Become happy, become successful

I would like to start the year by talking directly to each Pace student. This semester begins or continues what should be one of the most meaningful periods in your life. Studying at a great university is a learning experience in the broadest sense of that word, involving not just the classroom but your journey to becoming a responsible adult.

This means a lot more than living on your own and having the responsibility of managing your own affairs. It means learning to truly think on your own. More than any other time in your life, what you get out of this experience will be a direct consequence of what you put in. Please remember that every day you are at Pace University.

It is always interesting for me to ask graduating students how they felt about their experience at Pace. Most students, across all of our schools, are enthusiastic.

They talk about the tremendous number of opportunities that being a student here opened up for them – new ideas, new ways of thinking about the world, multi-cultural experiences, international experiences, their close relationships with the faculty – and the doors that Pace opened for the next stage in their careers.

“Happy students are happy because of what they put in.” Others have quite a different reaction. They talk about teachers they didn’t like and complain about things like the food.
It seems to be the case that the students who are happy at Pace had pretty good grades and were active in or leaders of student organizations.

The obvious question is, were they happy because they were successful, or were they successful because they reached out to take advantage of the incredible range of new learning experiences that Pace University has to offer — which made them happy?

You can guess my answer: They are happy because of what they put in — the time, effort, and most of all, the courage to try new things and not to worry, speaking metaphorically, about swimming in water over their heads.

For the last two years we have welcomed incoming students with paperback copies of a book to read and discuss in groups. This year the common reading was “Unbowed,” the autobiography of Wangari Maathai.

No one better exemplifies what can be accomplished by being ambitious and unafraid than Maathai. If you are an entering student and have not read “Unbowed,” please do so right away. If you are an upperclassman or graduate student, I urge you to buy a paperback copy of “Unbowed” and read it.

“Unbowed” is a good read. But more important, it raises a question with echoes for your own career. How did a woman from a tiny village in an African country many thousands of miles from here win the Nobel Peace Prize?

She started by going to high school — an exceptional event for a woman from her village. Then she traveled from Kenya to Mount St. Scholastica College in Kansas — a culture shock that makes what many of you experienced when you came here pale in comparison.

What she learned there is what we want you to learn here at Pace, and these are her words — “a willingness to listen and learn, to think critically and analytically, and to ask questions.” She is an inspiring example of the ingredients for success that we at Pace want for you. First, careful study and preparation. Maathai holds a PhD degree.

Next, analysis and independent thinking — using what you have learned to reach your own conclusions about what is important in your own life, for our nation, and for the world.
Then, the courage to stand up for your conclusions and what you believe in, as she did when she began a movement to plant trees all over Africa, initially to a good deal of ridicule.

Finally, a lot of hard work, which is one of her most important characteristics and a key characteristic of most highly successful people. Maathai went on to become a global advocate for environmental protection, social justice and human rights for women throughout the world.

Could that happen for you? It could. So could any one of a hundred other successful career paths. I urge you to think about Maathai. Think, too, about others like her who you will find at Pace among your friends, student leaders, and faculty and staff members.

Don’t be afraid to discuss their actions and ideas and to learn from them. Don’t be afraid to be inspired by them, always.