dr. Jackson,s board of trustees, thank you so very much for this great honor and privilege. ] rowd boos secretary devos im honored to become a wildcat, and it is a real honor and privilege to be with you as we celebrate the birth and Cookman University thune of 2017 the be Cookman University class of 2017. Congratulations to all of you. In addition to the graduates, there are so many people deserving of special recognition today. Parents. I would like to ask all the moms who are here celebrating their graduates to stand right now and be recognized. Moms, please stand up. [applause] secretary devos and all the dads, please stand up. [applause] devos grandparents, family members, friends of graduates, thank you for your effort in getting them to this point. ,irst Lady Florence jackson ,hairman, members of the Board Members of the administrative staff and faculty, and the cookmanethune community, thank you for the Important Role you play in making today possible for all these students. Mayor henry, thank you for those encouraging words, and you and the other state and local officials for being here today. Im grateful for the opportunity to speak with you. And particularly with those who have disagreed with the invitation for me to be here. One of the hallmarks of higher iscation and of democracy the ability to converse with and learn from those with whom we disagree. If this behavior continues, your degrees will be mailed to you. [booing increases in volume] choose which way you want to go. [indiscernible] would you please be seated . Graduates, would you please be seated . Secretary devos as i said, im very grateful for the opportunity to be with you today. While we will be with while we will undoubtedly disagree at times, i hope we can do so respectfully. Ets hear one another out i want to reaffirm this administrations commitment to and support for hb cus and the students they serve. We supportis you, and we will continue to support you. [applause] secretary devos that is one reason why we support restoring. Earround pell grants this commonsense solution will enable more students to further their education without taking on additional debt. I am at the table riding on your behalf, and on behalf of all. Tudents across the nation i also want to acknowledge that we all arrived here today with different Life Experiences and different perspectives. I view that not as a negative but as a gift. Any time we meet someone new, we have two options we can focus on differences that might divide us, or we can choose to listen, to be receptive, and to learn from others experiences and perspectives. In my life, i have endeavored to do the latter, and as you leave this arena today, i hope you, that as you set out on your life and adventure. I am here to celebrate you and all of your achievements. Here to applaud your perseverance and to encourage each of you to keep reaching working to reach your full potential, and im here in the most substantial way i know how to demonstrate that i and the entire administration are fully committed to your success and to the success of every student across this great country. That commitment to success is one i know i share with your president , dr. Edison jackson. Dr. Jackson has long focused on creating opportunities for students and is an authentic advocate for lifelong learning. Each of you who have had the occasion to interact with or work alongside dr. Jackson knows he has a profound, deepseated an abidingfaith and belief in the transformational power of character, moral courage, and purpose. Dr. Jackson, thank you for your daily work to secure and make available a lifechanging education for the students you serve. Your career is a personal inspiration to me, and its the motto t of bcus into to learn, depart to serve. Heeded theyou have first charge in that motto, and today, you stand at the interval preceding the second. I challenge you to leave this arena faithful to completing this mission. The words are simple, yet powerful. Depart to serve. It is good and right to cause today to celebrate your afterdual successes, but that reflection, im confident you will find service more rewarding than anything else. In serving, you will always be more than you so always reap more than you sow. Today is a culmination of knowledge, experiences, and skills gained, but the sum of your education here involved more than sleepless nights spent cramming for a big exam, hours invested putting finishing touches on paper, at time devoted to clubs, organizations, and causes. The whole of your time at university, your experiences, relationships, and foundationhas laid a for you to appreciate your responsibilities to your peers, your community, your country, and the world. Today, you transition from students to graduates. Place theeave this leaders who will transform the world. The tomorrow for which you have worked so hard to prepare has arrived, and its yours to shape. Your action will determine the enjoy, world you create, and lead to your children and grandchildren. Im positive that a fundamental component in that pursuit to shape your world can be found in personal service. You may choose to give back by mentoring or volunteering. You may pour your life into creating equal opportunities for all, pursuing justice, tackling the toughest medical challenges, educating the rising generations, donning our nations uniform to protect defend our freedom, or making a discovery on the cutting edge of science, technology, or engineering. Preparedat bcu has each of you well for the task. The human heart is hardwired for service, and its invaded in the dna of this institution. No doubt you know dr. Mary macleod the same mary macleod amazing story, but let me share it for those beyond its hall who do not. She was a visionary, a leader i admire and respect as one about all americans should know. As one of the 19 children born to parents who knew firsthand the horrors and injustice of the onlyr. Bethune was never of her family to be educated in a formal school setting. Was a gift andon an incredible privilege. She believed it was her sacred duty to use her education to uplift others, so in 1904 with a burning determination in her soul and a meager dollar 50 in her, she built a school from the ground up. Over the course of her incredible 79year lifespan, she ought or one singular and invaluable goal to provide africanamerican children access to a quality education, access they were otherwise unjustly denied. Her commitment to service is what has brought us together today. This inspired daughter of slaves refused to accept repulsive systemic racism. She moved mountains, changing the lives and futures of countless students and families across generations. Just think about the impact of. Er selfless, singular focus then consider the influence that you as a graduate could have on the lives of others, both now and into the future. All that is required for world shaking change is your conscience and courageous decision to serve. Your path here was shaped by others educators, parents, family members, neighbors, friends. Never forget that. Through serving others, you can extend that legacy. Later today, i will have the esor of visiting dr. Bethun home and paying my respects at her grave site volume] rows louder in what she hoped her legacy would be, the beautifully written testament cited love, hope, and a thirst for education as the ideals she wanted people to embrace in her memory. She concluded with a section titled a responsibility to our young people and made clear her unshakable belief that the world belonged to the youth she dedicated her entire life to serving. Our childrente, must never lose their zeal for building a better world. They must not be discouraged from aspiring toward greatness, for they are to be the leaders of tomorrow. Nor must they forget that the masses of our people are still underprivileged, impoverished, and victimized by discrimination. We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends. I note three core themes in her words. First, aim high. Aspire to greatness. She believed without wavering that your potential is limitless. Second, take responsibility for your families and communities and never tolerate inequality or injustice. Third, proceed with courage to change old ideas that hold others back. These are charges and encouragements i echo to each of you today. Believed students you had unlimited potential to effect positive change, and with good reason she had done it herself. As you read, each of you will be called to invite a courage in different ways and to rise to different challenges. The way you answer those calls will determine not just the future of you in your homes, but your communities, this great nation, and your world. Your university serves as every student, without exception, deserves a highquality education. The of you graduates are first and your families a college degree, and some of you have overcome incredible personal hardships to reach this today. Once they victim of an accidental shooting after his freshman year. His doctor told him he would never walk again, but he had different plans. Not only did he resumed his studies, he poured himself into his rehabilitation and got back to his feet. Today, he stands tall among you as a candidate to receive his degree, and he is already taking the next step to pursue an mba. [applause] devos consider never really thought about attending aslege before landing at bcu a nontraditional student, but with help from the palm beach urban league, she found her passion for helping others through radio and television. This discovery feel her confidence and commitment to her studies as her ambition stored. Or teenme involved with organizations and today is an accomplished Mass Communications graduate. [applause] another student is graduating today the bachelor art and liberal studies with a concentration in marketing. He was born to a single mother who struggled with a drug addiction. At a very young age, he entered the foster care system, where he was subjected to a never ending cycle of neglect and abuse. Despite the extraordinary challenges he faced throughout his upbringing, he excelled at and what onat bcu to become mr. Bcu, mr. Sophomore, and he even developed a Motivational Program dedicated to inspiring and empowering young people. He writes and performs music as well. After graduation, he plans to relocate to atlanta to pursue his dream of starting a record label. Each of these students stories is one of courage. These stories speak to how bcu rises to meet the unique needs of every student that serves. Ofshould aspire to make all americas educational students educational institutions mirror that model, a singular needs ofthe individual students. Our nation has made remarkable foundss since dr. Bethune at this university, but addressing inequities in our Education System remains a very real challenge, empowering students with the opportunity to pursue the best possible education has been my focus for the past three decades. America is simply too great a country to deny any child this equal opportunity. Your courage will be needed to confront this challenge as you raise families, pursue careers, and lead communities across our nation. I hope each of us will leave here today challenged to ensure no child is denied the benefits of a quality education. Many of you have already shown courage in this regard by pursuing teaching as a vocation. I want to take a moment to highlight and honor each of you who are graduating from the college of education. [applause] secretary devos not coincidentally, this is National Teacher appreciation week. I hope each of you will take a moment to reach out and thank a teacher who was impactful in your life, many of them no doubt here with us today. I expect many of you are here in part because somewhere along the line, a teacher went out of his or her way to make sure you succeeded. Please join me now in personally thanking and applauding each of you who have served, serve, or will serve as an educator. [applause] secretary devos education broadens our horizons and enables us to confront realities we never before anticipated. We should welcome these opportunities with open arms. We should embrace the chance to grow and to serve. We should pursue these opportunities with humility, with perseverance, and with grace. That is my final challenge to you to approach the unanticipated, the unexpected, the unforeseen when grace. Minutesst a few watching your favorite cable news channel, and you will experience the startling polarization happening across the united states. On social media, groups and individuals picked themselves one against another, not to discuss and debate the merits of deeply held beliefs, but to see who can yell the loudest, score the quickest political points, best silence the others. Solve thel not significant and real problems if we cannotaces bring ourselves to embrace a mindset of grace. We must first listen, then speak. These verses from colossians for me beuide wise in the way you act toward outsiders, make the most of any opportunity, let your conversation always be all of grace, seasoned with salt so you may know how to answer everyone. These words are as relevant today as when they were first imparted. They are exaggerations with the power to transform our approach to life. Our commitment to our neighbors and our discourse with one another. Wiesel,s out elie who survived the horrors of auschwitz, put it well for me, the horror is great and i feel gratitude to my heart each time i need someone and look at is or her smile. I will admit many of us have not many of us in my generation have not done a good job when it comes to dealing with each other in grace. You have an opportunity to do better. This place today with many obligations, but i hope you will consider the three challenges i have presented. A call to service, a call to courage, and a call to grace. Years from now when someone asks you, why do you serve, you can respond, because a great woman, a great leader, a great american, dr. Mary mcleod bethun me. Pired when you face the challenges of your day, you can say you were courageous because she showed you the way. When some pursue dissension, you can engage in debate grace and poise just as dr. Bethune did. Story of yours a own waiting to be written. You make us proud, and more than that, you give us hope. You have achieved Something Special today. I am humbled by the opportunity to be with you to share in this momentous occasion in your life, path to on your continued success. Congratulations and may god continue to bless our nation, bethuneCookman University, and each of you, the class of 2017. [applause] quirks and our james comer rely on faith to be your constant partner. Ive relied on the faith and leadership of my party for more than five years now. I knew what i was getting into, but like any commitment you will get into in life, it demanded some real soulsearching. Electionrning of the 2006, i had an opportunity to be elected majority leader. A. M. Mass that morning, and the question kept tugging at me and i sure i really want to do this . Am i ready to do this . So im struggling with this, and im asking the blessed mother for her guidance, finding no answers. During breakfast, myself own rain. Im standing on the corner of second and pennsylvania outside petes diner. I picked it up, and it was an old coach. Calling to wish me luck and telling me, you can do it. Never gotten a call from the blessed mother before, and i dont think i ever will, but ive got to tell you, it was pretty darn close. A journalist once asked Mother Teresa of how she persevered in the face of all the despair she had seen, and Mother Teresa replied, god has not called me to be successful. God has called me to be faithful. Over the years, i have carried in my heart is similar code that my parents taught me. Its real simple. If you do the right things for the right reasons, good things will happen. So there you have it. Umility, patience, and faith and always a few tears from me. Wordsday night on after , a journalist examines Campus Sexual Assault policy in his book. Mr. Taylor is interviewed by the editorinchief of the national aw journal and legal times. Share for the viewer is your thesis. Nieces the gist of it is there has been a huge myth that has taken root, that there is an epidemic of campus rape, a culture of it is rape where encouraged and condoned even by the administrators, that its out of control, that is increasing, that its worse on campus than it is offcampus, and that it requires completely andlishing all due process the presumption of innocence for the accused people, 99 of whom are male, and thats not an accident. This comes from extreme feminists mailhating extreme feminist in some cases, but it aheads enormously pushed by the obama administration. Sunday night at 9 00 p. M. Astern on cspan2s booktv next, another commencement address, this one from eileen drake, president and ceo of Aerojet Rocketdyne holdings, which manufactures aerospace and defense products. She spoke at the university of alabama in huntsville about her background as an army aviator and the importance of being open to new experiences and challenges. This is 20 minutes. [applause] thank you for that great introduction and especially thank you for letting me be here today to serve as your commencement speaker. I dont have to tell anybody out there in the audience today that ua h is a powerhouse and every time i tore this campus or talk to alumni, i have always been very impressed with the caliber of students and alumni. Distinguished trustees, honored family,aculty, staff, friends, it is a pleasure to be here with you da