Ronnie Das

The amazing opportunity to speak at my alma mater for the 2017 UCSD Sixth College Commencement was an unforgettable moment filled with pride, nervousness, and an overwhelming excitement to be a part of unleashing all that potential of bright minds and young scholars.

That nostalgic feeling, familiar smell, and comfortability of being back home filled me as I arrived on campus at half past five. Arriving early allowed me to be relaxed and take in the moment, a humbling reminder of the prestigious opportunity to distinguish the magnitude of accomplishments for over 1300 graduating men and women. A nervous rush of adrenaline charged me up as we put on our gowns in the green room, a sudden rush of heat and extra clothing made me feel claustrophobic, but the procession to the dais was the perfect way to calm my nerves. A note to remember: take a walk before a big moment – speeches, weddings, live shots, etc.

Looking out further calmed my nerves, a picture perfect sunny San Diego backdrop, a deep breath to take in the salty smell of the Pacific Ocean with a breeze like a Pharaoh being fanned with a palm leaf.  This spectacular setting was only enhanced by the beautiful assembly of proud parents, grandparents, family and friends celebrating a cherished loved ones big accomplishment.

It all started with an email from Dr. Daniel Donoghue (UCSD Sixth College Provost)….

Dear Ronnie,

I am writing today with a special invitation which I hope you will consider! I have been Provost of Sixth College since January of 2012 and at that time we began a new tradition of choosing recent alumni of Sixth College to be our Commencement speakers. Five years ago, it was Wesley Chang of Wong Fu Productions, 4 years ago it was Sev Ohanian, who was a coproducer of the movie Fruitvale, 3 years ago it was a media writer named Chris Biele, 2 years ago it was it was David Lopez who runs Teach for America in San Diego, and last year it was Jameson Rogers of Harvard. Each of these speakers has done a fantastic job of providing a relevant role model and an exciting message that resonates so well with our students.

So I am writing today to ask you: would consider the honor of being the Sixth College Commencement Speaker this year? Your name was suggested by Alumni Affairs, and you were the first choice of all of our senior managers at Sixth College who participated in the decision. Personally, I am really thrilled to read your resume and learn about all the exciting projects you have been involved in since your graduation!

Our Commencement this year will be on Sunday, June 18, about 6-8 pm on the large field next to RIMAC. You would be able to speak for about 8 minutes, and our staff in Academic Programs would be delighted to work with you to create a draft and then fine-tune your comments if you are at all nervous about writing it yourself.

Please, I very much hope you will be able to accept this invitation. It will reunite you with your college roots and as you go forward in life it will stand out as a truly memorable moment. We are hoping it will be a “yes!” It will mean so much to our students to hear from a recent Sixth College graduate, and I think you would have a great time yourself. I look forward very much to meeting you and working with you to make Sixth College’s 2017 commencement a successful and memorable day for all our students!

All the best,

Dan

Daniel J. Donoghue

Provost, Sixth College
T32 Program Director, Biochemistry of Growth Regulation and Oncogenesis
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and
     Moores Cancer Center
UC San Diego
http://cancertraining.ucsd.edu/ 

Of course saying “Yes!” was an easy decision. I responded immediately with an emphatic “sounds absolutely fantastic, thank you for the consideration and opportunity. Absolutely ecstatic to be a speaker.”

The next step was logistics with Naomi Chavez (Sixth College Operations Specialist) and it started simple or so I thought – ordering a cap and gown requires my height and weight as well as degree title. My first thought was if UCSD was renting me a gown, I’d like to wear one of those funny ruffled hats, embarrassingly this was when I learned just how detailed and specific Academic Regalia can be.

The custom of wearing academic gowns, hoods, and caps dates back to about the 12th century, when most scholars belonged to a religious order. Long gowns and hoods were standard dress for medieval clergy, who often studied and taught in cold buildings. The style and coloring of the robe, hood, and occasional skull cap denoted an educated individual. From the end of the 16th century to the present, members of the clergy, law professionals, and academics have worn robes. Modeled on the English system, the academic dress found in most universities in the United States derived from Oxford and Cambridge Universities. The American Academic Costume Code was established in 1895 by a commission of delegates from the Ivy League and New York universities.

At first degree title seemed like an odd piece of information, but turns out degree details matter just as much as height and weight information. The regalia hood colors typically include four sections: velvet edge, satin field, chevron.  The velvet edge hood color, sometimes known as Academic Regalia Inter-Collegiate Colors, represents your specific degree of discipline. The color of the velvet edge is determined using the official degree color chart examples include lilac for dentistry, orange for engineering, or pink for music.

Needless to say, I did not get the funny hat!

The next step to speaking at UCSD was a two paragraph (114 words) bio for the commencement booklet, my original attempt was over 250 words and it just got harder from there.

Ronnie Das graduated from UCSD in 2009 with a B.A. in Environmental Systems/Environmental Policy

Just that line is 12% of my bio, now to add 8 more years of work in 100 words or less. It took over 15 re-writes to boil down the most important details of my life without seeming undeserving or overly pretentious while remaining relevant and humble. My final draft looked a little something like this…

Ronnie Das graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Systems/Environmental Policy.  Immediately after graduating Ronnie worked for the City of San Diego Environmental Services and Storm Water Department. The unique opportunity to work with local sustainable business and non-profit organizations were the seeds to envisioning a forum to engage young professionals on environmental career opportunities.

 He utilized the core sequence of Sixth College’s Culture, Art, and Technology in creating RDF Productions environmental TV Show “How Can I Help?”.  In addition to reporting and aerial cinematography Ronnie has a career as a Video Production Specialist making aviation mechanics and pilot training films. Ronnie strives to integrate art and science to inform the community on environmental topics.

So intro, cap and gown complete now to actually work on my speech. The only instructions given to me were: “You have 8 minutes, we can possibly make that 10.” Naomi also referred me to Doctor Amanda Soloman Amarao (Sixth College Associate Director of Writing) to “fine-tune” my comments to create a final speech by June 5th, 13 lucky days before the commencement.

First step, Research! I watched hundreds of commencement speakers from Former President Barack Obama to Actor Will Ferrell and it made me nervous. We are all our own worst critic and while Obama or Ferrell would see the flaws in public speaking engagements, as a viewer the clever observations and witty inspiration are amazing to watch. Using these same speeches for passive advice on shaping your own speech is a troubling downward cycle.

The beauty of the speeches is the relevance to the individual speaker and there connection to the particular audience, stories of growing up in Southside Chicago or going to USC wouldn’t be very applicable to me. In between these personal stories is great advice and stealing that advice created the best/worst speech I’ve ever written. The more I wanted to emulate such humbling advice in a way that did not represent a direct connection to my experience resulted in a poorly constructed speech. A rambling story of a road trip to Canada, quotes from Steve Jobs, Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy as well as a joke that my parents, a close friend, and Amanda (Associate Director of Writing) all advised me not to say. It took me 10 days to write and the response from Amanda was very diplomatic, but obvious that I missed the mark…

Dear Ronnie,

Please see the attached comments.

I think that the main thing I would encourage you to consider is including more of yourself and your story here. This is full of great but very general advice that you give our graduates, but what is more impactful (coming from an alumni speaker) is to offer a glimpse of your post-graduation journey and how your Sixth experience helped prepare, shape, influence you on that journey. Basically, you only take one paragraph to mention your accomplishments. I’d rather hear more about your story all throughout the speech and use that as concrete starting off points to offer advice to our students.

How did you learn how to pick yourself up after failing? How did you keep hope going when you felt like you weren’t getting where you were “supposed” to be after college? Or perhaps it was a smooth road to success for you. If so, how?! Tell us your secret! What advice can you share with our students to help them follow that same path? And how is that advice grounded in your own very real lived experience? How did you end up working with Clinton or the Dalai Lama for example? Did you brew beer with Stone? These are just some questions I had when I read through the piece.

I’m more than happy to talk through it as well with you over the phone if that would be more helpful. Just let me know.

All the best,

Amanda

Amanda Solomon Amorao, PhD
Associate Director of Writing
Culture, Art, & Technology Program
Sixth College, UC San Diego

The polite slap in the face was just the wake up I needed to really dig deep and figure out what advice I could give the graduating class of 2017. It is important to say the right thing, but the right thing isn’t necessarily the best words, sometimes it’s the most relatable stories. I took 3 days to reflect on my life since and because of UCSD to figure out what advice I would want to give myself when I graduated, which is not necessarily the same advice of Stephen Colbert or Maya Angelou.

So like a student, I took a good look at the prompt with Amanda’s guidance the stories became vivid and the speech became clearer.

What advice can you share with our students to help them follow that same path? And how is that advice grounded in your own very real lived experience?

In my hurry to begin my new career [in Environmental Systems], I took a class that summer without reading the course catalog. It was called Western Environmental History, and I assumed it would be about Environmental Policy in Europe and America. But when I came in for the first class, Professor Hineline started the class with: “San Diego is a unique mix of Coastal Sage Scrub Chaparral with an integration of the Northern Sonoma Desert.” Not what I expected. Since it was the first day though, I stayed, but planned to drop the class.

The next morning I had a meeting for an internship opportunity with the City of San Diego. I met Burton Ewert with the Environmental Services Department and his first question was: “Do you even know anything about native plants in San Diego?”. I told him, “Well I don’t know much, but ‘San Diego is a unique mix of Coastal Sage Scrub Chaparral with an integration of the Northern Sonoma Desert.’”

I still remember Burton’s face; it looked like Willy Wonka when Charlie gave him the everlasting gobstopper – a look of non-belief followed by pure joy. He immediately walked me over to the greenhouse and said: “This is where you will work most of the time. We can start Monday, does 9am work for you?”. I shook his hand and Monday was the first day of my internship. Really, it was the first day of my career.

This story was the cornerstone of my work experience and shaped my speech: “One Line Away From Your Career”

As graduates, you have the ability and potential as well as the responsibility and knowledge to shape the world you live in.

I wholeheartedly believe anyone with the opportunity and privilege to further themselves should focus efforts on creating a path to make it easier for others to follow. As a society if we continue to pull ourselves up, together we can accomplish the seemingly impossible. From eradicating diseases to exploring the universe, science and technology has connected us to either create a fear of the unknown or embrace diversity in all its forms.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that we should be more altruistic, compassionate, sustainable and equitable.

The goal of education should not be to construct ivory towers or use knowledge to exploit the less fortunate, but a chance to build on the success of our parents and grandparents in creating positive externalities for our communities. The community we live in is just a little bigger, not just our family and friends but our neighbors and colleagues. All of us have a personal journey through ancestry and upbringing through knowledge and talent that makes us beneficial to building a better society. In this way the scariness of graduation, the fear of the unknown, and the opportunity to fail are not overwhelming, but overcome with the fact that over 7 billion people on the planet have an obligation to the world around them. Our ability to change the world gives our life purpose and meaning, a noble effort worth pursuing.

The road ahead should not be just about a job or series of tasks, it is an opportunity to find your own career path based on your personal interests and unique experience.

The strength in our foundation provides the necessary support for us to rise above the clouds. Our progress should not be shaped by mediocrity, fortune favors the bold and believing in yourself is the bedrock to a tangible hope that we can make the world a more peaceful and civil society.

If you are passionate about something, keep pursuing it; keep moving forward.

On a more contemporary topic, one of the places in society that gives me a lot of concern is an increasing political divisiveness. Instead of rant on about politics, I chose to include two quotes (Sorry for the cut Steve Jobs) from Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy with a similar message.

Because we’re a great nation, our challenges seem complex. It will always be this way. But as long as we remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours. – Reagan

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it. – Kennedy

I chose to do this as a subtle reminder that beyond politics we as people are quite similar. We all have hopes and dreams and fears and insecurities, but our intention is the same, to find love and accomplish goals and overcome fear and feel secure.

The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. – Kennedy

Once you begin a great movement, there’s no telling where it will end. We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world. – Reagan

With my ideas in hand and 8 versions of the speech later…

Hi Ronnie,

I’m definitely getting a much more vivid sense of who you are, your path, and the story you want to tell our graduates to help them glimpse their impending post-graduation selves.

All the best,

Amanda

Amanda Solomon Amorao, PhD
Associate Director of Writing
Culture, Art, & Technology Program
Sixth College, UC San Diego

Hi Ronnie,

We would like to extend an invitation to this year’s Alumni Celebration, Saturday evening on June 10^th at 6 pm.  Dean Boggs would be honored to host you as his guests.  I have enclosed the invitation details which highlights the evening’s festivities and the alumni award recipients.  Please RSVP to me directly by May 26^th letting me know of any dietary preferences that you or your guest may have.  We would love to have you join us!

Kindly,

Ryan

Ryan Crawford
Director of Alumni Relations | Division of Physical Sciences
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093

As well as…

Hi Ronnie,

Hope all is well. We would like to know if you’re available to meet up on Saturday, June 17^th for dinner at Piatti’s in La Jolla (2182 Avenida de la Playa, 92037) at 6:30pm? I’ve been meaning to mention this to you since last week but got distracted with other deadlines. Please let me know if that date works.

Best,

Naomi Chavez
College Operations Specialist, Sixth College
University of California, San Diego

Within minutes of getting the invitation to speak as well as these events the first person I forwarded the email to was my mom. It feels nice to send good news, really put a pep in my step every time I received these invitations.

The alumni celebration was amazing, such an intellectual group of achievers. It gave me a lot of pride in my university and the people who graduate from it. Among the honorees awarded that night were Gary Darmstadt (Class of 1989), Brian Druker (Class of 1977), Carrie Mae Weems (Class of 1984), Dhanurjay “DJ” Patil (Class of 1996), and Rachel Axler (Class of 2004).

I ran into Rachel before the speeches and she asked me about the San Diego ecosystem for a line in her speech. DJ Patil represented the Physical Sciences department so a few extra cheers from our side when he was mentioned.

Hearing the way they spoke so informally yet effectively was an inspiration as well as additional stress for my own speech only a week later. I hate to do this, but immediately compared my life, accomplishments, and worth through the lens of these honorees. It was a bit depressing, but I took solace in the fact that success is when opportunity and passion meet. In this same way my path can also lead to success and in the eight years since graduating, my journey is just beginning.

My insecurity peaked on Thursday during the sound check when I got my first view of the venue. So many seats and I had planned to only look up for my speech during key points. Immediately after my first practice the audio guy walks up and says I have to look up more, flustered I ramble through my second time and this is where tension really hits me. I am completely unprepared for my speech, my biggest accomplishment was turning it in, but now when rehearsal was necessary I had only practiced a handful of times. Fearful,  I went home and practiced that speech for hours on end until I didn’t need to look at my paper at all. I spent the rest of the time thinking of gestures and being more lively, working on performance instead of memorization. It gave me a lot more confidence in the commencement speech, but in the future all this practice needs to be done ahead of time so the sound check goes much smoother.

That Saturday was the Sixth College Dinner where I met Dan, Naomi and Amanda for the first time. It was a lovely evening with the Provosts’ wife joining us as well as two accomplished students who will be UCSD alumni the following day. It was incredible meeting them, one was receiving an award and the other was valedictorian. I would be lying if the confidence I got with only graduating for 8 years at the Alumni Celebration diminished when these two students were talking about all the goals they would continue on the path to accomplishing after tomorrow. Any diminishment from the lack of accomplishments I possessed at there age was overshadowed by the incredible opportunity to speak the next day.

I wholeheartedly believe anyone with the opportunity and privilege to further themselves should focus efforts on creating a path to make it easier for others to follow.

I thought about all these things as I sat on the platform party waiting for my turn to speak. A smile swept across my face and any nervousness in my body faded away as I sat and stared out at the opportunity to unleash all that potential into the world, to make the world a better place with new ideas, innovations, suggestions and solutions. Over 1300 freshmen alumni ready to take on the challenges of the larger community they are a part of and forge a path to new opportunities, ideas and dreams.

My journey from UCSD brought me countless opportunities, it has been an incredible journey and I can promise you that your journey will be even more incredible.

Just don’t take those seemingly random opportunities for granted. Don’t dismiss what you learn – the opening line of a class you didn’t even really want to take or asking advice from your opposition and hearing new options. These moments are here to help YOU SEIZE YOUR PERFECT MOMENT!

Thank you all very much for this opportunity, appreciate your hard work and looking forward to seeing your generation make the world a more peaceful and civil society. Congratulations Class of 2017!

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“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility–I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.” – John F. Kennedy