Speeches
Northern Kentucky University’s 36th Annual Commencement Exercises
Remarks by Ambassador Patricia L. Herbold
May 10, 2008
President Votruba, members of the Board of Regents, distinguished guests and faculty, graduating students, families, friends, ladies and gentlemen. I am so honored to be here to speak at your commencement ceremony this morning. While this year marks Northern Kentucky University’s 40th anniversary, and that’s certainly a milestone worth celebrating, we’re really here to celebrate the accomplishments of today’s graduates.
Let me begin by offering my sincere congratulations to those of you who are earning your degrees today. You’ve put in a lot of hard work to get to this point, so you may not want to hear me say that your journey has just begun. As you embark on your new career, your professional development will be your responsibility.
I urge you to seek options, and to be proactive. Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you. You must make the decision to seek new challenges, to take risks - and reap the rewards.
If there’s a theme to my remarks, it’s this: Globalization is a fact of life. If you ignore that fact or ignore the opportunities it presents, you do so at your own risk. There’s a funny, old Hindu proverb that seems apropos and it goes like this: “A man who misses his opportunity, and a monkey who misses his branch, cannot be saved.” Few of you sitting here today can imagine the full extent of the journey that lies ahead for you.
Perhaps my life’s journey can serve as an example of how careers can lead you in unanticipated directions. As I was thinking about what I would say to you today, it occurred to me that it was about this same time of year many decades ago that I was giving the salutatory address at my high school graduation.
I don’t remember much of my speech but I know that as I was graduating from high school - and then from college - it was not even remotely in my thinking that I would ever live anywhere except in the United States. That was very common thinking in those days, especially for women, but times have really changed -- and you, our future leaders, have unlimited horizons before you.
It was never a goal I set for myself to have more than one career, but I have been blessed to have had five careers: first as a chemist; then as a lawyer; then my first foray into politics as a councilmember and mayor; next as a community volunteer and activist; and now as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore. And throughout the last four of those careers, I was also a wife and mother.
What allowed me to have such wonderful experiences? I think it’s because I embraced with open arms the options that were available or that I sought out from time to time.
I retired as a chemist shortly before the first of my 3 children was born. My career changes after that involved finding a balance between family and career, and I readily admit that I couldn’t have done it without my family’s support.
When I decided to go to law school, our children were still very young. I wanted to be home with them during the day, so I chose to attend Chase College of Law in the evenings.
My career as a lawyer was varied, first as a sole practitioner, then as in-house counsel for Prudential Insurance Company, next as general counsel for Bank One, Dayton and finally as the first flexible, part-time attorney at Taft, Stettinius & Hollister.
I was faced with another career change when my husband accepted a job with Microsoft and we moved from Ohio to Washington State in 1995. I wasn’t enthusiastic about sitting for the bar exam again, and Washington didn’t offer reciprocity. So I decided to focus my time on community activities and volunteer work. Having served as a Council Member and Mayor of Montgomery, Ohio, I wanted to give back to the community in my new home in Washington.
I accepted a gubernatorial appointment as a Commissioner on the Washington State Gambling Commission, worked on capital campaigns to build an Art Museum and a confidential shelter for abused women, and served on various non-profit boards.
My community activities led to my involvement in politics. I served as a member of the President’s 21st Century Workforce Council and as Chairman of the King County, Washington, Republican Party for two years. That led to my fifth and current career, as a U.S. Ambassador.
It probably won’t surprise you to know that when I sat in your place as a graduating student many, many years ago, I did not expect to one day live in a foreign country, much less to become the U.S. Ambassador to Singapore.
I’ve been in Singapore for a very busy 2 years and 5 months now. Not only is it a great honor to serve as the President’s personal representative in a foreign country, it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that has been an intense, but rewarding learning opportunity as well.
I hope that my experiences demonstrate to you that careers can sometimes go in surprising directions. The number one lesson I’ve learned in my role as a diplomat in a foreign country is the importance of developing a global perspective. I literally could not do my job without it. Not a day goes by that I’m not asked about something that’s going on another part of the world, whether it’s China, or the EU, or the Middle East.
I understand that Northern Kentucky University is placing increased emphasis on internationalizing its curriculum to provide all students with a global perspective, regardless of their field of study. This emphasis is important, for today’s world offers exciting, unlimited possibilities, and many of the options are directly related to globalizing trends. In the global economy, the need for students to explore the world is unquestionable.
It is dismaying to me how little many Americans know about the world outside of the United States. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I recently read that if you take away Iran, Iraq and Pakistan from the U.S. news coverage, less than 6% of the remaining news is about all of the other countries in the world combined.
I can assure you that the Singaporeans I interact with, and the people I’ve met in other Asian countries, are acutely aware of what the U.S. does. For example, in every country I’ve visited during the past 6 months, the discussion almost immediately turns to our presidential election. They all know that what happens in the U.S. can affect them in many ways. I fear the same is not true when it comes to Americans’ interests in what’s happening in other countries, especially in Southeast Asia – home to over 550 million people – a population that’s almost twice that of the United States.
So -- why is a global perspective important? Because the world is intertwined in ways I could not have imagined when I was a student. And the ties that bind us to people and events on the other side of the world are growing day by day.
Understanding the cultural and historical context which a peer, or a competitor, uses to frame his or her decision process in another country, can make a tremendous difference in how you respond to that decision. And a decision made today, half a world away, might prove to have a profound effect on your career, sooner or later. Simply put, having a global perspective gives you a competitive advantage.
When people refer to globalization, they’re often thinking of trade, or investment, or economics. And it’s true that commerce among different nations contributes to globalization. But, the real beginning of globalization is the movement of ideas, people and goods between different communities, which means that globalization also has a social context.
The world today is connected in ways that go beyond economics, and beyond trade. Globalization also includes the impact of advances in technology, transportation efficiency and communications in individual countries and individual societies. Just think of the significant changes over the centuries. It took ancient Greek ships weeks or months to carry wine and other goods across the Mediterranean. In the 1930’s, the first airliners carrying passengers across the U.S. from east to west took 15 hours and 3 refueling stops. Today, the communications revolution allows for instant messaging to anyone, anywhere in the world - in a matter of seconds.
In the days of exploration by sea-faring nations, globalization occurred at the macro level, as countries competed for resources and territory. That was followed by globalization at the corporate level, as companies expanded their markets for goods and labor. Now we’re seeing globalization at the individual level.
Today, the Internet is used by individuals, connecting all the knowledge pools of the world. Like-minded individuals from any place in the world who share interests, passions, technologies, and hobbies get together on-line and create virtual communities. The activities and capabilities of these groups develop new social and political dynamics. Combining the world’s knowledge pools puts us on the leading edge of a remarkable era of innovation.
The expansion of global trade, investment, information, and technology allows people to consume better products at cheaper prices, and to have a better quality of life. That begins with economics, but it doesn't end there, because most people have other goals in their lives besides economic goals. Globalization is a means by which people can reach personal, national and societal ends.
For example, a more intertwined world enables greater cooperation in responding to cataclysmic natural disasters and enables greater coordination in solving common challenges.
Consider how the economies and political systems of China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Central Asia opened up, bringing the energy and ideas of more than three billion people into global economics and global politics. Consider this: India’s middle class is said to be over 250 million people – greater than America’s or Europe’s. China’s middle class will be 400 million people by 2010 and it’s estimated to be 600 million by 2016.
You might wonder why this is important. It’s important because that is a huge consumer market. It presents tremendous opportunities for those businesses, their employees and those countries which are ready to participate in the global economy. And to participate you have to be ready to compete.
The explosion of software and search engines, and the massive investment in technology, broadband connectivity, wireless hot spots, undersea cables, and cheaper computers – all of this together established a platform where intellectual capital can be created anywhere, and delivered anywhere.
It’s to your advantage to understand the ramifications, for you individually, of this rapid expansion of intellectual capital. The companies you work for or interact with will most likely have an international component to their work, or they could even be based overseas. The globalizing world has exposed all of us to new challenges and changed the way old challenges touch our interests and values.
So what is the answer to the challenges posed by globalization? One thought I want to leave with you is this: you have been studying the sciences, the arts, the humanities and other fields in order to prepare yourselves to make a living, to support your families and to advance the values and the principles that you cherish. But in order to do that, you need to be just as globally aware as are the citizens of the rest of the world.
So whether you are an American or a foreign student graduating from NKU today, my advice would be to embrace the opportunity to work in, or periodically travel to, foreign countries. At a minimum, learn more about the world outside of your native country. It’s going to matter more and more in the years to come. Whatever career you choose, the opportunities will be there and it’s up to each of you to venture outside of your comfort zone and become a true global citizen.
I’ll conclude with a quote from a motivational speaker I know: “The more you seek security, the less of it you have. But the more you seek opportunity, the more likely it is that you will achieve the security that you desire.”
Ladies and gentlemen of the graduating class of 2008, congratulations on the completion of your studies at NKU and on the degrees you’re receiving today. I wish you the very best in the years ahead, wherever your journey may take you.