Dear Members of the CMC Community:

I am very saddened to report the untimely death of Ali Mirza ’15, who passed away early this morning. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.

We will share more information with our community as it becomes available. Members of the CMC staff have been with Ali’s family.

Our deepest sympathies go out to the Mirza family and the CMC community.

Sincerely,

Pamela B. Gann
President

CMC President Pamela B. Gann also gave her final remarks to graduates as president, and Matthew Wissa ’13 gave the class presentation. Thirty graduates received Phi Beta Kappa honors this year. Commencement activities included the Hooding Ceremony for Master’s in Finance graduates, the ROTC Commissioning ceremony, and the reception for graduates, family and friends at Parents Field.

See video of the Commencement ceremonies

See full text of:

George R. Roberts’s Keynote address

Invocation by Rev. Brad Tharpe, Chaplain of the Claremont Colleges

Alumni Greeting by Carol Oliver Hartman ’86, President of the CMC Alumni Association

Student speaker Matthew Wissa’s remarks

President Pamela B. Gann’s Charge to the Graduating Classes

Success in a “flatter” world

During his keynote address, Roberts’ words blended intimacy with candor as he compared his experiences as a CMC graduate in the 1960s with the changes that have taken place in the world over the past five decades.

“When I look at you all and try to imagine what your lives will be like 47 years from now, it’s hard to imagine,” he said. “What I can tell you is that the world is going to continue to globalize. It’s going to get ‘flatter,’ as the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman calls globalization. Technology is going to accelerate and there’s going to be more competition….”

Yet he also sounded an encouraging note for the grads.

“But there are opportunities out there for you [and] you all have the benefit of graduating from one of the best schools,” he assured them. “You are ready to compete with the rest of the world, but you must be willing to embrace change and have an entrepreneurial spirit.”

Roberts also exhorted the graduates to put their best effort into everything they do, whether it’s a big project or a small, simple one because, he said, “if you can’t do the simple jobs right, you’ll never be trusted with the harder ones.”

He drew a laugh from the crowd as he recalled his early days, working at Bear Stearns in Manhattan. He said he gave the impression of being extremely dedicated and industrious because he’d arrive very early every morning and always leave late in the evening. The reason? He said he wanted to avoid the unpleasant heat in the New York subways.

Those long days, however, were decisive in his own career: As a result, he became acquainted with another early riser at Bear Stearns, Jerry Kohlberg, and they struck up a friendship that led Kohlberg to join with Roberts and Roberts’ cousin Henry R. Kravis ’67 to create KKR.

“I don’t expect you to remember me or anything I’ve really said,” Roberts said later, near the end of his speech, “but I would ask you to remember words uttered by Winston Churchill. He said that we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

ROTC commissioning ceremony: An honorable 1%

Earlier in the day, a commissioning ceremony for ROTC cadets was held on campus in McKenna Auditorium.

“I don’t believe this group would be up here today if it weren’t for all the family, friends, and supporters out there,” said keynote speaker U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Greg Slavonic to a packed audience.

Among the 38 cadets gathered onstage to receive the gold bars of a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army were four CMC seniors – Eliot Adams, Rachel Cone, Chelsea Layman, and Kyle Woods. The other graduating cadets from the Golden Lions Battalion, which Slavonic praised as the “largest west of the Mississippi,” came from schools including Azusa Pacific University, CSU San Bernardino, Cal Poly Pomona, and Pomona College.

Parents and other family members joined each cadet onstage to pin the gold bars on their shoulders and congratulate them. The pinning was followed by an old Army tradition, the Silver Dollar salute, and brief remarks from each newly-commissioned officer.

“I wouldn’t have made it through these four years without my family,” acknowledged a grateful Adams, who majored in International Relations and was commissioned into the Army Reserves as a Military Intelligence officer.

During Slavonic’s address, he asked the audience to acknowledge an important number concerning today’s U.S. military.

What is it?  1 %.

“Only 1% serve in the military today. 1% keep the other 99% safe,” he said, looking at the cadets. “1 % volunteer freely, every year, and make sacrifices and efforts on behalf of the rest of us.” He commended them for volunteering to begin their service in a world where the dangers posed by groups like Al Qaeda are very different from what he and older veterans have faced in their careers (Slavonic’s own career spans Vietnam, Desert Storm/Shield, and Iraqi Freedom).

What’s also different for today’s cadets? How the public views the uniform of a member of the U.S. military, Slavonic said.

“When I first wore my uniform, I was told to take it off and wear civilian clothes whenever I went out in public,” he said. “But that’s not true today. People will walk up to you and want to shake your hand because of all that you do. It shows how much trust your country has in you.”

Graduates, we have an inflated sense of self.  This includes me, confident enough to stand before you here today, but in the reality, we haven’t done much yet.  CMC has provided us with the tools that can take us further than we could’ve possibly imagined on the first nights of Camp Claremont, soaking wet in the emptied fountain, screaming, trashcan in hand and wondering if all four years would be just as enjoyable and carefree.

Today, I want to say that our expectations of what we deserve should not be the catalyst for our drive and ambition.  We can be as great as we like to hope, but only if we have the humility to value knowing and empathizing with others as highly as we value ourselves.

What were all the moments of stress, data, simulations, thought experiments and internships all for?  Yes, they can place us in position to leave a mark, significant change.  But it is our responsibility to seize that opportunity, and to seize it for the right reasons.  Simply applying the knowledge we gained here, no matter how accurate our models, data, or understanding of metaphysics may be, cannot alleviate the burden of needing to be aware of our effect on others.  Before we can lead, there needs to be a re-dedication to understanding our fellow sojourner, what makes him laugh, cry or pause, what are her goals, aspirations and desires.

We are not alone sounds more like something a sleep-deprived and paranoid stargazer would say than a mantra for our future.  But bear with me.  In today’s society, where we’ve become the commodities sold on Facebook, we spend too much time refining and redefining our image, and not enough time understanding the world through each other’s eyes.  We could use such a reminder.  We are not alone.  Leadership is about character and empathy, and success, well, success has to be more than the car we drive or the vacations we take.

Succeed for your community, your family, and your fellow struggler attempting to fulfill these same lofty goals of leading people to a positive end.  We must never temper our ambitions.  We must embrace the daunting effort that it will take to achieve greatness.  But remember, our actions will resonate with ourselves, our loved ones, and our society far longer than the moment in which each decision is made.  Congratulations, class of 2013.  Today is just the beginning.

As an executive search consultant, I’m in a good position to know talent when I see it.  Sitting in front of me right now, I see huge potential.  Every day I assess capability and leadership at the most senior levels of corporations, and if any group of people is equal to the challenges facing our society today, it is you.  I have loved getting to know so many of you during your time here, and I hope you will continue to stay involved with the college.

While I adored living in North Quad, my classes, my friends as a student, it has been an amazing experience to serve as the Claremont McKenna College alumni president and as a trustee for the last two years.  Your relationship with the college can grow too.  There are so many ways.  You’ll immediately be asked to participate in Forum for the Future.  I encourage you to do that.  There are alumni events.  You’re now qualified to mentor students.  You will find that coming back to Claremont McKenna College really does feel like coming home.  And you know that there are homemade Rice Krispy treats in the Athenaeum every day at 3:00.

You have likely heard me say this before.  There are no shortcuts.  Continue to work hard and master what is in front of you, and there are other lessons that may have already come to you.  Be authentic, responsible, fair, transparent.  Shortcuts are tempting, but rarely worth the trade.  You must be also careful with your personal brand.  And finally, be patient for your success.  It will come, and you actually have to be prepared through real-world experience to know your right time.  And your time at CMC will be among your finest memories, but your future is even brighter.

A prime benefit of CMC is the network that you become a part of today.  The Claremont McKenna College Alumni Association is a very special club, with members that span generations, and we will always take your call.  We will reach out to colleagues, employers and friends on your behalf, and we’re always there to help young CMC alumni make the most of their potential.  An important part of the resources that you have as an alum is visible right now, all around you.  Look to your right, left, back and forth.  They are your classmates, your teammates, your best friends and soon to be fellow alumni.  Shamelessly take advantage of each other.  It is a one of a kind network that will be there for the rest of your life.  CMCers tend to be breathlessly ambitious, but success is really all about the connections that you make.  Who you work with, who you love, how you improve the lives of others, this is truly how you are measured.  So stay connected with each other through chapters, there are 19 of them all over the world.  Show up for events, there are more than 200 every year.  Use social media and come home to your reunions.  I am sure that students in the future will welcome you back as you all welcomed alumni two weeks ago.  I doubt you had more fun than we did, but you tried.  As you move forward, you’ll find that the spirit of CMC, this connectivity is precious.  There is something special about our alumni.  This place changes us, or validates who we are.  However it happens, you’ll find that this group of people is unusual.  And you will learn to recognize it in the real world, because there is truly a difference.

I said to a loved one recently that I don’t know if I’m on this earth for another two days, two years, twenty years.  But what I can control is how I spend that time.  Embrace each other, challenge each other to be better, and I did not say more successful.  And don’t race for the finish, enjoy the journey.  So, the alumni association is a resource for you to continually renew your relationship with your CMC family.  Congratulations, class of 2013.  We share the confidence that you have in your future.  Welcome to the club.

So, the last few weeks of this semester, the students who are graduating have celebrated many achievements, from the champagne toast at Flamson Plaza after the morning of completing senior theses and turning them in to Elizabeth Morgan, to the hooding ceremony earlier this week of our very fine Master of Finance graduates today, and to this morning, where we commissioned United States Army officers who are graduating today.  So, enjoying your last days on Parents’ Field, or Green Beach, or the Athenaeum, or just hanging out anywhere around campus.  So you do have much to celebrate, but not just among yourselves.

We want to extend your celebration and recognize some others in our audience today.

I would like the class of 2013 to also recognize all of the parents of the graduates who are here today.  Would you please stand, so that we can recognize you?  Please.  Thank you.  We thank you, parents, for entrusting your wonderful sons and daughters to our care, to provide a fine liberal arts education.  And now today, we present them back to you.  But I think they will have changed a lot over these past four years, and hopefully you agree they’re being returned to you as educated young men and women who have matured and developed with purposefulness about their next steps in the world.

We couldn’t have this great college without the extraordinary judgment, commitment, time, talents and philanthropy of the Claremont McKenna College board of trustees who are here today, and I would like to thank you for all that you do for the college.  Please stand and let us recognize you as well.  There’s no finer board of trustees in the United States, at any college or university today.  We’re greatly indebted to you.

And where would you be today if you hadn’t gone through all of the obstacles and travails that have been placed in front of you by your faculty?  But really, they are so talented as teachers and scholars, they are so committed to a fine liberal arts education in your behalf.  They have let you enter into their lives, to see their passions about their fields of knowledge.  You’ve worked with them in their classrooms, you’ve worked with them in their laboratories.  You’ve worked with them in research institutes.  You’ve worked with them on committees for your senior theses, and so much, much more.  But they really have provided you your CMC education, and I would like you to acknowledge our very fine faculty today.

And the next thing I would like to do is follow up the remarks of Carol Hartman as president of the CMC Alumni Association, because now, as graduates of this college, you have become the newest members of our alumni community.

Now, you’re joining an illustrious group of individuals who are dedicated to your personal futures.  And just pause a moment, you now have an alma mater, Claremont McKenna College.  Those words, alma mater, refer to your college as your mother.  That’s indicating that through obtaining a CMC education, we are with you throughout your lives, whether you are physically present here on campus or anywhere else in the world.  They also indicate that like a mother, you will forevermore carry that special, special relationship with us.  So welcome, as our newest alumni of Claremont McKenna College.

Now, just a few closing words.  You do appear very well-rested, well-fed, tan, a few of you are a little red.  You seem mighty relaxed from your recent sojourns, most of you to San Diego.  So, welcome back to campus for the festivities of the last few days and your graduation.

On a personal note, this is my last year as president of the college, and it’s my last time to have the opportunity to preside over a graduation such as this.  It’s been a privilege and an honor.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you very much.

Will the graduates please stand again and rise?  Because it’s time for the charge for the class of 2013.  You arrived here from all around the world, and you leave this campus today as an educated person, ready to lead a responsible and productive life.  You have received, whether undergraduate or graduate student, a Claremont McKenna College education, a liberal arts education to prepare you, as Socrates stated, to lead an examined life, to engage to the fullest extent as a responsible citizen of the world.

You were admitted to an institution seriously dedicated to responsible leadership, and as you go forth into the larger world and society, we expect that you will be leaders and not followers.  Through your leadership, your very fine education will be shared with others.  Yours is both a gift and a responsibility, a call to service, especially with respect to love of your family, your friends, and your country, and to ensure that our global society remains a society which is as democratic and just to all human beings as possible.  You will be called upon to ensure that our nation and other nations work together in a world that permits all of its peoples to fulfill at least some of life’s ambitions.  And each of you, with your CMC education, possesses a tremendous opportunity to help secure liberty and prosperity for humankind and to serve through leadership which is tempered by humility and burnished by grace.

We welcome you into the company of educated men and women around the world.  We bid you our fond farewell as students while we welcome you as our newest alumni.  So hail and farewell.  Please look around at your fellow classmates assembled one last time.  Leave with the fondest of memories of some of the best times in your life.  Think of your college, and all of us whom you leave behind.  Know that you go forth with our warm affection, our pride in your accomplishments, and our very, very best wishes for your future lives.

Keynote speaker George R. Roberts’ words blended intimacy with candor as he compared his experiences as a CMC graduate in the 1960s with the changes that have taken place in the world over the past five decades.

“When I look at you all and try to imagine what your lives will be like 47 years from now, it’s hard to imagine,” he said. “What I can tell you is that the world is going to continue to globalize. It’s going to get ‘flatter,’ as the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman calls globalization. Technology is going to accelerate and there’s going to be more competition…. But there are opportunities out there for you [and] you all have the benefit of graduating from one of the best schools in the world. You are ready to compete with the rest, but you must be willing to embrace change and have an entrepreneurial spirit.”

Roberts exhorted the graduates to put their best effort into everything they do, whether it’s a big project or a small, simple one because, he said, “if you can’t do the simple jobs right, you’ll never be trusted with the harder ones.”

He drew a laugh from the crowd as he recalled his early days, working at Bear Stearns in Manhattan. He said he gave the impression of being extremely dedicated and industrious because he’d arrive very early every morning and always leave late in the evening. The reason? He said he wanted to avoid the unpleasant heat in the New York subways.

Those long days, however, were decisive in his own career: As a result, he became acquainted with another early riser at Bear Stearns, Jerry Kohlberg, and they struck up a friendship that led Kohlberg to join with Roberts and Roberts’ cousin Henry Kravis ’67 to create KKR.

“I don’t expect you to remember me or anything I’ve really said,” Roberts said later, near the end of his speech, “but I would ask you to remember words uttered by Winston Churchill. He said that we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Full text:

Thank you, Pam.  And before I begin, thank you very much for the 14 years that you’ve put in in leading Claremont to where it is today.  You’ve always had a vision, and most importantly you’ve had the moral courage to get things done.  Thank you.  And thank you trustees and Harry, for inviting me to speak to you today, the class of 2013.  It’s indeed an honor.

When I was trying to get my remarks together about what I was going to say today, I spent a lot of time thinking about the four years that I spent at Claremont.  And I remember quite well, trips I took to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Santa Anita Racetracks, the weekly bridge and poker games that we had, all of which helped with my disposable income while I was at college.  In other words, I had a good time.  I remember the professors I had, Professors Kim and Eldridge, and Proctor Thompson, and men like Dr. Diamond and Doyle.  And they helped me, and they led me to different ways of thinking and looking at problems, whether it be Keynesian economics, price theory, I still have nightmares about some of the formulas in price theory.  And more importantly, with the liberal arts, I learned about Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, and took art and music classes at some of the sister colleges here.  The education I received at Claremont, for me, has been priceless in my life in so many different ways.  And I remember the time I was able to spend with my cousin, best friend and business partner Henry Kravis while we were here at Claremont together.  We also had our share of fun together, and believe it or not, began to think about what life would be like if we ever started a business that we could run and do together.  We weren’t sure what that was going to be, but it sounded like a neat idea at the time.  Most importantly, I remember the day and place that I met Leanne Bovee, who I married a year after I graduated, and who was my wife for 35 years and mother of our three children.

Now, what I don’t remember is who gave my graduation speech 47 years ago, or what they said.  But what I do remember is the pride I felt in graduating from here, the sense of achievement and accomplishment that I felt as well, and when I looked out at the audience, I saw my mother, and my father, and my grandfather, and sister, and aunt and uncle and of course Leanne, and the sense of pride that I felt that they had for me and what I’d been able to accomplish while I was here.

Now, 1966, 47 years ago, was quite different than the times that you’re graduating into.  In 1966, a gallon of gasoline was 32 cents.  A movie ticket was a dollar.  The median price of a home was $23,000, a tenth of what it is today.  An IBM mainframe computer cost $2 million.  Today’s iPad is 2,000 times faster.  We didn’t have Twitter, we didn’t have emails, we didn’t have texts, we didn’t have the Internet, we didn’t have Google.  Our newest invention was a color television set.  But we did have the Beatles, we did have the Beach Boys, and we did have the Rolling Stones.  I guess we all still have the Rolling Stones.  We worried about the Cold War.  We worried about the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I remember exactly where I was, on my way to a physical science class, when I learned that John Kennedy had been assassinated.  The mid ’60s was a period of political and social turmoil.  The first Civil Rights Act wasn’t passed until 1965.  We worried about getting a job, when the US was 40 percent of the world GDP.  Today it’s 20 percent.  We worried about overpopulation in the world when the world had three billion people.  Today, it has over seven billion people.  And sitting in your seats in 1966, no one in my class would ever have believed that the Soviet Union would collapse 26 years later, and that a communist country like China would embrace market reforms to grow their economy and bring their people out of poverty.  In fact, I wrote a paper in an international politics class basically arguing that that could never happen.  I wish I’d have kept it.

Now, when I look at you all today, and I try to think about what’s your life going to be like 47 years from now, it’s impossible to really come to any real conclusions about that.  But there are certain things that I can tell you for certain, because I see it in everything that I do every day, which is make investments, basically, around the world.  The world is going to continue to globalize.  In Thomas Friedman’s words, the world’s going to become a lot flatter than it is today.  Technology will accelerate at a far greater motion than it ever, ever has done before.  The world will become much more competitive.  And one thing you can bet on, that as long as governments around the world, regardless of their forum, believe that in order to stay in power, they have to improve the economic life of the people that live in those countries, then they’re going to have to turn to market-based reforms to do it.  And if they do, the world will have growth, and billions of people will be uplifted from poverty, and we will have consumptive economies develop around the world.  Those are opportunities for all of you, growth as opportunities.  But along the way, you’re going to have a lot more competition than I did.  My job was to get a job and to compete really in America, when America was 40 percent of the world GNP.  That’s not the case today.  Whoever thought that China would be the second-largest economy in the world?  I certainly didn’t.  And who would’ve thought that a firm like KKR would be investing in Vietnam, in a food company run by a former North Vietnamese colonel in their army?

The world changes fast, and competition comes at you fast.  And let me give you an example.  David Lu is a colleague of mine.  Now, David’s parents were well-educated, they were living in Beijing when the Cultural Revolution hit.  When that happened, their whole life changed.  They lost their job, they lost their savings, they lost everything that they had.  David grew up in a 100 square foot room with his mother and his father and his grandparents.  They had no kitchen.  They cooked on a balcony outside.  An uncle of David’s in Singapore said the way to get ahead is to go to America and become an exchange student.  So at 15 years old, David left for America.  He spoke no English, knew nothing about the customs here, had a one-way plane ticket, and he didn’t see his family for four years.  Now, David was a quick learner, and when he was about to graduate, he applied to 20 colleges.  He was rejected by 19.  You see, David’s math scores were quite good, but he scored below 300 on his verbal SATs.  Finally, his math teacher called someone he knew at Columbia and said, “You need to take this kid.”  So David went to Columbia, and David graduated in the top three of his class in engineering at Columbia.  And he went from that to Morgan Stanley where he basically worked in the IT department, and someone said, yeah, he’s a smart kid, he speaks Chinese, let’s send him back to China and get him into the investment business.  And that’s where we met David seven years ago.  Today, David is a major contributor to our firm, he’s a partner in our firm, and he’s responsible for the greater China investments that we make.  Now, for David, this wasn’t about what school he was going to go to.  This was about any school that would take him.  For David, this wasn’t about what his career choices in life was, for David, this was about getting any job.  And for David, this was about changing the trajectory of his life, his parents’ life, and the future generations of his to come.  That’s what it was about.

There are over 300 million people just like that out there in the world, just like you, graduating from colleges around the world, that want that very same thing.  Now, you all have had the benefit of graduating from one of the best college and universities in the world.  I have a chance to meet many young people from the best schools around the world, and I will tell you that you can compete with the best of them.  But in order to do that, you’ve got to embrace change.  You’ve got to savor change.  You’ve got to run after it.  You cannot be afraid of change.  Changes are opportunities, and you have to look at it that way.  And you have to embrace an entrepreneurial spirit.  The very college you’re graduating from today did that many years ago in its founding.  The presidents after George Benson have done that just as well.  Claremont as a school gets a lot from a little.  They’re scrappy, just like you have to be.  Now, the good news is, many of you have accomplished that while you’re here.  I mean, just think about the time you entered as a freshman and where you are today.  You’ve had to learn to plan your own schedules, what courses to take.  You’ve had to work independently, and many of you have done independent study.  And you’ve had to write a thesis.  So you’ve been able to get a sense of freedom, and doing things on your own, and thinking creatively about what you need to do.  You’ve had to do that.

You know, that very same feeling of creativity and freedom, I wanted to keep when I left Claremont.  I was 21 years old when I got a job as an intern at Bear Sterns in New York.  I grew up in Texas, and I didn’t spend much time in New York, so I was pretty unfamiliar with how hot and crowded the subways could be in New York in the summertime.  I quickly learned that the way around that was to go to work earlier every day and go home later every day, so I began arriving at the office at 7:00 AM.  And the only other person around was Jerry Kohlberg.  And I guess he didn’t know that I was trying to avoid the rush of the subways.  He must’ve thought I was a very industrious young person, and he began giving me things to do.  And they were pretty simple at first, but I was able to do them.  And the more I did, the more he gave me, and we struck up a friendship.  Jerry became not only a good friend, but my mentor while I was at Bear Sterns.  And then in 1976, Jerry Kohlberg, Henry Kravis and I left Bear Sterns to start KKR.  Now, we wanted to do that for two simple reasons.  One, we wanted to work for ourselves, and secondly, we thought we had a really good idea, which probably sounds pretty simple to you now, but believe me, 37 years ago it wasn’t so simple.  And that idea was, we were going to use the capital markets to borrow a prudent amount of money, and we were going to buy companies, and we were going to give management ownership in those companies.  Now, that seems pretty simple, and it’s done a lot today, but that wasn’t the case back then.  And it certainly wasn’t apparent to my father, who thought I was crazy because I was giving up a good job and a good future to go off and do this crazy other thing.  Now, we made our share of mistakes, we had our share of successes, and we’ve continued to build KKR today into a worldwide firm, where we can do business now in every country, on every continent, with the exception of Antarctica, in the world.

And I tell everybody that works in the firm, in every meeting that we have, we can never, ever give up the entrepreneurial culture that we have here.  The world owes us nothing.  We have to go to work every day, we have to be scrappy, we have to be creative, and we have to help people solve problems that we want to invest with.  And I hope that never, ever changes.

Now, I’m often asked by younger people, you know, what are the keys to success?  Frankly, I don’t know.  But if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.  And I wouldn’t tell you for one simple reason.  Because that would rob you of the wonderful journey you’re about to take when you leave here.  And that’s finding what, for you, is your own success.  But I will talk about three things that at least helped me in my life, and I hope in some small way, it helps you as well.

Number one, whatever you do, go all in.  Show up early.  Always be prepared.  If you can’t do the easy things, people won’t trust you with the hard things.  Be prepared to challenge and question others and what’s going on.  Speak up.  Every meeting we have at KKR to discuss an idea, I always ask the youngest person in the group what they think, mainly ’cause they’re probably a lot smarter than the rest of us anyway, but I want to know what others think, and I want people to speak up and give me their views, and be able to dissent.  You all need to be those kind of people as well.  Never sit there and rest on your laurels.  You know, Will Rogers had a wonderful quote, which was, “Even if you’re on the right track, and you’re just sitting there, you’re going to get run over.”  And try to anticipate where things are going.  To use a hockey analogy, you know, skate to where you think the puck is going to be, not to where it is or where it’s been.  Always be looking out in the future about where are things going to go, and what can I do to improve them?  Work in teams.  Become a team leader.  I’ve got a quote on my desk that Ronald Reagan often used, and it basically says, “There’s no limit to what can be achieved if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

Secondly, take risks and be prepared to make some mistakes.  Now, many of you, to this point in your life, have followed a certain path.  Go to high school, do well, go to college, do well, graduate, move on and get a job.  Your path has been pretty clear to you, but once you leave here, that’s not always going to be the case.  Because when things are obvious, everybody else has figured it out.  What you need to do is figure out what’s not so obvious, and then take a risk about going about your business to do it.  You will learn far more from your mistakes than you ever, ever will from your successes.  And you will make those.  Now, Winston Churchill defined success as going from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm.  I think that defines my life pretty succinctly.  And when you fail, which you will, we’re bound to, we’re not always going to be right.  Regardless of what you do, fail honorably, truthfully.  Never, ever, ever lose your integrity.  The world will give you many chances if you stay within your basic fundamental of what makes you the person you are.  And remember, your ability might get you to the top, but it’s character that’s going to keep you there.

Thirdly, build relationships.  There’s nothing more important in your life, and especially as you get older, as the relationships that you build, relationship with your mate, relationship with your parents, your brothers and your sisters, your grandparents, your aunts and uncles, your cousins, your closest friends, your associates, your business associates, and the people you, you know, don’t always see all the time.  Work on those relationships and build them.  Relationships are built on like and trust.  Work on those.  Write thank you notes to people that have done something kind for you.  You all remember what thank you notes are, right?  The things your parents wanted you to write when you were younger?  Not Twitter, or tweet, or texts, or emails, just thank you, on a piece of paper and send it to someone that’s done something nice for you.  This will go a long, long way for you as well.  One of the things, many things that I admire most about your generation, that quite frankly, mine did not think the same way, and that is the community service, and the way you give back.  I know many of you have done community service in high school, and many of you are doing this in college.  A lot of you are going to work for Teach For America and doing other things outside of getting busy with your business career.  My generation was not so charitable, quite frankly, as yours.  I admire you for this.  Keep doing this.  It will take you many, many places and give you a lot of pleasure.  Be kind to other people, whether it’s a waiter having a bad day, an unruly kid on an airplane, help the mother out a little bit.  And when we hire someone at KKR to work, either in the firm or in a senior position at one of the investments we have, we have the taxicab/waiter test.  And that is, we go out, take them out to dinner, and we see how the person acts to the taxicab driver, a waiter, the busboys.  People that he or she will never see again in their life, people that can do nothing for them.  Are they kind?  Are they respectful?  Little things add up to the big things, and you can tell a lot about individuals by the way they treat people that they will never see again in their life.

Now, since I left here, I’ve been truly blessed.  Despite the circumstances, there hasn’t been a day I didn’t want to go to work, or an evening I didn’t want to go home.  And I wish that for all of you as well.  Now, about 20 minutes ago, I said I didn’t remember who my commencement speaker was, and I don’t expect you to remember me 47 years from now, when by the way, I hope one of you is giving the commencement speech to the class of 2060.  And I don’t expect you to remember anything I really said.  But I would ask you to remember these words, uttered by Winston Churchill, who after a lifetime of leadership, courage, both in saving his own country and helping saving the world.  He basically said, “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”  So go from here with the full understanding, appreciation, you have the tools to build your own success.  Give graciously and greatly to others less fortunate to you.  It will come back to you tenfold.  My heartfelt congratulations to you and your family.  For you, the best is yet to be.  Thank you.

On this day, we gather as the Claremont McKenna family, and may we have the courage to do what families do on days like these: laugh and celebrate, share our loss and sadness.  May we have the patience and understanding to allow the mixture of emotions to be accepted and honored.  May we know that all of these feelings flow from the same fountain of love for one another.  Let us acknowledge that all of the smiles and hugs and tears of today contain both sorrow and celebration, both sadness and overwhelming joy.

Today we remember the members of the CMC family whom we have lost too soon: Tamar Kaplan, and now Ali Mirza.  Let us offer our sincere compassion and our active care to their families, friends and to one another.  We are grateful for whom they were, and for whom they will continue to be for us all.  And so may we honor Tamar and Ali with how we live our lives in the future and in what we do today.  May we honor them by celebrating this occasion in the way that they would want us to do so, in gratitude and in joy.  And so we are grateful for the effort and perseverance that led to this moment.  We are grateful for those who taught us to think critically, to act compassionately, and to live with integrity.  We are grateful for those who provided food to eat and clean places to sleep.  We are grateful for leaders who have guided this community for many years with passion and vision, and for the invaluable support of family and friends.

As we so often see those shirts that say, “I am CMC,” on this day, may we remember that our true power comes from the reality that we, we are CMC.  We are CMC, and may our “we” be one way through which the holy and the good brings healing and wholeness to our world.  I offer all of this in humility and in peace.  Thank you.

The awards are presented annually to a CMC student or team who proposes a business venture with the intention of putting it into operation. For the first time this year, winners were drawn from two tracks of competitors— commercial and social ventures. The commercial track award went to Second Nature Aquaponics.

“I can hardly express how excited and honored we are to have received the Innovative Start-up Award. We both believe wholeheartedly in our designs and in the necessity of aquaponics as a field moving into the future,” says Fankuchen.

Aquaponics is a variant of hydroponics where plants grow directly in aquarium water leveraging the symbiotic relationship between fish and plants such that the fish provide nutrients for the plants and the plants filter the water for the fish, offering an efficient way of growing plants.

With their “beta bottle,” Fankuchen and Oliphant hope to miniaturize this process and allow people to grow plants in places they have never been able to grow them before.

Says Fankuchen: “(We want plants to be grown everywhere) from a tiny apartment’s window sill to a bookshelf in your office to a mountainous region in Tibet. We really think that they are all equally viable locations to grow produce, you just have to think about a new way to do it.”

Serengetee, which won the social track is a clothing venture that incorporates global fabric into clothing products, including pocket t-shirts, tanks and v-necks. Each Serengetee fabric is partnered with a corresponding cause, allowing the venture to make a difference in the communities that inspire their designs.

Serengetee was founded by a group of college friends, including Steitz, while they were traveling the world on Semester at Sea. They toured marketplaces in over 30 countries and were captivated by the fabric patterns they found along the way. Each vibrant pattern, when incorporated into clothing, reflects the unique colors and symbol of a country.

Both winners receive a $25,000 prize to help their start-up. To apply, students submit a one-page summary of their idea citing competitors, market size, basic costs, projected profits, progress to date and their qualifications. Each applicant then presents a two-minute “fast pitch” to the selection committee. Awardees are expected to check in weekly on their progress and must engage two advisors with relevant expertise. Payments of the $25,000 prize are milestone based.

The Innovative Start-Up Award was founded in 2008 by three young CMC entrepreneurs with the hope of inspiring innovation and risk-taking among their fellow students. The first award offered a prize of $10,000 and was operated as a beta test for Professor Jay Conger’s class. The success of this primary program drew the support of Mr. Henry Kravis ’67, who invested an additional $15,000, bringing the award to a sum of $25,000.

The Kravis Leadership Institute took on the operation of the competition and expanded the application pool to the entire college in order to allow more students to participate.

For more information on the Innovative Start-Up Awards, visit: http://kravisleadershipinstitute.org/leadership/innovative-start-up-award/

For more information on Serengetee, visit: serengetee.com

Shigezawa trailed after the first two rounds but captured the lead on the third day with a 2-under score of 69 which was his low score during the week. He then shot a 1-over, 72 on the final day to secure the win. Buddy Hallman of team champion Texas-Tyler finished four strokes behind Shigezawa for second place. Over the four days, Shigezawa had a total of 13 birdies and one eagle as he put together rounds of 72, 70, 69 and 72.

The second highest score for CMS came from freshman Kethan Reddy who remained in the top-10 for the first two rounds and ended in a tie for 32^nd overall with a score of 300. Reddy’s best round of the week came in the second round as he shot a 3-under 68, a low for all CMS golfers.

Sophomore Ben Ho (311) and junior Jordan Stein (311) tied for 59^th while Patrick Fujieki (314) finished in 68^th to round out the field of CMS golfers.

For his efforts, Shigezawa has been selected as a first team All-American.

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Founding Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletics director and Stags head baseball coach William “Bill” Arce P’80 dedicated 25 years of his career toward building the athletics department at CMS. In an event at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Tuesday, May 14, Arce was honored for his dedication to Claremont McKenna College and the CMS Community and for his efforts as a mentor, physical educator, coach, and athletics director. Also during the event, current CMS Director of Athletics Mike Sutton ’76 was installed as the Inaugural William B. Arce Professor and George R. Roberts Fellow.

The evening included remarks by current CMS student-athletes Aria Krumwiede ’12 M’13 and William Knowles ’13 M’13, along with Claremont McKenna College’s Dean of the Faculty Gregory Hess, former CMS head soccer coach Steve Davis, and Sutton. A presentation which highlighted Arce’s contributions to CMS Athletics also was a part of the evening. During Arce’s tenure, he molded the department into his vision, which was to provide students – both men and women – the opportunity to participate in physical education classes, intramural sports, and intercollegiate athletics. Sutton, along with the other speakers, spoke of how Arce’s founding principles and vision of an athletic department are evident today and thanked him for his many contributions.

“The model that I was raised under as a student-athlete, young coach and faculty member and now promote as the department chair was developed under the leadership of Dr. Arce,” Sutton said.

During his 25-year tenure at CMS, Arce started and developed the program, facilities, and staff into one of the top NCAA Division III private college programs in the country, which it remains today. For his years of dedication to baseball and to the campus community, Arce is an inductee into the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and American Baseball Coaches Association Halls of Fame. Internationally recognized for his contributions to baseball, Arce also is an inductee into the Dutch and Italian Baseball Halls of Fame.

As athletic director from 1958-1983, Arce’s leadership of the department grew the program from nine men’s sports in 1958 to 19 by the time he retired in 1983, which included the addition of several women’s sports in what became Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athletics as it is today.

Mike Sutton and Bill Arce

On the diamond, he served as head coach from 1959-1979 and totaled 443 career wins and three Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles. In 2001, the American Baseball Coaches Association honored Arce by selecting him as the recipient of the prestigious Lefty Gomez Award, which is presented annually to an individual who has distinguished himself amongst his peers and has contributed significantly to the game of baseball locally, nationally, and internationally. He received his undergraduate and doctorate degrees from Stanford University.

Sutton is in his 12th year as director of athletics at CMS after a 21-year coaching career in the department. During his tenure as director, Sutton has overseen a department that has grown to 21 sports—10 men’s and 11 women’s—at the NCAA Division III level in addition to 13 club sports and an active intramurals program. Sutton has overseen the addition of women’s lacrosse and women’s golf to the varsity level. He is a former chair of the NCAA Water Polo and Swimming & Diving Championships Committees and was the team leader of the 1992 United States Olympic Water Polo Team. Prior to being named as athletics director, Sutton spent 21 seasons as the Stags’ swimming coach and 19 seasons as the men’s water polo coach, winning a combined 33 SCIAC titles during that time. He is a 1976 graduate of Claremont McKenna College.

This professorship and 25 other newly-endowed chairs for existing and new positions have been funded by generous donors through the Roberts Faculty Challenge, a $20 million challenge commitment by CMC Alumnus and Trustee George Roberts ’66 P’93.