Graduation Season Words of Wisdom

Some of my favorite roles of working in higher education is helping young people discover what they want to do with their lives, watching them learn their craft and mature through their formative years, and I absolutely love watching them graduate to go on to live out their dreams. This weekend I experienced my first Spring Commencement Ceremony at Jackson State University where we were honored to have two dynamic industry leaders speak life into our graduates. TIAA President and CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett was the keynote speaker for our graduate student ceremony on Friday and the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at U.S. Department of Agriculture, Homer Wilkes, Ph.D., was the keynote speaker for the undergraduate ceremony on Saturday.

The beautiful thing about graduation is watching family friends gather to celebrate the hard work of these scholars who spent the past four years training to become the next generation of global leaders. Everyone tells you that you probably won’t remember who your commencement speaker was, but you’ll never forget the experience of walking across that stage to receive your diploma. When I graduated from Florida A&M University, our commencement speaker was the legendary President Frederick S. Humphries. He served as the commencement speaker because we were his last graduating class before he retired and yes, I don’t remember what he said to us, but I do remember walking across that stage and beaming the biggest smile ever as I shook his hand to get my degree! May God rest his beautiful soul! I’m hopeful that Jackson State’s graduates caught some of the gems that the speakers gave generously on this graduation weekend because they certainly did resonate with me as a bystander.

You could tell that Under Secretary Wilkes was excited to return to his alma mater, and in the green room, he talked about how the only thing he remembered from his commencement speaker’s speech was that the gentleman said he had jobs available for people who grew up on a farm. A lightbulb went off in Wilkes’ head because he fit that description to a T! He didn’t hear any of the rest of the speech, but he did contact the speaker to apply for a job with the U.S. government, and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, Wilkes, the first African American to serve in his position at the USDA, returned to JSU to pay it forward as he stood at the podium and encouraged those graduates who may still be looking for jobs to check out his website where more than 2,000 jobs are available for candidates of all disciplines.

“I am humbled, but I should not return to Jackson and not tell you about the positions available at USJobs.gov. Please check it out and apply. I would like to have [one of you] take my position one day,” Wilkes said.

If you look up “Black Girl Magic” in the Urban Dictionary, there is probably a photo of Thasunda Brown Duckett in the description! She is one of two Black women who currently serve as CEO of a fortune 500 company, a list that has only held three permanent Black women CEOs total. However, this isn’t her first rodeo as CEO. She previously served as the CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, where she oversaw a banking network of more than $600 billion in deposits and 50,000 employees. Prior to that she was the CEO of Chase Auto Finance, one of the leading U.S. providers of auto financing. Earlier in her career she was the director of Emerging Markets at Fannie Mae, where she led the implementation of national strategies designed to increase homeownership among Black and Hispanic Americans.

Brown Duckett saluted the Class of 2022 for achieving this milestone in the midst of a pandemic and encouraged them to keep the momentum going.

“You are stepping out beyond this campus powered by a degree from one of Jackson State’s 48 graduate programs,” she said. “What are you prepared to try? How will you add to Jackson State’s legacy of ‘challenging minds, changing lives?’”

Brown Duckett challenged the graduates with these pearls of wisdom:

·     As her father used to tell her: “Reach for the Moon. Even if you miss it, you will land among the stars. I am still reaching for the moon today.”

·     “Stay intellectually curious. Ask the next question and the next. Ask it even when it’s painful.”

·     Seek out mentorship and be willing to receive it. “Sometimes we define mentorship too narrowly, waiting to have an executive or a CEO make time for us. Please know that your title is rented, your character is owned, so show up and see the ownership that resides in all of us, which is our character,” she said.

·     “I am enough. You are enough. Believe in yourself and what you bring. Embrace unapologetically your authenticity. We absolutely must bring our personal perspective based on diverse perspectives to the table. That’s when the magic happens.”

·     “Make absolutely sure you always pay yourself first. Take full advantages of your benefits. Ensure your strong financial future.”

It was my hope that Brown Duckett would share a message that emphasized the importance of financial wellness with our graduates, and she did not disappoint! She transparently shared the story of her own modest and loving family upbringing and reflected on times when there was no food in the refrigerator, but somehow her parents prepared a meal. Sometimes the car would be missing from outside the apartment, yet her parents instilled the importance of education. After accomplishing her higher educational goals, which gave her the skills to understand wealth creation and financial inclusion, she recalls speaking to her father and having to have a heartbreaking conversation to let him know that he had never contributed to his company’s 401K plan. He was not ready for retirement, but with her guidance he made the necessary changes to begin making up for lost time.

“We all have to start talking about savings. Because yes, our country is facing a crisis when 83 percent of Black Americans do not have enough to retire. So how will we close the economic gap when the daughter and the son have to take care of mom and dad, to take care of daughter and son and still have to take care of themselves? We need to close the wealth gap for people of color. Historically black colleges and universities have long been economic engines and generators of black wealth so yes, it is our collective responsibility to do our part to break the cycle. We must right this economic injustice. If we don’t, another generation of children will have to carry that burden. So yes, we can and we will do better,” said Brown Duckett. 

I echo CEO Brown Duckett’s sentiments. I didn’t contribute to the 401K plans of my employers in my 20s at nearly the rate that I should have. First of all, I thought I had time. Second, I thought I made too little money to possibly put something away for tomorrow. Third, I didn’t understand the value of compounding interest. Boy, do I wish someone had said something to me as simple as “would you prefer to put away $10,000 dollars today and have it become $100,000 in 30 years, or would you prefer to have $10,000 dollars 30 years from now?” That’s essentially compounding interest in a nutshell. Graduates, put something aside now. The version of you who wants to retire in 30 years will be glad that you did!