'Never forget to look up': Mae Jemison asks UD graduates to stay grounded, call for change

As the sun shined over Delaware Stadium on Saturday, Blue Hen pride beamed across the faces of the 6,347 students graduating from the University of Delaware in the class of 2023.

One Blue Hen was a nursing major from the Philippines who immigrated to the U.S. when he was 12. Now, he’ll be working in the emergency room at Christiana Hospital.

Another graduate was a 73-year-old Newark resident who was celebrating the end of five years working toward a degree in landscape architecture.

The Blue Hen with his service dog, Vinny, was a medical diagnostics major with a pre-physician assistant concentration.

These students were only some of the faces ranging from ages 18 to 82 celebrating the culmination of their college careers at graduation.

Forty-seven states and 90 countries were represented in this year’s graduating class, along with 48 veterans and members of the military and 15 students celebrating their birthday during the event.

Dennis Assanis, president of the University of Delaware, began the ceremony with a warm welcome to all the graduates, recognizing students who, throughout their college years, received scholarships, participated in research efforts, studied abroad, pulled all-nighters, showed Blue Hen pride or – one of his personal favorites – took photos at favorite campus spots.

Throughout his speech, Assanis highlighted the contributions the class of 2023 has already made and all that they will continue to do with the education they received.

“As you leave the UD campus here today, remember there are no problems you can’t solve,” Assanis said.

Mae Jemison, this year’s guest speaker, was the first Black woman to go to space. Along with that achievement, Jemison holds several titles, including her six years as a NASA astronaut, seven years as an environmental studies professor at Dartmouth College, time spent as the area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia, and as a general practice physician in Los Angeles.

She also received an honorary degree from UD earlier in the ceremony.

Jemison’s speech was filled with nods to women’s bodily autonomy and the right to choose, believing science and not denying the facts we are presented with and using the pandemic to reassess society and do better moving forward, not just settle back into the flawed way things were.

Her main message for the class of 2023 was to be an active participant in life. Instead of letting success in various realms lull us into complacency or half-hearted efforts and forget our, at times contentious, roots, we should be using our advancements as tools to continue making change and reworking our world as needed.

Do more than only care about the things that are directly impacting you. Participate in your life fully, and even if it’s hard at times, we get to choose where we go from here, she said.

“We don't want to be uncomfortable, but discomfort is not to be avoided at all costs because discomfort is a signal that something is wrong and worthy of examination,” she said. “The resolution for this is not to hide in a corner. It's to try to figure out why this is uncomfortable and to deal with that.”

She emphasized that society cannot let those in power, especially those whose actions greatly impact others, dissemble and lie, and that it’s these moments that we must put our best foot forward and lead with integrity, acknowledgment and truth, she said.

This quest includes using our own “critical capacities to observe the world” around us instead of relying on technology and algorithms, Jemison said, adding that there is an immense amount of life to soak up when we truly connect with our environment.

According to Jemison, the human aspirations in our own lives, our own country, have parallels around the world: Insular mindsets have caused us to believe that if someone else wins in one way, then we have to lose.

Combating this worldview with hope and potential is what makes it amazing that we live in a world where each person has the capacity to contribute to what happens now and in the future, she said.

“This country has had and will continue to have an outsized role in what happens next,” Jemison said. “The good news is we get to choose. We get to choose every day.”

Part of that includes finding value and energy within ourselves because comparison will always lead to a shortcoming of sorts, Jemison said, and happiness is something we need to work hard for and have the choice to create every day, even if life is overwhelming at times.

The amalgamation of representation depicted at Delaware Stadium spoke to the varied paths these Blue Hens took to make it to graduation, and the diverse journeys they will embark on from this day after.

As tassels were passed to the left and graduation caps were tossed skyward, the class of 2023 closed one chapter and began another.

“I hope that no matter where you end up and whatever work you do, that you never forget to look up,” Jemison said. “I want you to keep this bigger picture in mind. I never want you to forget where you came from and where you can go.

“Because if you can keep that sparkle in your eye, that dancing energy of aliveness, of possibility, long past graduation, you’ll be well on your way to a magical life […] and all you have to do is live fully and deeply knowing that every day your lives have meaning. That you get to choose what you do with your time. “

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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: University of Delaware graduates more than 6,000 in class of 2023