faculty, family, friends, and fellow graduates, good evening.
i am honored to address you tonight. on behalf of the graduating masters and doctoral students of washington university’s school of engineering and applied science, i would like to thank all the parents, spouses, families, and friends who encouraged and supported us as we worked towards our graduate degrees. i would especially like to thank my own family, eight members of which are in the audience today. i would also like to thank all of the department secretaries and other engineering school staff members who always seemed to be there when confused graduate students needed help. and finally i would like to thank the washington university faculty members who served as our instructors, mentors, and friends.
as i think back on the seven-and-a-half years i spent at washington university, my mind is filled with memories, happy, sad, frustrating, and even humorous.
tonight i would like to share with you some of the memories that i take with me as i leave washington university.
i take with me the memory of my office on the fourth floor of lopata hall – the room at the end of the hallway that was too hot in summer, too cold in winter, and always too far away from the women’s restroom. the window was my office’s best feature. were it not for the physics building across the way, it would have afforded me a clear view of the arch. but instead i got a view of the roof of the physics building. i also had a view of one corner of the roof of urbauer hall, which seemed to be a favorite perch for various species of birds who alternately won perching rights for several weeks at a time. and i had a nice view of the physics courtyard, noteworthy as a good place for watching people run their dogs. it’s amazing how fascinating these views became the longer i worked on my dissertation. but my favorite view was of a nearby oak tree. from my fourth-floor vantage point i had a rather intimate view of the tree and the various birds and squirrels that inhabit it. occasionally a bird would land on my window sill, which usually had the effect of startling both of us.
i take with me the memory of two young professors who passed away while i was a graduate student. anne johnstone, the only female professor from whom i took a course in the engineering school, and bob durr, a political science professor and a member of my dissertation committee, both lost brave battles with cancer. i remember them fondly.
i take with me the memory of failing the first exam in one of the first engineering courses i took as an undergraduate. i remember thinking the course was just too hard for me and that i would never be able to pass it. so i went to talk to the professor, ready to drop the class. and he told me not to give up, he told me i could succeed in his class. for reasons that seemed completely ludicrous at the time, he said he had faith in me. and after that my grades in the class slowly improved, and i ended the semester with an a on the final exam. i remember how motivational it was to know that someone believed in me.