Florence Chenoweth
Spring 2006 Commencement Address
Graduates, I’m honored to be here today to say a few words that I wish will inspire and challenge you as you contemplate your lives beyond the university. My call to you is to take time to know your world and to act where you can to make a difference.
Our world today is a beautiful world with breathtaking mountains, hills and valleys, oceans and seas, rivers and trees, shrubs and a vast animal kingdom. Our world today is shrunk by globalization from huge to tiny with all of us being next–door neighbors and where individuals can easily collaborate and compete globally with nothing more than the aid of software, in conjunction with a global fiber–optic network.
We have a world that now seems like one big marketplace, thanks to the Internet. Our world is one with a massive investment in technology—broadband connectivity that now wraps around the world, making it possible for us to be a next–door neighbor. We have cheaper and faster computers, including wireless–enabled laptops that are produced in massive quantities and widely dispersed; a world where software to meet just about any need is readily produced; a world where the magic processes of digital, mobile and virtual are not only here, but are becoming more and more affordable.
Our world is one where medical science is so advanced that human organs can be removed, repaired and replaced to make a functioning body again, and where a trip to the moon is no longer a pipe dream and where there are 793 billionaires.
But as you dare to imagine a world—an opened world where every human being would be free to realize his or her full potential—you will realize that our world is also one where more than a billion people live on less than a dollar a day; where over 800 million people go to bed hungry; and where every 3.6 seconds a child dies of starvation. It is a world where HIV and AIDS kill 6,000 people every day and 8,200 are infected with the deadly virus. It is a world where 2.6 billion people do not have basic sanitation; where more than one billion people still use unsafe water for drinking and 5 million people, mostly children, die each year from waterborne diseases. It is a world in which more than 100 million children from deeply impoverished nations do not get even a basic education and over 580 million women are illiterate. These unfortunate people are stuck in a poverty trap from which they cannot easily escape.
Graduates, you have attended one of the world’s greatest universities. For some of you, just getting to this point has been a struggle financially and otherwise, and therefore your priority concern may be finding a good job and taking care of personal business. You may therefore be saying to yourself, “I am not one of the 793 billionaires in our world today that she spoke about, so what can I do to make a difference in any area of the world today?”
I want to assure all of you sitting here today that you can make a difference, if only you set that as your goal. Thanks to your parents, your grandparents, your siblings, teachers, professors, friends and all of those who played a role in helping you to reach this important milestone in your journey, you are here today—a graduate from the University of Wisconsin. This means that you have acquired a sound education from one of the world’s best universities, and you have this university behind you to offer support.
As a Badger, you will never be alone out there. You can, from this day on, walk the walk and talk the talk with pride and confidence. This is what I did and continue to do.
I came into this world from a very low–income background, but, by the grace of God, I had parents who valued education and good health. Having a mother as a nurse and a father as a schoolteacher, we 10 children had no chance to skip school or avoid eating whatever mother felt was “good for you.” “Yuck!” was what we whispered to each other as we hurriedly tried to gulp down some of those food items.
At the young age of 12, I began to study under a work–study program in one of Liberia’s boarding institutions and stayed there doing this through high school. My university and postgraduate training were all achieved with some financial aid and plenty of hard working hours on my own part. What kept me going was the “You can do it” that was whispered and implanted by my mother so deeply that it turned into “I can do it”—a whisper that echoed deeply within myself.
When you take the time to know your world, all you need to do is to decide what you can do, big or small, to influence positive changes. Do not dwell on the negative. Believe me, there will be plenty of those. Focusing on these will only set you back. Look at the positive aspects. Select an area that you feel you can contribute to and move on. If things do not work out, do not forget to switch course and just do not throw in the cap.
In the words of Goethe, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
You can do it! Go for it! Good luck and God bless you.
Florence Chenoweth was the first woman appointed to serve as minister of agriculture in her native Liberia. She is currently the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s representative to the U.N. General Assembly, Security Council and other bodies. She received a master of science degree in 1970 and a Ph.D. in land resources in 1986, both from UW–Madison.