Embassy of the United States

Letters and Speeches

Speech by Ambassador Robert Blake at the Graduating class of the Asian International School

It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to address the graduating class of the Asian International School.  This is the first time I have had the honor of addressing a graduating class in Sri Lanka.  Though I have spoken to business leaders, non-governmental organizations and many others, I sincerely think that students are just as important in shaping a country’s future because you are the future of this nation and the other nations you represent.

The Asian International School has had a strong role in shaping Sri Lanka’s future over the last seventeen years. Your principal Mrs. Goolbai Gunasekara was honored as the ZONTA Woman of the Year in 1996 . Today one of your very own classmates, Zahara Cader is ZONTA Woman of the Year for 2007.  ZONTA, for those of you who may not be familiar with it, is a global organization of executives and professionals dedicated to advancing the status of women worldwide service in advocacy. The group claims almost 33,000 members in 1200 ZONTA clubs in 68 countries.  Having two ZONTA winners from AIS is a tribute to your school’s ability to create strong leaders.

Ladies and gentlemen, the United States and Sri Lanka have enjoyed strong and friendly relations for more than 50 years.  Our academic bonds are one way of sustaining and building on that friendship. For example, the University of Peradeniya recently signed a memorandum of understanding with North Dakota State University. This MOU will allow Sri Lankan faculty to complete postgraduate degrees in North Dakota. 

This summer the University of Pennsylvania will train instructors from Peradeniya Teachers College on how to teach English to other teachers. One of the recent graduates from the Asian International School is currently studying at the University of Pennsylvania, others are at Yale and Wharton.

The United States has more than 3,000 universities and 900 areas of study.  Today, around 2,000 Sri Lankans study in America at big universities like Stanford and Harvard to small, but no less rigorous, liberal arts colleges like Bates and Converse.  I would like to see that number doubled during my time in Sri Lanka.  It may sound like heresy coming from a Harvard man like myself, but schools like Middlebury, Davidson, or Truman State can provide an education as good as any Ivy League school at a fraction of the price.   Additionally , foreign students in the U.S. can have internships with innovative local businesses or large American multi-nationals.  I invite this year’s graduates from the Asian international school to take advantage of our EducationUSA adviser in Colombo and apply to attend schools in the United States. 

No matter where you eventually study, I urge every one of you to take advantage of what any university has to offer. Universities are a limitless universe of educational opportunities. You have your whole life ahead of you, so I urge you to take advantage of everything that a university offers and not become too specialized right away.  Your undergraduate education is your chance to widen your horizon of knowledge.  Take my own experience.  I decided to major in history since I had not studied much history in high school.  But I also took courses in architecture, in Persian miniature painting, and biological anthropology.  Although none of those courses was required for my graduation, every one of them has helped make me better equipped for life. My only regret is not having had fourteen more years to spend studying and learning about everything else!

People often ask me what they should study in order to get a good job. I don’t think employment should be the purpose of learning. If you look closely, people excel at what they are passionate about, not what they studied in school.  Colin Powell, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State studied geology.  Sally Ride, the first female shuttle astronaut, majored in English.  Best-selling author John Grisham studied accounting. Sri Lanka’s best known architect, Geoffrey Bawa was a lawyer who wasn’t happy until he became an architect age 38. So don’t ask what you should study, open yourself to new challenges and opportunities and find out for yourself what your passion is.

Another thing I learned it that it is important to remember that not all learning takes place in the classroom. Midway through my undergraduate education, I took time off.   I worked as a bellhop in a hotel carrying suitcases to earn some money and then spent nine months traveling around the world with a backpack. Broadening your horizons will not only help you, but the experiences you have will help Sri Lanka in an increasingly globalized economy.  I urge all of you to seek out new experiences, especially while you’re young and do not have to worry about taking care of a spouse and children or making payments on your new scooter or car.  People live to learn and every day I still learn something new.

Both the United States and Sri Lanka mark graduations with ceremonies; they not only indicate your academic achievement but the ceremonies symbolize your coming of age from student to adult. Even if you don’t go to a university, from here on out you will be considered an adult, eligible to vote, hold a job and start a family. You will be a member of society. Robert Kennedy said “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” 

I look out into this audience and I see a new generation; a roomful of dreamers, rebels and maybe even some rabble rousers, and that’s a good thing!  Ted Turner rebelled against the convention of the six o’clock evening news and reshaped television reporting with CNN. Twenty years ago Steve Jobs revolutionized the computer industry when Apple computer introduced a computer that used a mouse and icons, today he’s turned the music industry on its head with digital downloads to iPods.  Mahatma Gandhi defied conventional wisdom and brought down an empire through his selfless moral authority and his powerful example of non-violence.  African Americans took Ganhi’s lessons to heart and won the civil rights so long denied to them. 

Let me conclude with a brief anecdote. 
Three boys are in the schoolyard bragging of how great their fathers are. 

The first one says: "Well, my father runs the fastest. He can fire an arrow, and start to run, I tell you, he gets there before the arrow". 

The second one says: "Ha! You think that's fast! My father is a hunter. He can shoot his gun and be there before the bullet". 

The third one listens to the other two and shakes his head. He then says: "You two know nothing about fast. My father is a civil servant. He stops working at 4:30 and he is home by 3:45"!! 

So, no, I am not urging all of you to become civil servants although I myself have enjoyed government service immensely. 

Instead I invite you to go out into the world and make a difference.  Be the dreamer, the iconoclast and the person who asks why, or why not, to challenge conventional thinking. Go out and explore, invent, heal, create and inspire.  While society might run smoothly when everyone agrees, it surges forward when pioneers decide to blaze their own trail.

Thank you.