Michelle King Graduate Speech Transcript

2017 Graduate Commencement Address
by LAUSD Superintendent Michelle King
delivered on May, 7, 2017, at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

Thank you very much, Chair Viviano, for that kind introduction. Good morning, graduates, distinguished faculty, proud family members, and devoted friends to celebrate the Class of 2017. It is an honor to be here with you today celebrating the members of the Class of 2017 on their momentous achievement. I am also proud and humbled to receive one of LMU's most esteemed recognitions, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. A special thank you to President Snyder, Provost Hellige, and Dean Martin for this invitation and very special recognition.

Graduates, the specialized knowledge and expertise you have acquired and the diploma you are receiving will position you to make a profound and lasting change in the world. You are embarking on a career in which every day will bring new opportunities to make the life of others richer.

For some of you, this will mean becoming a teacher, a counselor, a therapist, a psychologist, an administrator, or other educational leader so that you can inspire young people to dream without limits and reach their fullest potential. For others, it will mean entertaining the inciting world of business administration so that you can apply your resourcefulness and creativity to grow our economy, create new jobs, and expand resources that can be invested in communities of need.

Some of you will explore a career in film and television so that you can share words of wisdom and messages of hope with millions across the country, while others will become engineers and scientists so that you can help build a more efficient, well-organized, and productive world. Some of you will embark on a liberal arts career in fields ranging from theology and philosophy to English, yoga, and bioethics where you will help societies navigate profound questions about the meaning and the nature of being human, and help us achieve greater balance, moral clarity, and contentment.

The common thread among your diverse pathways is that all of you possess the knowledge, skill set, and professional prestige of a graduate degree to go out and change the world. You will touch the lives of people who will in turn touch the lives of many others. The ripple of your impact will be felt across the globe. Today, you begin this exhilarating journey with a degree from one of the nation's premier and pioneering universities.

Loyola Marymount University's Graduate Division contains programs that are ranked among the highest in the country. Your school also offers truly unique programs such as a specialization in clinical art therapy within the Marital and Family Therapy Department. LMU stands out among other graduate schools for its steadfast commitment to service, diversity, and the promotion of social justice. Through its innovative spirit and geographic location, LMU has distinguished itself as the University of Silicon Beach.

A powerful demonstration of LMU's commitment to social justice is the Family of Schools partnership that was formed in 2006 between LMU and LAUSD. Through the LMU Family of Schools partnership, our institutions have worked shoulder-to-shoulder to prepare students in the Westchester area for great success in college, career, and life. I am so grateful to LMU, and in particular to Dr. Shane Martin, the Dean of Graduate Studies, as well as the Dean of the School of Education for helping to foster the long and fruitful partnership we have enjoyed.

LMU and LAUSD are uniting our efforts because we know that it is what it takes to prepare students for 21st century knowledge-based world. In the 21st century, we have developed advanced social networks that enable us with a simple push of a button to access information and opinions from across the globe. At the same time, we face challenges that are acutely complex and significant, including global terrorism, climate change, and rising economic inequality to name just a few.

To prepare our students and our communities for success in this ever-changing landscape, we need to rethink what it means to be a leader. This morning, I'm going to share three ideas about what it takes to be a successful service-oriented leader in today's world.

First, service-oriented leaders in the 21st century need to be socially conscious. Being socially conscious means being aware of the experiences, issues, and inequities that are faced by diverse communities. People rarely let all of their issues show on the surface. The way to build a social consciousness is by getting to know people in communities on a deeper level so that you can look beneath the surface and find out what they are really going through.

When I think about social consciousness, I think about a young woman from one of our high schools who recently shared her story with us. When she first started speaking, she seemed just like any other student. She was confident, she was cheerful and kind. She told us about the various school clubs and activities she was a part of, and she explained that by working hard, she had maintained a nearly perfect GPA throughout high school. Then, she shared something none of us expected. She is homeless, and she sleeps in a shelter two hours away from school.

Every day, this young woman wakes up at four o'clock in the morning and takes two bus rides, plus a train ride just to get to campus, and then repeats this journey when the school day ends. While this student's story and challenges are unique, the fact that she has challenges and a story to tell are anything but unique. People in communities in all locations and in every sector of society have challenges they are going through, which are not visible on the surface.

As a service-oriented leader, it is your responsibility, and I would say privilege, to look beneath the surface and to find out what obstacles your community is facing so that you can help them overcome those obstacles. For those of you entering the field of education, the challenges you will encounter are expansive. They will range from homelessness, foster care, and hunger to racial discrimination, anxiety about immigration status, language barriers, and questions regarding gender identity. Students will even grapple with challenges they don't know they have.

The 30 million word gap is a powerful example. Research has shown that by the age of three, children who come from families of wealth are exposed to 30 million more words than children who grow up in families that live in circumstances of poverty, and that this can have a significant and lasting impact on brain development. The only way to close this gap, and others like it, is to raise your social consciousness and learn more about issues your communities are facing, even ones they might not be aware of.

This is equally true for business leaders. People who want to start a business or invest financially in a community must be aware of the unique commercial needs of that region. For example, some of our communities with high concentrations of poverty are called food deserts. This means they have a scarcity of stores offering fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy whole foods, and an overabundance of fast-food restaurants with menu items that are saturated in processed sugars and fat. Increasing the number of healthy food providers in these areas is just one way that business leaders can use their advanced education to make a difference.

Scientists and engineers who are socially conscious can also change the world. For example, those of you studying environmental science can have a significant impact by learning more about in addressing the disproportionate environmental harms faced by communities of poverty such as higher exposure to pollution, contaminated water, and landfills. For those of you embarking on a career in film and television, you can use your medium to uncover struggles that are struggling silently and thrust them to the forefront where they can be acknowledged and addressed.

I think about the Academy Award-nominated documentary from this past year called 13th. This film piercingly examines the ongoing criminalization and mass incarceration of African-Americans since the 13th Amendment passed and slavery was abolished in 1865. These are just a few of the many ways you can use your education and specialized knowledge to dig beneath the surface and help people overcome their challenges. Remember the student who was homeless? Because her teachers raised their social consciousness and learned what she was going through, they provided her with the support she needed and she is now poised to attend a prominent four-year university.

In addition to being socially conscious, leaders today should be servant leaders. As former South African president and revolutionary Nelson Mandela once said, "It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger, then people will appreciate your leadership."

Graduates, regardless of the type of leader you are becoming, you will be more effective if you lead from behind and put others in front. This concept of servant leadership is currently gaining momentum in the business community where more and more CEOs achieve success by sharing power, attention, and praise across the company, putting the needs of employees and customers first and helping others develop and grow.

This spirit is exemplified by Cheryl Bachelder, former CEO of Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen. When Miss Bachelder began leading this franchise in 2007, sales, profits, and stock prices were all declining. However, she had a strategy for turning this around. She shifted attention away from the executive management team and instead focused the spotlight on restaurant owners in the field. She worked side by side with them, listening to their needs, and ensuring those needs were met.

She invested in them to help them reach their fullest potential and she took time to recognize and celebrate their successes. As a result, employees were happier and customers were, too. By 2015, sales were up 30%, profits were up 40%, and market share was up 50%. By leading from behind, Miss Bachelder launched her company to new heights.

Another example of achieving great success through servant leadership comes from the land of Hollywood. Barry Jenkins, writer and director of the Academy Award-winning movie Moonlight is known for his brilliant ability to lead from behind on set. Having co-wrote the script for Moonlight, Mr. Jenkins was more connected to his characters than one else. Yet, when it came time to film the movie, he gave his actors the freedom to make those characters their own. He told them, "The characters are yours. Whatever you see, bring that to life and we'll navigate through that on set."

He was not concerned with being the person getting all of the attention or micromanaging every decision. Instead, he shared his power with his actors and trusted their ability to shine while still providing guidance and feedback. As a result, the performance he helped elicit and the stories they told were spellbinding. This innate humility and ability to share the spotlight with others was put on display for all to see at the Academy Awards when he graciously praised the filmmakers of La La Land moments after they had erroneously been named as having won Best Picture.

Graduates, regardless of the career path you are pursuing, I urge you to heed the advice of Nelson Mandela. Lead from behind and put others in front. It will make your career more rewarding and the world a better place. Along with leading from behind and being socially conscious, service-oriented leaders in the 21st century must be entrepreneurial.

Being entrepreneurial is typically associated with making money, not with public service. In the globally flattened and ever-changing world in which we live, people who want to make a difference need to adopt some of the same skills and mindsets that have made entrepreneurs successful, including the ability to connect with and influence mass numbers of people, the ability to find novel and creative solutions to problems and a fearlessness to disrupt the status quo.

With rapid advances in technology and social networks, there are seemingly boundless opportunities today to collaborate with people from across the globe and ignite large-scale change. To capitalize on this extraordinary moment in history, you must possess the right skill set and innovative spirit. You must be willing to think and act like an entrepreneur.

An inspiring example of this is the nonprofit organization, Trek Medics International. Trek Medics developed an ingenious solution to an age-old problem. How can we ensure that emergency medical attention is available to everybody regardless of where they live? In many parts of the world, resources that you and I take for granted such as 911 hotline, ambulances, and a steady workforce for all medics simply do not exist.

However, the people at Trek Medics realized that even in developing countries, the key building blocks for an emergency response team do exist. Cell phones, modes of transportation, and people who want to do good are prevalent across the globe, so the Trek Medics team developed an innovative system to tie all these resources together.

First, they trained volunteers in the Dominican Republic and other developing nations on how to deliver basic first response medical attention. Then, they provided a number that people can call when they are faced with a serious medical situation. When that number is called, a text message is sent to every trained volunteer in the area, along with the location and brief description of the incident.

Trained volunteers who are nearby then rush to the scene and provide life-saving medical assistance, as well as transportation to a nearby hospital. This service has been called Uber for ambulances. Trek Medics branded it as 911 where there is none. By adopting entrepreneurial strategies, Trek Medics has been able to bring life-saving support to regions that otherwise lacked reliable emergency care and transportation.

Like the world changers, I challenge you all to be entrepreneurial leaders, to try things that have never been tried before, to utilize evolving technology and social media platforms to build critical connections between people, and to have the courage to envision and create a world that does not yet exist. By being socially conscious, servant leaders, and entrepreneurial, the possibilities of the impact you have and the potential you can unearth are limitless. I applaud your decision to take on the significant challenges facing our communities, and to use your degrees to make the world a better place. I can't wait to hear about the amazing accomplishments and changes you will make. Congratulations again, graduates, Class of 2017.