Some Notes on Commencement

I recently had the pleasure of attending my daughter's college graduation.  We are now alumni of the same university.  Although I used to joke that she needed to attend Southern Illinois University at Carbondale to get the legacy tuition rate, the reality is that I am a proud graduate of SIUC and proud to be the father of a graduate of SIUC.  We both graduated from the College of Education, and she is ready to take on the world.

During commencement, the Chancellor asked all the first-generation college students to stand up.  These are the kids who are the first in their families to graduate.  Nearly half of the undergrads stood up.  I felt pride once more.  I was a first-gen student.  Back then, we were known as non-traditional college students.  I knew I would be standing proudly if it were my graduation, but I was secretly happy that my daughter did not have to stand for her's.

In my book, Leaving Poverty, I wrote a whole chapter about what college meant for me and how it was the single biggest factor in my social mobility.  Had I not finished college, statistically, neither would she.  I remember my wife and I showing her around the campus before she started.  I loved being a helping hand and passing down what I had learned to my second-generation college student.  She was already ahead of me at this same point in time, and this is what all fathers wish to see.

Despite the amount of pride I feel for her and what she is doing, I know that our pathways to college graduation were very different.  As a middle-class kid, my hope is that she sees her degree as important as I did coming from poverty.  My advice to her was very simple.

• No one can take your degree away from you.  You have earned all its rights and privileges.
• A degree can define you for life.  Even if you become a U.S. senator, you will still be a teacher by trade.  They will just insert the phrase "former teacher" in the captions on the news.
• Never view it as a piece of paper or simply a checklist item to become a teacher.  The degree represents the work and preparation needed to be a teacher.  You are now well-prepared to obtain your license and get to work.

None of that may seem earth-shattering, but any time I hear Go Southern Go, I feel pride in my institution and the life it has provided me by earning a degree.  I want her to feel the same pride, no matter where life takes her.  She may not be elected to the Senate, but she will be asked someday what it takes to be a teacher by an aspiring young person.  She will have to speak of her college experience before all other things.  I hope she has the same enthusiasm as I do.