Turning tassels to the future
Nearly 2200 undergraduate, master's and doctoral students earned their degrees from Carolina on December 14, 2014.
The members of the Class of 2014 need to be ready to enter the “Human Age,” an economic epoch defined by human potential, Carolina’s James H. Johnson Jr., told graduates Dec. 14.
In addition to developing certain skills, graduates will also need to think of themselves as something more than a job title. “To distinguish yourself, you must develop your own brand,” Johnson said. In answering the question of what you do for a living, “you must explain the end result of what you do.”
Johnson, a distinguished economic development and impact researcher and demographer, delivered the December Commencement address in the Smith Center. Johnson’s selection as speaker continues a tradition of highlighting faculty speakers at December Commencement.
Before the ceremony, 2,182 students had applied to graduate in December or were awarded degrees in August. Administrators expect to award degrees to 997 undergraduates, 790 master’s students, 354 doctoral students and 41 professional students.
As the graduates processed to their seats on the basketball court, family and friends shouted and clapped their encouragement. One raised a homemade sign that that said, “We love you, Emma!” Some graduates paused to pose for pictures whenever someone shouted their names.
Chancellor Carol L. Folt presided at the ceremony and gave special recognition to military personnel and veterans among the graduates, asking them to stand. She also recognized Carolina First students, those in the first generation of their families to attend college.
“We see in you, and in fact more than that, we depend upon you to be not only the fresh face but also the principled and resolute face of our future,” Folt told the graduates. “Your discoveries and your passions in all of our fields are going to shape the future of our nation for decades to come.
Others making brief remarks were UNC President Tom Ross, Edwin McMahan of the Board of Governors, Chair Lowry Caudill of the Board of Trustees and Chair Vaughan Bryson of the General Alumni Association Board of directors.
Looking over the audience in their caps and gowns, McMahan observed, “Isn’t Carolina blue the most beautiful color in the world?”
Sasha Seymore, president of the Class of 2015, introduced Johnson, the Commencement speaker, with a long list of his accomplishments. The William R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Kenan-Flagler Business School and director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center in the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, Johnson researches the economic and employment impact of white collar job shifts offshore on U.S. competitiveness through his professorship at UNC Kenan-Flagler. He has published more than 100 scholarly articles and three research monographs and has coauthored several books. He is also a founding member of and chairs the board for the Global Scholars Academy in Durham, a year-round kindergarten through eighth grade school aimed at providing smaller class sizes and higher academic performances.
After reading out all Johnson’s credentials, Seymore concluded, “Basically, this guy’s a pretty big deal with lots of important stuff to say, and everyone should probably pay attention to him.”
Johnson lectured graduates on the post-Great Recession economy they are poised to enter. Instead of an Iron Age or an Industrial Age, the Class of 2014 will be part of the Human Age, which Carolina has prepared them for.
More than a decade ago, he said, “Carolina rebranded itself as the innovation university – a place where intellectual entrepreneurship is not only encouraged but also celebrated – and modified the academic curriculum accordingly to ensure that you would be able to acquire the requisite skills to successfully pursue whatever career path you decided to take after completing your studies.”
These skills that will make Carolina graduates stand out in today’s highly volatile global environment are entrepreneurial acumen, contextual intelligence and cultural elasticity or soft skills. Graduates will need to be creative, nimble and adaptive to change and ready to work with all kinds of people across the world, he said.
“For all practical purposes, a borderless workforce will be the norm in the Human Age,” Johnson told them. “Work is not where you go. Rather it is what you do.”
At the ceremony’s conclusion, Folt compared the graduates to a newly fledged giant albatross she had watched fly for the first time. “That’s the way I see all of you today, taking your next leap into the unknown,” she said. “My advice is explore, take chances, believe in your own courage, never risk your integrity and never lose your compassion.”
Read six questions with Commencement speaker James H. Johnson, Jr.
