Wherever you go, there will be others who have embraced their inner engineer. Connect with your fellow professionals because their backgrounds and experiences will amplify all of your successes. Class of 2015, remember who you are and where you have come from. As you walk from your chairs to destinies that await you, you can proudly say you are an engineer and embrace every aspect of what that means. As you walk this earth on your own journey and you come across another engineer, give thanks. Because you not only have found a kindred spirit, you have a surefire partner for the zombie apocalypse. [laughter] when that moment comes and that panic sets in, is there an engineer in the house . Rise up and say i am an rpi engineer. [applause] rpi class of 2015 congratulations. Fairwinds and follow the seas. [applause] california congressman Eric Swalwell gave the commencement address at Las Positas College. He talked about his journey in becoming a congressman. [applause] representative swalwell good morning, las positas. Thank you, dr. Russell. Thank you, chancellor jackson. Thank you board president , board members. Thank you to the faculty. Thank you to the classified faculty. Thank you to the administration here, and thank you to the maintenance workers. The people who clean the classrooms before you got there in the morning, the people who will take down these chairs when we leave today. This is a community college, and it took a Community Effort to educate our youth and our future. And thank you to the parents and the families who look just as surprised as my parents looked when i was the first in my family to graduate from college. Now, i dont know if you knew this, but todays graduation is being broadcast on cspan. Now, normally, cspan is the channel of congress. And i have to watch cspan all the time. And i can tell you that you guys look a lot better, sound a lot smarter, and have a lot more hair than the people i normally have to watch on cspan. [laughter] [applause] representative swalwell for many of you, your path to this stage was certainly not a straight line. I draw inspiration from a rabbi from the 19th century, of ukraine, who described his troubles and the challenges we face through the human condition as the world, the whole world is a very narrow bridge. But the most important part is to have no fear. There are many of you who had no fear in your path to this stage. I think about sierra solis, who is the president of the poetry club. [applause] representative swalwell she served as the Interclub Council secretary, stepped into the role of the aslpc director of events when it was vacated and all the while earning a 4. 0 gpa and working with autistic children and families to support her own family. [applause] representative swalwell i think about katie lott, your valedictorian and the narrow bridge she had to walk without any fear. She didnt just work hard to become the valedictorian. She also just recently won a National Speech competition. And she did that struggling with and overcoming tourettes syndrome. [applause] representative swalwell she described her narrow bridge as when im in an environment where i have to be very focused like forensics, its easier for me to suppress the tic, and it kind of goes on the back burner. Once im up there in front of an audience, i go into speaking mode. I feel like i try not to use tourettes syndrome as an excuse. So yeah, my tics are something that i do all the time, and its natural to me, but its not going to ruin my life. Its how i look at things and its probably helped in a positive way. When i think about the narrow bridges that youve had to walk i think about our veterans who are graduating today. Who have made it so far. [applause] representative swalwell from the battlefields, from across oceans, and now going off into the community, taking the skills that they have acquired to help others. This narrow bridge is a journey i know myself. And my path to the stage certainly was never a straight line. I grew up in this area, the oldest of four boys. My mom, she still works today as a secretary. My dad is a retired police officer, and their dream for me was to be like many of you, the first in the family to graduate college. And we saw very early on the surest, the fastest way i was going to get to college, because we didnt have many resources to pay for it, was going to be through a soccer scholarship. And i made better and better teams. And they got more and more expensive. At one point, my parents thought i wasnt going to be able to pay competitively because the travel costs were just too much. But i pushed back. I later became a lawyer in life, but i started my first negotiation as a teenager. I said, what if i helped out and pitched in . And we all took side jobs and tried to pay for my soccer . And my brothers soccer . They thought i was crazy, just like any parent would. But on the weekends, it was a family affair. Every single one of us, from oldest to youngest, my mom and my dad, we all refereed soccer in between our family games. During baseball season, we were umpires. I worked at aeropostale, folding clothes as a teenager. I was just as bad folding clothes there as i was folding clothes at home and that job didnt last too long. I sanded window frames after school and before soccer practice. I was a wedding entertainers assistant. And i did all of this because i knew if i pitched in, if i helped out, it would reduce my cost of soccer and i could achieve the family dream of being the first to go to college, and i did. I was able to play division i soccer back on the east coast. My parents were proud. [applause] representative swalwell and like every young athlete, i thought i was invincible and i would play professionally, and like what happens to mouth most athletes, i got injured. But i had a teacher from high school who looked out for me. And he called me and said, eric, i know you had your heart set on playing professional soccer. But i saw in you as a student someone who could also work and help others. Something i had never thought about. I only thought about myself and my own athletic pursuits. He said, why dont you go to capitol hill and work as an intern . So i applied on a lark. I was hired, and i called home and i told my parents, mom, dad, i got that internship on capitol hill i applied for. They said to me what every one of your parents would say to your son or daughters. Thats great. How much does it pay . [laughter] representative swalwell i called the teacher back. I think were good. I think its all lined up. My parents want to know, are we talking 8 an hour, 10 an hour . How much does this pay . He said, eric, its an intern internship. Youre going to work 40 hours a week, and if you work hard enough, youll get a good letter of recommendation if you ever want to go to law school. So my parents told me, son youre going to have to do the same thing we did when we didnt think we could pay for soccer. Youre going to have to work. And so from 5 30 to 8 30 in the morning before i took that unpaid internship, i handed out gym towels at a local gym right around the corner from the capital. Oftentimes members of congress would come in and i would check them out and show them around. From 8 30 to 5 30, i worked on capitol hill, giving tours answering the phones, responding to constituent mail, and starting to fall in love with the idea of helping people in need. But that didnt pay anything. At 5 30, i went one more block down capitol hill and i put on a restaurant servers outfit and i served mexican food at a Little Mexican restaurant. And members of congress would come in and i learned very early that if i learned their name, i got good tips. I know its shocking to hear that its so easy to flatter a member of congress. That was my narrow bridge. Handing out gym towels in the morning, serving members of congress in the evening, and having no idea that 13 years later, i would serve with many of them in the halls of congress. But what i had was a family who cared about me and risked it all, a teacher who looked after me, and a will to never have any fears as i walked across that very narrow bridge. And i know each and every one of you in your own journeys has fearlessly put yourselves up here today. So now, youre moving on. Some of you going to fouryear universities. Others going off in a different trade and different jobs. And for so long, we asked young people, what do you want to do when you grow up . What do you want to be . But today, the certainty of the market, the jobs that are out there, are so different and theyre changing all the time. Over half the jobs that will be around in ten years dont even have names. And so im asking you right now not what do you want to be. What problem do you want to solve . And i actually want you to tell me right now. We passed out these cards. And you can tweet and take out your phones on the hashtag solveaproblem. Right here as youre getting your degree and moving on, tell us what problem you think needs to be solved. Mark it down. Well look back and see if it was addressed. Solveaproblem. Maybe you will solve a local problem like fixing our drought. We cant make it rain. But as californians, all weve ever known is how to innovate. Maybe youll be the next engineer who will work on desalination or water recycling projects to make sure that california can continue to thrive. Maybe youll think more nationally. And solve a problem like access to education. Our generation has 1. 3 trillion in Student Loan Debt for 40 million young people. And it affects every major decision we have to make. Its a problem that needs to be solved. From the decision to start a family to buying a home to taking the job you really want our Student Loan Debt is a generation weighs down on us like an anchor. And we must address this and make sure that anyone who is qualified has access to an education. Maybe youll solve a business problem. I think about the sharing economy and new Companies Like uber and lyft. Or two people in San Francisco who were room mates and couldnt afford to live in an expensive city and they were struggling to get by. When they realized they could host travelers in their apartment at a reasonable rate. They created a company that became one that is now the face of the sharing economy, airbnb. They thought creatively about how to solve a problem, their own problem, and then created a website to give others a way to do the same thing. Tonight, one Million People will sleep underneath the roof of an airbnb. There are so many problems that we need you as a generation to solve. So again, i challenge you, tell us, tell me what problems youll solve. I see Natalie Padilla said getting more help for people who have cancer. Jalen, who is in the audience, a graduate, says climate change. These problems you have been given all the tools from Las Positas College to solve. And i hope as you go along your path, as you continue to find mentors and teachers, that youll remember that you have two hands. One to continue to reach up and receive more skills to solve the problems around us