James V. Denova, Ph.D.
Graduate Celebration Guest Speaker
Doctor of Education Honorary Degree Recipient
I am so honored to be invited to speak at your graduation celebration, even under these unusual circumstances.
University of character
You all know that we live in an unprecedented time in this country. The devastating health consequences of this pandemic are affecting the ways in which society and social institutions operate in a crisis, and how they will define themselves in the future.
This celebration of graduates is an example of adaptation to crisis. Graduations and commencements are being cancelled across the country. Your President, Dr. Mary Hendrix, did not settle for the simple choice of go/no-go. She is concerned enough about your recognition to host a virtual celebration, which takes extra work and clever improvisation. To her and her staff and faculty, you are worth it. To me, this marks Shepherd as a university of character. And this character shows in the values driving its mission.
I have been a visitor to your university on several occasions, and one attribute that stands out to me is commitment to and engagement with community.
- I have participated in the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, which not only heralds great works of art, but devotes time, energy, and resources to bringing young students from several states together with academics, artists, and their peers. This extra effort teaches them how the arts can give youth a voice.
- The Benedum Foundation is also pleased to invest in something called the Success Academy. This program reaches high school students who come from poor households; students who didn’t have the preparation for college that students from well-resourced schools and college-educated parents take for granted. Success Academy brings equity to higher education access.
I’m sure there are many other examples of how Shepherd University reaches disadvantaged families and communities, but I cite these examples because not all high-level universities keep an overt focus on social and community responsibility; on following a set of ethical principles. And this is what I’d like to talk about if I may.
As graduates entering your chosen careers, you are well-prepared with the content knowledge and technical skills required of your professions. But as you enter the work world, I think we all need to think about how to be life-long learners in the humanities. By that I mean how we continually apply our work to a social good.
Ethics
It is easy to say, “so what – do the right thing.” Spike Lee was correct in that summation, and clearly ethical behavior is an intrinsic good. But I want to note some trends that business and education are taking to embed ethics into practices that have traditionally been technical or value neutral.
The business world
In 1970, Milton Friedman, Nobel economist, wrote: “there is one and only one social responsibility of business, to engage in activities designed to increase its profits.” In 2019, the Business Roundtable, an association of 200 of America’s most prominent companies, adopted a statement of purpose that now includes: value for customers, investing in employees, fostering diversity and inclusion, dealing fairly and ethically with suppliers, supporting the communities in which they work, and protecting the environment. If effect, CEOs of major companies are making a tectonic shift from “shareholder” to “stakeholder.” Gordan Gekko got it wrong when he said “Greed is Good” in Wall Street (1987).
Trust and social responsibility are becoming increasingly dominant themes in world of artificial intelligence and social media. There has been much pubic discourse about Facebook’s role in the 2016 election. In 2016, Mark Zuckerberg said, “Personally I think the idea that fake news on Facebook influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea.” In 2018, he said, “so this was a major breach of trust and I’m really sorry that this happened. You know we have a basic responsibility to protect people’s data and if we can’t do that then we don’t deserve to have the opportunity to serve people.” Notable humility for Mark Zuckerberg.
But the value of ethics in business is growing. Venture capital firms and tech accelerators are advocating for three main improvements for startups: a code of ethics to guide AI operations, a tool that explains how an algorithm makes its decisions, and a set of best practices that includes consistent and open communications.
Education
The 1999 National Academies report Rising Above the Gathering Storm kicked off the STEM craze in K-12 and higher education. For the past 20 years, STEM has come to be articulated as the ultimate objective of education. “Kids need STEM skills” is often the end of the argument. I say, for what purpose? There is a growing trend to see mastery of STEM content and skills, not as the outcome of learning, but as the means to a learning end. Like reading, STEM is a tool for achieving a higher learning objective.
There is a program here in West Virginia that is a partnership of Carnegie Mellon University robotics experts, a West Virginia teachers’ college, and a cohort of K-12 schools. Students are learning computer science at every grade level, and the classroom teachers are creating projects through which mastery of programming must be applied to community problems. One group of students devised an air quality monitoring system and convinced the school board to reduce bus idling in the parking lot by documenting its impact on air quality at the school. Another group developed an algorithm for food distribution from food banks, to food pantries, to homes in food deserts.
What this means in higher education is a fresh look at the humanities, especially philosophy, and how they intersect with technical education. They can no longer be separate fields of study. Charles Fadel, a foremost thinker on AI and founder of the Center for Curriculum Redesign, has suggested that the advances in machine learning call for educators to focus less on what robots can know and can do, and instead focus on those tasks that only humans can perform. Prominent on this list is ethical decision making.
Call to Action
These are but examples of how we need to think through the integration of ethics into what we do. Which brings us back to this historical period of change in which we live.
We will survive the corona crisis. We will test emergency measures to solve health, social, economic, and educational challenges. In many ways, the COVID pandemic is a crucible for how we define our social systems for the future. The landscape will definitely look different when we come out of this, but now is the time to make sure we “do the right thing” moving forward. You, as fresh graduates of a university with character, will be the architects of the “new normal.” Think deeply about what you want to put into your lives, careers, communities, environment, and government to make “Post COVID-19” society a better and more just society.
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Judee Ann Williams, B.S.
Baccalaureate Celebration Guest Speaker
Doctor of Humane Letters Honorary Degree Recipient
Class of 2001
Hey Graduates! I am SO excited to be here today to CELEBRATE YOU and grateful to Dr. Hendrix for this invitation.
You may be wondering who I am……Why am I here.
Well, I am no Oprah or Jennifer Garner, but I have been fortunate enough to get to work with some of the most famous faces in the world of entertainment and sports.
And more importantly, 19 years ago I was YOU.
Sitting in the Shepherd gymnasium and graduating without a care in the world! I couldn’t wait to head where the stars shine so bright—Los Angeles, California.
I had never lived anywhere but West Virginia and DESTINY was calling!
Then three months after graduation in 2001, the world as we knew it ALSO changed forever, when the tragic events of September 11 happened.
Suddenly I found myself oh so very far from home, with a bunch of new colleagues who weren’t yet friends, and desperately needing my family. I can remember being so terrified and now doubting my decision to move so far away. Of course, in hindsight, my worries were so minor when people were dealing with the loss of loved ones, destruction of beloved cities and friends who were now being sent off to war.
Eventually, my incredible Dad came out to visit me and renewed my belief in myself this was the right decision. I was staying and giving this a shot whether I liked it or not, so Dad, thank you.
I say all this to you today, as we are now sitting in the midst of a global pandemic.
With that comes celebrations, farewells, and excitement from the well-laid plans that feel so suddenly stolen from you.
They say, hindsight is 2020 and does that ever ring true in the year of 2020.
If I could take myself back to where you are today, this is what I wish I would have known sooner:
Your higher education is a gift:
My friends and I have often lamented about if we could go back to Shepherd, what amazing opportunities exist today! See, back in my day, most of us didn’t even own cellphones, you know, the ones you could only JUST call people on. Texting, never heard of it! Nobody owned a personal computer and the touch screens at Sheetz were revolutionary.
My teachers and advisors helped me shape a schedule that let me experience working at the school newspaper, to moonlighting in hall security and field trips to DC to listen in on Senate hearings. We found multiple champions along the way who would even help my friend Jill and me start the first ever women’s soccer team at Shepherd! Events and human beings that would all change my life.
I may not have been an exceptional academic student, but I was an exceptional experiential student. So many are not afforded the opportunity of a higher education, so please don’t ever take it for granted.
We may be small, but we are mighty:
My family has proudly been in the state for several generations. Sometimes we might not get the best reputation from being from or going to school in West Virginia.
There are always going to be stereotypes you confront in the world outside this place that might feel like you are not good enough.
Of course, it’s always fun to then tout these West Virginia natives….
Chuck Yeager, the first pilot ever to fly faster than sound.
Pearl Buck, the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature
Iconic sports figures Jerry West, Mike D’Antoni, and Nick Saban
And the legendary Katherine Johnson who calculated the precise trajectories that would let the first human being ever walk on the moon.
Equally, I have amazing friends who are brilliant educators, business leaders, nurses, parents, and serving our U.S. military that I am constantly bragging about.
My job has allowed me to travel to various corners of the world, from Africa to remote parts of Asia, and you know the one song everyone always knows? Only the most beautiful song ever, John Denver’s “Country Roads.”
West Virginians are truly remarkable, one of a kind human beings.
Dream, work hard, and do what you LOVE:
The power to control your destiny, change the world, have your voices heard, literally now sits within the palm of your hand.
What initially felt like stumbling into a job that was about the glitz, became so much more to me when I started at CAA 18 years ago. My colleagues and I get to work with the most amazing storytellers and innovators. We are fortunate enough to sit in the center of pop culture AND impact the world for good. I pinch myself every day!
I didn’t go to an Ivy League school, grammar has never been my strongest skill, but I know I can work just as hard as anyone else. My perspective and where I came from was just as valuable as someone else’s and it was different.
If anything, 9/11 taught me to pursue something that really mattered to me.
Push yourself to do what you truly love, try things out and be ok with failure you encounter along the way. Those always lead to the best innovations of yourself.
You don’t have to have it all figured out:
If anything, this time of quarantine has allowed me to reconnect, reprioritize, and we everyone says the same thing—we should have done this sooner!
Take time to connect with friends and celebrate your hard work: You have plenty of time to be responsible adult!
We need you now more than ever:
Have you ever read the vision statement of Shepherd?
“We will be a nationally respected community of learners where passion, purpose, and experience unite to inspire individuals to shape the world.” YESSSSS!
Teachers have never been more valued after these past weeks. Nurses, business leaders, social workers, scientists, justice fighters, whatever you decide to do!
I’ve never been so optimistic about a generation who will harness what you have seen unfold across our world and shape our future generations for good.
After all, never forget a “Shepherd” protects you, keeps you from wandering, and keeps the flock supporting one another.
We need you as Shepherds now more than EVER.
If we can see it, we can be it.
Finally, don’t let this place ever leave you:
I hope your days at Shepherd have been mostly exceptional.
Promise me this: Keep your time here centered as you go forth.
My pals from Shepherd are still my best friends today and I am so grateful we get to do this thing called life together.
When I graduated, I couldn’t wait to run away to something I thought was bigger, better and this whole time I realized I have trying to find my way back home.
So, congratulations—you did it and I couldn’t be more proud.
May your hindsight always be 2020 and don’t forget—Shepherd will always lead you home.