Hoyer Delivers Commencement Address at University of Maryland University College

COLLEGE PARK, MD – Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-5) delivered the commencement address for the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) commencement ceremony, where he spoke to over 1,200 of UMUC's nearly 9,500 graduates. Below is his address as prepared for delivery:

"Thank you, and congratulations to the University of Maryland University College graduates of 2013 and 2014!  

"Both to those who are here and to those who, though they could not be with us today, share in this milestone. 

"Thank you, President [Javier] Miyares, Kudi [Usman], Samim [Manizade], members of the Board of Visitors, members of the faculty and administration, and to all the parents, grandparents, spouses, children, siblings, and friends who are here in support of their graduates today. 

"UMUC is known for its innovative online curriculum, and in that spirit I thought about addressing you today remotely over the internet. But then it occurred to me how easy it would be to turn me off, and I decided not to take the risk. 

"UMUC plays a central role in making Maryland one of the education powerhouses of America and a growing innovation hub.

"In health care, science, cyber security, public safety, the humanities, and dozens of fields, UMUC is training the next generation of leaders for communities in Maryland and across the country.  You are part of something truly incredible. 

"In January, when I visited the UMUC campus, I was struck by the diverse array of students from all over the world who have taken advantage of the unique opportunity and window on education that is UMUC. 

"I see it again today, from the youngest graduate at nineteen to the most senior at seventy-eight.  The glue that has bound you to each other as fellow graduates is the same adhesive that will bind you closer to your communities, your families, and the principles that will guide you forward from this place. 

"That glue is education – the accessing of information, which becomes knowledge, which empowers each of you to be all that you can be. 

"Not book smarts or a list of facts. 

"An education isn't a collection; it's a pursuit – a pursuit without end.  Trite, perhaps, but so very true.

"As the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: ‘the things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means of education.'

"Similarly, the great Irish writer and Nobel Laureate W.B. Yeats characterized education as ‘not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire.'

"As you receive your degrees today, I hope your time studying at UMUC has lit a fire within you.  A fire that will fuel a passion for learning and critical inquiry that lasts throughout your lives. 

"In short, as they say, I hope ‘you're fired up and ready to succeed.'

"Indeed, by embracing a life filled with education, you will engage in a crucial form of service.  Our democracy cannot survive without an informed and intelligent electorate to choose its leaders and steer its course forward. 

"Education and innovation are the driving forces behind our leadership in the world's economy as well. At a time when America is challenged to maintain its competitiveness in the world, you and your fellow graduates are its greatest resource. 

"Committing to a life that cherishes education is a form of service that complements what so many of you have already undertaken by choosing to serve our nation in uniform.

"One of the things that the UMUC community can be so very proud of is the number of military personnel, military family members, and veterans who participate in its degree programs each year.  Out of the 92,000 students, 55,000 are from the military, military families, and veterans.

"UMUC has long embraced its mission to serve those who serve our country.  It opened campuses near U.S. Bases in Germany in the twentieth century and now deploys faculty to teach in Afghanistan and Djibouti to reach our service-members and their families stationed there, along with satellite locations across Asia and Europe.

"As our national security challenges have changed, UMUC has evolved to meet the needs of those who are at the forefront of tackling those challenges head-on.

"UMUC isn't just a college – it's a powerful instrument for promoting and enhancing public service by fostering a culture of higher learning. 

"And you who graduate today are not the only beneficiaries. 

"Your families will benefit. 

"Your communities will benefit. 

"And our nation as a whole will benefit from the education you received here.

"When I stood in your shoes, at my commencement ceremony here at the University of Maryland, College Park, my commencement speaker, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, made a powerful point about Americans' motivation to challenge ourselves constantly. 

"It was six months before the tragedy of the Kennedy assassination would propel him into the oval office, and at the time his main role in the administration was to oversee our effort to fulfill President Kennedy's call to land an astronaut on the moon. 

"Vice President Johnson spoke to the class of 1963 about the space race, and he said:  ‘if we as a nation had no competition, if we had no stakes of national prestige, if we had no consideration of national security, if there were no communist Russia or no communist China, if we had nothing but our self respect and our tradition of free scientific inquiry, our effort in space today should differ very little from its present magnitude or present priorities.'

"His point: that we are motivated not simply by competition but by our own aspirations and our will to succeed. 

"From Largo to Lisbon, from Korea to Kabul and around the world, you have challenged yourselves to reach this day. 

"Here you stand, ready, even eager, to accept the next challenge in your lives.  You do so with a new tool in your arsenal – not simply an education, but ‘the means to an education.'

"Continue that education, wherever your degree takes you next.  Use it to enrich your lives and enhance your service to the communities and the country you love.   And share your love of learning with others. 

"In doing so, you will enrich their lives and yours as well.

"Congratulations and Godspeed!"