Acceptance Speech by
Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall
Saturday May 6, 2006

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters

Well good afternoon, and thank you Dr. Sherrick, members of the Board, distinguished faculty, graduates, parents and guests.

It is a privilege for me to be here to accept the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Aurora University, but I’m especially delighted that it was conferred by a dear colleague, Ted Parge who served with me on the staff of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

I have known and worked with the leadership of this institution for many years and I am honored to receive this recognition.

This graduation ceremony seems like a good time and opportunity for us to reflect on the education of our children which Judy so eloquently did.

One of my favorite poets is Mary Oliver and in her poem, A Summer’s Day, she poses a question that I hold not only for my own life, but for the lives of our children.

“What do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” she asks.

Ann Druyan, wife of the late Carl Sagan, is a dear friend of mine. Her heartbeat, brainwaves, thoughts on a given day and EKG, are all recorded in a golden record spinning through space right now on the Voyager.

This record is a musical history of our planet that perhaps one day, one billion years from now, might actually be heard, or so Carl Sagan hopes.

When Annie asked Carl Sagan, who was the lead scientist on this remarkable Voyager project, if she could in fact record her heartbeat, on this day he said, “Go for it, Annie, a billion years is a long, long time!”

Universe time is almost incomprehensible to us, but our time on our “pale blue dot,” as Carl Sagan called our planet, is finite. We are all living but once, upon a time.

It is crucial then that our days be lived wisely and well.

And this is especially important for those of us who have chosen to live our lives with and for children.

And for as long as we choose to be with them, they will be listening to us and they will be watching us, trying to learn the lessons we are teaching them either by design or by default.

In that context, my request to you and to us is simple and Ted actually said already, and it comes from the philosophy statement of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

Let us treat each child as if they are capable of “significantly influencing life on the planet.”

We simply will never know what our children will become and what our response to them will enable them to do or not do, with their “one wild and very precious life.”

Some of us are teachers, some of us are administrators – most of us are parents or grandparents – but all of us are mentors to our children – mind-makers and soul-guides – who can take them as far as they can dream and then say to them, it is now time for you to become yourself.

“Dreams are maps,” Carl Sagan said. “Our children will be our cartographers for the future.” It is important that as elders we always honor the dreams of our children. Our voice must be one of the voices they hear in the silence of their own hearts and it must say to them, “Wherever you are, we will meet you there.”

The Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hahn said, “If you want the tree to grow, it won’t help to water the leaves. You have to water the roots.”

So it is with the dreams of our children.

Several years ago, an IMSA graduate came to my office to tell me of her incredible experience in Kenya.

She had been asked by the Free the Children Association to participate in advanced leadership training.

She, and the other 17 students from around the world, ages 14 through 18 did many things as part of their training – but in the two weeks that she was there, she started a 501(c)3 foundation, raised money – significant amount of money to start a clinic – developed a formal business plan for the funding of additional clinics and the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus, to provide medication and their residence.

She had come to ask me if I would serve on her Board! Of course I said yes, but I also asked her, because I was curious, what surprised you about your two weeks in Africa and I thought she would talk about the culture, but she didn’t.

She said, “It didn’t surprise me that students my age could do amazing things – what surprised me is that no one expects us to.”

Our role as elders, mentors and soul-guides of our children and our educational systems, is to expect children to do amazing things, and to support them with everything we have, because when we do, I believe their gifts and their talents will astonish us.

I am honored to be a recipient of this honorary degree from Aurora University today and I wish all of you Godspeed as we work with our children.

Thank you.