Purdue University President France A. Córdova made these comments during commencement ceremonies on December 21, 2008

December 21, 2008

Córdova to graduates: 'Make the world a better place'

To our graduates: Today we celebrate your achievement. You have spent many years preparing for this moment, and I know that each of you will acknowledge that you have arrived here with help and support. Take time, right now, to let your parents, grandparents, family and friends know how much you appreciate them.

I also want to say thank you to our Purdue parents for entrusting us with your daughters and sons. Their creativity, spirit and enthusiasm have added significant value to our campus, and we are grateful for having them here.

As a class, you have had substantial influence. While here at Purdue, you created important initiatives that will help future students and the community for many years. Here is just a sample of your lasting impact.

You initiated a process to identify classroom textbooks early, giving students the ability to purchase them elsewhere at the lowest possible prices.

During the 2007-08 fiscal year, your Purdue student organizations sponsored 69 service events, which generated more than a quarter of a million dollars in charitable contributions. Add to that the money raised by your independent fraternity, sorority and cooperative housing organizations, and the total grows to nearly $450,000.

You have more than doubled the number of students participating in community service activities through the Boiler Volunteer Network.

Just recently, you surpassed the goal of contributing 11,000 pounds of food to the community's Food Finders Food Bank. You contributed nearly 19,000 pounds, without which the Food Finders Food Bank might not have been able to fully serve the community during this season when so many families have been hit hard by the declining economy.

You did all of this and much more, while Purdue grew in stature and reputation during your years with us.

In this year's historic presidential election, you helped to create excitement and a national dialogue; you held many voter registration drives on campus. Then you sent out the call to vote, and you got people to vote in record numbers.

You shaped a national agenda for change; now the future is yours to make a positive impact on a changing world - a world that cries out for new approaches to tough problems. Now you have the tools. Whether you're graduating with a degree in consumer family sciences; management; pharmacy, nursing and health sciences; science; or technology - your Purdue education has armed you with the fundamentals for success.

Take what you've learned - from the classroom, your activities, from your relationships and your families - and be confident that you have something important to offer the world.

These are imperfect times. The great opportunity lies in seeing the challenges as pathways for innovations ... at home and on a global scale.

The ideas you share, the work you will do, can make a difference if you believe it is so and you act like it's so.

I know you will be outspoken and ask tough, candid questions. I've been asked them myself by some of you. Yours is not a generation that settles for vague assurances and half-truths. It is good and right for you to say, "Let's try a new approach."

A new approach is what your generation is about. We can watch a world of entertainment in the palm of our hands. We can process huge amounts of data in fractions of a second. And a whole new approach - called nanotechnology - means we're working at a level not visible to the naked eye.

What once seemed like dreaming is becoming fully realized. Take your iPhone, for example. On second thought, why don't you just leave it right where it is. The point is that what you can dream, you can do.

You have much in common with John Bradford Harper. He was a civil engineer who worked in Indianapolis, and he started a tradition many years ago that is directly connected to you today.

John Bradford Harper was the first graduate of Purdue University. He received his diploma in 1875, and he was in a class of one.

Imagine his world: It was 10 years after the Civil War. Alexander Graham Bell would be granted a patent for the telephone the following spring, and our great state of Indiana was just 59 years old.

Here in West Lafayette, John Harper stepped forward to receive his diploma from John Purdue. Six faculty members watched and, presumably, applauded.

We don't have a copy of the commencement speech that day, but I suspect it said something like this: "Congratulations, John; now go forth and make the world a better place."

In 2008, your world is much different from John's. You think and move beyond borders, above the atmosphere and below the seas,  but your mission can and should be the same: Make the world a better place.

We know you will ... because you're Boilermakers!

And so on this day of your commencement, you begin the journey.  Go with the Boiler spirit, with loyalty to your friends and family, honesty in your words and integrity in all you do.

Always remember that now that you have been to Purdue, Purdue will always be with you.

Congratulations! Hail to you, graduates,  and hail Purdue!

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