Howard, James. “Pre-Citation Address, 2006” Speech, Pre-Citation Celebration, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, May 11, 2006.
Good afternoon and congratulations to each of you. At this midpoint in your undergraduate careers, you have probably selected a major. Your major may be related to international studies. Mine was mathematics, a field with few junctures to international relations.
Either way, the next two years will be more difficult than the last two. Twenty-six percent of this year’s freshman class will not graduate—ever. I urge each of you not to join their ranks.
In May of 2000, I stood where you are today. The stock market was at its peak. Technologists could write their own ticket. I left to find my fortune. I never did. But that’s okay. I kept coming to class at night and graduated two years later.
We are told from birth that we should get good grades, go to a good college, and get a good job. But this misses the point of your undergraduate experience: to learn.
Many of you have chosen a vocational major such as business or engineering. Turn your backs on these fields. Go into the arts. Go into the sciences. Go into the humanities. A professional education can wait until another day.
But above all, stick with it. Finish for yourself, not your career. Learn as much as you can about every subject in the library. Ask the questions in class nobody else is asking.
After all, a liberal education makes you a better person.