GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS 

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on where you're joining us from. Thank you for joining us today. It is my pleasure to welcome you to our international student graduation reception. My name is Gustavo Flores-Macías. I am on faculty in the government department and associate vice provost for international affairs. I am delighted to have the opportunity to share this wonderful moment of celebration with all of you. We have a busy schedule during our next hour in which you'll hear from accomplished students, a distinguished alum, and esteemed colleagues that strive to make their national experience as meaningful as we would expect from a world-class institution like Cornell. 

I’d like to start by acknowledging that it has been a difficult year in many ways although there is increasing hope now that vaccines have proven to be at least somewhat effective against COVID and vaccination efforts are underway in the United States and other countries. The situation certainly remains challenging across large parts of the world. And many among the communal community their families and beyond continue to experience very difficult times. But because of these difficult circumstances it is especially important to celebrate the accomplishments of our international graduates. It is precisely because of how difficult things have been for all graduates, but especially for international students that we should celebrate their determination, their courage, and their success. 

One of the key lessons that the pandemic has taught us is that the world's biggest problems are not ones we can tackle from our small corner of the world. They cannot and should not be addressed without global perspectives and global efforts. Developing vaccines and treatments to protect us against a microscopic virus that has completely transformed life as we knew it has required a collaboration of scientists, healthcare workers, civil society volunteers, international organizations, governments with literally the entire planet working toward this common objective. I don't know whether we'll eradicate a virus, perhaps we'll only contain it. But I do know that without a global effort, we would have no chance. The pandemic is perhaps the most recent pressing challenge, but the challenges requiring global solutions are many. From climate change, to human trafficking, to refugee crises, to inequality, poverty, organized crime. Now as straightforward as it may seem, that global problems require global solutions. This isn't always evident to people or to governments. We live in a time in which anti-global sentiments are widespread. Barriers to cooperation have become generalized. Governments seem to prefer the adoption of inward-looking policies and the embrace of zero-sum mentalities. There are of course many reasons for this but an important one is government's inability to deliver quality public goods to the people they're supposed to serve, and their failure to solve people's everyday problems. And these shortcomings can easily lead to the rise of populist leaders and the false promise of nationalism as an easy solution to society's problems. Now overcoming parochial perspectives and narrow-minded policies is not an easy task, but the international graduates we are celebrating today are uniquely positioned to succeed at that. I have a lot of faith in all of Cornell's graduates, regardless of degree or field of study. They're equipped with a sensitivity to identify the world's most pressing challenges with the knowledge to understand the solutions that these challenges might require and with the perseverance to fix them. But I have special faith in our international graduates. First, because they have already demonstrated that extra grit, that extra creativity, that extra imagination needed to pursue a degree abroad. Second, because they already had to overcome an often un-welcoming environment toward foreigners in the United States. And third, because for these reasons, no one, nobody has to explain to them the importance of global perspectives, of global efforts, and global solutions. It's already in their professional DNA. So if you're one of Cornell's international graduates from the class of 2021, know that you are well-equipped to tackle the world's most pressing challenges, but also that this privilege comes with a shared responsibility to go back into the world. Some of you back to your home countries. And use the power of the knowledge you acquired at Cornell to do good. And while you're at it, enjoy the journey, because often the hardest tasks are the ones that bring the most satisfaction. And don't forget to smile. So congratulations to the class of 2021. You certainly have our complete admiration. And always remember what you've learned at Cornell, so you can share that knowledge with the world for the greater good. And now it is my distinct pleasure to introduce our next speaker, Wendy Wolford, who is not only vice provost for international affairs and the Robert and Ruth Paulson professor of global development, but a major champion of all things international at Cornell. Wendy.  

WENDY WOLFORD

Thank you, Gustavo. That was inspiring and hello to everyone. I realized that it might not feel very festive to be celebrating your graduation, sitting in front of your computer, but I hope you can imagine us all dressed up and in an auditorium together celebrating you and I hope you feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment. It's been a pretty unbelievable year. Literally unbelievable. Because no one would have believed it if someone had said that this was how we were going to spend 2020, 2021. It's been a year, as Gustavo said, of such hardship and so many challenges. But now we can say you've done it. You've made it to the end, not just of the year, which was a challenge in and of itself, but of many years of hard work and dedication.  
Congratulations to every single one of our graduates, you're a very special group. As international students, you usually face a few unique challenges things domestic students don't have to deal with like figuring out in your head how to turn kilometers into miles or miles into kilometers before you get pulled over for speeding. Or trying to explain moon boots to your friends back home or sitting in your room during major holidays that we only celebrate in the United States. Although I have to say that when I was an international student in Canada I actually remember loving Canadian thanksgiving which is celebrated a month before U.S. thanksgiving because my roommates would all go home and I'd have the house to myself. But there are also holidays that you miss and that you don't get to celebrate. Many challenges that are unique to international students, and this year as international students you faced more challenges than usual. You were either far from home here on campus, worrying about family and friends in other countries, or you were stuck off campus taking your Cornell classes on Zoom in the middle of the night even though we told you, you didn't have to and we tried to make that easier. You had to navigate an increasingly chaotic immigration system, and anti-international rhetoric that I never thought I would see. The virus hit everyone hard but as international students you have been impacted in particularly challenging ways, and I want to acknowledge how hard it was but also to congratulate you all on making it through. If the saying is true, and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger then you all will be very very tough. 

As international students, and as Gustavo said, you build bridges between Cornell and the world by the very nature of what you've done, and I hope you'll continue to do this. I’m confident that you'll make us proud, that you'll go on to be global leaders in whatever you do, carrying the best of multiple worlds in your hearts and in your heads. So continue on this path that you've already set, being adventurous, and clever, and ambitious. And as Gustavo said don't let the forces of nationalism and narrowness prevail we are all better together. Congratulations again on a spectacular finish to your time at Cornell and good luck in what comes next. And now I know it's a poor substitute for actually being together these sort of Zoom connections, but if you would take a minute just to type a message into the chat to everyone to let us know where you are, and to say a note of congratulations either to yourself, pat yourself on the back, or a note of congratulations to other graduates, friends and family. I’m going to mute myself I’ll be back and read the chat messages. 

BRANDON LANNERS

Well thank you, everyone. Thank you so much, Wendy, Gustavo, for those words. Thanks to everyone that's in attendance today. It's great to have all of you with us. Please do keep those messages going. It's great to see you know messages from our graduates and also obviously supporting families, friends, and others. My name is Brandon Lanners and I’m the executive director of the Office of Global Learning here at Cornell. It's an honor to be here and to celebrate our graduating international students. To all of you, I can't wait to see what comes next. I’m so proud of the work that you've done despite all odds. I’m so impressed by your ability to succeed even though you may be far from family and friends back home, or maybe you currently are back home representing Cornell from abroad. But hopefully you've come to feel part of the Cornell family, and you've been able to form Cornell friendships that will last into the future. And I’m so thankful that you made the choice to pursue a Cornell education. You and your perspectives add so much to the learning experience for everyone. We all benefit from the global lens that you bring. So thank you for sharing it and congratulations. And next I’d like to introduce our global citizen award. Now in its second year, this award highlights and celebrates members of our international community and the mark they've made on Cornell. So to explain just a little about the process, we surveyed all international students, asking you to nominate a graduating student that has advocated for international student engagement and success and has shown leadership to make a positive impact on the international community at Cornell. We then asked the top nominees to write a graduation speech that tells a story about how Cornell has prepared them to be a global citizen. We also asked them to give some advice to their first year self, as well as advice and encouragement for the international class of 2021. Based on the responses, our selection committee then decided on the undergraduate and graduate student recipients. The two recipients have been invited to speak at today's event, and will receive a Global Cornell graduation stole. So I can show you what that looks like. Very exciting. So you can see right there, the Global Cornell graduation stole. And then also all nominees, who will also have a chance to review, will receive a graduation cord, which you can see in both of the photos. So now let's hear from our students. Let me first introduce the undergraduate recipient, Masa Haddad. Masa’s home country is Jordan and is graduating from the College of Human Ecology with a BS in policy analysis and management. Masa, welcome.  

MASA HADDAD 

Thank you, Brandon. Congratulations, everyone. Although it feels a bit premature because we still have a couple more weeks to go, a couple of you know prelims and finals, but we made it. We really did. And I am more than honored to be here. First off, I would like to thank all of our family and friends for being here. It was so lovely to see your faces or your names on the screen. As I stand here before you I would like to preface my speech by saying that this is not going to be laudatory. I will not be paying tribute to any campus organizations or offices. I am going to talk about the authentic experience of an isolated international student. An experience that I unfortunately have shared with many other international students. I promise you it's not going to be depressing. It's more so a depiction of nevertheless she persisted. When we begin feeling and believing that others are like us, solve others problems as if we're solving our own, we become global citizens. A global citizen understands the world at large, which is a description of what I’d like to become. These are words that I wrote in the spring of 2018 as I as I applied to transfer to Cornell. And when I received my acceptance letter, I was overjoyed to say the least. It was everything that I had ever wanted. I would finally be at a place who would accept me for who I am. However, as the only middle eastern transfer student in my year, I came into a campus of already formed friend groups and tight-knit cultural communities. I felt isolated and gatekept from all the opportunities of friendship and growth that I had dreamed of. Then I thought to myself I’m a catholic Arab woman living in a male-dominated Muslim country. If I live by defying the social norms back home, Cornell isn't the place where my resilience and perseverance will stop. I’m not going to let the exclusivity of students and student organizations get to me. 
I came to Cornell because I love solving problems, and that's what I did. I learned how to analyze the symptoms of an exclusive campus culture, identify their root cause, and find a solution that would help me acclimate to a campus that isn't prepared for international transfer students. And I’m so glad that I did. At first I joined the student assembly and to be quite frank it was only because I need a reason to leave my room. I wanted to understand campus culture and find the answer to the burning question of how do you make friends in this place. And that my friends is openness and inclusivity. As an RA at the Holland International Living Center, I saw firsthand the damages that the exclusivity of campus organizations caused marginalized students. And I learned that I was not alone. I was not alone with my want to feel included in a place that excluded me. I was not alone in that struggle. As such I used our space at HILC to build a community for all the international students who felt the same way. And we found a community amongst each other. On the other hand, I used my time on the essay to try to be a “catalyst for change,” which also happens to be another term that I use in my admissions essays. Cornell showed me how unpredictable the world is and taught me how to combat it. You go into a club meeting thinking you're going to plant succulents and then end up debating the Palestinian Israeli conflict. One second you find yourself marching down Ho Plaza for climate justice and the other applying your first aid training on someone who fell right beside you. And from that I learned that to be an effective global citizen, I need to understand my surroundings, approach life with a search and reserve, plan ahead, but be fully prepared for anything that goes astray. I am a woman who loves searching for patterns and understanding how patterns relate to one another. As a policy analysis and management student, I learned to, on a larger scale, look at the human side of problems. Analyze the patterns of human behaviors and worldwide issues and solve them accordingly. On a smaller scale, I learned how to observe the patterns of the people around me and bring out the best in them. I was finally able to understand Cornell at large and solve the problems of others as if they were my own. And with these achievements I have fulfilled the hopes of the 18-year-old writing her transfer admission letters. I became the global citizen I aspired to be. To my first yourself I want to say, there will be good days, but there will also be bad days. And that's okay. You will make it to your 840s of icy hills and I know this weather isn't what you're used to so dress warmly. But you will ace those prelims. This place is intimidating, I know, but you are here for a reason. I understand your fears and your anxiety, I guarantee you, no one made a mistake admitting you. Although it's hard to believe, you're not alone in your struggles. And despite what you might be thinking, no you cannot go through life without making friends at Cornell. Friends will make those hard times just a tad bit easier. You'll feel homesick at many times. I’m feeling homesick right now. You will be sad that the time difference makes it so hard to speak to family and friends back home, but I promise you, you will find a group of friends that will make you feel at home. You just have to take that first step. Your homesickness will increase at times when you feel isolated and it will get better, I promise. Listen to what your heart tells you. It will help you find a passion and a home in an amazing academic department. Be open to new adventures and always be inviting to people but do not let it tax you. And I cannot stress this enough take care of yourself every single day. Nothing is more important than your own health. You will be okay, I promise. To the international class of 2021, I am so sorry if this place was harsh to you at times. But I say again, we made it. And I do not say these words lightly. We actually did make it. We walked through the uncharted territories of the United States of America. We've gotten through multiple strains of culture shocks and we figured it out. We're now experts at traveling across the world, spending long hours on flights, and even longer hours in airports. Dealing with delayed flights. We've lived through pandemic - we've traveled across the world through a pandemic when our countries have gone into lockdown. And we dealt with Cornell's academic stress for more than a year in a pandemic. We've lived through a roller coaster of immigration laws in a U.S. presidential election. All of our hard work these past few years is finally starting to pay off. I am so proud of each and every single one of us and I’m sure it wasn't easy, but look at us, we're here. We did it. And it makes my heart so happy that we did. Graduating from Cornell is a great accomplishment and if we are and if we are able to not only survive these past few years but also thrive under unimaginable consequences, no matter circumstances, no matter how big or small our accomplishments may be, I am sure that nothing will ever get in our ways. Let's celebrate ourselves and be proud. We deserve it. Thank you. 

BRANDON LANNERS

Thank you so much for sharing, Masa. You are not alone and you did make it. Well done. Now I would like to introduce our graduate recipients. Esha Vaish. Esha Vaish’s home country is India and is graduating from the SC Johnson College of Business with a master's in business administration. Esha. 

ESHA VAISH

Thank you so much and thanks to everybody who could join this call today. We made it and we are graduating. In terms of my speech I wanted to talk about my experience and why I decided to come to Cornell. Growing up in India as a girl child I always viewed education as a privilege. My grandmother, a talented and kind woman, only had the opportunities to study until the sixth grade because her parents believe she should focus on learning household skills instead. My mother, a straight A student, graduated with a master's degree in biotechnology from India's most reputed institute, but put her professional ambitions on hold to fulfill her societal obligations to get married and raise a family. This experience is not atypical in my country where there is a wide gender disparity in literacy rates and female literacy, which is defined as just being able to read and sign your name, is still only at 70 percent. This cultural background that I was raised in and the lived experiences of the two women in my life have given me a lifelong thirst for education. 
So when I was admitted to Cornell for my MBA, I was ecstatic. I thought my two years in Ithaca would expose me to new subjects, new ways of thinking, and new skills giving me an education that my mother and my grandmother could be proud of. I did gain each of these things in the past two years, but more importantly Cornell redefined for me what it means to be educated. The people here taught me that to be truly educated I needed to focus on developing the qualities that would help me drive impact in the world. It was this newfound understanding that drove me to serve as international chair on Johnson student council. During the year-long stream stint, I worked with administration to create new programming and enhance support to support our international community. 
For starters I spoke to over a hundred admitted students helping them understand the Cornell experience. The college's administrative team and I organized a panel for international students to learn tips and tricks to succeed in a U.S. workplace. I negotiated with several stakeholders to bring to fruition two new programs, international family meetings to help foster strong relations between international students from various regions, and cultural kickbacks to provide international students a platform to showcase their culture to the community and educate people about their lives and countries. I also began thinking more critically about how I could leverage my skills as a former journalist to drive my community forward. I joined the board of the investment management club and used my relationship building skills to bring new companies to recruit at Johnson. As an admissions fellow I valuably shared my experiences as a career switcher and as a minority with prospective students. I also worked as a teaching assistant for several subjects, drawing on my own experience as a non-conventional background student to think of innovative examples to frame concepts in. And lastly being a Forté Fellow gave me the opportunity to support my school's gender programming and double down on our mission to strengthen the number of women in business, a target that as you can imagine was extremely close to my heart. 
In the end getting educated was more challenging than I thought. There were times when I felt great. There were times when I felt I had hit a roadblock. But each time I wanted to give up the Cornell community was there in full force to cheer me on and to share that collective wisdom. In each of my initiatives people showed the courage to share their lived experiences and give me advice. Together we challenged the boundaries and moved the leader forward. For one we quadrupled engagement in the international buddy program, which was intended to increase the creation of relations between international and U.S. students. 
Through these two years Cornell also pushed me culturally where I had the opportunity to engage my friends through the valley and welcome the new year with the broader family my Cornell friends also invited me into their home for thanksgiving. Seeing people dance to bhangra tunes and deep frying samosas for thanksgiving will be special memories for me, not for the act itself but for the depth of emotion behind each of those memories. When I think of Diwali I picture Sage Hall filled with people from various countries and from various professional backgrounds bound together by the excitement to turn the page and start the new year with the aspiration of leveraging themselves to contribute to the world. I also had countless lunches, dances, treks, and other activities with classmates. Each of these interactions ended up being conversations where we realized that our similarities far outsized our differences and allowed us to build lifelong bridges. 
So I say with pride that my fellow Cornellians taught me to view every situation with a multicultural and global lens. A lens that was further widened and stretched by my interaction with people from other educational disciplines at Cornell, whether they were my classmates in the real estate program or by my housemates who are studying law, architecture, human psychology, social sciences, and music to name a few. When I came here I had already lived in and traveled to several countries and considered myself a global citizen, but this month as I graduate I wear that identify old pride, knowing that my path forward lies in building strong bridges and connecting people so we can truly become a global village. 
Most of all I know that my mother and my grandmother would be proud of not only the educated woman that I have become, but the educated human that Cornell has turned me into. I will end this by saying that my advice to my first year self and to each Cornell student is to push yourself. If a situation feels foreign, dive head first. Know that each of your fellow Cornellian is part of your safety network. We come here as caterpillars with the opportunity to inhabit this communal cocoon and evolve into international butterflies who can change the trajectory of the world. So let's seize the opportunity with both hands. Never has the world seen a more dire need for leaders and we Cornellians can weave a beautiful tapestry of humanity and compassion if only we hold our alma mater's values as our true north. So through clouds of doubt and darkness gleams our beacon light, fault and error clearly clear revealing blazing for the right. 

BRANDON LANNERS

Thanks for that, Esha. Congratulations. We're all proud of you and the Cornell community is here for you. So now I would like to take a moment to recognize the other nominees for the award and I will show those and take a moment for each. So first Zoya Mohsin whose home countries are India, Malawi, and Kenya. Zoya is graduating from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with a BS in development sociology and environment and sustainability. Next we have Harish Chandrasekhar whose home country is India and is graduating from the College of Engineering with an MS in engineering. Awaan Aadil whose home country is India and is graduating from the SC Johnson College of Business with an MPS in applied economics and management. And finally, Juan Pablo Silva Albornoz whose home country is Chile and is graduating from the SC Johnson College of Business with a master of business administration.  Congratulations everyone and thank you so much for all that you've done for Cornell. Thanks and please take a moment just to congratulate our finalists. Thank you, well done, well done. Well now please turn your attention to our next speaker Hongnan Ma director of international alumni relations. Hongnan. 

HONGNAN MA

Thank you Brandon and thank you Masa and Esha. Thank you both for sharing such personal and powerful stories from your journey as global citizens at Cornell. Go to places young ladies and always, always carry that spirited, passionate, and compassionate self with you. And congratulations to all of you, your family, your friends, and everyone in your support network what an accomplishment. Especially considering the circumstances the past few years. Now welcome to alumni-hood. You have been a student for two years, 45 years, seven, eight years, and guess what? You all just got tenured. As an alumnus or an alumna for life. So Brandon just introduced me. I’m Hongnan Ma, director of international alumni relations, a fellow Cornellian, and a proud Cornell parent. I came to Cornell for my graduate studies in cultural anthropology 20 some years ago and one of my children just graduated from Cornell five years ago from the college of engineering. In my current role I work with all of our alumni groups outside of the U.S. and Canada. Thank you Elise for queuing the first slide, if you have it yes. So among the 200 of 250,000 plus living alumni around 20,000 reside outside of the U.S. and Canada today. And now I got a pop quiz, get ready to text in the chat box. When do you think the first Cornell clubs and associations got started? Cornell was founded, you know this one right, 1865. When was the first Cornell clubs and association founded? I don't see any answers yet. No guesses? It was in the early 1900s. And guess where the oldest international alumni club is? I see China. It's actually the Philippines. It was founded in 1912 in the Philippines. And the second oldest and I we are not sure if that was the second or the third. Japan has written record of their club being founded in 1915. So we have at least two international alumni clubs that have celebrated their centennial. We don't have continuous organizing in China, but we have record of Chinese, northern Chinese alumni, sending congratulation letters to the university upon the university's half centennial. So it was among one of the oldest as well. At this point we have around 80 alumni clubs here in the U.S. and Canada and close to 60 alumni groups outside of North America. So if you go home to one of the locations that we don't have one you know what to do, Masa and your friends here in the chat group. So if you are a graduate of the hotel school, the Johnson business school, or the law school, you also have the Cornell hotel society, the Johnson alumni clubs, and the Cornell international law alumni network to call home. Elise, I think we're on the second slide now. So each year alumni volunteers and our staff team also organize thousands of events and activities including class reunions, faculty speaker events, new student send-offs, alumni student career networking events, Zinck's Night, and a whole host of social, educational, and public service activities. I encourage you to check out www dot alumni dot Cornell dot EDU to stay in the know. You will soon realize that your life as a Cornellian has just begun. Wherever you go, wherever you end up, throughout your life after Cornell, please keep in touch with our alma mater and with our local Cornell community. Please also consider get involved with our local alumni groups and different parts of the university that is near and dear to you. So you say where to start, you can join the Cornell alumni admission ambassador network to help recruit future Cornellians. You can sign up in CU healing to share your knowledge and lessons learned with students. You can help organize local Cornell gatherings in support of fellow Cornellians be it alumni or students. Some of you might have heard about the different ways our alumni clubs in China, Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam, Ghana, and Spain reached out to our Study Away students these past couple of semesters. Outside of the alumni to alumni network and social and educational opportunities. Lastly make a gift within your comfort on giving day or any other day to support any Cornell cause you are passionate about. On this year's giving day in march, for example, Cornellians in 79 countries made a gift from two figures to five figures. Many of them in support of our international students, you, and various other global Cornell initiatives. Ways to stay connected with Cornell and with fellow Cornellian across the generations and geographies are simply too many to count. And on this last slide you'll see a few action items for now and I’ll type them up in the chat after I speak. We'll share this information that follow up as well so no need to scribble. Once a Cornellian, always a Cornellian. The continued engagement, participation, and contribution of our alumni worldwide is the secret sauce to Cornell's ability to do the greatest good in our increasingly connected global community. Congratulations again to each and every one of you. Take good care of yourself and take good care of each other. And I look forward to seeing you all soon at one of our alumni events somewhere in the world. Thank you. 

BRANDON LANNERS

Thank you so much for that, Hongnan, and I know our new graduates will follow your very good advice and I do hope that you will see them soon as well. Well now I’m honored to introduce our alumni speaker, Liming Chen. Liming Chen has been the chairman of the IBM greater China group since 2015 and a member of the BASF supervisory board since October 2020. Prior to IBM, starting in 2008, Liming Chen served as the president of BP greater China. He started his industrial career in 1994 with a German chemical company and later as part of a South African company. He also had years of research experience in the early years of his career. Liming has served on many boards of corporations and institutions. He is an honorary professor of the University of Edinburgh and an honorary professor of Shihezi University. He was appointed to be the senior international advisor to the governor of Shihezi province in 2017. Liming Chen obtained his bachelor's degree from Xinjiang Shihezi University in 1982 and master's degree from Cornell University in 1989. He completed the advanced management program at Harvard business school in 2003. Liming, welcome.

LIMING CHEN

Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you very much Brandon for your very generous introduction and I’m truly honored to be with you all today and I give my warmest congratulations to all those international students who are just about to step up you know from this great institution. Looking at you all on the screen here right now it really takes me back to my days in Cornell, you know back in 1986. I was not really aware of Cornell back then at the time when the admission letter arrived I went to my English teacher who was from the UK and asked him if Cornell was a good university. His eyes were just as wide as a cow’s and asked me back and don't you really know Cornell. And that to be very honest with you, I didn't. I didn't really know myself about Cornell at the time. I applied to Cornell merely because it has a food science department. And that was the close closest subject to my undergraduate major of horticulture so I was born and raised in rural Xinjiang and a good portion of my study before college took place mostly in front of during the Chinese cultural revolution and I was much better at attending the crops than memorizing my school textbook. And you know I had a barely made it to through agriculture college in 1978, you know, I was the second group that has been admitted to the university after the cultural revolution. When the school had only probably 200 students in total when I was enrolled at the time. So I was not a fan of returning to the farm work after my college study. Pursuing a graduate study become an obvious path for me. And Cornell food science it caught my attention as a relevant option, and that's the only reason you know why I apply to Cornell back then, that's why you know I didn't really know Cornell that much. But miraculously the Cornell has accepted me without a TOEFL score and without a GRE score. Both scores were required for international students at the time. And I did provide my TOEFL score later on, but I have never took a GRE test even before my graduation. And I’m really grateful that the Cornell took a chance with me and that has helped to change my life. And I hope that no one will hunt me down for those GRE scores and after so many years and after this public confession. And on August 20th, 1986 when I had a first step my foot on the U.S. soil, I had only 145 dollars in my pocket. 17 dollars landed me in this state in the Chinese embassy and 45 dollars got me a Greyhound ticket from New York City to Ithaca. But by the time when I arrived at the Cornell campus I had only 83 dollars in my pocket and I spent my first few days with a fellow Chinese student in his dormitory. And yet even so, the poverty did not really stop me from chasing my dreams. 
So today I would like to share four words with you, in the following conversations. And the first is a dream, and the second is learning, and the third is a persevere, and the last but not least is delivered. Dream is the first word that I would like to share with you. We all have our dreams. Be American dreams, Chinese dreams, or even the personal dreams you and I have. Dreams are about the sense of destiny that you wish to fulfill or the meaning of your life. You know, how you want to live through your life. Some people may to look at this and look at their life like a pilot looking at their flight paths and they know exactly where they wish to head to in the further future. That's great as long as they can commit to that journey throughout. Some people may not be sure what they want to do in the future. That's also not a big problem. Life is often not by design, but it is often full of surprises and opportunities. And it's up to you how you discover and you utilize those surprises and opportunities, like how a navigator would plan the journey. Take myself as an example, I hadn't really figured out what I want to do until I was 34 years old and I have changed in the course of my career several times. I have worked in several different industries such as agriculture, food science, nutrition, chemicals, energy, and then now IT. And I’ve enjoyed each of the role I have played along the journey. No matter if you take an approach like a pilot or a navigator. One tip I can give to you is don't have too specific idea on your dream. Because otherwise you can be very frustrated because if you say I want to be a minister of a country, if you do not fulfill that that one, and then you have no any other alternatives. So the dream, don't be too specific. But you can't just have this a widely scattered dream all over the places. That's also not very good because that will scatter your attention too wide and you'll not stay focused. So learning is the second word that I would like to share with you. Cornell is the only beginning of your lifelong learning journey. What you have learned in Cornell is certainly very important, but what you can learn after Cornell shapes who you are, who you will become. Cornell is not a guarantee of your success. I know that you all feel very joyful of your degree today, but don't count on your degree from Cornell. Entering an entirely new discipline at Cornell with a tremendous language barrier meant I was frequently lost in the class. So self-directed studies outside of the classroom become critical for my academic success. And eventually the mode of learning got ingrained into my life. In fact, now continuous self-directed lifelong learning is the secret ingredient to my ability to change from one industry to another. Yes, I have worked in several similarly and related industries throughout my career. In Chinese we have a saying [Chinese language] and many Chinese students must have heard of these words in the past, which roughly translated to us in different industries are mountains are apart or worlds apart. However there is a lesser known second half of the same [Chinese language] meaning even though many professions may appear to be very different, but all the principles are pretty much the same. A deep face in this second point and a committed-ness to the continuous lifeline learning is what that has defined my career path. Let curiosity be your teacher and remain intellectually thirsty. Be a lifelong learner so learning is does not necessarily stop after your formal schooling. It is also not just about learning from the textbook itself, but also learning from others. In china we have a saying [Chinese language]. If there are three people there must be someone who can teach me something. And learning from the mistake you made and others make. I always say mistake is the price you pay. If you do not learn something often the price is just wasted, all right. So my experience tells me that there is no wasted knowledge and even if something – when you first learn it seems like useless, it has no direct application now, but it will show up down the road in your life one day, sooner or later. All right, the third word I want to I want to share with you is perseverance, alright. To be a little bit more vividly, I also call this a perspiration, alright. Perspiration, alright. So this is the word I would like to share with you and the dream without action is only a daydreamer, alright. It will only make you a daydreamer. And no success will come easy and often we see the glory part of those successful people, but rarely are we able to see the tears coursing down the cheeks, alright. Or the sweat underneath the glamorous close up. Or sleepless nights they suffer, you know, in the evening. So in the biography of Steve Jobs it was you know recorded he cried a lot. Some people counting that he cried in the book 157 times. Some people counted the 26 times. I did not really count myself, but he cried – it’s known that he cried a lot. So that tells you how tough, you know, when once you enter into your professional life, it can be, alright. If you want to be a success, yeah. Success is intelligence plus diligence, plus opportunity. This is success is intelligence plus diligence plus opportunities. These are the what they call formulas and there are many, many other formulas you can probably can read, but nevertheless there is no so-called standard formula on this. But nevertheless, among all these elements, the only one that under your control is diligence. If you are diligent enough, and intelligent enough, which I suppose you must be having survived the Cornell as many of you just now mentioned. You might be even be able to create opportunity for you in your journey, alright. Einstein wisely said genius is a one percent inspiration and a 99 percent perspiration. So the book of Outliers, and I suggest you to read this book, outlines the 10,000 hour rule. Be the Wolfgang Mozart, Bill Gates, Be Beatles, be LA Lakers. The opportunity has always been awarded to them, not because of their skills, but because their accumulation of 10,000 hours worth of emergence with the profession they are in. So there is no comparison of myself with those people, but I want to mention to you I wake up in the normally at five, begin to read or begin to reply emails and so on and so forth. So delivery is the last word I want you I want to share with you. This is very critical and make sure you keep the ball into the gate. At the end of the day results matters, alright. Results matter and make sure you deliver it you deliver the result. In the early days of my career, the CEO of Sasol from South Africa, Pieter Cox shared with me saying set a goal, focus on today, make sure you deliver the result and the drive towards the direction of your goal. So I thought this was a very good advice for me and I want to share this with you as well today. And I don't think this is something I need to further to elaborate. Looking back on my career of nearly 40 years by now, there are two people to a point that has changed my life forever. Shihezi agriculture college has relieved me from toiling away on the farmland. Nothing wrong to work in a farm, okay. Especially today in countryside in China. It can be very lovely. I may just choose to return to the farmland after my retirement, but the university at the time has lifted me out from the farmland. And Cornell has enabled me to go out into the world. The determination to change, curiosity to learn, passion about what I do, resilience when facing challenges, and the failures, and a sense of responsibility, and the confidence in traversing boundaries and transformation have helped me in my career path. So dream, learn, persevere, and then deliver. And again congratulations to all of you, and to your family, and to the teachers. And I wish you all the best for your future. Thank you all.

WENDY WOLFORD 

Liming, thank you so much. Inspirational words and things to live by. Perseverance and resilience I think will be themes for this year and going forward. So to all of us, grab a glass depending on what time of day it is. You may have a wine glass, you may have a water glass. I have a coffee mug that does say Cornell University, but I drink so much coffee and have had this for so long that the words are all rubbed off. But let's raise our glasses in celebration of this incredibly impressive accomplishment. You know, we think of graduations as the end of something, but of course the word comes from the Latin gratis which means to step. So a graduation is to step out or to step into. Either way it's the beginning, as all of the speakers have said. Not the end. So to the international graduates of the Cornell class of 2021, congratulations and good luck. Doesn't quite feel right with coffee, but it's fine. So now we'll close with the playing of the alma mater. We run an annual competition and ask for submissions of groups, singing individuals, or groups singing the alma mater in another language. So either their mother tongue or a language they've learned here at Cornell. We call the competition Lingua Mater after mother tongue and alma mater, and we have fantastic  entries every year. So we have the alma mater of course in English, and then we have it in Chinese. This year we have our winners in Japanese and Turkish. We also have a fantastic Quechua version that we won't play today because we're still working on the on the translation. But please sit with us as we listen to the playing of the alma mater.

[Music]