice words and a choice finger fly? You might get in an argument on social media and are you even arguing with a person, or a bot from Belarus? In the words of a famous Michigan rapper, Lizzo, it might be time to log off. She sings the internet isn’t reality, the things people are typing are words in an app you can choose to ignore. Put your phone down, close your eyes, count to ten. Think about how you can make the world a better place in the real world. And on behalf of all of the parents and grandparents here today, a phone call or a personal conversation instead of a text is always welcome.

In our world today, I believe that having the courage to shine our light starts with believing in ourselves and having a strong foundation of faith and family and friends. Take the time to know who you really are and what you believe. As Dolly Parton says, find out who you are and do it with purpose. I think it also means having the courage to shine your light on a bully, reject a racist comment, and just not laugh at a cruel joke. In short, we should live our lives based on our own values and value the people around us.

Second, a big challenge for all of you will be adapting to continual change. That’s a challenge for all of us. While your grandfather or grandmother or mother or dad might’ve worked for the same company their entire career, it is very unlikely that will happen to you. You will be challenged by artificial intelligence and continued changes in what the workplace looks like. The critical thinking skills you’ve earned here at Albion, and your capacity to adapt and continue learning will be absolutely essential to your success. This means being willing to take risks and fail and get up and do it again until you achieve your goals.

And finally, one of my favorite Broadway plays is Hamilton. There are so many wonderful songs. But one of the lines that really struck me was a line that says by Alexander Hamilton, “God help and forgive me, I wanna build something that’s gonna outlive me.” We are so fortunate that he and rest of our founders built something that outlived them: a constitution and a bill of rights. A set of freedoms that are still our foundation today, even though are being challenged. Not all of us can be Alexander Hamilton and have hit musicals written about us 211 years after we die, but all of us truly can build something that will be here when we’re gone.

So, what will you do to improve your community and change the world around you for the better? Anna Howard Shaw was a leading figure in the suffrage movement. She wanted to be a preacher at a time when few women were preachers. She insisted on going to Albion in 1873. She arrived with only eighteen dollars in her pocket, and she paid her way by preaching at area churches. She went on to receive several degrees and was an early Methodist minister, which I love, as a lifelong United Methodist. And then, Anna Howard Shaw helped pass the Nineteenth Amendment to our constitution, giving women the right to vote. She brought her light to the world around her and truly built opportunities for millions and millions of women that has certainly outlived her.

Someone who I am so impressed with who I know is still here among us, I don’t think he’s here today, but Dr. James Curtis, Albion class of 1944, was born in the Jim Crow South in 1922, his family came to Albion like so many others, looking for a better life. He went to Albion College in 1944 and went on to the University of Michigan Medical School as the only African American in his class when he started. He became a successful psychiatrist and moved back to Albion to give something back to the community, and he certainly has. As we know, Dr. Curtis, a revered alumnus, has been able to shine his light to mentor and help so many people around him and so many people in the community for so many decades. And his legacy lives on through the Curtis Institute for Race and Belonging. In 2022, Albion celebrated his 100th birthday, and now we’re looking at 103 and still going strong. Albion strong. Someone who has truly made a difference to those around him and we are blessed because of it.

There’s so many ways you can make a community better and build your legacy. So many ways that can outlive and what a wonderful way to shine your light. Maybe you’ll launch a small business that will revitalize the Main Street in your town where you grew up. Maybe you’ll be a farmer who sustainably grows the food we need to feed our families. Maybe you’ll be the nurse or the doctor who cares for new moms and babies or someone who needs loving support at the end of their life. Maybe you’ll be the person to find a cure for Alzheimer’s or cancer, maybe you’ll be the teacher or professor who mentors and inspires the next generation of leaders. And maybe you will be the leader who helps bring world peace. Or maybe you’ll be an astronaut, like Albion alum Josh Cassada, and take your light as far away as possible. And then come back and deliver the commencement speech, like Josh did. And maybe you’ll be sitting in the audience in the future, cheering on loving, responsible young people who you have helped to nurture.

This is an exciting time with so many wonderful possibilities in front of you. There are challenges, as well, and I don’t mean to minimize them at all. We need you to shine your light brightly, to help us address them. Believe in yourself, be willing to adapt and learn, and make a personal commitment to do something special, create something special that will outlast you. As you leave here today, know this: you are not finished, in fact, you are just getting started. The world is waiting for your ideas, your voices, your courage. As Alexander Hamilton sings in the opening number of Hamilton, “there’s one million things I haven’t done just yet, but just you wait, just you wait.” I know I speak for everybody here when I say I can’t wait to see what’s next for you. We believe in you. Go forward with purpose, with passion, and the belief that your best work and your greatest impact is still to come. Congratulations class of 2025 and thank you so much for giving me a chance to share this day with you.