![]() ![]() This is prayers answered, but now we learn the hard way that we all are equal.” - Mary J. This is what was needed to prepare us for the future. “We had to slow down to receive this amazing gift and blessing called more time. As you get older, your interests and your skills will evolve. ![]() I never saw myself working in philanthropy or on global health at all, let alone leaving behind my job at Microsoft to do it full-time. The important thing to remember about career paths is that they don't have to last forever, and when I was in my 20s, I thought I'd always worked in software. You can use your voice and your vote to insist on policies that create a healthier, better future for everyone everywhere. Policymakers are going to have a lot of decisions to make in the months and years to come about how we recover from this crisis, and how we prevent it from ever happening again. That's fantastic, but it's not the only way to contribute. S ome of you may have been inspired by this crisis to pursue careers in epidemiology or health. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Bill Gates (Cofounder, Microsoft) “As a member of our global community, your actions can have a global impact," Bill and Melinda Gates advised seniors. This moment is your invitation to use your education to begin to heal our afflictions, to apply the best of what you’ve learned in your head and felt in your heart. You have the power to stand for and fight for and vote for healthier conditions that will create a healthier society. For every person burdened by bias and bigotry, for every black man and woman living in their American skin, fearful to even go for a jog, inequality is a pre-existing condition. ![]() For incarcerated people, with no ability to social distance, inequality is a pre-existing condition. For immigrant communities forced to hide in the shadows, inequality is a pre-existing condition. But before we can even start down this road of self-discovery, we got to make sure we are doing okay and can handle the drive - especially when it comes to mental health.Oprah Winfrey (Entertainer, philanthropist)Ĭan you, the class of 2020, show us not how to put the pieces back together again but how to create a new and more evolved normal, a world more just, kind, beautiful, tender, luminous, creative whole? We need you to do this because the pandemic has illuminated the vast systemic inequities that have defined life for too many for too long.įor poor communities without adequate access to health care, inequality is a pre-existing condition. Even though my family my friends and so many amazing Eastern faculty believed in me, I needed to accept the unapologetic version of myself, for myself. Brother, sister, queen, queer lover, human being. Every day at school I outwardly smiled, while inwardly questioning how we were supposed to link the different facets of our identities. I didn't know who to turn to for support, for guidance, for a hug. After I came out as queer freshman year, I felt so alone. "As I was saying," Dershem started again, with the crowd cheering him on, "we brand high school as four years of self-discovery but few of us even know where to begin. ![]() Bryce Dershem said his school principal "crumpled" his graduation speech and directed him to read an approved one. ![]()
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