As your classes for the semester come to an end, and as you begin to prepare for final examinations, I am sure the future is very much on your minds. In the near future, your thoughts obviously center on successfully completing your work for this academic year, and on your plans for the summer. For those of you who will be receiving degrees in several weeks, the future is even more immediate. Many of you are moving on, with your Rensselaer degrees in hand, to exciting careers or to further study. The world you are entering is marked by tremendous uncertainty and, in many ways, is in one of the most tumultuous periods in recent history.
How can you best prepare for this world? While many attractive possibilities beckon Rensselaer undergraduates, I suggest that you seriously consider pursuing graduate study. The benefits of graduate education should not be underestimated. Through the in-depth pursuit of knowledge in whatever your area of interest, you will develop an expertise, which, in turn, will open many more doors to you in the coming years. Especially in this time of increasingly complex challenges in science and technology, that expertise could change the world.
This is true for two young Rensselaer alumni who went on to graduate study, and are, today, key members of NASA’s Mars Rover project team. Jason Suchman and Fred Serricchio, both members of the Class of 1994, completed master’s degrees in their fields, enabling them to pursue their childhood dreams of working on a space exploration project. I hope that you had the opportunity to see them, and two other Rensselaer alumni on the Mars project, when they visited the campus last month. Their work has captured the attention and imagination of people around the world. But their education did not stop when they graduated from Rensselaer; they have continued to learn and grow through further study as well as through their specific career-related work.
Graduate study will afford you the opportunity to conduct research with real-world impact, to work with faculty who are at the forefront of their fields, and to explore and to test your own ideas. Perhaps one of you will find a cure for AIDS, develop a viable energy alternative, design a building that is more earthquake or terrorism resistant, or write a piece of music that challenges our ideas of convention—or even create a new convention, or advance wireless technology to make it truly accessible and global. Taking the time to further your education would make these and many other possibilities turn into realities.
As Rensselaer students and future graduates, a world of opportunities awaits you. There will always be demand for people with your talents, your knowledge, your skills, and your experience. Armed with a Rensselaer education, and enhanced with further study, you can go as far as your dreams will take you.
Graduate education has placed many Rensselaer graduates, throughout the years, in positions to realize their dreams, and to make significant contributions to the world. The advances that will be made in science and technology in the next decades will be accomplished by members of your generation. Graduate education in your fields will help you to develop into the leaders who will make a difference in the world for everyone. You owe it to your futures—and to our global future—to take this step.
As the Spring 2004 semester comes to a close, I wish you much success on your final examinations. To those who are receiving degrees on May 15, I also extend my best wishes, as you embark on exciting careers and graduate study. Have an enjoyable summer.
