Jamie P. Merisotis, President, Lumina Foundation for Education
Spring Arbor University Commencement, Spring Arbor, MI

Thank you. It’s good to be with you this morning.

Let me begin by congratulating all of you for the milestone you have reached. It’s truly a privilege for me to be here—to join the professors and administrators at Spring Arbor in acknowledging your achievement. I’m told that more than 350 degrees are being conferred this morning. Those pieces of parchment represent years of hard work and sacrifice, and I commend all of you for that.

I want to take a moment right here at the beginning to specifically congratulate the graduates’ families and friends. As anyone who pursues higher education can attest, getting to the finish line is never reached alone. Without the patience and support of parents, spouses and other family members and friends, students simply don’t become graduates. So I salute all of you for this significant—and shared—achievement.

I don’t want to stop with congratulations, however. I also want to thank you for what you have done. You may not fully realize it now—particularly on a day like today, which is properly focused on celebrating personal victories—but the degree that you’ve earned isn’t just about you or even the loved ones who share this moment with you. It benefits all of us. My hope is that, in my brief remarks this morning, I can help you see your achievement in that more expansive way.

When President Webb invited me to speak to you today, I was happy to accept. After all, as president of an organization dedicated to increasing the number of Americans who earn college degrees, I am naturally drawn to events such as this. They serve to validate what we’re trying to do at Lumina Foundation, and they inspire us to go further in pursuit of our mission.

The real thrill, however, comes when I think of what those degrees mean—what great potential they represent for all of society. That’s what I meant earlier, when I said I wanted to thank you for earning your degrees. By doing the hard work necessary to reach this milestone, you haven’t merely increased your own chances for success, you have improved the odds of the nation, and you’re doing so at a critical time in this country’s history.

As someone working to advance social change, I have a real sense of urgency these days about our nation’s economic security and social stability. In some ways, these are sobering and scary times. Surely, I needn’t remind you of our current economic situation. As new graduates, you are all very much aware of the job market … the unemployment numbers … the economic forecasts … and the workforce projections. Change is sorely needed if we hope to weather these current storms and succeed in the long term.

You may know that three-fourths of today’s fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma. You may have read recently that the majority of jobs created by the government’s stimulus package will require some form of postsecondary education. As President Obama recently said, college success is not just a pathway to opportunity, it’s a prerequisite.

Clearly, college attainment is increasingly vital to the nation’s future prosperity. The rapidly changing global economy demands education and training that properly prepares all citizens for success. For generations, the American economy created large numbers of middle-class jobs that did not require college-level knowledge or skills. But now, because of global competition, these jobs are rapidly disappearing.

Lower-skill jobs do exist, of course, but Americans who hold them are not likely to enter or remain in the middle class. And that trend has implications that go far beyond simple economics. It’s not just that a typical American high school graduate earns $16,000 less every year than someone with a four-year degree. Studies also show that individuals who lack college credentials are less likely to have access to quality health care. They save less for retirement. They are less apt to make sure that their own children go to college.

On the other hand, college-educated citizens contribute more and do better—for themselves, for their families and for society. They vote in greater numbers than non-degree-holders. They are less apt to commit crimes or require government assistance. They give more to charity. They’re healthier. They even live longer.

You can understand then, why it’s important for Lumina Foundation to use its resources to pursue a big, national goal of dramatically increasing the percentage of Americans with high quality college degrees and credentials. In fact, we want that percentage to increase from the current level of 39 percent to 60 percent by the year 2025. We are driven by this sense of urgency. You see, by significantly increasing the proportion of Americans who hold college degrees, we aren’t just trying to improve the nation’s statistical profile. We want to improve lives. We’re not interested in reshaping a pie chart; we want to reshape the future.

And now, as of today, every one of you is officially part of the improvement we seek—a force for the better future we all want to build. It’s not merely that your newly minted college degree has put Lumina one step closer to our Big Goal of 60 percent degree attainment. What really matters is that your degree has put you in a special and enviable position. Each of you has worked hard for many years, and you have earned a priceless gift: a chance to change the world.

Enjoy that gift. Revel in it … and in the knowledge that it is well earned. But don’t stop there, because now it is time for you to use that gift. Having reached an important personal goal by earning your degree, you must seek out new goals as emerging leaders and citizens—goals that reach beyond yourselves to benefit all of society.

To help you with that search, I want to leave you with a few words that are far more memorable than any of my own. They’re the words of a great and good man who, coincidentally, was a graduate of my own alma mater: Bates College in Maine. His name was Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays.

The son of slaves, Dr. Mays dropped in and out of college several times to work for the railroad so he could pay his way, all the way, through graduate school. He went on to become president of Morehouse College, was Martin Luther King Jr.’s mentor, and was head of the Atlanta school board when that city peacefully integrated its schools. His philosophy was that we’re all responsible for our future, but in being responsible for our future, we also have a responsibility to others. That philosophy drove his life.

Today, as you ponder where your degree might take you, I think Dr. Mays’ words apply very well to all of us:

“It is within your power to dream,” he said, “to build air castles, to think great thoughts, to aim at the stars, and grasp the moon. Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no person living, no person dead, and no person yet to be born could do it any better.”

Tomorrow, with your degree in hand, every one of you will be a step closer to realizing your dreams—and our society will be very much improved because of that. I urge you to make the most of the opportunities before you. We are all truly part of a global community and a global, knowledge-based economy. And you are now an integral part of that new order. You hold the key, a degree, to making the change the world needs a reality.

So keep striving—for your own sake and for the others who share this world with you. Aim high. Grasp the moon. And as befits the mission and legacy of this great institution from which you are graduating, while you reach up with one hand, make sure your other hand reaches back to help another.

Again, congratulations to each of you on this memorable morning. And thank you for inviting me to be part of it.