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Silicon Valley Campus Celebrates 7th Commencement and Alumni Reception
“Over the next twenty, thirty, forty years, when the Carnegie Mellon leadership looks back at this campus, and at 2008 … Sometimes, when you look back at a decision, you say, ‘What was I thinking when I did this?’ But we this decision people are going to look back, and say, ‘Was the person a genius who did this?’ That is the kind of impact this campus is going to create.”
- Pradeep Khosla, Silicon Valley Campus, 8-7-09
By Richard Power
T
he Silicon Valley campus held an alumni reception and its seventh annual commencement on August 7 & 8, 2009. On a balmy Friday evening, the first alumni reception to be held at the Silicon Valley campus saw more than 100 alumni gather to reconnect with their peers and also to honor the Silicon Valley campus founder and departing dean, Jim Morris. A short program included Dean Pradeep Khosla, Director of Regional Programs for Alumni Relations Mara Barker, Silicon Valley campus Director Martin Griss and founder Jim Morris.
Dean Khosla opened the program with some brief remarks:
“Over the last year and a half, several changes have happened: there are several new programs on this campus, instead of just being a part-time evening campus, there are full-time programs. Now if you come here during the day you see people running around … there is a new, state-of-the-art distance learning class-room that has been built, and two more are going to be built. These changes are all coupled to our vision of being an international campus … We have several international locations – Portugal, Greece, Japan, Korea, Australia, and right now we are working on a project for Africa, in Rwanda. I look at this campus as one of the transit points, one of the stations that many of our international students will visit during their two years in our international programs. There is no better place than Silicon Valley to show the world what America is all about, what entrepreneurship is all about, what a can-do culture is all about. This campus really epitomizes that.”
Martin Griss, who has taken over as Director of the Silicon Valley Campus, added some granularity to the bold strokes of Dean Khosla's vision:
“What I see as our mission moving forward is to continue strengthening and growing education, it's doing great but we want to expand it, while building up research even more, we have a good research program, which started in Mobility last year, and we want to do more in that area, and we are particularly excited about growing entrepreneurship outreach, growing the program both inside the campus and connecting more to Silicon Valley.”
In their remarks, both Khosla and Griss honored founder Jim Morris.
Khosla described Morris' effort as “revolutionary and impactful.”
Griss added, “When Jim started there was nothing here but his vision.”
Underscoring the theme of Carnegie Mellon's commitment to globalism, Mara Barker, Director of Regional Programs for Alumni Relations, spoke of the Multi-dimensional Global Perspective:
“We have campuses and programs all over the world, but it is more than that. We have faculty and students from all over the world. And when you mix global campuses, global students, global faculty and global research, you have global impact. That is something quite powerful and wonderful that many universities don't have.”
On Saturday and yet another, beautiful day in California, the graduation ceremony was held in a large white tent on a grassy field. Over 50 students from 10 countries stepped to the stage to receive their hard-earned diplomas. They were led to the ceremony by a bagpiper in a kilt.
The keynote speaker for the graduation ceremony was Liz King, a Vice-President and General Manager for Hitachi.
King shared some insights from her rich experience, exhorting the graduates to cultivate both a strong network of colleagues and a fiercely open mind:
“A deep and active people network will provide you with a dazzling array of opportunities and choices.”
“The best way to cope with this chaotic world is to have an open mind. Conscious or unconscious constraints on how we view ourselves, our employers, our products and our competitors, everything needs to be critically examined on a real-time basis.”
Ray Bareiss, Director of Educational Programs, presented two of the graduating students with awards.
Alok Rishi received the Dean's Return on Education Award:
“Having worked for Sun Microsystems for 19 years, this year's recipient of the Return on Education Award joined the Carnegie Mellon Software Management program, seeking to ‘step out of his comfort zone.' Shortly after enrolling in the program, he was able to gain the skills and confidence to begin thinking and behaving like a leader. His actions were clearly recognized by his global peer group of 1,500 engineers at Sun, who nominated him to be Principle Engineer. But he didn't stop there … he left Sun after nearly 21 years to start Yunteq, a software company developing key enabling technology for Cloud computing … By continuing to tell his own story of transformation to his peers, he hopes to inspire others to make similar changes in their own professional lives.”
Daniel Maycock received the Outstanding Service Award:
"Dan has been a great ambassador for Carnegie Mellon at Boeing in Washington State and tirelessly worked to help us set up information sessions, promote our programs, and connect with the larger Boeing community ... He serves as an admissions ambassador, speaking with prospective students and answering questions about the Master's degree program and curriculum. His enthusiasm for the school and for his program is contagious and generates excitement among his classmates and colleagues, several of whom have applied to the program as a direct result of his outreach."
Afterwards, the graduates and their friends and families enjoyed a reception outside Building 23 in the warm, summer sun.