English Graduation Speech -- May 9, 2009
Ryan Nilsen
So we're all here. We're all either graduating or we are a family member or close friend of someone who is, presumably with some form of undergraduate or graduate degree in English. Those of us graduating are all about to go off toward something else, maybe tomorrow, maybe in August. We might not even know what that will be yet, but most of us do know that we won't be sitting in classes in Tompkins Hall anymore or spending our nights writing papers in DH Hill. Wherever we go, we'll likely start drinking a whole lot less coffee and we'll have the freedom to begin reading the books that we bought at the Readers' Corner and have had to put on hold for the last two to four years. As we gather today in honor of this significant change in all of our lives, the commonality between those of us gathering here, in this particular room, begs us to ask the natural question -- what does it mean to study English here at NC State?
Though it may seem obvious to many of you, the answer to this question hasn't always been clear to me. I didn't start off at NC State in the English department, though I had transferred in by the end of the first semester. I actually started off in Engineering, the stereotypical NC State student, perhaps with a little clearer of an idea of exactly where my degree might lead. I vividly remember making the decision to leave Engineering and study English while sitting with a few close friends on the beach in Shackleford Banks during a weekend-long kayaking trip.
You see, although I had the feeling that the growth and type of learning I wanted to do would happen best in Literature classes, I had serious fears about the practicality of studying English, fears that I was being self-indulgent and even perhaps taking a vow of poverty with such a decision. I asked myself, 'what could I do with an English degree?' and I really wasn't sure at that point what the answer was.
Luckily, with the help of my friends, I decided to go for it anyway, and actually making that decision was liberating. I told people then that I felt like I was admitting to an enormous crush that I had tried to deny for a quite a long time. I was finally finding the courage to look this someone in the eye and tell her that I was interested in getting to know her better. Although the answers have never been obvious, these initial questions about the way in which I would apply my studies did not go away once I decided to major in English. Instead, they have continued to remain at the forefront of my education in a manner that I see as particular to universities like NC State.
You see, I've slowly come to understand what it means that NC State is a land-grant institution. For those of you who haven't heard that term "land grant" thrown around as much as we have over the last few years, that basically means that our university was founded in order to embody an applied vision of higher education. In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Act into law, a piece of legislation which aimed to open the doors of higher education to children of the working classes, with applied science and practical technology added to curricula previously dominated by classical and theoretical studies. The vision of the Land-Grant Act was to connect the resources of the public university with the people and real needs of the state. The "North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts" was founded in 1887 to try to fulfill this vision in North Carolina, a college which eventually would become NC State.
Just by hearing its original name, you can see that this applied vision of higher education started out dominated by the applied sciences -- Agriculture, Engineering, Textiles -- with people seeking to solve tangible, often physical problems in order to address the needs of the state. But it has broadened over the years as our understanding of our practical needs has expanded. If a university is supposed to be truly of and for the people, it must be prepared to do more than just solve physical problems; it must consider the social, the human aspect of these people as well.
And we, those choosing to study in the humanities, are the ones asking the social and human-oriented questions. We are doing so in classes often sitting next to and in conversation with not just a bunch other people who have also read an impressive amount of books and can talk about poetry articulately, but also farmers and engineers, scientists and mathematicians. Some of you sitting before me are not just English majors, but also farmers, engineers, and scientists, yourselves. And outside of our classes as well, simply by sharing the physical space of this campus, we find ourselves in dialogue with many people often seen as "the other" to us in the humanities. I'm proud to say that one of my roommates is graduating today with a degree in Horticultural Sciences and another in Textile Engineering, something that wouldn't be possible if I was receiving my English degree from a school like UNC Chapel Hill, for instance.
And we, having chosen to study English in particular, have come to know that language is the most fundamental aspect of our relation to other human beings. Language is social, dialogical, and contextual -- and we have the unique position of considering our language while rooted in the perspective of the state of North Carolina, to consider our language as we are in dialogue with farmers and engineers, while deeply connected to the social realities of our state.
So, how does all of this add up? What does this difference in vision actually mean to the way that we have approached our studies of the English language, consciously or not, over the past few years?
Well, when we read a play like Othello, we ask what this narrative suggests about race relations in our own context, a rapidly diversifying Southern United States, a campus still dealing with racist hate-speech even in 2009. We read everything from Milton to Flannery O'Conner considering the profound, often twisted history of religion and the role that it plays in Southern culture. We read Burroughs, Don DeLillo, and Kurt Vonnegut and we examine the consequences of the angst that people like us feel today, how it can manifest itself and play out in our lives and the lives of people living around us.
We also study linguistics, the technical aspects of our language, and we do so while we are surrounded by immigrants and refugees, learners of English as a Second Language. We have come to know how our manner of speaking affects our social interactions and the opportunities that we will be granted throughout our lives. We also grow to appreciate Mountain Talk and the Ocracoke Brogue, to be proud of the way in which peoples' speech has preserved our history over generations.
Our creative writing is informed by and ultimately expresses the contemporary social reality that we are a part of here in North Carolina -- that larger reality which we are deeply connected to as students at a land-grant institution.
I believe that we've had a unique privilege to contribute and play a part in this discussion here at NC State. If they are giving us degrees here today, I imagine that means that we've all said something worthwhile in our time here, that we've all engaged in this conversation, provided our own answers to that question of what it means to study English at NC State University; and I believe we and our state have come out the better for it. Wherever you end up going as you leave this place and experience that we have shared, I encourage you to continue such dialogues, to take this land-grant humanities experience with you and fully appreciate it, to continue making your thoughts and learning relevant and rooted in the local communities in which you find yourself.
Congratulations to all of you for your accomplishments, and thank you for letting me share these thoughts with you today.
