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‘You’re expected to lead and to lead publicly’
August 19, 2014
Dr. Tom Chandler, dean of the Arnold School of Public Health, was the featured speaker for the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony that was part of USC’s Summer Commencement events on Aug. 9.
As the University of South Carolina prepares to welcome the Class of 2018, members of the Class of 2014 are heading out into the world – and with some solid advice from the dean of the Arnold School of Public Health.
USC’s Doctoral Hooding Ceremony included a familiar face among those seated on the stage at the Koger Center for the Arts on Saturday (Aug. 9). Dr. Tom Chandler was the featured speaker for the ceremony in which more than 100 doctoral degrees were awarded.
The ceremony was part of USC’s Summer 2014 Commencement exercises for the all eight campuses. In addition to the doctoral ceremony, the university also awarded degrees to baccalaureate and master’s degree graduates.
Chandler praised the doctoral graduates’ achievements, noting that “only one percent of the U.S. population has a doctorate” and that 50 percent of those who begin the quest for doctoral education “wash out” before completing their degree programs.
Women have taken the lead in the representation of doctoral degree recipients. Chandler said that “in 2009, women earned 50.4 percent” of doctorates, and women are gaining ground in the fields of science and engineering.
“Last year, 44 percent of science and engineering degrees were earned by women,” he said.
Borrowing a quote made by First Lady Michelle Obama at a program on girls’ education as part of the U.S-Africa’s Leader’s Summit, Chandler said, “Women really are smarter than men.”
In noting the graduates’ hard work and sacrifice, Chandler said the graduates were the “crème de la crème of the student body.”
He called on the graduates to follow in the footsteps of their faculty mentors and “pay it forward” to mentor the next group of graduates. In doing so, Chandler said, they return the rewards of being a mentor.
“Stay in touch with us,” he said.
Chandler also called on the graduates to think critically, to produce new knowledge and to step forward “to argue your own point of view.”
As leaders in the communities in which they will work, the new graduates have a responsibility, Chandler said, to speak out on the hot-topic issues that many people want to avoid or that can be polarizing.
“You’re expected to lead and to publicly,” he said.
And although many of the new graduates may feel that their allegiance is to the college or university from which they earned their undergraduate degree, Chandler said, “You’re Gamecocks for life.”
