2016 Ford School Commencement

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>> Welcome everybody, welcome and please be seated, please be seated. I'm Susan Collins, the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. And it was such a pleasure to meet so many of you at the Ford School's graduation open house. And it is truly an honor to welcome all of you here at Rackham Auditorium this afternoon for our 2016 commencement ceremony, truly a really special occasion. I'd like to begin by introducing the members of our platform party. With me on stage is our keynote commencement speaker, the legal director of Human Rights First and a distinguished alum of both the Ford School and the University of Michigan's Law School, Hardy Vieux. Hardy, we are honored to have you here.

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And we look forward to your remarks a little later in the program. At stage right is writing instructor David Morse who will be reading the names of our graduates as they cross the stage.

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And to David's left is Timothy Lynch, the University's vice president and general counsel. Well officially Tim is here to represent the University of Michigan, but it is our great fortune to count Tim as among the friends of the Ford School and we're really honored that he is joining us here today. Tim welcome.

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We're joined as well by our two associate deans, Kathryn Dominguez and Paula Lance and also Yazier Henry, who has been elected by our graduating students to deliver the faculty address and I'll say a bit more about each of them a little bit later. And finally, elected by their respective classmates to provide the student commencement addresses are soon to be Ford school MPP graduate, Grace Evans, and BA graduate, Alexis farmer.

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Well we're gathered here this evening to celebrate the achievements of these very, very special people who are sitting among us in caps and gowns. Our graduates where the teal hoods and tassels that signify the fields of their study, their coursework, their internships, their research, the field in which they earned their degrees that is the field of public policy. Well that field of course, is deeply familiar to the students, the faculty, the staff, the alumni of the Ford School. In fact, we've been pioneers in the study of public policy for over 100 years. We were the first program of its kind in our founding in 1914 and then in the late 1960's the first school to bring rigorous social scientific methods to bear on deep-rooted social problems. Today's graduates leave the Ford School prepared for careers tackling some of our world's most urgent and challenging and complex challenges. But I suspect that some of them are spending at least a little bit of time this weekend answering the question congratulations, but just what is a school of public policy anyway. So as Dean I am delighted to get this chance to tell the families and the friends who are gathered here a little bit about the Ford School, about why these students came here and about what they've accomplished and what we know that they will do in the world going forward. At its core, the Ford School's mission is to improve lives, to advance the human condition. Public policy is about the institutions, the understandings, the structures that we build together, and that connect us together as a neighborhood, a nation, a global community. You might say that public policy is the scaffolding of society and that might be easier to see looking back through history. Public policy from 10, 30, 100 years ago helped to shape the lives that we lead today. Public policy was instrumental in delivering America from the Great Depression, in rebuilding Europe after 1946, in radically reducing disease, providing safe food, protecting our environment, expanding civil and human rights. Public policy provides the infrastructure around which the modern-day refugee crisis is being debated and managed around the world. And undertakings like these, we now take time and take collaboration. They were and are actions rooted in the simple principles of decency, a principle that we cherish as central to the legacy of our namesake President Gerald R. Ford. But yet, let's also be blunt because there was also public policy at work just down the road in Flint, Michigan where a generation will suffer the devastating permanent health impacts of lead poisoning from drinking water that they had every reason to expect should be safe. Indifferent or ill-equipped public servants, short-sighted accounting for costs and benefits, environmental injustices that too was public policy. And so from Flint to Fukushima our world's challenges are only becoming more urgent and more complex in speed, scale, scope, technological and demographic developments, all of these are dramatically shifting the ground beneath our feet and we can all see and feel our world becoming smaller in some ways and more and more interconnected and changing at breakneck speed. So what do we do with these, how do we address these challenges. The solution our bright hope for our future is right here, it's among our Ford School students and alumni. And I believe that we have prepared these graduates to build careers that represent the very best of the field of public policy because we've provided our students with the analytic, creative and leadership skills to harness the complexities of the 21st-century society. We teach our students to analyze complicated data sets, to evaluate benefits and costs, to speak and write clearly and persuasively, to think critically, ethically and also compassionately. We teach them to recognize and incorporate multiple perspectives as Lin Manuel Miranda reminds us through the lyrics of Hamilton, it matters who gets invited to the room where it happens. We teach our students.

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We teach our students to craft and enact creative solutions where others might only see dead ends and I have no doubt that our graduates will often be in those critical decision-making rooms really making a difference and I'm so proud of that. So that is our curriculum, that's the professional toolkit that our students take out into the world and those are the tools also of business, finance and non-profit enterprise, as well as the tools of public sector. Our alumni are serving in public office managing campaigns, they're helping reshape Detroit, they're leaders in the State Department, the Department of Education, international aid agencies, the National Science Foundation, DT energy, Accenture, and so many, many more. Those sorts of careers, the talented and courageous people who will be tackling the big problems for the next half-century, that's the group that you are joining now as alums of the Ford School. Our school is governed and led by its excellent faculty, their connections across the university range from economics, political science, sociology, math, history, psychology, business, law, social work, education, public health, natural resources information, urban planning and so the faculty expertise at the Ford School is both broad and deep. They're thoughtful, enthusiastic teachers and mentors and they're actively engaged with critically important public policy challenges as well. To give just two examples from right here on the stage. Kathryn Dominguez is an internationally known macroeconomist, one of the world's leading experts on global financial markets. Last summer, President Obama nominated Kathryn to serve on the board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the nation's top monetary policymaking body. And Paula Lance has dedicated her career to improving population health and reducing inequalities in health. She's currently leading a major effort to provide timely, actionable policy research that will accelerate progress towards health equity. That engagement is present throughout our faculty. Ford school professor Susan Dynarski saw years of research and persuasion come to fruition last year when the Department of Education took her recommendations and dramatically shortened the FAFSA to make it easier for low income youth to go to college.

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And Luke Shaefer's book Two Dollars a Day Living on Almost Nothing in America was recognized by the New York Times as among the 100 most notable books of the year and was just selected for the 2016 Hillman Prize for book journalism.

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Policy recommendations of Luke and his co-author inspired a $2 billion emergency aid initiative in President Obama's budget proposal. The Ford School's professional staff are also a source of our school's great strength. Today's graduates have been recruited, counseled and prepared for their careers by the work of our terrific staff team. A team that keeps the education, research, public service, and engagement missions of the school all moving forward. And at this time I'd like to ask all of the Ford School faculty and staff who are here to please stand so that we can thank them. Please join me in thanking them for all that they do.

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Now speaking of people who deserve thanks. Our audience tonight includes over 700 family members and friends along with perhaps some 400 others who are tuned into our live web stream. Our graduates we know did not arrive at their accomplishments alone. They value the love and the support provided over the years by their families and friends. Graduates, please take this chance to thank your loved ones and to say how much you appreciate all they have and continue to do for you. Thank you so much.

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And now I'd like to talk a little bit to you about our graduates, about what you have accomplished and what you've given back during your time at the Ford School. Let me start with our newest PhDs, six of whom will receive their doctoral hoods here tonight from their faculty advisors. You'll hear about their dissertation titles as they're hooded and see that their work represents an incredible range of issues, methodologies and disciplines. They'll leave the Ford School having already lined up work at Harvard, UC San Diego, Tulane, Mathematica and the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and the treasury. They are quite simply a truly amazing group and we could not be more proud of their accomplishments.

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One hundred and three students will receive a Master's degree tonight. They hail from eight different countries and between them they speak an astounding 28 different languages. This year our master's graduates raised over $12,000 for Save the Children Syria and they did so with tremendous creativity. I have to say I especially enjoyed the Monday morning top chef tasting events, thank you very much. They also founded a successful new student organization called global 40's to give our many international students collegial support in a network and for that we're grateful as well. This is the cohort that translated economic principles into Dr. Seuss, that speaks fluent gif and it beat President Obama to Cuba, we were first. They will keep policy leaders on their toes and for that I say the more the better, go at it.

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There are 64 students graduating today with a bachelor of arts in public policy and they have been part of the university -- one of the university's finest liberal arts programs. In small classes with some of the University of Michigan's top faculty our BA curriculum trains students to think critically and across disciplines, to understand policy challenges and to develop solutions. Our BA graduates include a Hopwood award winner, 15 Phi Beta Kappas, 14 Angel scholars, and 7 recipients of the MLK Junior Spirit award. These students are truly the leaders and vast across a wide variety of campus activities. Have we ever seen these BA students falter? Well those of us who sat through the holiday skit. I suspect that many of them were cramming for finals instead of their rehearsals, they definitely built the midnight oil but perhaps didn't exactly start the fire during their special interpretation of what they believed to be a 1960 Billy Joel classic. The good news is we know you are all in for public policy and I and all of us applaud your priorities. Great job.

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Well taken together the classes of 2016 are serious students, they're hard workers, they're dedicated leaders. They have changed this place for the better volunteering in large numbers and in so many different ways, welcoming incoming classes, serving on school committees, leading student organizations, supporting our public lecture series and much, much more. The classes of 2016 have been at the Ford School and the university during a time of increased focus on issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion. In fact, these students have actively let the way, they've shared and participated on campus-wide initiatives. Here at the Ford School they led diversity summits and community conversations, they worked hard in the classroom to both speak and listen with respect for difference and several of them courageously shared their own personal experiences with race and racism on camera as part of an incredible documentary that students produced last year. In September, President Mark Schlissel announced a campus-wide strategic planning process to produce a five-year plan that will enhance diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the university. And thanks in no small part to these graduates and the leadership that they have shown our school was well-positioned to move quickly and with authenticity on developing the Ford School strategic plan. It's something that I'm proud of that we have produced collectively and I'm also proud of the process we took to get there. And so speaking directly to our special graduates I'd like to say on behalf of the Ford school, thank you both collectively and thank you individually. It has been a true pleasure to work with you and to get to know you. I know that most of you may have very mixed feelings about what today represents, you'll miss your friends and classmates, you'll miss Jim Harbaugh's second season, you'll miss me hearing me announce my full dean's title. Perhaps most of all, you'll miss belting out Tina Turner power ballads during karaoke night at the circus. But despite all of those losses today is also full of such promise. The promise of new work, new cities, new friends, new challenges, new opportunities to solve big important problems. Legendary activist and long-term Detroiter Grace Lee Boggs once said that and I quote, it is this exquisitely connected world, in this exquisitely connected world it is never a question of critical mass, it's always about critical connections. Look around at your classmates, your teachers and mentors, you have made those critical connections here at Michigan. Nourish and maintain those connections our world needs the very best that you can accomplish together. Graduates, we are so proud of all that you've done and all that you will do. Congratulations and my very best wishes to the classes of 2016. Go blue.

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And now it is my great pleasure to introduce our commencement speaker, our own distinguished alumnus, Hardy Vieux. Since graduating in 1997 from what was then simply known as the School of Public Policy and with a dual degree from Michigan Law Hardy has forged an incredible career in human rights law and policy. He is currently the legal director for the Human Rights First, an influential, nonpartisan, non-profit that Susan Rice has called a clarion voice in defense of human dignity and the rights and freedom of people everywhere. Hardy recently concluded a policy fellowship with Save the Children International in Amman, Jordan and there he handled child protection policy issues impacting Syrian refugee children living in Jordan. After earning his dual degrees from Michigan Harvey enlisted in the Navy's Jag Corps and eventually went to work for a private law practice. In 2010, the DC bar recognized him as its pro bono lawyer of the year for his litigation stemming from the abuses at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq to juvenile detention impact litigation and asylum representation. Hardy is on the board of visitors of Duke Sanford School of Public Policy where he earned his bachelor's degree and it is truly an honor to welcome him to the podium.

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>> My mother would have loved that, my father would have submitted to a fraud investigation. But good afternoon graduates, family members of graduates, and throngs of adoring fans of graduates, Dean Collins, faculty, administrators, alumni, and staff. It is comforting to return to the place where my graduate and law school days were spent and occasionally misspent. I remember fondly the start of each semester when flushed with financial aid cash I called places like Amirs, Zingerman's, and Ray's Red Hots home. By semester's end these places seemed overhyped right, who needed fancy sandwiches and loaded hotdogs when one has found peace in the simple elegance of Ramen noodles, saltines, and Kraft macaroni and cheese. As a first-generation graduate student where my next meal was coming from was not my only struggle. I often felt like I had more than I could handle as I shuttled between our old public policy home in Lord's Hall and the law school quad just across at [inaudible]. I looked harried and hurried, I felt beset and besieged, but I was never without support. This school and the friends I made here had my back. They along with my family helped me successfully navigate through my four years here. As I'm sure each of you graduates can attest whether it is parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, partners or children who take on the role of support in our lives without them this day would not be this day. And so to the families of today's graduates one more time, we applaud you.

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It is encouraging to see that this room has far more color on stage and in the audience than when I was here in May 1997.

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I'm a child of Brooklyn and Port-au-Prince, I've been a resident of Mexico and Jordan and I have [inaudible], hip-hop, salsa and jazz coursing through my veins. Simply put, I love me some diversity. So I would be remiss if I failed to tip my hat to the Dean, the faculty, and the administration for making this school of ours as welcoming to those from Kinshasa as it is to those from Kalamazoo. In this audience today I see brown, black, white and every color in between and I'm proud to say that one color unifies all of us today. Go blue.

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So it should now be readily apparent to you that I'm a proud Michigan man. I'm also a lawyer, a former naval officer, an uncle, a human rights champion and an advocate, I advocate for children. It is exciting and perhaps a little nerve-racking to deliver the charge to this class of graduates because you see my charge is really an ask. I'm asking all of you graduates to do more. I'm asking you to do more, to make more a part of your daily professional nomenclature, to live and breathe and strive to do more. Why this ask? As Mayor Bloomberg alluded to early this morning, the world faces serious problems and we need serious people to solve those problems.

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I work at Human Rights First, a non-profit that seeks to protect refugees. For us the plight of children takes center stage on a regular basis. In summer 2014, our country saw a surge of unaccompanied minors and families from Central America enter the United States. These children and families embarked on a treacherous journey north fleeing persecution and violence to the south. They did so reluctantly, but knowing full well that its decision to stay was a decision to tempt death. When those families reached our country's borders with Mexico our government's response was to detain these migrant families in jail-like settings where children manifested symptoms of depression, behavioral regression, and anxiety. And when we cast our eyes overseas there too the plight of children is precarious. The crisis in Syria makes that point all too well. In more than five years of war, the fighting in Syria has left an estimated 470,000 dead, more than 1 million injured, and driven 11.3 million from their homes. But the most vulnerable of the children. According to UNICEF, 8.4 million children, more than 80% of Syria's child population has been affected by the conflict. In the face of these world problems I am indeed asking you graduates to do more. Let's pause and keep it real for a moment. You don't know me and I don't know you or your stories and what lies ahead for this class of graduates and yet I'm asking you to do more. Perhaps some of you will lean back when I make that request thinking I have done more throughout this journey to this place, to this day. Some of you may lean in eager to hear more defined with a pristine and explicit exactitude of a differential equation. I assure you that my great professor, Carl Simon's class would certainly clearly established that there was nothing pristine or exacting about my work in calculus or any other subject were numbers were employed. Those of you leaning back I need you to lean in because though ostensibly unfair I'm going to ask you to do even more. And those of you leaning in temper the enthusiasm because what I have to say about doing more is as imprecise and amorphous as you'll know it when you see it. Some examples might help. Let me tell you a story of poor Joshua who was the subject of an infamous case that reached the Supreme Court. When Josh was three years old the Wisconsin Department of Social Services suspected that he might be the victim of abuse by his father. When his father denied those allegations, the department pursued them no further. A year later, Joshua was admitted to a local hospital with bruises and abrasions. Joshua's treating physician suspected child abuse and notified the department. He was placed in the court's custody, but was returned to his father after a child protection team determined that there was insufficient evidence to retain him in the court's custody. In the following seven months, Joshua was twice more treated by hospital emergency room personnel for injuries suspected to have been caused by child abuse. The department's caseworker observed and recorded numerous suspicious injuries during monthly visits and twice was told that Joshua was too sick to see her, but determined that there was no basis for action. Four months later Joshua's father beat four year old Joshua so severely that he fell into a life-threatening coma. Emergency brain surgery revealed evidence of traumatic injuries to the head inflicted over a long period of time, resulting in brain damage so severe that he was expected to spend the rest of his life confined to an institution for the profoundly retarded. In its opinion in the case, the Supreme Court observed that the caseworker dutifully recorded these incidents in her files along with her continuing suspicions that someone in the household was physically abusing Joshua, but she did nothing more. She did nothing more. Joshua was just 36 years old when he died last fall. Joshua deserved more years, Joshua deserved more compassion, Joshua simply deserved more. About 50 miles north of here Flint's residents continue to wrestle with the aftermath of a water crisis not of their own making. An opaque swirl of allegations and finger-pointing abounds while Flint's residents fear the lasting effects of lead on the city's youngest children. Watergate like questions proliferate who knew what, when did they know it, where were the policymakers charged with protecting the children. These questions have not yet fully given birth to transparency inducing answers, but this much is already clear, those children also deserved more. While Joshua's case was about negligently failing to do more and the Flint case may be a cautionary tale of what happens when public officials intentionally fail to do more, there is also the good old run-of-the-mill I'm just too passionate to stop and figure out what more really means kind of failure to do more. Let me illustrate that type of failure with a tale of my own experience when I served as a Navy Jag lawyer. If you've seen A Few Good Men, which I have way too many times to admin in public you know that a Jag is a military lawyer. One of my clients, a Navy sailor, was court-martialed for writing more than his fair share of bad checks which he passed both on the base and throughout the city of Norfolk, Virginia. Eventually he was caught, pled guilty and sentenced to the naval prison, the brig. With just a few months left in the brig the sailor contacted me to tell me that he needed to be released early because the woman who single-handedly raised him, his grandmother, was on her deathbed. He wanted to be with her when she died. While there was no clear legal basis for the early release he wanted, I was sympathetic to a model prisoner's desire to be with his dying grandmother and decided that justice called for me to step into the front. I canvassed my fellow Jags and diligently searched for a way to make a miracle happen. Lo and hold I ended up finding a solution for his early release, let the chest thumping begin. When the call came telling me that my client was just set free the caller after giving me the good news paused and added Lieutenant there's something else you should know, your client was rearrested moments later. Say what now, he was picked up by the city police who had outstanding arrest warrants on him. It turns out that the city chose not to prosecute my client when the Navy opted to do so, but they changed their mind when they learned that the Navy chose to release him early. Of course, I knew nothing about the warrants, I knew nothing about them because I never asked. I never did my homework. The city went on to prosecute my client and he was sentenced to serve a term longer than the few months remaining of his Navy sentence and in fact, I helped him extend his time in prison. He never did get to see his grandmother before she died. Hashtag epic failure. This failure came about because in my zeal and head long passionate sprint toward justice, I failed to ask the right question, I failed to do my homework and I failed to do more. But for every failure to do more make no mistake there are those moments when more is real. When it comes into full relief and reveals our best professional selves. Such was the time in 2014, when I was in Jordan working at a non-profit in the throes of a Syrian refugee crisis. Almost all of our time, energy and money were focused on doing what we could to address the needs of the Syrians who by force of circumstance now called Jordan home. To address those needs we often conducted needs assessments. That tried-and-true public policy tool used to determine what we should focus on, how to improve our work, and how to allocate our limited resources. On one occasion a program development coordinator felt that the result of a recent needs assessment based on some 240 family interviews seemed off. He thought too many Syrians were reporting vulnerabilities at high rates where he didn't expect it and low rates where he expected to find higher ones. The coordinator's skepticism gnawed at him for some time, but he could not fathom doing 240 interviews again. So instead, he decided to send a group of us out to the same community in northern Jordan where we would interview a small subset of families and even that subset would require a substantial investment of time. A team of four would spend hours with 10 families over the course of three days driving almost three hours each day just to suss out a hunch. Off we went. But this time the collaborator urged us to listen attentively and go off script if it made sense to do so. He directed us to get it right even if that meant taking more time than usual. During the course of one of these interviews our team gathered in the living room of a Syrian home -- of a Syrian married couple and some 10 members of their extended family. We used the script, but took care to spend all the time necessary to establish a rapport with the family. We played with the children, introduced ourselves to all the family members, and ingratiate the family as sincerely as we could. And this non-coffee drinker drank more coffee in one day than I had in my 40 some odd years on the planet. At one point during the interview the mother hesitated when we asked her if her children were safe. Until that moment she had spoken to us directly, usually making eye contact, but this time she broke off eye contact and seemed to fidget with her head covering. Remembering our directions to get it right, we decided to take a break from a formal conversation and take the mother aside into another room. It is there that she told us that her young son had been sexually assaulted by a stranger as he made his way home from school. The mother told us that we spent so much time with her and her family that we made her feel comfortable enough for her to share what happened to her son, having never done so outside of her immediate family. This revelation enabled us to address the son's psychosocial needs while also doing what we could to ensure the safety of the other children in the community. The coordinator in Jordan chose to do more, he compelled us to do more and in the end more is what this boy and the children in the community needed. Though the bulk of my work was done in the name -- has been done in the name of protecting children my message to you applies to all of you and the various careers that await you. Whether protecting the homeless or the homeland, advocating for social safety nets or sound fiscal policy or speaking on behalf of a tribe or a transgender teen doing more possesses crossover versatility. And although more will be something different according to the person and the context a few things are consistently true. More is not just doing your job, showing up is only part of it. More means embracing not only your passion and your creativity, but also your sound judgment. If that judgment suggests a more difficult path take it, but do not take it without good strategy and process. More is chess not checkers. More is also risky. Risk often means failure, but failure often beget success. I should know, among other colossal failures I almost didn't graduate on time and I once effectively extended a man's prison sentence. So as you prepare to embark on your professional journey I guarantee that there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to do more. I ask you to do so whether it be to craft or implement new policies or refine solutions to the world's most intractable problems, more is the order of the day. When we dutifully do less, when we fail to do more there are consequences. The challenges of today's world call for more. They call for more intellect, more creativity, more integrity, more, more. For school class of 2016 this is your charge do more. Go blue.

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>> Thank you very much Hardy for that very special charge. Now I am delighted to welcome to this stage members of one of the university's outstanding acapella ensembles and they will perform two classics from the University of Michigan sound book.

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Thank you very, very much. Each year the Ford School of graduating students are asked to elect people to play key roles in commencement. One faculty member is chosen to speak to the class and both sets of graduating classes choose a representative student speaker. As the faculty speaker the classes of 2016 elected Yazier Henry. Yazier was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. He first came to the Ford School in 2007 as our Tousley Foundation policymaker in residence. Yazier's intellectual work focuses on the relationship of political structure and violence to civic, indigenous and human rights. Since 2008, he has taught courses at the Ford School on professional and political ethics, on social movements and democratic processes in the global south and on transitional justice following political conflict. Yazier has written and lectured widely on issues related to peacemaking, political memory and trauma, and post-conflict reintegration. Many of our graduates have already spent long hours with Yazier during his office hours and despite or more likely because of that they chose him to deliver the faculty address. And I'm delighted to welcome him to the podium now to speak on behalf of the faculty. Yazier.

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>> Good afternoon all, bonjour. Graduates, no policy graduates, honored family, friends, loved ones, colleagues and guests. I've chosen not to change my speech after the last two, so I'm going to power through it and trust myself. Public policy graduates today you lose the right to ask the question, what is the meaning of public policy? If you have not used several years that you've been here to make sense of its complex meaning, then I'm going to help you and I'm going to be very clear, something I don't often do in my office hours. It means all and everything. Oh that's what he was supposed to have, come on. There is not a single [inaudible] in this auditorium today untouched by policy, there is not a grain of sand here at the University of Michigan untouched by it. There is not a single brick here that is not imbued without meaning. Today I chose to greet you in English and Anishinaabemowin if I pronounced that correctly, a language without which Ann Arbor could not be the University of Michigan or the slogan go blue could not have been. From the time when Washtenaw was translated into the English great river or the distant waters until when it became just the county, a street that I travel home to in English. I greet you in English and Anishinaabemowin because for me it is important to know where it is I live, where it is I have chosen to make my home, to spend my time and appreciate the care with which I've been appreciated and welcomed by my colleagues and by you, the student body. Michigan has been incredibly good to me. It is a special privilege to live and work here with so many people that care about the world. Such a diverse political environment, it has been a privilege and an honor to walk alongside you. For these reasons, I accepted the responsibility you gave me to mark this day in your lives on behalf of the Ford school staff and faculty. Those here and those who clean the building at night and may not be here. There are days when I wonder whether what I do proficiently is enough given the turmoil in the world, but today is not one of those. I have marked this moment before and it is by far the happiest moment in the academic and the institutional calendar for me. To see you all collectively smiling with your family and your loved ones, those who have stood beside you and those who walk alongside you peaceably. I think days like these should be up there with the Seven Wonders of the World and I know my face is serious, so you don't have to smile, but it was meant to be funny. I have learned to derive and to develop faith in you, so that my life develops meaning intellectually. It is up to you to remind yourselves, it is up to you to remember that you are part of a greater world, a great community, a greater institution. But never forget that you are always and also required to walk alone. And in order to do so effectively you will be required to manage the social, the political, the emotional dissonance that is also a part of our world, that is also a part of me, that is also part of you. Today we the dissident part of this institutional fabric can be as one without the immediate pains of office hours, the tensions and the minor [inaudible] associated with the individuate sacrifices that go into our intellectual labor and application during our time here, during your time here. Without the rigors, the complex regimes of training and preparation, without the force of having to submit to the multiple hours of reading, thinking and writing, of having to meet and engage each other and other intellects, other hearts, other souls, other spirits in dialogue. Dialogue is an act not just words. Your convocation today further marks your professional entry into the intellectual and the institutional, political and societal elite of this world. Do not fear the notion, it is fitting to celebrate you today. Congratulations, well done. This is not my conclusion.

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You are the intellectual resources of our world, I repeat and I wish to reiterate, you are qualified to read, to think, to write and to engage the world, meet it where it is at. Not where it may be tomorrow or where it was yesterday. Every day yes, every day this is not the only -- this is not only the nature of our mortality as human beings, it is the time of life and of living and of being in the world. We have a short time here, a hundred years if you are lucky. Now this figure is statistically and factually wrong, but today I'm going to remain with the metaphor of spending only a short time in this world if you are as blessed as I am to breathe every day without the concern, without the worry of having to care about where my next meal is going to come from. Literally, figuratively, metaphorically how will you be remembered graduates, [inaudible] policy graduates? The last time I stood here I was funny.

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I chose not to be so funny today. The present is precious. After celebrating the splendor of this day through the work, so that when you go home every day you can look at the mirror at midnight and smile with yourself and say, I have done enough today. I have had to learn to become humble, I was a very, very arrogant young man. It takes practice. A mentor of mine said to me Yazier, put this note on your mirror until you understand its meaning. A year later I looked at this note and it read, thank you very much Yazier, I don't need your help today God.

[ Laughter ]

[ Applause ]

If only I had realized that I was not Luke Skywalker and he was not Yoda sooner. But I continue to learn to be humble and I wish the same for you. I have seen many things, I saw apartheid defeated in South Africa, I saw southern Africa free itself from colonization, I saw the Berlin wall fall, I saw America elect its first African-American president. And when I was growing up I knew the society that I lived in was unequal theoretically. I also knew that it was not lawful nor was it moral tomorrow, but I had no choice but to understand that it was reality, it was actuality in practice. It is in part responsibility, yours, mine as leaders, as thinkers, as policy professionals trained to influence and to make policy in this world, in our world, in this world, and the places that you will find yourselves in over the next period. It is our collective and democratic ideal that the dialogue that needs to be had should not be silenced or shut up. Now after you have taken pause to celebrate, to laugh, to cry even with your loved ones, those who have joined you here it is my opinion that is your responsibility as global citizens who care about the world the one we share collectively, to build the systems, the structures that make life prosper, that make life more peaceable not just for a few, but for us all. All lives matter.

[ Applause ]

All lives matter equally. It is the law, it is constitutional, it is one of humanity's most recent values and ideals written into the very definition of what it means to be human. Equally, all our lives matter equally. Black lives, white lives, brown lives, red lives, pink lives, woman's lives, male lives, children's lives they matter equally. It is an ideal, it is your responsibility to hold that value and make it practicable. That is your responsibility, that is my responsibility, that is the responsibility of us all who consider ourselves democratic citizens. In conclusion. Our education comes with this responsibility to a larger social reckoning beyond and not opposed to our personal happiness and well-being. Carry the happiness you feel today as a blessing and not as a burden just as I carry my skin. As privileged, as blessing, and not as burden. Celebrate the excitement you feel today fully and do not fear tomorrow until tomorrow. Derive from [inaudible] the freedom to contribute to our greater well-being. Do not be paralyzed by fear, do not be paralyzed by the difficulties that weigh. Learn from your mistakes and remember as it's been so said before, affirmation comes after success. Do it with practice, claim no easy victories, and do not easily be discouraged. Believe, have faith in the human beings that sit beside you that walk with you today through the streets of Ann Arbor, and be beautiful. And I have come to learn, I know my colleagues feel the same way that that is what you are and you can be that if you so choose. Live, live, be proud and hold each other's relationship with joy. Thank you, [inaudible]

[ Applause ]

>> Thank you Yazier and now we will hear from the student elected to speak from the bachelor's class of 2016, Alexis Farmer.

[ Applause ]

Alexis is from Detroit and she has exceled here at the University of Michigan academically, as well as in the community through her extensive service and engagement activities. She has completed a number of policy internships, including work for Governor Rick Snyder and gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Witmer. She's a columnist for the Michigan Daily writing biweekly articles on political and social issues and she's mentored dozens of younger students supporting successful transition of underrepresented students from high school to college. In recognition of her leadership she was given the MLK Spirit award this January. Alexis graduates with university honors with a BA in public policy and a minor in international studies. She has secured a position as a research and program associate at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York and I'm so pleased to welcome Alexis Farmer to the podium. Alexis.

[ Applause ]

>> Everyone doing okay so far? Good. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life.

[ Applause ]

Rest in peace to Prince. My fellow Ford school students, soon-to-be alumni, family, friends, faculty and staff we gather to celebrate and acknowledge one of many transitions in this thing called life. Graduation is a point of transition, a pivotal moment in life, in which we must reflect and commemorate our journeys at the University of Michigan and the Ford school. This thing called life that we are living is filled with glorious and arduous endeavors, each of which contributes to the development of our character. Our character comprises of the mental and moral qualities that are distinct to our individual egos. The Ford School has challenged both of these dimensions questioning our intellectual and ethical ethos in uncomfortable ways. I had an idea that the policymaking process was a difficult decision-making procedure, but my first simulation of this experience occurred in public policy 320, an introductory course for BA students titled Politics, Political Institutions and Public Policy. During one of our lectures we were discussing human rights and counterterrorism systemically in the Middle East in order to better understand the challenges confronting terrorism, which laws and norms apply and the roles of individuals, institutions and unofficial actors in the policy process. The discussion was framed by narratives of who a terrorist is a defined by the media and propagated by political rhetoric. Well I recognize that 320 was an introductory course that covered a wide range of issues with insufficient time for depth, I sensed the fear of a single story being told. I was uncomfortable in a classroom where terrorism [inaudible] seemed to be attached foreign affairs when there is domestic violence happening within our borders. Such as ramped anti-blackness and unlawful police shootings, mass shootings invading safe spaces known as schools and churches and the criminalization of homelessness. I felt compelled to speak, but I was anxious to do so. I was very aware of my identity as a black female and very cognizant of the space that I occupied in the classroom. I did not want to be the angry black girl, but in that moment I was okay with owning that title because it was less about me and more about what had been left unsaid and so I spoke up. To my surprise my classmates acknowledged my bravery once discussion had ended and my DSI even offered me the space and office hours to further dissect the issue. This moment was only the beginning of many conversations within the Ford School in which my classmates and I had to reckon with the dissidents embedded in the policy process. Speaking up taught me that growth demands a temporary surrender of security. There will be many times in life when we find ourselves uncomfortable and when we need to expose a little vulnerability. Whether that's in the classroom, by quantitative [inaudible] that struggle okay. Okay, the holiday party mentioned a little embarrassing right. Okay or the diversity equity and inclusion town halls or the workplace. We ourselves to be honest, fully present and committed to working through these uncomfortable moments we are better able to address and adhere to the truth. It is imperative how our identified are directly tied to our pursuit of justice in order to recognize the truth. We must apply the lessons learned from our moments of internal and external conflict as we prepare to become public servants. Those lessons are pertinent for those of us who are seeking to be a part of the same institutions that are responsible for deteriorating conditions of human equality. There are government establishments that have undermined public to us, perpetuating dehumanizing policies that fracture independence and liberation. Such as the display of anti-queerness in North Carolina, environmental injustice in Flint, and immigration discrimination from Syrian refugee intake just to name a few examples. In our efforts as public servants we have a moral and mental responsibility to not perpetuate the structural violence that is ever present in our society. Now more than ever do we need to be active solicitors of peace and security. An article by New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, he observed it seems as we grow older we are haunted less by what we have done and by what we have failed to do whether through lack of courage and attention or insufficient readiness to cast caution to the wind. What's done is done, but the undone is another matter. In the spirit of the MLK symposium theme hashtag who will be next, I charge that all of us have the courage, attention, and sufficient readiness to adjust the policy problems that have been left undone. The gravity of power that we have and will acquire as our expertise sharpens requires for us to be considerate of the space that we occupy and thoughtful about what we do with the power that we hold. Today is the culmination of years of hard work and I have hope for my experiences after 320 that we will all continue to ask ourselves the difficult questions necessary to catalyze real and lasting change. As Mya Angelou wisely noted, history despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage may not be lived again. History has its eyes on us. We need to have the courage to honestly and meaningfully engage with the present that history has brought us in order to transform the world that we live in from the inside out. I have no doubts that we are capable of doing so. I do not wish you all success on navigating this thing called life because you all have already succeeded. You are all accomplished human beings who are going to continue to strive towards greatness defined on your own terms. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from you all and from the Ford School community. Thank you.

[ Applause ]

>> Thank you very much Alexis. The MPP and MPA class of 2016 elected Grace Evans to speak on their behalf. Grace earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude with a double major in mathematics and non-profit leadership from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. After graduation she served with AmeriCorps working with at-risk youth in Pittsburgh and is a fellow in public affairs with the Coro Center for Civic Leadership. Here at the Ford School Grace co-organized the annual joint student conference with the University of Toronto School of Public Policy and Governance. She completed her internship last summer in the deputy mayor's office for economic policy planning and strategy in the City of Detroit, and in June she'll join Harvard's government performance lab as an innovation fellow advising state government leaders in Providence, Rhode Island. Grace, it is now a pleasure to welcome you to the podium.

[ Applause ]

>> Thank you Dean Collins and thank you all for being here today. Class of 2016 you look pretty good out there. The Ford School's first female student graduated two years before the University of Michigan had a social gathering place that permitted women. Due to low enrollment the Ford School's degree program was discontinued for two years during the Great Depression. The first dual degree program offered at Ford was with the School of Engineering that focused on public works administration. These are just a few of the things you learn if like me you've spent too much time learning about the Ford School's history or what is also known as speechwriting procrastination. You'll also learn, however, that the Ford School has undergone an incredible transformation in its 102 years. Founded strictly as a municipal management program in 1914 the Ford School soon grew to prepare public administration professionals for all levels of government. And as the Dean mentioned earlier, in 1968 it became the first public policy program in the nation. Throughout this transformation the Ford school's mission has remained the same, to prepare leaders who will advance and improve the world. But who those leaders are and the variety of things that those leaders go on to do has changed dramatically. Today, Ford School graduates are future lawmakers, academics, entrepreneurs, executives and activists. And this group whom we join the ranks of today is differentiated by more than just what we go on to do. We hail from every corner of the world. We have different skills, experiences, and academic backgrounds and we're different ages, different races and different cultures. Honoring some of the Ford School's history helped me realize how vastly different 40's are and have been for decades. And that in fact we really only may have one thing in common and that is that we are here because we care about something and we want to do something about it. That may seem pretty general, but I don't think that commonality is insignificant, I actually think it's anything but. While what we care about may range from voting rights to environmental policy to healthcare and everything in between we all feel a drive to make change. And this passion existed long before any of us stepped foot in Weill home. This became apparent to me during my first semester when I met classmate Brenda Duverce, I mean she was kind of cool, she seemed like a pretty interesting and intelligent person. But later I learned that prior to relocating to Ann Arbor she cofounded Young Love, a Botswana based non-profit that connects young people to lifesaving sexual health information. And throughout my time at Ford I've been continually reminded of the passion of my peers. A few months into our first year while many of my peers and I were struggling to find balance between classwork, internship searching and staying plugged into what was happening out there in the real world. But then there are also people like Pete Haviland-Eduah. While learning his MPP Pete has been serving as a national policy and communications director of Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, an organization within the Black Lives Matter movement working to end the marginalization and criminalization of communities of color. Can we clap for that?

[ Applause ]

I'm actually just trying to raise my clap count above Mr. Vieux's, so thank you [applause]. Whew that's right, all right I think that's four okay. And while or time at the Ford School has ended alumni from the class of 2016 will go on to pursue their passion just like each class before us. Meg Blair also out there in the crowd somewhere is pursuing hers by launching a new organization that aims to tackle issues with school readiness through a game-based application. Now I know the methodology I use to select the few people I've highlighted did not yield a representative sample in the technical sense. But I can assure you that you can pluck any 340's from the bunch and you'll be equally impressed by their hard work and dedication. I hope that 102 years from now the commencement speaker for the class of 2118 will look up the history of the Ford School and be inspired by each of you sitting in this room right now as I have been in writing this speech today. Congratulations, thank you for indulging me and let's get one more clap.

[ Applause ]

>> Thank you Grace. Well we are now at the moment that our families and friends have been looking forward to all evening and our graduates are ready to come to the stage to receive official congratulations on a job really well done. This year the names will be read by David Morse. David is a lecturer.

[ Applause ]

In expository writing at the Ford School where he tutors graduate and undergraduate students. David is an outstanding teacher and a very talented writer. He has a Master's degree in fiction writing from the University of Michigan and his work has been published widely. His first play was performed at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in 2010. I'm very pleased to introduce David to call the names of our graduating students and I'd also like to invite the members of our platform party to step forward and join me to help congratulate our graduates.

[ Applause ]

>> Thank you and good evening. To begin I'll call graduates earning doctoral degrees. First for doctoral students receiving their doctor of philosophy in public policy and economics I'd like to welcome Dean Yang to the stage. Dean is a professor of public policy and economics to hood our first graduate. Paolo Martin F. Abarcar.

[ Applause ]

Paolo's dissertation title is essays on the economics of international migration and return. Paolo will be joining Mathematica Policy Research as a researcher within the international research division. Next, I will call Sue Dynarski to the stage. Sue is a professor of public policy, education and economics. Monica Hernandez.

[ Applause ]

Monica's dissertation title is the role of out of school factors on student performance and educational attainment. She will be a postdoctoral fellow with Tulane University Education Research Alliance for New Orleans.

[ Applause ]

Next, I will invite Jeff Smith to the stage. Jeff is a professor of economics with an appointment at the Ford School. Katherine Lim.

[ Applause ]

Katherine's dissertation title is three essays on female self-employment. She will be an economist at the US Department of the Treasury and the Office of Tax Analysis.

[ Applause ]

Next, for students receiving their doctor of philosophy in public policy and political science I'd like to welcome Professor Vincent Hutchings to the stage. LaGina Gause.

[ Applause ]

LaGina's dissertation title is the advantage of disadvantage, legislative responsiveness to collective action by the politically marginalized. LaGina is joining Harvard University in the Ash Center for Democracy for a year as a postdoctoral fellow and then in fall 2017 will be an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego.

[ Applause ]

Portia Rae Hemphill.

[ Applause ]

Portia completed her doctoral degree in 2015. Her dissertation title is rebel without a pause, discovering the relationship between rap music and the political attitudes and participation of black youth. Portia is a presidential management fellow in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

[ Applause ]

Next Dean Yang will join us again as we welcome to the stage Nico Ravanilla.

[ Applause ]

Nico completed his degree in 2015 and his dissertation title is essays in political economy and governance, lessons from the Philippines.

[ Applause ]

Nico has been at Stanford University since last year as the Walter Shorenstein postdoctoral fellow in contemporary Asia. This fall he will join UC San Diego in the School of Global Policy and Strategy as assistant professor of political science and public policy.

[ Applause ]

Now we will welcome our graduates receiving a Master's degree in public policy or public administration. Mohamed Elamin Abbadi.

[ Applause ]

Corey Ackerman.

[ Applause ]

Sangjoon Ahn.

[ Applause ]

Jennie Alfaro.

[ Applause ]

Sarah Anderson.

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Sharolyn M. Arnett.

[ Applause ]

Shuchi Arunika.

[ Applause ]

Abiodun Azeez.

[ Applause ]

J. Isaiah Bailey.

[ Applause ]

Jacqueline Barocio.

[ Applause ]

Tabitha C. Bentley.

[ Applause ]

Matthew Bishop.

[ Applause ]

Meg Blair.

[ Applause ]

Zach Bloomfield.

[ Applause ]

Jennifer Bohl.

[ Applause ]

Grady Bridges.

[ Applause ]

Alison Carey.

[ Applause ]

Rinny Chan.

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Hunter Cox.

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Jeremy D'Aloisio.

[ Applause ]

Adithya Dahagama.

[ Applause ]

Kamolika Das.

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Luis De La Cruz.

[ Applause ]

Catherine Antoinette.

[ Applause ]

Brenda Duverce.

[ Applause ]

Katie Eddins.

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Maya Efrati.

[ Applause ]

Jen Engquist [applause]. Matt Ericson.

[ Applause ]

Ryan R. Etzcorn.

[ Applause ]

Grace Evans.

[ Applause ]

Andrew Floyd.

[ Applause ]

Megan Foster Friedman.

[ Applause ]

Brittney Leigh Foxhall.

[ Applause ]

Masato Fukushi.

[ Applause ]

Brian Garcia.

[ Applause ]

Zuleika Godinez.

[ Applause ]

Paul Gully.

[ Applause ]

Recep Gunduz.

[ Applause ]

Heonuk Ha.

[ Applause ]

Peter Haviland-Eduah.

[ Applause ]

Alexander Hermann.

[ Applause ]

Mitch Herz.

[ Applause ]

Satoshi Hori.

[ Applause ]

Maab Ibrahim.

[ Applause ]

Daiki Ikeda.

[ Applause ]

Michon Johnson.

[ Applause ]

Aliza Kazmi.

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Kyle Killebrew.

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Kazuma Koide.

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Mika Koizumi.

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Andrew Paul Kraemer.

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William Victor Lamping.

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Demar F. Lewis IV.

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Jonathan Luke.

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RasheedMalik.

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Alfredo Martin.

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Hiroshi Matsushima.

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Ruth Elizabeth McDonald.

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Selamawit Misgano.

[ Applause ]

Sripriya Mohan.

[ Applause ]

Edgar Morales.

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Moe Nakamura.

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Seiya Ninomiya.

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Zachary Ormsby.

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Christopher Sherman Owens.

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Rachael Podesfinski.

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Sneha Rao.

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Meredith Reid.

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Corey Rhyan.

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Carlos Robles.

[ Applause ]

Emily Rusca.

[ Applause ]

Luis Salvador.

[ Applause ]

Arnav Shah.

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Khushmanjit Singh.

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Aubrey Sitler.

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Erica Sivertson.

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Austin Slaughter. Sonja N. Swanbeck.

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Mary Alice Truitt.

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Tomohiro Wakabayashi.

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Amy Wallace.

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Carrie R. Welton.

[ Applause ]

Kuo Yan.

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Sabiha Zainulbhai.

[ Applause ]

Nathaniel Zimmer.

[ Applause ]

And now we will welcome to the stage students receiving a Bachelor of Arts in public policy.

[ Applause ]

Jennifer Nicole Arnold.

[ Applause ]

Caroline Alice Baron. Nicholas Boyd.

[ Applause ]

Erin Bozek-Jarvis.

[ Applause ]

Fatematuz Z. Chamak. Marcus Cho.

[ Applause ]

Tanner Cooper.

[ Applause ]

Nathan Crockett. Kevin Dickey.

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Jessica Eller.

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Jill Lilyan Epstein.

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Alexis Kathleen Farmer.

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Sloane Catherine Forbush.

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Hilary Forrest. Eli M. Gerber.

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William R. Greenberg.

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Samuel Gringlas.

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Mohammed Adam Hamdan.

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Rebecca Alexandra Hart. Madeline Mollie Hartlieb.

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Thomas Doyle Hoyt.

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Marc Edward Jacome.

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Jessica Johanson-Kubin.

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Harry Kammerman.

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Micah Karson.

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Krista Landis.

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Hannah Lee.

[ Applause ]

Max Lerner.

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Robbie Linden. Grace Lutfy.

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Sara Maggin.

[ Applause ]

Rebecca Maher.

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Marjory Anne Henderson Marquardt.

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Lindsey Martin. Megan Timario McDonald.

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Hattie McKinney.

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John Morse.

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David Nauheim.

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Micah Nelson.

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Elizabeth Oliva. Andrea Paine. Brett Palmer.

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Nina Catherine Peluso.

[ Applause ]

Austin Raymond.

[ Applause ]

Eric Vincent Riley Jr.

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Nick Rinehart. Andrew Rising.

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Gabriela Roman.

[ Applause ]

Emily Anne Rosenthal. Matthew Rosenthal.

[ Applause ]

Sean Saint. Julie Rachel Sarne.

[ Applause ]

Blair Sucher. David Tannenbaum. Leo G. Weissburg.

[ Applause ]

>> Graduates, if you would please stand now and face your guests in the audience. MBA students if you would at this time please move the tassel on your mortarboard from the right to the left.

[ Applause ]

And now it is my great honor to present to you the classes of 2016 Public Policy [cheering].

[ Applause ]

Congratulations, we are so, so proud of the Gerald R. Ford classes of 2016. So please if you would be seated for a moment I would like to thank all of you again for coming and joining us for a very special occasion today, the culmination of the Ford School's academic year. I'll ask you to please remain in your seats until the platform party and then the class exits. We have light refreshments in the lobby and I hope that you will stay, visit, take photographs, enjoy the company and continue to celebrate the classes of 2016, of which we are so, so proud. Go blue.