Well, good morning all. Regrettably i want to open the session this morning with a little bit of not so great news. I want to aknowledge that we have now received word and have confirmed the death of one american citizen in the terrorist attacks in spain amongst those that have been killed. Were still confirming injuries and deaths of others, but obviously we express our deepest sympathies to the loved ones of this individual, and obviously the others who have suffered loss of life. And we offer our thoughts and prayers to their families, as they are going to be dealing with a very, very tough few days ahead of them. So lets return to the subject at hand. Again, one of the things i most enjoy about this job, and ive enjoyed the past opportunity to have conversations with young adults, people who are on the front end and front edges of their professional life, and where they may be heading. So this is a real special opportunity for me to have the chance to talk with you a bit this morning. I know each of you are wrapping up your time with your experience here at the state department. I am certain, hopefully, i am certain that you found it to be very useful, a great learning experience for you. And it will help inform you as to some choices you will be making about your future, the career you want to choose and your future professional life and the path you want to travel. So first, i want to thank you for the time you spent with us here, thank you for your contributions and your service while here. You worked hard and we appreciate, on behalf of the country, your service while you are here at the state department as well. And i know your colleagues deeply appreciate your contributions as well. I think with the events of so many things that have been happening this past week, i want to use this as an opportunity in particular because we have so many a great representation of so many great Young Americans here making these choices ahead of them, and i know it is a topic on everybodys mind. And i think that is the subject of our Race Relations and diversity in the workplace. And i think first it is simply important to say, although i think it is well understood and embraced by i am certain everybody in this room, that we all know that hate is not an american value. Nowhere is it an american value. We do honor, protect and defend freedom of speech. First amendment right. That is what sets us apart from every other government regime in the world. Allowing people the right of expression. These are good things. But we do not honor, nor do we promote or accept hate speech in any form. And those who embrace it poison our Public Discourse and they damage the very country that the claim to love. So we condemn racism, bigotry in all its forms. It is evil, it is antithetical to americas values and the american idea. George washington said in an address to the synagogue in newport, rhode island, that his vision for our country was i quote, a government which bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance. In his second inaugural address during the civil war, Abraham Lincoln called on americans to bind up the nations wounds. What lincoln knew and we are sadly reminded today, is that painful racial tensions are part of our experience as a nation. We too today seek to bind up the wounds. We must pursue reconciliation, understanding and respect, regardless of skin color, ethnicity, or religious or political views. One of americas defining characteristics is the promise of opportunity for advancement, regardless of your skin color, how much money your parents make, or where you came from. It is why millions of americans and millions of people have risked their lives and fortunes to protect this country, to come to this country. Because they know that america promises a chance to fulfill your aspirations, no matter your background. You will succeed based upon your efforts. As my good friend Condoleezza Rice said, the essence of america is that which unites us. It is not your ethnicity, nationality or religion, it is an idea that you can come from certain circumstances and do great things. It is, it does not matter where you came from, but where you are going. As the arm of the u. S. Government representing america around the world, the u. S. State department should be a clear display of American Values and our people. Not just in our mission, but in the composition of our workforce. We have a great diversity gap in the state department. We need a state department that reflects the american people, reflects who we are. The state Department Must redouble our efforts to increase diversity at the highest ranks of the department, including at the ambassador level. Only about 12 of our Senior Foreign Service officers are nonwhite. That number is about the same for our senior executives. To better understand our talent only about 12 of our senior pool, i have directed our committees to adopt a new procedure. Every time we have an opening for an ambassador position, at least one of the candidates must be a minority candidate. Now they may not be ready, but we will know where the talent pool is. A big part of developing our minority leadership is identifying qualified individuals 510 years before they are ready to become senior leaders, and managing and developing their careers as we do others, so that they are undergoing preparations for those senior roles over time. We need a more deliberate process to cultivate the abundance of minority talent we already have in the state department. All of this is the leadership issue. It is the role of leadership from the secretary of state to the assistant secretaries and directors of the bureaus and everybody in between, we have to own this process, manage the process and be held accountable for the results of this process. We are also going to reexamine and expand where we recruit from. As some of you know better than most, americas best and brightest are not just from the ivy league, but they are from a lot of other places in the country. Laredo, texas, detroit, michigan, roanoke, virginia, they are kids sitting on the front row their high school classes. They are veterans from our military who are coming out of service, looking for the next part of their career and many of them with a strong desire to continue to serve our country. And they are so gifted in many ways from many walks of life. So were going to build our recruiting Team Operations out in places we have never concentrated before. That does not mean coming to town once a year and a dropping pamphlets off at the recruiting office. We are going to build and develop relationships with institutions around the country, so that people can more easily find us and more importantly, we can find them. Not just rely upon people seeking us out. Qualified americans of all backgrounds should know that a state Department Career is possible and we are going to work hard to find those individuals. 25 of our Civil Service is africanamerican. Only 9 of our Foreign Service specialists and 5 of our generals are africanamerican. While our diplomats in residence at morehouse in florida a and m are doing an outstanding job ensuring that people understand the opportunities at the state department, there are more than 100 historically black colleges and universities and there is so much more we can do to raise awareness about the range of careers at the state. Only 7 of our Civil Service is hispanic. 6 of our foreign generals and 10 of our Foreign Service specialists. We are also recruiting at hispanic serving institutions, including miamidade college, Florida International university, the university of illinois, chicago, the university of new mexico, but we can do more to partner with hispanic and latino serving institutions and include more hispanic and latinos on our team. We also want to expand our footprint at minority jobs fairs. We can do more to recruit from one of our most Diverse Talent pools, our u. S. Military, those men and women in uniform that are completing their service to their country and ready to move on to civilian life. Footprint at minority jobs fairs. We already hired 29 of our Foreign Service generals, and 16 of our Foreign Service specialists from the military, so we know that this is a talent pool from which to fish. Only about one third of our Senior Foreign Service officers are women. And we will work to close the gender gap as well. Todays a fitting occasion to be sharing this with you, because all of you in this room, through your participation in fellowships and internships, here at the state department, made an early declaration of your interest in public service. Some of you will even be working here soon. Some of you will even be working here soon. We will be keeping all of our fellowship and internship programs in place. The Department Wide freeze we put on hiring programs this year is only temporary and it was a temporary measure so we can take thorough accounting of the entire state department in consideration of how to best strengthen it and position ourselves to improve diversity. Our current fellowships and mentorships are valuable pipelines of talent for our organization and necessary to achieving our diversity objectives. You are our future leaders, whether here at the department or elsewhere in roles you may choose in the country. The seeds of greater diversity that we are planting today will have to be nurtured for years to come. Whether you find yourselves here or somewhere else as future leaders it will be your responsibility to run with that torch. I think one of the things that is important to appreciate is the value of diversity. It is not just to achieve a mix of population that looks like the rest of our country. I know from my long career in the private sector, my experience has been the value of diversity in the workplace is it enriches our work, enriches our work product, to have individuals who come from different cultural perspectives, or from a different life experience. That is the value. They will see things in the world that i cannot see. I did not have that life experience. So whether it is africanamerican, latino, hispanic, women, lgbt, come with experiences i do not know. This enriches the quality of our work. We know that we are a Strong Organization when we embrace and incorporate diverse points of view. Into our work product. More importantly, i would say it is the individuals. If you are open, you will enrich your life. You will enrich your life by engaging with people of different backgrounds, different Life Experiences than you had when you were growing up. And you will find life to be a wonderful, wonderful mosaic. So i encourage you to do that. Before i close, i always want to speak to young adults, people beginning the early part of their career, i have a message i like to convey to all. And this is on the issue of integrity. Much of your future success and what defines you in your professional career, whether you fall short, will be a function of how you view your personal integrity. And how you view to deploy your personal integrity, or do you choose to compromise your personal integrity . What does integrity mean . I am an engineer by training. I graduated from the university of texas with an engineering degree and i was a practicing engineer for many years and i worked in a technical background. So when i think about integrity, if you go to the dictionary and look it up, the second definition is the state of being whole or complete. From an engineer, i think about this building. Structural integrity. It is whole, complete, we do not worry about this building falling in on us, because we know it is whole or complete structurally, it is sound. We just rely upon it. Your personal integrity is much the same way. It is not something that can be trained. It is not something that can be taught. You are born with it. You are born with a clean slate with your personal integrity. No one can take it from you. Only you can relinquish it. And you express that integrity every day in so many actions you may not even think about. Most importantly are those things that you do when nobody is looking. That you do the right thing when people are watching, but more importantly when they are not watching. The choices you make. If you relinquish your personal integrity, you choose to take a shortcut, you choose to compromise, you choose to move ahead at somebody elses expense you may have a shortterm gain out of that, but once you relinquish your personal integrity it is very, very difficult to regain it. It puts you on a pathway that is very hard to reverse. I cannot emphasize to you enough the value of that quality that exists in you. It is yours, you own it. It is yours alone to decide how you use it. If you choose to conduct yourself committed to a life of personal integrity, you will be whole and complete. I promise you. And if you choose to compromise or give away your personal integrity, you will not have a life that is whole or complete. I know this because i have seen it happen to others. So youre at this stage in your career where you get to choose however you want to conduct yourself. This is the most important quality you will take into the workplace with you. Yes, your skills and all that you have learned and all you studied hard to do, and that will be continued through the rest of your life, you will be learning. But your integrity is just there. It defines how you will conduct yourself and how others will see you as well. As a trusted partner, colleague, or somebody they have to keep an eye on. I know that you will choose the right path of integrity. So again, thank you for your service here this summer. I wish you all the best, whatever decision you may make about your future. I know the quality of this group of individuals, youre going to be extraordinary citizens to our country, you will be extraordinary leaders in our country, whatever you choose to do. We are proud of you, we are proud you were with us for this time, and for those that come back to work for us, i look forward to seeing you around the building. Godspeed to all of you, and got god bless you. [applause] cspans washington journal, live every day issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, a Reuters Health care reporter talks about the cost of health insurance. Robert woodson of the Woodson Center and Bernard Anderson of the center for Human Resources discusses Race Relations in the u. S. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern saturday morning. Join the discussion. Cspans coverage of the Solar Eclipse on monday starts at 7 00 a. M. Eastern with the washington journal live at nasas center can rebuild, in greenbelt, maryland. Our guests are a nasa Research Scientist and chief scientist at goddard. We joined nasa tv as they provide live views of the eclipse shadow passing over north america. At 4 00 p. M. Eastern, you are viewer reaction to this rare Solar Eclipse over the continental United States. Live coverage on monday starting at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan and www. Cspan. Org. Listen live on the cspan radio app. Today, we take a look at preparations over the first Solar Eclipse over the United States in 100 years. Mars exploration and more. Beginning at noon eastern on cspan. Supreme Court Justice elena kagan set down for a conversation with margaret marshall, retired chief justice of the supreme court, to talk about their legal careers and the legal career of sandra day oconnor. This is just over hour. Good evening and thank you merrill. Car where ig in my was a relatively recent partner at my law firm. Our lawyers and our