2010 Western Washington University Commencement

June 12, 2010

Good morning and thank you President (Bruce) Shepard, for that introduction. Trustees, faculty, staff, family and friends � welcome.

And congratulations to the 2010 class of Western Washington University! You can all be proud to be Western grads. Today you join 100,000 Western alumni, who are living working and giving around the world.

Did you know that last year the University of Washington Medical School accepted a higher percentage of Western undergraduates than students from their own university?

Who employs more Western grads than anyone else? Boeing and Microsoft.

Last year you contributed more than 42,000 hours of volunteer service through AmeriCorps.

You are one of top universities nationally for service in the PeaceCorps, with 38 serving across the world today, and 772 alumni who have been in the program.
Thank you for inviting me today. It is an honor to share this important day with you. Graduates, congratulations; and to family members and friends, thank you for the encouragement and support you provided to the Class of 2010.

This is a big day for parents. It marks the graduation of your son or daughter, and the start of your own economic recovery now that the last tuition check has been paid.

I�ve learned that as a graduation speaker I am one of the last barriers between you and your graduation party.

So I will keep it short.

It seems like just a few years ago I was graduating from the University of Washington. We don�t need to go into how long ago, but suffice it to say things were very different then.

We didn�t have cell phones, faxes, PC�s, DVD�s, CD�s, iPods, iPhones, HDTV, or MTV.

To tweet was to chirp, text was a noun and not a verb, and googol was spelled G-O-O-G-O-L and it meant the figure one followed by 100 zeros. Today that�s just the founders� salary!

And worst of all, there were no remotes, so we actually had to get up off the couch to change the channel to one of the three stations we had available.

Somehow we survived.

Speaking of texting, think how much easier graduation speakers had it back then.

Today texting allows instant analysis of the speech while it is in progress.

With three or four stabs of the thumb you can get: ZZZZ � sleeping.

DNDC � don�t know, don�t care.

RME � rolling my eyes.

Or, DOS � dozing off soon.

On a serious note� today, it is quite a challenge to speak to a class graduating as unemployment rates are at record levels, political bickering is everywhere, and pundits are speculating that America is in decline and its brightest days are behind us.

But today my message is far more optimistic, and, I believe, realistic.

Take it from someone who has been there. When I graduated, America was deeply divided over race issues and the Vietnam War.

You�ve seen those pictures of people in bell bottoms and tie-dye shirts? I�m afraid that was us.

Protestors closed I-5 in downtown Seattle. Buildings at the UW were firebombed.

Our inner cities were burning.

And just months after my graduation, Washington�s unemployment rate was just a bit below where it is today.

I know something about good timing. I graduated with a teaching certificate just as Washington schools stopped hiring new teachers.

So I dusted off my high school typing skills and landed my first post-college job � as a clerk typist.

There was deep, deep pessimism about the future of our nation and region.

Reacting to the pessimism, a billboard sprang up near Sea-Tac that read: Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights.

Then, as now, our optimism was hard to find, and people wondered if a deeply divided America would ever recover.

Well, I am here today to confidently predict that just like back then, those who think America is in decline have overstated the problems, underestimated our resiliency, and misjudged your potential.

There are lots of reasons for optimism. The goodness of our people is one. I have two daughters your age, and I couldn�t be more confident about the quality and potential of your generation.

I would like to focus on something that runs deep in America and bodes a brighter future � the spirit of innovation and our ability to make things better in the world.

When the doomsayers were writing Seattle off in the early 70s, they didn�t foresee a company called Microsoft which was still four years away from being founded.

Today Microsoft has nearly 40,000 employees in Washington, it injects $9 billion into our state economy, and it is a powerful magnet drawing other software and technology companies to the region.

When the pessimists were wringing their hands in 1971, Starbucks had one store � in Pike Place Market.

Today the company has 15,000 stores in 50 countries.

And what about Boeing, which was suffering through a devastating downturn in the aerospace industry and was forced to make massive layoffs in the early 70s?

Today the company is flight testing the 787 Dreamliner -- the next generation of commercial aircraft. Made with new composite materials, the 787 will be 20 percent more fuel efficient, have improved environmental performance, and will offer increased passenger comfort.

That�s innovation.

When people told these folks that what they were doing was impossible, they didn�t listen.

Microsoft began with just two guys trying to do more with a mail-order computer.

Starbucks was a store for coffee-making equipment and beans � until they started selling the drinks they had been giving away as free samples.

And when a young Bill Boeing was told he couldn�t ride on one of the planes at the L.A. Air Show, he came back up here and built his own company.

Just as new ideas, new businesses, and brilliant new technology blossomed despite the pessimism of the early 70s, a new generation of innovation is taking shape today.

Consider a company called Insitu.

It started with three employees in a garage in tiny Bingen, Washington down on the Columbia River Gorge.

Today Insitu has 500 employees and is the leading provider of Drone aircraft.

Insitu�s aircraft only measure six to eight feet across, but they provide powerful eyes in the skies that help the military and law enforcement, assist weather forecasting, and are important tools for coastal patrols and search and rescue in case of a natural disaster.

When Somali pirates held cargo ship captain Richard Phillips hostage in a lifeboat in the Indian Ocean last year, it was an Insitu aircraft that shot visuals to Navy Seals to help them free him.

In Moses Lake, $100 million is being spent on a new plant which will produce carbon fiber for a new, lighter, long distance electric BMW.

And in Anacortes, Core Builders used carbon fiber for the space-age, 90-foot trimaran which won the 33rd America�s Cup and provided the U.S. its first cup victory since 1992.

Cars, planes, and boats. We are on the cutting edge of technology and providing new materials which will provide a sustainable future.

Washington has also become a hotbed for green jobs where workers are helping increase energy efficiency and produce renewable energy.

We�re the 5th largest producer of wind power. We�re building solar-power components, and making break-throughs in bio-energy.

We have McKinstry in Seattle leading the way in construction of green buildings�Inland Empire Oilseeds in Odessa with a multi-million dollar biofuel plant.and newcomers like Blue Marble Energy working to turn algae into fuel.

At the Pacific Northwest National Lab in Richland we are developing grid-friendly appliances and moving to a smart grid that, if adopted throughout our country, could result in savings of about $70 billion dollars over 20 years.

Don�t think innovation has to come just from technology or manufacturing.

It�s really all about believing that when we see problems, we can make things better.

That is something Western shares with all its students. We�ve already heard from our student speaker, Sarah (Ishmael), but she is one of many, many generous, thoughtful graduates.

Danya Rose-Merkle, Sonja Prins and Porsche Landon were three of a group of 20 students volunteering in the Dominican Republic last fall when the devastating earthquake struck neighboring Haiti.

They were volunteering to paint and refurbish classrooms for refugees. After the quake, they teamed with German relief agencies, packing 5,500 kits with food, water and other supplies. They filled two trucks bound for Port Au Prince.

And I know the students here on campus acted to aid the earthquake victim, as well. Well done! That kind of innovative spirit is making things better.

Innovation is original thinking. Consider Andrea Peterson, a music teacher at Monte Cristo Elementary in Granite Falls. She was selected as a national teacher of the year because she found a better way to help educate kids.

You see, Andrea�s success isn�t only about making great music. She began using music to help kids learn English, math and other skills.

She developed a rap music program to help students learn about the Constitution.

Non-profit organizations also are finding new, exciting ways to solve problems.

Here is how The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation describes its work: �We believe in the power of innovation. By applying new thinking to big problems, we can help people improve their lives.�

The emphasis is on finding new ways to deliver proven treatments and approaches to people so they can lead healthier lives, be more successful farmers, have safe, secure financial services, and get educations that can last a lifetime.

By the way, you know what common word you will find on web sites for Insitu and Gates: Innovation.

Innovation: that�s why we are an incubator for ideas that change the world. Ideas that make life better. Ideas that make people healthier. Ideas like Andrea Peterson�s that help people succeed.

The key is maintaining an innovative spirit.

Larry Page, a co-founder of Google likes the saying, �Have a healthy disregard for the impossible.�

An innovative spirit keeps us moving ahead, and helps us avoid being trapped in the status quo in a rapidly changing world.

So yes, this is a challenging time to be graduating.

But it also is a very exciting time.

Look around your class of 2010. The spirit of innovation opens up opportunities for all of you.

Someone will transform the learning experience for kids, just as Andrea Peterson has done.

Someone will help develop an energy technology that produces cleaner energy and allows us to stop our dependence on foreign oil.

Another classmate has the chance to deliver proven treatments to the needy in third world countries, just as employees at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are doing.

Someone has a chance to create a device that will make people safer and more secure � just as Insitu has done.

So to the class of 2010, I say have a healthy disregard for the impossible. Don�t accept the status quo. Always try to make things better. And enjoy life.

I believe in you and I believe in your future.