West Virginia University - News and Information Services
Commencement speech by Kenneth C. Martis, 2007 CASE West Virginia Professor of the Year
West Virginia University
Commencement Honors Convocation
Friday, May 16, 2008
“Who are You Going to Be After Graduation?”
Kenneth C. Martis, WVU Professor of Geography
2007 CASE West Virginia Professor of the Year
I am humbled and honored to be invited to give the keynote address at this year’s Honors Convocation.
I will focus my remarks today to the graduating students. However, as a faculty member, I am very grateful to all those being honored today, faculty and staff and the alumni who continue to be loyal to WVU, the university I have devoted my life to and love so much. Continued alumni support makes the job of the faculty easier in a multitude of ways. I also recognize the ROTC graduates today. It was almost exactly 40 years ago this week I received my ROTC commission as an officer in the United States Army. I know the road ahead for them, and I admire their courage and devotion to the country at a time when America really needs them.
Academic honors convocations are extremely important. American society needs to acknowledge and reward students, faculty, staff and alumni for their intellectual and societal achievements. Our society tends to overemphasize achievements in sports and entertainment. It is critical to recognize those in the arts and sciences who will indeed be the future leaders of this nation.
I recognize that my audience today is a very special audience—the cream of the crop, the high achievers—so one of my favorite quotes come to mind: “To those who much has been given, much is expected.” I suspect a number of our graduates today will be standing at this WVU podium some decades in the future for honorary degrees or distinguished alumni awards.
In composing this presentation, I could not be anything but a geographer and teacher, professions to which I have dedicated my entire adult life. So here goes, graduates: I have five final homework assignments for you! And you thought finals and classes and courses were over. The first two of these assignments come from me as a geography teacher. In my opinion, if you can do all of them, both you and humanity will be well served. Now I see you did not bring your notebooks and pens, so if you have any questions at the end of class today, or you would like a complete homework assignment list, please e-mail me at kmartis@wvu.edu.
Assignment 1: Travel
For decades, I have told my students, “Travel is your greatest teacher.” Throughout my career, I have said at the beginning of my United States and Canada geography class that one of the course goals is to have them be so inspired that immediately after the final exam, they would form groups, jump in their cars and travel to the American West. One time a student asked jokingly after her final if she should take the rest of her finals that week, or did she have to immediately go West.
By traveling through the United States, you will see its natural beauty and how vast and inspiring America really is. By traveling in Europe, you will experience first hand the greatness of Western civilization. By traveling in Asia, you will experience the complexity and intricacy of world cultures. By traveling in the developing world, your internal humanity will be touched. By doing all of the above, many things will happen to you including, I believe, 1) you will appreciate much more the opportunities America provides; 2) you will reexamine what material things mean in your life; and 3) you will be come more introspective and spiritual.
This month, you are in a period called “between jobs” or a hiatus between degree programs. Use these breaks in your life to travel extensively, as opposed to the two-week vacations most of us have. If you are going to graduate school this fall, travel this summer. If you begin a new job June 1st, call and ask if July 1st or August 1st is soon enough. Can you afford to do this? You can’t afford not to do this! Where there is a will, there is a way.
Assignment 2: Thank your mother—Earth
Several years ago, WVU changed its core requirements from the liberal arts format to the general education curriculum, or GEC, format. The Department of Geology and Geography fought very hard in the Faculty Senate for the following words to be included in the new GEC curriculum: “Earth,” “physical environment,” “natural resources.” Hopefully, you have taken several courses at WVU addressing these concerns. A Navajo physician came to the Festival of Ideas a few years ago and said, “Your personal health is dependent upon the health of the Earth.”
So your second homework assignment today is to “save Sunfish Pond.” Sunfish Pond was used as a metaphor by my teacher in graduate school for thinking globally and acting locally. Can you, sitting here in the WVU Coliseum today, save the Earth from global warming? This is a pretty big assignment even for honors students. But you can do something in your own local community to make the area environment healthier and/or more beautiful. As I say to my own students, it may not be next week, or next month, or next year or the next decade, but someday, somewhere, somehow, you can save Sunfish Pond. And by doing that, you will thank Mother Earth for her beauty and blessings. You, the Earth, your children and your children’s children will be better off.
Assignment 3: Thank someone
Many people, many events, much hard work and lots of personal responsibility, brought you here today—whether you are honors students, faculty, staff or alumni awardees. For your homework, I assign you to write, e-mail or call someone outside of your immediate family who, through their words or actions, encouraged you when you were down, believed in you when you stumbled, or someone you observed from afar who did not have to be involved, but who chose to stand up for the values that matter to all of us. These words or actions could be as simple as standing up to a bully in grade school and showing courage, or a Girl Scout leader who showed you how to tie a fisherman’s knot for the first time—something you have never forgotten—or a summer league coach who helped you after hours, both of you knowing you probably would not make the high school team that fall. Imagine someone receiving a handwritten letter out of the clear blue from you saying something they did or something they said five or 10 years ago was remembered and that it has had a positive influence upon your life. This is a powerful positive affirmation. Most of us have doubts of what we are doing on Earth and what we are all about, and our real relationships with other people. Have the openness, personality and courage to affirm others in their humanity.
Assignment 4: Set goals
You have probably heard this one a hundred times. One of the acknowledged aids for self-development and self-actualization in the popular literature is setting goals. But I wager if I asked for a show of hands in this Coliseum who has written specific goals, it might be a surprisingly small number. In my geography orientation class, I ask my new first-year geography majors, on the very first day, to write their own definition of 1) success, 2) happiness, 3) the meaning of life. Yes, the meaning of life. I collect these papers and do not read them, the only assignment I do not read. Their homework assignment that week is to write five paragraphs about their five goals for 1) that semester, 2) that academic year, 3) the next four years, 4) 10 years after graduation and 5) lifelong goals. At the end of the semester, I give their definitions and goals back and ask them to keep them forever—to open and read occasionally over the years, to ponder, to look back and see who you were and what your dreams were, when.
So honors graduates of 2008, go home tonight; do not watch TV; do not surf the Internet; do not listen to music. Sit in a quiet room alone; write to yourself your goals. Share your written letter to yourself with no one; share your journey toward these goals with everyone possible.
Assignment 5: Do not ask yourself the question – “What am I going to do after graduation?” Ask yourself THE question.
The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu said, “Those who know others are wise. Those who know themselves are enlightened.” Your fifth and final homework assignment has been inspired by a recent book by Maria Shriver titled “Just Who Will You Be.” So the big question this weekend is not “What am I going to do after graduation?”, BUT, “Who are you going to be after graduation?” In my humble opinion, as a geographer and teacher, observant and participatory traveling of the globe, respecting and protecting the Earth’s environment, affirming others, setting personal goals will help in this last vast assignment. Furthermore, this question is not only hard and introspective, it is also lifelong. Who are you going to be after graduate school? Who are you going to be in the first real, full-time career setting? Who are you going to be after marriage? Who are you going to be after having children? Who are you going to be after retirement? The faculty on this stage hope West Virginia University has given you the start and tools to begin to answer this question. As the past president of WVU David Hardesty always liked to say, “WVU has set you on the path of lifelong learning.”
Therefore, when your favorite aunt and uncle comes to you after your graduation ceremony Saturday or Sunday and asks, “So, ________, what are you going to do after graduation?”, answer them respectfully, lovingly and honestly, but inside, you know the real question is “Who are you going to be after graduation?”
I wish you the very best in the long journey to answer this question, and I thank all of you for your time and attention this evening.
Office: (304) 293-6997