Thank you — President Corzo, Honorable Deans, Faculty & Staff, Parents and my fellow students. It’s truly an honor for me to be up here today and I really want to thank everyone who’s made it possible. Over the last four years we’ve all made some friends, with students, faculty. Some of them were helpful at the time, some will last our lifetimes. And as we look forward towards leaving this supportive environment, it all looks a bit scary. Finding a job might be the first thing on a lot of your minds. Some of you might still be unsure about what careers to pursue, but I want you to take a second and look a little further. War vs. negotiation; globalization vs. isolation; activists vs. those who are convinced that nothing individuals do makes a difference anyway; social responsibility vs. the bottom line – these are huge problems staring at all of us in today's world. Those of us who will eventually reach the levers of power may be able to do something to affect them, but what about the rest of us?

I was born in India, into a rather privileged family of scientists, educators, industrialists, and artists. Being lucky enough to have the opportunities that so many around me lacked, I quickly learnt something my family had stood for for many years; the privileges I had weren’t just an advantage, they were a responsibility. My mother has been an activist for most of her life, and a lot of her work uses performance to talk about real life issues, against violence and inequality, for women’s empowerment, social development. Having established a name for herself, reporters often ask her, “its all very well to use the arts for social change, but how do you know if it really makes a difference?” And I think of hundreds of performances I’ve seen of hers, where people come up to her afterwards and sob as they hold her and tell her how she’s changed their lives. My mother is one woman who believes in something, and has devoted her whole life fighting for it. Maybe there’s something else you believe in, or maybe you haven’t found it yet. Don’t stop looking.
If you don’t believe art can make a difference, think of the Danish cartoons and how much of an effect they had on the rest of the world. Positive or negative, initially, that was just art on a piece of paper.

The climate change so urgently needed might be hard to achieve, but its not impossible. All over the world, people are acting and reacting out of fear and distrust. Can we rely on science to tell us the truth? (look at all the research that hides the source of its funding), how about literature (Frey’s “memoirs” that were fiction), sports (the steroids scandals), politics (where in the world are the politicians whose constituents can trust what they say?) So one of the things badly needed in this world is a restoration of truth in our lives, and that is something each one of you can do. It is an ideal each one of us can act on, and change the world together, one of us at a time.

In this age of globalization, is it enough to call yourself a citizen of America? In times when ripples in the east are felt equally hard in the west, I think it is apt to remember an old Sanskrit saying, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakkam, The whole world is my family. Mother Teresa once said, “If there is inequality and despair in this world, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” It’s a good thing these occasions are called commencement ceremonies, for we are really, only at the beginning.

Thank you.