The following is the expanded text of my speech at the Class of 2018's Matriculation Ceremony:
As you matriculate today as Tufts' 159th undergraduate class, I’ll use the rich content of your applications to introduce you to the Tufts community—and, more importantly, to each other—so you can appreciate the lively community you join this afternoon.
As the pre-law from Georgia observed, “Tufts is everyone's favorite individualist.” I agree. By design, Jumbos defy expectations. The Admissions Committee shaped a class with intelligence and personality. That’s the opportunity afforded by a 17 percent acceptance rate: we had the privilege of shaping a community of peers that inspires you. Your classmates have a wide—and sometimes unexpected—set of perspectives and backgrounds. Ask them questions. Listen. Be open to new things. Celebrate your individuality while embracing your common bond as Tufts Jumbos.
We invited you to “Let your life speak.” And you did. The Dominican poet from Queens set the standard with this poignant reflection: "I am a book with pages like tissue paper, heavy and delicate…well-read, well-worn...I am a narrative of warmth and honey and melancholy.”
Sometimes a few words vividly illuminated your personal vibe:
The classics buff from Fairfield County quipped, "If my life were to speak, my father would likely ask it to finish chewing before opening its mouth," while the blind quiz whiz from Minnesota told us, "My world is one without sight but not without vision." You highlighted your many talents—“If you give me a taste test of the various grades of maple syrup, I can tell the difference”—as well as your ambitions—"I want an engineer’s mind and an Arab heart." The West Virginia-born, Iowa-bred pianist confessed his love of music: “Playing an Impressionist piece is like cleansing my soul”—while the lit mag editor from Newton sighed, "A really good sentence makes my heart beat faster."
We invited you to “celebrate your nerdy side.” International relations, biology, English and mechanical engineering are your top anticipated majors but you enthusiastically described passions as diverse as Korean pop, extinct languages, bat conservation, Reagan’s Cold War policies, ancient ceramic techniques, 1930s jazz, dye-sensitized solar cells, mother-daughter relationships in Afghanistan, the NFL draft, and the social implications of scandal in 18th century literature, to name just a few. An environmentalist wonders why dandelions are “a flower no one stops to smell” while the founder of Bethesda’s Feminist Society announced “I push myself to learn about the structure of the Vatican, obesity in Nauru and Palau, and deteriorating Ethiopian and Eritrean relations."
Long Island’s Harry Paul was featured on CBS News - his spinal implant device won the 2014 Intel International Science fair - while the Korean lacrosse player “obsessed with fermentation” makes rice wine in his spare time. The male cheerleader from Washington State—an immigrant from Ukraine—mulls increased fuel efficiency in jets while the Bible camp leader from suburban Boston typed her Tufts application on a computer she built from broken parts and pieces she “scored cheap” at midnight sales at Best Buy.
You described the environment in which you were raised and celebrated places in 49 American states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and 41 nations as different as a Boston funeral parlor, a certified green home in Chicago, an orphanage in Zimbabwe, a scuba shop in Antigua, “the shiny buckle of Oklahoma’s Bible Belt,” and an adobe home in the mountains outside Albuquerque. "Home is not the many places where I have lived or even the people I have met,” mused the Mexican immigrant from McAllen, Texas. “It is the journey that taught me to be independent." The “Army brat” from Michigan echoed a similar refrain about her seven moves in 17 years: "Home is where the Army sends you." The Student Council President from New Haven proclaimed, “I was born into the spicy food and rhythmic music of Jamaica” while our Macedonian Jumbo offered a personal reflection on geopolitics: "My grandfather, father, and I were born in three different countries, and yet in the same town."
Your hometowns circumnavigate the globe from Brookline to Boise, Bogota, Bangkok and back to Boston. “I was raised in the kind of town that sucks you back in every time you try to leave,” an aspiring archeologist from Maine observed. You hail from Manhattan and Mumbai; Warren, R.I. and West Helena, Arkansas; from Brunswick, Ohio and Diberville, Mississippi; from China Village, Maine and Wuhan, China. 137 of you live outside the United States and over 100 are foreign citizens. China once again sends the largest contingent to Tufts with 22 new students but ’18’s parade of nations includes new students from Australia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, and Venezuela, to name a few.
Many of you were raised in American suburbia—places like Newton, Scarsdale, Palo Alto and Wilmette—but a wide array of landscapes framed your pre-Tufts worlds. A Vermonter recounted his “patch of fields on Thetford Hill with my great-grandpa's tractor sitting idly by…” while the soccer captain from Chicago told us, “I bargain for ice cream in Spanish with a 60-year-old Mexican bicycle vendor and I watch his cart while he goes to the bathroom.” You were raised along wooded cul-de-sacs in Fairfield County, on a quiet street in the fourth-largest city in North Dakota, behind the barbed wire fences of the military base at Pearl Harbor and amidst the chaos of a Congolese refugee camp. You represent many walks of life and blended, multicultural identities are common. Including foreign citizens, more than a third of the class is non-Caucasian and dozens of languages and religious faiths are reflected in your personal narratives.
Your parents often surfaced as topics in your applications. The self-described “scrawny agnostic” from Baltimore quipped, “Mom wants me to be a firm believer in God while Dad wishes I would work out more…” You are the children of teachers and documentary filmmakers; of a former NFL player, a drapery installer and a flight attendant with Korean Air; of an Episcopal priest in Chicago, a bookkeeper at Tufts’ vet school, a French chef in Miami, a school crossing guard in San Jose, a National security advisor to President Obama, and the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Many shared inspiring stories with the Admissions Committee. The son of a woman with MS chronicled the care he gives her: "I’ve carried her on my back though quiet Oregon forests and crowded New York City streets. I’ve pushed her wheelchair many miles down airport concourses and cobblestone lanes." The son of unemployed Chinese immigrants in Philadelphia earned his GED after dropping out of school to help his parents make ends meet: “My early life spoke to me about hardships, but I've listened only to the joys," he said. He is one of 158 freshmen who are first-generation college bound: that's the largest cohort to enroll at Tufts since we started tracking this statistic almost 10 years ago. On the other hand, 19 are the children of Tufts faculty and 100 are the sons and daughters of Tufts alumni. That includes a dozen freshmen who can claim two Jumbo parents, most notably the Shakespeare buff from New Hampshire who reported, “My parents, both class of ‘88, met on their second day of freshman orientation in Carmichael Hall…”
Say hello to the Thai pop star, the lumberjack from Tennessee, Virginia Beach’s “Neptune Princess” and an actual European princess. The Class of ’18 features a granola saleswoman from Vermont and a hot sauce entrepreneur from Delaware, a stand-up comedian from Denmark and a refrigerator repairman from Nigeria, a loon census worker from New Hampshire and a volunteer firefighter from New Jersey. We salute 65 National Merit Scholars, the winner of Nantucket’s Fourth of July watermelon-eating competition, the jump rope national champion from Colorado, the world champion mule packer from Maine, the open water swimmer from Seattle who won the Turkish national championship in slalom water skiing, and a Roman chemist who was a two-time finalist at the History Bee of Italy.
We wondered what makes you happy. A female engineer with rural roots answered, "I am most happy with a wrench in my hand” while an aspiring diplomat celebrated classical music: “Mozart is my study buddy and Vivaldi is my sleeping pill." A computer buff swoons over "the smooth, cold touch of a processor being seated into its socket on the motherboard” while an electrical engineer is giddy about roller coasters. He’s ridden 187 but imagines designing his own track as “the greatest ride of all.”
The varsity football captain from Bernalillo, New Mexico is one of 68 high school valedictorians in the Class of ‘18. The class also includes a nationally-ranked ping pong player, an unlucky Alaskan who’s been charged by five moose, a ballroom dancer from San Francisco and the pilot from DC who finished third in her age group in the Philly Marathon. We welcome 154 high school soccer players, the Republican youth activist from northern Virginia, the roller skating carhop from Memphis, the YouTube sensation with almost 3 million views for his weekly posts, the Hostess Twinkie mascot at Kansas City Royals games, and Boloco’s 2013 “Cashier of the Year” for all 22 Boston locations. The Admissions Committee was intrigued by “the future Walt Disney” who studies animation philosophy and the openly gay Eagle Scout from Upstate New York who proclaimed, "At 16, most Boy Scouts haven’t felt the ache of wearing 6-inch pumps."
Someone once asked, “What’s in a name?” Well, Nicholas Couloucoundis-Parry from Greenwich, Connecticut owns the longest name in the freshman class with 26 letters (27 if we count the dash) while Amy Bui, Ty Enos, Ian Lam, Lan Ngo and Yu Qiao share a five-way tie for the shortest name. Fifteen guys sport a suffix, with John V boasting the most enduring generational longevity, and a Jersey gal answers to 47 nicknames. The 24 guys named Ben (the count is 25 if we include Benya) ended the two-year reign of Alex as the most popular name in the entering class but Alex remains the unisex champ with 32 men and women. And some of you might have noticed Morgan Freeman listed as a member of your class’ Facebook group. Alas, our version is not male, 77 years old nor an Oscar winner.
We wondered, “Why Tufts?” A Detroiter proclaimed: “Tufts is an attitude.” Another had a sign: "While viewing Rorschach’s inkblots in psychology, I kept seeing elephants...” But perhaps my favorite response came from the animal rights activist from Baltimore who quipped, “I can't wait to spend time in a place that paints its artillery more often than I paint my nails." I presume she’ll use brown and blue nail polish.
On behalf of my colleagues in Undergraduate Admissions, welcome to the Jumbo herd, my friends.