Speeches, Remarks & Statements in 2009

SEEU Graduation Ceremony 2009

Ambassador Reeker Congratulatory Remarks

SEEU: June 6, 2009

Ambassador Philip T. Reeker:

Good morning graduates, proud parents and family members, Rector Abazi, Dr. Farrington and members of the Advisory Board, Ministers, faculty and alumni of South East European University, and friends of the University:  it is an honor to be part of this commencement ceremony and to join you on this day of celebration.

I want to echo Dr. Farrington’s remarks, and recall that on this day sixty-five years ago, June 6, 1944 – “D-Day” – we joined our Allies in breaking down Hitler’s Atlantic wall, in an effort that demonstrated what people can do when they work together for a common goal.
I would like to talk to you today about two other commencement speeches given by our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.  She wrote the first when she graduated from Wellesley College in 1969.  The second she gave a few weeks ago at theYankees’ Baseball Stadium in New York.

On the first occasion, her classmates chose Hillary Clinton to speak on their behalf.  She talked about the gap that university students face between “expectation and realities,” between the world as it is outside the university and how we wish it could be. She and her classmates did something about the gap.  They started an Upward Bound program at Wellesley to help prepare young children from low-income families to go on to university.  Students in the program who later graduated from Wellesley probably never imagined when they were younger that they could attend university.  It was a concrete way to change reality, to bring it in line with expectations.

Last month, forty years after her own graduation Secretary Clinton spoke at Yankee Stadium to graduating students from NYU.  She mentioned that 700,000 international students went to the U.S. last year to study.  She said that she is committed to streamlining the visa process, particularly for science and technology students.  In fact, Daniela Ristova from Macedonia is at NYU on the Fulbright Science and Technology Ph.D program right now, studying applied plant genetics.  And one SEEU student, Eneida Alimanova, will start her master’s degree next year at the University of Oregon under the Fulbright program.  She will be the first Roma student from Macedonia to participate in this program.  Rector Abazi, you and your university should be proud of how you have nurtured her education.

So I hope that many of you will consider continuing your studies in the U.S., perhaps through the Fulbright program, perhaps privately.

Through such study, you become a citizen diplomat and you build on, as Secretary Clinton said, “a common commitment to solving our planet’s common problems.”  She added, “By creating your own networks, you can extend the power of governments. . . .You can help lay the groundwork for the kind of global cooperation that is essential if we wish, in our time, to end hunger and defeat disease, to combat climate change, and to give every child the chance to live up to his or her God-given potential.”

So if you know how you expect the world to be better, you have a simple goal: change reality and live up to your own potential.  No matter what the challenge, don’t say you can’t do it.  Say you will do it.  Recently, our Embassy sponsored a breast cancer awareness walk in Skopje, and our American Corner here in Tetovo organized an entire busload of participants to show their support for this important cause.  Some of you, I’m sure, were there, volunteering with your feet and your energy how much you care about your fellow citizens and what really affects their health and their lives.  Some of you, that is, have already started changing reality.  I applaud you.  Keep at it.  Don’t settle for the status quo.  Do more.  Make this your own “D-Day.”  Put history in perspective.  Go forth with the spirit of realistic determination to achieve your goals.

Thank you for your invitation here.  On behalf of Secretary of State Clinton, the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, congratulations and best wishes to all of you for your success in meeting your most important goals.

◊ To see Ambassador Reeker’s comments to the media at the event, please click here.