summer vacations in texas

please welcome regentsara martinez tucker. ♪ (band fanfare) ♪ >> i'm really short, and the riserhasn't come out yet. (laughter) there you go. thank you, president fenves. before i begin my remarks, i wouldbe remiss if i did not acknowledge the challenges that happened inour campus over the last year. no university president acrossthe country that i know,

in their first year, has faced somany challenges with such grace and such dignity. it made me proud to be a graduateof the university of texas knowing that greg fenves was theperson i could count on to lead us through such difficult times. please join me in acknowledgingpresident fenves. (applause) regent beck, ambassador garzaand members of the platform party, it is an honor to join you on thisvery special evening.

it is so good for me to be home,especially to a place that means so much to me and to myfamily - the university of texas. (audience cheering) i’d like to extend, as president fenvesdid, my appreciation to all of you who were instrumental in theeducation of tonight’s graduates - the administration, the faculty,the parents, the family members and the friends. to all of you associated withthe university of texas, the faculty and the administration,you’ve invested a lot of time and effort

in our students, and tonight you get tosee the proverbial fruits of your labor. to the parents, the family membersand friends – you’re where it all began. you're going to see from my remarkstonight how much i value the role you’ve played inyour children's education. and finally, but most importantly,my congratulations to the graduates, the class of 2016! (applause and cheering) you’ve worked so hard to get tothis point, and as xavier said, your feelings have to be bittersweet -excitement for what comes next

and sadness for whatyou’re leaving behind. among the memories you take with you,i hope you remember your place in the history of the university of texasat austin’s commencements, the 133rd class of graduates who havethe potential to change the world. i know you beam when you hearthose now familiar words, “what starts here changes the world” (cheering) i listen to those words every timethey come on the commercials, but last september, in his inauguraladdress, president fenves defined

why that’s been possible for somany years when he described the university of texas at austinas “the university of what’s next.” what is next for you? i will tell you, i did not have an opportunity to attend my own commencements. when i earned my journalism degree,when i earned my mba, both my degrees were off-cycle. all right, i know we're on a clock,but journalism, do you want to take one more shot? when i earnedmy journalism degree -

(loud cheering) alright, and when i earned my mba- but if i had been sitting in your seats,there is one thing i know for sure: i could have never predicted how my lifewould unfold after either degree. my mistake? somehow i thought choosinga major meant choosing a career. little did i know that choosing a majorwas simply choosing something to explore. it was the exploration and the journeywhile i was here that mattered. choosing my jobs, choosing my companieswere not the defining moments i thought they were wheni sat in your seats.

knowing that now, it would havesaved a lot of anguish as i was anticipating where i wasgoing to go from here. the university of what’s next --our alma mater knows how important it is to continueto evolve, to reinvent itself, to stay among ourtop-tier universities. it’s a lesson for all of us.we, too, have to keep evolving. more important, we have to determinewhen it’s time to reinvent ourselves. we, too, have to keep askingourselves, "what’s next?" our lives are a series of journeys –the journey that brought us all

to this magnificent campus, ourjourney through here, and now, what starts tonight, the most importantjourney of all: your journey to discover the potential that lies withineach and every one of you. the journey that will defineyour purpose. can you remember the momentwhen you decided to come to ut? think about it. my message tonight startswith my father. it was december 1969 and myfather got the family ready to watch what many were sayingwas the college football

national championship gamebetween number one, texas, number one, texas-(cheering) and number two, arkansas. i hope you got to see the movie'my all american' this last year, if you saw that movie, you knowthe game i'm talking about. never mind the excitement ofthe game – what i remember most was what my father said when wesaid "daddy, why is this game "so important?" he said, “because this is thebest school in texas

"and it’s your chance to see themwin the national championship." years later, when i was in highschool, my father drove my classmates and me from laredoto this campus for a uil, university interscholastic league, competition. it was our first visit to thiscampus, we were so excited, and we ran from the car, but i thought "i should say thank you," so i turned around and i looked athim and i said "thank you, daddy, "thank you for bringingus up to austin." i wish i could describe for youthe look on his face.

he looked at me and he said"mijita, it's so beautiful here. "everything is so clean and fresh.if i’m lucky, one of my children "will get to come here one day.” from that moment on,i knew i wanted to come to ut. the look on his face convinced me that i wanted to be a part of this inspiring campus. take this moment to think aboutand appreciate everyone and everything that inspiredyou to come to ut. so now our journeys through ut,what have you experienced

while you were here? still today, i find myself reflectingon many things that i heard from guest speakers, professors whohelped shaped my thinking. more important – the students thati sat in class with. i remember walking into my firstclassroom and i saw the reading list and i was overwhelmed. my relief when the studentnext to me remarked, “can you believe this list?”was really short-lived. she quickly followed with,“i’ve read all these!”

i hadn't even heard of the books. i came to appreciate that i was goingto up my game, the talent that was going to surround me duringmy time here helped expand my horizons, it broadened my thinking,it pushed me to try harder. think about everyone you've hadaccess to at ut. we are fortunate to have beensurrounded by inspiring people! now think about and appreciate all ofthe talented people you’ve met during your time here. what is next for the graduatesof the university of what's next?

i asked you to think about all thosepeople, those who inspired you to choose ut, those that helped youget here, those that helped you grow while you were here. my single most important messagefor you tonight: your impact on others can be as much as or evenmore than the impact they had on you! let me say that againin a different way. you know, because you're feeling it,the magnitude of the impact others have had on you up till now. you are going to have that muchimpact, if not more, on others.

how? tonight i'm going to share withyou just one person's perspective on my journey to discover mypotential, and i'm going to keep it to three pieces of advice so you knowit will be short. not ten, three. first, find your talents. my family had a convenience storewhen i was growing up in laredo, the come-n-shop grocery at3917 san bernardo. my brother and i worked there onweekends during the school year and on alternate days in the summer.

we loved tuesdays – that’s whenthe new magazines and comic books would show up. we figured we could sit on the cokemachine and read the comic books if we got all our chores done quickly,so we raced through our chores. my mother caught me on the cokemachine, and i'll never forget what she said. she said "even if you've done allthe sweeping, even if you've done "all the dusting, even if you'verestocked all the shelves, "you've got to remember toask yourself, initiative.

"you have to come in every singleday with an attitude to change things "so that we're more attractive toour customers, to improve things "to make it easier for our customers,"she said. it isn't when i complete my tasks,i'm done and i can relax, it's what can i do to makea difference today. she was inspiring us to makechanges, to find our talents. and so it went with each of my jobs –whether serving as a reporter, a corporate executive, a not-for-profitleader or a policy official in a presidential administration,at each job, i learned

invaluable lessons. how to communicate clearly, how toengage others, how to motivate them, how to attract investment in myideas, and how to effect change to improve society. the lesson i’d like for you to takeaway: don’t overestimate the importance or the influenceof your major or majors on the discovery of your potential. my majors didn’t define me,my careers or my potential. they provided skills, necessary skills,that i could put to use in any of my jobs.

my work helped me discover mytalents and, ultimately, what would influence my life’s work. it may not look like a classroomout there, but there is a lesson. second, find your voice. i'll never forget the time, morerecently, when i was here on campus meeting with students. one young woman asked me,“how did you find the courage "to speak up in class?" and as i went to answer, she stoppedme dead in my tracks.

i had to acknowledge to her, i wasn’tbrave enough to ask questions or make comments when i was here. after a disastrous first semester,i was very careful to pick classes where the final grade wasn’t tooheavily dependent on class participation. how and where did i find my voice? when i left laredo to come up tocampus, my father sat me down and said to me, “you are a person first,then a gender, then an ethnicity. "ask for help when you need it,but don’t rely on crutches.” i couldn’t imagine why he feltthe need to say that to me.

but then i saw how easy it wasto create labels for myself- student, reporter, grad student, andthen in my corporate career, professional, part of a dual-careercouple, executive. i loved my life at at&t. it’s wherei learned to be accountable, to generate profits, to makeinvestment decisions. and as i progressed up the ladder,my corporate career brought me many public speaking opportunities. it also afforded me the opportunityto serve on nonprofit boards. i asked someone i really respectedto define the most important asset

in a boardroom. all these years later,i can still hear her voice: “the ability to say somethingand be heard.” think about it, have you ever sat ina classroom or been in a meeting and you say something,and nobody notices? then a few minutes later, somebodyelse says almost the same thing and it gets noticed? the ability to not just say something,but to say it from a place of truth and conviction,the ability to be heard.

and i remembered my father’s advice,you can lose your sense of self. up until then, i had been speakingfrom my head – frequently, and it worked for me, i made itto a senior position. but the person that is me needsto speak with my head and my heart connected. in my not-for-profit board settings,my voice got progressively stronger as i learned how to fight for, howto advocate for others. giving others a voice gave me mine,stay true to yourself. and finally, find your passion.

again, i love meeting with collegestudents and i'm lucky that i get to meet with them frequently,and the most frequent question that i get asked by students is"how did you know?" when they learn that i went fromreporter to corporate executive to national not-for-profit head topublic servant. they wondered how i made the decisionsto follow the paths i followed, and how i knew the timing was right. when to evolve; when to reinvent. the truth of the matter is:i didn’t. i didn't follow a path,

i didn't follow a plan; i just knewi needed to keep evolving. after my corporate retirement,i offered to resign from my non-profit boards, i thoughtthe seats were “reserved” for representatives from my company. they all asked me to stay, and thatgave me an opportunity to learn more about the obstacles getting inthe way of communities having economic vitality, of women beingable to break through the glass ceiling, and children getting theircollege educations. all of those issues matteredto me, they still matter to me.

but when i delved into the stateof education in this country, i realized that the rungs in the ladderof opportunity are getting further and further apart fortoo many young people. i came to appreciatejust how lucky i was. i was born to parents who alwayssaid when you go to college, not if you go to college. i was born to parents who madesacrifices so that their three children could get catholic school educations. and parents who, when a guidancecounselor told their high school

valedictorian daughter that she wasn’tcollege material, were angered enough to help me find my way here. and so began my journey into makingcollege a reality for as many americans as possible, starting with kids likeme, broadening to include everyone who is disadvantaged by theuneven playing field that is public education in this country. my journeys helped me appreciatethat learning didn’t stop when i left the classroom; everything isan education as long as you never stop exploring.

embracing opportunity leads youto more exploration. and the combination of the two havehelped me keep my journey inspired. twenty years after i left ut,my journeys came together. when i found the intersection ofmy talents, my voice and my passion, i discovered the joy of waking upevery day driven to make a difference in young people’s lives. and, every day i get to honor myparents for their work and sacrifice to create better lives for their children. now some of you may be moreadvanced in your thinking than i was

after either of my degrees. you may already feel a burningdesire to make a difference in a way that only you can. but if any of you are like me andyou’re just focused on keeping yourself moving forward, remember that yourcollege graduation gives you the opportunity to bring backthat childhood question, “who and what do i want to be?” what’s next? that’s the questionyou should never stop asking yourself. so what’s next for the class of 2016?

my best advice for you:tonight you’re only taking one step, a big step, but it's justthe first step in a series of steps that will, over time, help you forgethe journey to your purpose. sometimes understanding whatyou don’t want is a good first step toward finding the path you do want. if that is your situation, join a company,take a job that’s interesting to you. while there, follow a trajectory.you will grow, you will evolve. but at some point, rather than followingthat trajectory, purposefully decide to take a journey to find your talents,to find your voice, to find your passion.

finding the sweet spot, that sweetspot where they intersect, will give you the ability toforge your purpose. many of us chuckle when we hearthe infamous yogi berra quote, “when you come to a forkin the road, take it.” i followed a terrific trajectoryduring my corporate career, and leaving my corporatelife was hard. it was daunting when i didn’t knowwhat was next for the girl from the university of what's next. but i did just what yogi suggested,i came to the fork and i took it.

active learning about the obstaclesi was curious about created opportunities for me. doing good work got me noticed,first by the white house and, more recently, by the governorof my home state. all because i made the decision totake a fork in the road. if all of your journeys are inspired,i know the 133rd commencement is going to produce the bestworld-changing graduates this university has ever seen. remember these three things:find your talents, find your voice,

find your passion, they are goingto keep your journey inspired. i started tonight with a storyabout my father and i'm going to close it that way. he was my best example ofan inspired journey. he found his talent,being a great father. he found his voice, he was the best coachmy brother, sister and i could have had. he found his passion, ensuringa better life for his children. my favorite memory of my fatherhappened about 20 years ago. i got home and my husband told mei needed to call home immediately.

fearing the worst,i called. my father answered and i could tellhe was crying, but he couldn’t find his voice, the bottomfell out of my stomach. my brother took the phonefrom him and he said, "daddy wanted to be the one to tellyou that i walked across the stage today.” when i didn’t understand, he toldme he’d spent the afternoon at his college graduation. at age 35, my brother hadearned his degree. when my father finally foundhis voice, he said to me,

“mijita, all of my children arenow college graduates. i can rest.” he got the job done. each of us has madeour own way here. it was easier for some than it wasfor others, but we made it, we’ve earned our place here. what will we do with this gift?what can we do? if i could have a conversation withmy father tonight, i’d say, “daddy, all those year ago,you were right. "what i’ve learned is that firstand foremost, i am a person.

"i am sara martinez tucker. i happento be a woman of hispanic heritage. "but you missed something, there’ssomething else that defines me. "i am also a graduate ofthe university of texas.” and tonight, so is each andevery one of you. congratulations,hook ‘em!