REMARKS BY DR. MAX CASTILLO
UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON-DOWNTOWN
COMMENCEMENT MAY 12, 2007

Thank you, Regent Golden, for that testimonial to the impact UHD has had on your own family. I am happy that I am able to share this day with you and your son.

Now, let me take a moment to congratulate all of you here today for your outstanding achievement. I am pleased, as well, to be here to share this occasion with all of you.

Commencement remains one of my favorite duties as president. For it is here that I am reminded of my passion for education and for seeing students succeed. And, that's what you all represent today: success.

Success these days is not that easy to achieve. I understand that most of you have had to juggle multiple demands and commitments in order to reach this point in your journey. Many of you have had to overcome cultural and language barriers. Some have had to make a fresh start. But you persevered.

I am always touched by the sight of our graduating classes. You probably don't even realize that you represent a richness and diversity that is not found just anywhere. And I don't mean ethnic diversity alone. You are diverse in ways that lend tremendous importance to your interactions with one another.  

As members of today's class, you range in age from 20 to 63 years. You represent 23 countries and an array of backgrounds. You began your careers at UHD as freshmen and as transfer students. You come from different socio-economic backgrounds.

What I am getting at is that there is no typical student at UHD. Rather, you are all different in your backgrounds and all alike in your differences.

You are students like Nicolas Endre who left his home in Argentina when he was 18 to come to the U.S. His exposure, he says, to a culture so different from his own has opened his eyes and grown his world in ways he could not have imagined. Nicolas graduates today, summa cum laude, with a major in Computer Information Systems.

And, you are students like Hector Lechuga, a stay-at-home dad to a toddler and two teens whose experience as a foster parent changed his goal from that of becoming a geologist to one of becoming a teacher.

Now, Hector is graduating with a degree in education and plans to earn a master's degree, and perhaps a Ph.D., and become a middle school teacher. Hector graduates magna cum laude.

And, no Mother's Day weekend commencement ceremony would be complete without a story like that of Pilar Dahnke. She graduates today along side her son Jorge Dahnke.

Pilar began her educational Journey in 1978 after immigrating to the United States from Venezuela. Both she and Jorge have earned degrees in Interdisciplinary Studies by taking course work at the University Center and online.

And, in the audience cheering them on is Pilar's daughter, Stephanie, who followed her mother's and brother's example and enrolled at UHD through the North Harris Montgomery Community College District joint admissions program.

Now, let me wish An early happy Mother's Day to Pilar and all of the mothers here today.

Like these students, all of you graduates represent success.

As you enter the global and local workforces, I hope you take the lessons you have learned at UHD, both inside and outside the classroom, and apply them to your life and the world around you.

Again, I offer you sincere congratulations and wish you the best as you begin the next phase of your lives.

Now, I am honored to introduce to you our speaker, Ms. Florizelle Liser. Ms. Liser is the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative to Africa and her being here today is an illustration of the sometimes smallness of our world. Recently Ms. Liser made the aquaintance of an accomplished student who was interning in Washington. That student, Daudi Migereko, happens to be graduating today from UHD and is, at 20, the youngest member of this graduating class.

In learning about UHD I think Ms. Liser has discovered a kinship that she had not anticipated. I will let her tell you of her incredible heritage and why she now feels a connection with UHD.