UNCG Commencement Address:

'Pizza, Picasso and the Pyramids: The Journey to Excellence Continues!'

Dr. Vidyaranya B. Gargeya

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Greensboro Coliseum

Dr. Gargeya delivers the commencement address.

Thank you, Madam Chancellor.

Chancellor Sullivan, Graduating Students, Distinguished Guests, Faculty, Staff, and Administrators of UNCG, Ladies and Gentlemen.

This past June, I was invited to speak at this December graduation ceremony. Since then, many of my friends and well wishers, including my 10 year old son sitting in the audience today, volunteered to give me one and only one piece of advice. That perhaps reflects your anticipation and patience. They all told me to use the KISSS principle! That is K, I, … triple S ...

“Keep It Simple and Short, Socrates!”

In fact, my good colleague, Ken Snowden, a faculty member in the Economics Department, even suggested the method to achieve it. “Keep it short and they will like it! A stroke here and a stroke there … and that is enough! Like a Picasso.”

Advisors for my address today include my father-in-law. He is known amongst his friends, both for his humor and good humor. He gifted me the book titled “Take This Advice: The Most Nakedly Honest Graduation Speeches Ever Given”. The book contains graduation speeches by luminaries and celebrities at various universities and colleges including several Ivy League schools. Good reading (but sorry to say Indu, and that is for my wife in the audience) I did not find the book gifted by my own father-in-law of much use, as this graduation speech of mine is set in a different context. None of the speakers cited in the book was a faculty member serving at that institution. That is what makes my association with your graduation special for me. I will cherish this occasion for a long time to come. I deeply appreciate the gesture of the University in inviting me to address the graduating class this December.

It is not merely a formality that I congratulate you today as I am intimately associated with you and your efforts in your achievement at this university of yours and mine.

I congratulate each and every one of the graduates today… Whether you are a graduate originally from Nigeria or North Carolina, I congratulate you!

Whether you are a bachelor’s degree student or a graduate student, I congratulate you!

Whether you are a student graduating in four years, five years, six years, …. or longer (because of different circumstances in your lives), I congratulate you!

Whether you are a student that has been a part of Lloyd International Honors College, member of the Student Government Association, a single mom or dad, a student-athlete, or a veteran who has served in Iraq (such as Mike Kelly, a Bryan MBA student graduating today), I salute you!

I congratulate each and every one of you graduating today, irrespective of your individual grade point average. Each of you is indeed special!

Talking of grades, decades ago, a youngster failed his 8th grade chemistry exam. He just could not understand why the notation for Sulfur Dioxide is SO2, (with the number 2 after the O) and why Potassium Chlorate is written as KClO3 (with the number 3 after the O in this case) … Basically, he just did not comprehend the concept of valency and had no idea of what the teacher was conveying. So, he tried to simply memorize without any understanding whatsoever. He returned home and told his parents that he would never ever do anything with Chemistry again. His father, who holds a Master’s degree in the Sciences, reasoned with the young lad patiently and taught him the concept of heavier atoms and lighter atoms, electron orbits, valency, and the rest of the Chemistry lesson that day. The boy took a retest soon after and “aced” it. Guess, what he majored in college? …. Chemical Engineering …. It taught the young man an important lesson ---- That is, Never to say Never!

That young boy, three and half decades later, is addressing you today and his parents are in the audience. It is a strange coincidence that my 14 year old daughter (who is not in the audience today), at this very moment, is taking an end-of-course exam in 9th grade English as part of her own learning process.
Today, the short episode of the Chemistry student, I am sure, resonates with many amongst the graduating students, their respective families, and supporters. It also ties in with the theme of my speech … “Pizza, Picasso, and the Pyramids: The Journey to Excellence Continues!”

It appears that the words Pizza, Picasso, and the Pyramids, all put together in one sentence, sound like an odd basket of words. Many of my friends were even intrigued a little by the title of my talk. How are the three connected? They asked. I believe that there is excellence and quality in the making of a good pizza … You do not know exactly how to describe a good pizza much less make it. Yet you know one when you have tasted it! In the same manner there is excellence and quality in a painting by Picasso, and there is excellence and quality in the building of the Pyramids. Whether it is the pizza that you ate last night, a painting by Picasso in the last century, or the Pyramids of Egypt that have stood the test of time for several millennia, the journey to excellence has continued all along, and ever widening. So, it is with you graduates as well … irrespective of what your major is (whether it is Nutrition, Art, or History), what grade point average you have secured, as in the true story of that 13 year old chemistry student, it is a journey of continual learning.

There is neither a definite starting point nor a definite ending point in the journey. Behind every mouth-watering pizza, there is a chef who has mastered the nuances of meat and cheese and the rhythm and dance that goes along with the twirling of the pizza. A Picasso strives hard to settle down on to those seemingly casual strokes which leave us with an “Aha” feeling. The builders of the pyramids pursued the simplicity of shape and form to beat space and time. Though set in a different context, in each one of these artifacts, you see creativity, and a constant striving towards excellence and perfection. There is an art and a science in each of these endeavors.

It is not where you are at a given moment in time. It is how you have metamorphosed yourself over time. Enhancing quality and striving for excellence is not for the Weak or the Meek-hearted. It demands a deep knowledge, a fearless mind, a firm commitment, an all-inclusive universality of outlook ----- all integrated with continuous hard work. That is what you, the Spartans of UNCG, are all about. Over the last few years, I am sure, that you have been inspired and changed with the dreams of Charles Duncan McIver, the founder of our great institution and Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom that sustains the light in the search of knowledge. This is what the world expects of you, each a Spartan. That is S, P, A, R, T, A, and N. Each of the letters symbolizes bold and daring qualities.

You are Spirited, Persistent, Action-oriented, Responsible, Tenacious, Accountable, and you have the “NIKE” Attitude … You just go out and Do It! These are the very same qualities with which the Spartan student-athlete Shannon Donavan challenges her opponent with a sliding tackle on the soccer field and Kyle Hines blocks on the basketball court.

Yes, I do tend to take sports analogies. I was a student-athlete (playing soccer and cricket) while in college. I agree that my body right now is far from that of a student-athlete. Now, I have become a little more introspective and professorial. I will end with a poem from the English version of the Gitanjali originally written in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore for which he received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. It has all the ingredients of excellence and quality, anywhere, everywhere, and any time and I quote:

Where the mind is without fear and
the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken
up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the
depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its
arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has
not lost its way in the dreary desert
sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by
thee into ever-widening thought and
action ---
Into that heaven of freedom, my
Father, let my country awake.

Go MINERVA ---- Go SPARTANS!

Thank You!

source: http://www.uncg.edu/ure/news/stories/2006/Dec/Gargeya121406.htm