DR. ELLEN STOFAN: To the
graduating class of 2016,
president Allen, the
board of trustees,
and the supportive family and
friends that are here today,
thank you for inviting me.
It's an honor and a pleasure to
be amongst the strong graduates
and alumni of Meredith college.
Congratulations class
of 2016, you did it.
[CHEERING]
A few years ago, you
made a great decision
to continue your education
and come to Meredith.
Now it's time for you to make
another great decision, which
is to determine your
next steps in society.
Some of you will
continue on with school
and others will go
into the workforce.
Whatever it is that you do, make
sure you remember the values
that Meredith instilled in you.
One of those values is
personal development.
It's great to have mentors.
Mentors are only there, though,
to provide advice and guide you
in the direction in
which you desire to go.
You are responsible
for your own destiny.
Therefore, you must
establish your own plan
that will help you reach
your goals in life.
I didn't get to where I am
today by just going to school
and getting my degrees.
I had to work hard
in the workforce
conducting innovative
research, I
had to get trained
on emerging tools,
I had to learn to work
as part of a team,
and I had to keep my
knowledge and skills up
to date with past, current,
and future issues in my field
of science, and even
in my current position,
I don't know all that
there is to know.
As an agency, NASA doesn't
know all there is to know.
That's why we keep conducting
research and exploring
the unknown.
I think a lot of people
have the perception
that we're in this
area where we're
at the peak of knowing
about the world around us
and how it works.
However, I would argue
that we know so little
and we're on the verge
of knowing so much,
because the more we learn,
the more questions we have
and the more we seek knowledge.
Just in the last
few years, we have
discovered over 5,000
candidate planets
around other stars, 5,000.
When I was in school,
we had nine planets.
You guys have 5,000 new
worlds to understand
and targets to look
for signs of life.
The world you have
in front of you
provides a wealth
of opportunity.
Figure out where you
fit in and go for it.
I've often been
approached by students
who have a great deal of
interesting in engineer
or science, but they have
a frustration, usually
with math, that prevents them
from going for those degrees.
My response to
them is, you don't
have to be great at what you do,
but you have to be good at it
and if it's your dream stick
with it and if you find an area
that you're not good at it--
good at, work on it.
Find the help that
you need to succeed,
and then don't stop
honing your skills,
because the more you
know, the more you grow,
and the stronger you become.
You have the
bility-- the ability
to be what you
want to be, just as
the many notable politicians,
journalists, actresses,
and others who have
matriculated from Meredith
and walked the same campus have.
Now it's your turn.
Another one of
Meredith's values is
responsible global citizenship.
This is important, because
some of the things that we
do locally have long
term and global effects.
One of the most concerning
global challenges we face today
is climate change.
Each year we see changes
in temperature, sea level,
and seasons.
Currently, Greenland's ice
sheets are drastically melting
and the Arctic ice wintertime
extent hit another record low
for the second year in a row.
As a responsible global citizen,
these facts and vital signs
should concern you and ignite
a desire for more answers,
because climate change
is all of our issue
and we must do our part in
creating a sustainable future
for the generations to come.
Currently, NASA is working
with other US agencies
and organizations and our
international partners
worldwide to find answers
to some of the toughest
questions surrounding
this topic,
how the Earth is changing and
how our planet could change
in the future, and how
humanity can cope and overcome
these changes.
In addition, we
are using NASA data
to help make countries
around the world
more resilient to the
effects of climate change,
including severe weather and
droughts already happening
today.
NASA is currently conducting
eight major campaigns,
in which researchers
are traveling around
the world for a range of
scientific investigations
related to climate change.
We need your generation to be
the responsible global citizens
and help bring awareness
locally and globally.
The last value I want to
highlight is relevance.
The world needs
you, so make sure
your next steps are relevant to
current and future challenges
that we're faced with.
You could be the
person to answer
some of the most
difficult questions,
like cures for diseases,
solving cybersecurity issues,
or helping NASA on
it's journey to Mars.
As the chief scientist of NASA,
one of my greatest pleasures
of my job is to see the cutting
edge research being conducted
in many institutions and
laboratories across the world
and on the International
Space Station.
The research is
usually astonishing,
but the individuals
behind the research
are even more astonishing.
These scientists and
engineers are unraveling
one of the most
fundamental questions,
does life exist beyond Earth.
Our next stop to
answer this is Mars.
Why Mars?
Mars is a rich destination
for scientific discovery
and robotic and
human exploration
as we expand our presence
into the solar system.
It's formation and evolution
are comparable to Earth,
helping us learn more about
our own planet's future
and history.
So we need more strong
individuals, like yourselves,
to help NASA get humans
to Mars by the 2030s.
Research has shown
that diversity
is the key to innovation
and success, which
is why NASA is leveraging
its current partnerships
and embracing new ones.
We need all hands
on deck, including
women and other
under-represented groups
for this far reaching mission.
Speaking of all
hands on deck, it
reminds me of a woman
named Katherine Johnson.
She was born in White Sulphur
Springs, West Virginia in 1918.
She was known as the
girl who loved to count.
She was fascinated by numbers.
By the time she
was 10 years old,
she was a freshman in high
school, an amazing feat
at a time when schools
for African-Americans
usually stopped in
the eighth grade,
if you were lucky enough
to go to school at all.
Katherine graduated from
high school when she was 14
and after years as a teacher
and a stay at home mom,
she went to work for NASA's
predecessor, the NACA,
to work on wind tunnel
tests at Langley Research
Center in Hampton Virginia,
just up the road from here.
It was considered a
rather tedious job,
but not for Katherine
and the other women who
were hired at the time.
So Katherine put her math
skills to work as a counter,
or in those days they called
these women computers.
As a human computer, Katherine
calculated the trajectory
for the first American
in space, Alan Shepard.
Even after NASA began
using electronic computers,
John Glenn asked
that she personally
recheck the calculations
made by the new computers
before his flight
aboard Friendship 7.
That's how valuable she was.
She is one of the unsung
women African-American heroes
of our country who
didn't just carry on,
she helped to carry the
nation's space program,
despite what she had
to deal with living
at that time in this place.
She went to meetings where she
wasn't invited and not totally
welcome, because she
knew she belonged
and that her skills were
relevant and needed.
So it's not just
about diversity,
it's about inclusion.
We have to bring
everybody into the room
and we have to make
them feel welcome.
Last November 24th, Katherine
received the nation's highest
civilian award, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom,
from President Barack Obama.
Katherine's story
inspires me every day
and I hope it inspires you.
If somebody ever makes
you feel like you
don't have a seat at the
table, remember Katherine
and carry on.
Despite years of
gender bias, many women
have made significant
contributions in their fields.
It is the untold
story in this country
of women in science
and engineering,
among other fields.
Women like Ada Lovelace, who
is a gifted mathematician who
introduced the first
computer program, Lisa
Meitner, a physicist who worked
on radioactivity, Rosalind
Franklin, a chemist and
x-ray crystallographer who
made contributions
to understanding
the molecular structure of
DNA, Barbara McClintock, who
produced the first genetic
map for maize, linking regions
of the chromosome
to physical traits,
and Susan B. Anthony, who
empowered women and fought
for equality.
Susan traveled over 30 years
fighting for women's rights,
including voting rights.
In partnership with
Elizabeth Stanton,
she started the women's
rights movement.
In her fight, she
wanted to prove a point
that women could not
be denied their voting
rights as citizens.
So she voted and was convicted
and fined for illegally voting.
At her la-- at her last
women's convention in 1986,
she addressed the attendees
and said failure is impossible.
Her work had led to the
women's right to vote.
We have to remember the stories
of the women, the people, who
came before us, whose struggles
and whose work upon which
we build everyday.
These stories teach
us that in spite
of adversity and challenges,
we must remain strong.
Although things always
don't go as we planned,
don't stop setting goals
and believing in yourself.
If NASA stopped exploring
and conducting research
after every failed
attempt, the agency
would not be as
effective as it is.
The work we do at
NASA is very risky,
just as some of
life's decisions are.
However, when it's something
you want to try or do,
take the risk.
When I was four years old,
that unmanned rocket launch
that I went to see, the rocket
actually blew up shortly
after it launched.
As I grew up, I went to
see many rocket launches.
Some of them failed, but most
succeeded, carrying spacecraft
to study the sun, the
planets, and the universe.
From that first day, I
realized that we may not always
succeed the first time, but
we can always try again.
At NASA, failure
is part of success.
You learn from it and
you move on to explore.
For you, take on challenges.
Don't be afraid to fail.
Just think about
all the sacrifices
that you've made to get
to this point and even
more importantly, the sacrifices
that your families around you
have made for you to
get to this point.
You may have failed
some assignments,
lost probably a lot of
sleep, missed some meals,
or even lost some relationships
in order to get here today,
but you are here.
Your families have supported
you, both emotionally
and financially,
and for the parents,
I can say I've had two
children graduate from college
in the last five years.
They're both employed, they've
both moved out of the house,
so it really does happen.
Together, you have
all been strong,
but today relax, have
fun, and celebrate,
but please don't forget
to say a big thank you
to your families,
your friends, oh,
and also to those
professors behind you, who
watched you, worked
with you, and walked
with you every step of the way.
So I encourage you when
you're faced with obstacles
or roadblocks, remember the
values you've been taught,
remember Katherine
Johnson's inspiring story,
remember the hard work that so
many have done so that you can
have an equal chance at life.
You're not going to
have all the answers.
You may not even have
everybody's support,
but you have what it takes
to be relevant and make
a significant change
in this world.
Go out and continue
to do great things.
Your family is depending on you,
Meredith is depending on you,
and the world is
depending on you.
Congratulations
again class of 2016.
Go strong.
