2014 UCLA Conferral of Doctoral Degrees “Chance and Love” –Hooding Ceremony Keynote Address
Robin L. Garrell Vice Provost for Graduate Education & Dean, Graduate Division
It is a great privilege for me to speak with you today. This year, 794 students will earn their doctorates from UCLA, a record number. Congratulations!
To the graduates: On behalf of all UCLA faculty, I want to express our great delight and pride in all you have accomplished at our great university.
As teachers: you’ve inspired your students. As scholars, you’ve forged new paths, pushed back the frontiers of knowledge, and brought distinction to yourselves and UCLA.
To the many friends and family members who join us today: we are so happy that you could be here to celebrate the culmination of your student’s graduate career: the conferral of the doctoral degree. Congratulations to all of you!
Let’s first take this opportunity thank the many people here today who have given their love and support to our students: the parents, partners, spouses, siblings, children, mentors, friends, and other important people in the lives of our graduates.
Your support has taken many forms: financial, emotional, time, and personal sacrifice…. May I ask all of those who are being hooded today to please stand, turn around, see someone who is here for you, and say “thank you”. Let’s all give them a round of applause. Thank you.
Candidates for the doctoral degree: Today we celebrate your accomplishments. Substantial, important, creative, impactful, inspiring, one and all…Each of your journeys is a story of hard work and sacrifice and grit.
These days, people are bombarded with instructions on how to be successful in our professions and in life. If only we do what we’re told, we will get what we desire, or that we think we deserve. We’re told: Focus! Master the 7 habits of highly effective people! Pay it forward! Lean in! Or my personal favorite, directed to procrastinators: “Eat that frog!”
So here you are, celebrating a truly remarkable attainment. Maybe you followed some these instructions, or, because you are high achievers, felt you would have done even better if you had followed them with greater zeal. But maybe we should also recognize the roles that chance and love have played in each of your journeys.
What kind of chance? An accidental meeting with a distinguished scholar, or stumbling upon an open book in the reading room, or walking by an open door to a seminar and being drawn into the speaker’s tale.
As for love? I don’t mean romantic love, but rather human passion for discovering, for creating, for pursuing the great idea: The idea that keeps you awake at night, brain abuzz. The all- consuming immersion a subject that takes over our lives and enables us to rise above the day-to-day.
Flashes of chance, currents of love, can shape a graduate career and a life…
I’d like to share a few stories, starting with my own.
When I started graduate school in Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, my career goal was to become a research scientist in industry, perhaps to ultimately have the opportunity to guide the research team at a company like DuPont or Monsanto. [They actually did do basic and applied research back then!]
In my 2 nd year, my advisor allowed me to go to a conference so that I could get exposed to the state-of-the-art in the research area I planned to pursue, which was to be a new thrust area for our group. There, I met Alex Popov, a professor from Michigan State. He saw something in me, to this day I don’t know what exactly, and he began to mentor
2
me. Over the course of several years, we stayed in touch, and he encouraged me to think about becoming a professor of Analytical Chemistry, a field in which I hadn’t even had a formal course while an undergraduate at Cornell. I was funded on fellowships and research assistantships, but he encouraged me to try a stint as a teaching assistant, which I did. I discovered a new drug: The personal satisfaction of seeing the look of “OH, I get it now” in the eyes of a freshman learning calculus and a senior tenuously grasping quantum mechanics for the first time.
Upon earning my degree, I had to choose whether to go to a very secure position in industry or to take my chance as an assistant professor. I took the leap. Had it not been for Popov’s encouragement and guidance, and that chance meeting, I would not have discovered my love of teaching and mentoring students in research. I would not have become a professor. I would not be here today.
I couldn’t possibly have known, as 2 nd year graduate student, how a chance meeting with a professor in a different field would ultimately change the course of my life. Through chance, I found love.
Norm Apter’s story is also a love story, but a more poignant one. Norm grew up in Connecticut and Washington and Virginia. HE fell in love with the study of Asia at the College of William and Mary, where he earned his BA in History in 1995. He spent a year in China teaching literature and English, and earned his MA from the University of Virginia in East Asian Studies in 1999.
While studying Chinese and working in Taipei the following year, Norm met the love of his life, Eurydice Huang. They married, and he entered UCLA’s PhD program in 2001. Here, his research focused on orphans’ and children’s welfare in modern China.
In 2011, Norm landed a tenure-track job at Clark University in Massachusetts. On the third day after his first class there, he was diagnosed with stage-three melanoma. Despite this devastating news, he remained cheerful and continued his research and teaching, to the extent that he was able, through debilitating treatments. He filed his dissertation, “Saving the Young: A History of the Child Relief Movement in Modern China,” last July.
Sadly, Norm Apter did not survive. He died just two months ago, his life tragically cut short by chance.
3
Norm’s life was driven by his love of Chinese history and culture and people, and his dedication to teaching. He truly made a difference in the lives of his students and family. We celebrate that, and are grateful that he is a thread in the fabric that is UCLA.
Jennifer Moorman’s journey is unique and remarkable. She earned her BA from Smith College with highest honors, majoring in English with a minor in Film Studies – a lifelong love. She then came to UCLA and earned her MA in Critical Studies in Film, Television and Digital Media. For her doctorate, Jennifer segued into Cinema and Media Studies, with a concentration in Women’s Studies.
Jennifer has been a creative, engaged teacher during her time at UCLA: serving as a TA in courses on the history of film and in the freshman-level General Education Cluster on Los Angeles. She also taught courses at the Otis School of Art and Design in Science Fiction and Horror films, queer film and media studies, and other topics. Jennifer has won numerous grants and prizes for her original research illuminating the paradoxical roles of women in the pornographic film industry.
But Jennifer’s road has not been smooth, and chance did not work in her favor. Twice, she has faced life-threatening illness and endured challenging treatments. Each time, though, she recovered. She is a survivor.
Jennifer’s passion for her subject, her scholarly creativity and her courage in the face enormous personal challenge during her doctoral work are testaments to her strength of character and triumphant spirit. Be well, and congratulations Jennifer!
The final story I’d like to share is that of Peter Weller. That name may be familiar to some of you. He studied drama, English AND music at the University of North Texas, Peter Weller’s career as an actor and director spans four decades.
Weller’s many films include Paul Verhooven’s “ Robo Cop .” He was the original RoboCop. He also had major roles in “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai,” Woody Allen’s “ Mighty Aphrodite ,” and last summer’s blockbuster, “Star Trek Into Darkness .” He has acted and directed in numerous TV series, including Hawai’i Five-O, Under the Dome , Dexter , and Sons of Anarchy. And he was nominated for an Academy Award for directing the short film “Partners .”
But that’s not all! Weller has also pursued his love of Italian Renaissance Art History. Weller earned his MA in this field from Syracuse University. And today, he will be
4
awarded the PhD for his forensic reconstruction of Leon Battista Alberti’s formative years. Alberti’s De pictura , completed in 1435, is the earliest surviving treatise on visual art written in humanist Latin by a practitioner of painting. It represents a definitive moment of cohesion between humanism and the visual arts in the early Renaissance. Congratulations Peter!
I want to thank Norman Apter’s family, Jennifer Moorman and Peter Weller for letting me share their inspiring stories with you. For these individuals, and each of you, a confluence of creativity and intelligence, diligence and resilience, chance and love, has brought you to this special day.
So as you go forth, to whatever is next, I’d like to offer a new, perhaps less prescriptive instruction than “lean in.” It is a vague instruction, or perhaps simply a wish. It is the tag line for UCLA’s campaign for the future. You may have seen it on some of the banners around campus or on the website. It reads: “Let there be….”
What does that mean? “Let there be….” asks us to imagine a future , for yourself, for UCLA, and for the way you will engage with us.
I would say, “Let there be … CHANCE…”: May chance open doors and opportunities you never imagined.
I would say, “Let there be … LOVE” – for learning, creating and discovering: an abiding passion that will inspire you and anchor you and impact those around you.
And as satisfying as it can be to feel in control, to reach every milestone you set for yourself… Leave a little room in your life for chance and love to work their magic.
Graduates: our hearts are filled with joy and hope and love for every one of you. Congratulations from the entire UCLA community! We can’t wait to see what you do next. What will YOU let there be?
5