News & Events
A Special Day for Graduating Students, State Senator Eric Adams, Valedictorian Philip Wong and Salutatorian Barbara Miller
Tuesday, June 5 was a special day, of course, for 1,739 New York City College of Technology graduating students – 1,024 at the associate degree level and 715 at the baccalaureate. It marked their right of passage at the completion of long years of hard study, often combined with full- or part-time jobs and the responsibilities that come with parenthood and other family responsibilities.
It was a special day for Class of 2007 Salutatorian Barbara Miller, who woke up to a Daily News feature story on her academic achievement and shift in career plans from ballerina to facilities management specialist. It was special for Philip Wong, who arose to have one more look at the speech he would deliver later that morning to more than 5,000 graduates, their families and friends, faculty and administrators at the College’s 67th Commencement Exercises in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. But despite his 3.99 grade point average (out of a possible 4.0), he couldn’t help remembering that a speech class was the one in which he had performed less than perfectly during his years at City Tech.
It was a special day for New York State Senator Eric Adams, a 1984 graduate of City Tech’s data processing program (now computer systems technology) who would deliver the 2007 Commencement Address – special because the day represented both a “homecoming” and “the repaying of a debt incurred long ago.” A powerful speaker who spoke without benefit of a script, he began by talking about his own life that had begun with a boy “who broke the law” and who went on to become a man who “enforces it.”
Yet, despite his occasional brushes with the law, his mother never gave up on him. When she was told by the police following one of those brushes that her young son wasn’t likely to amount to much of anything, she told them that his future was something they had no way of knowing. Often telling him to “just be a man,” she stood by her son across the years that saw him graduate from City Tech and later receive a bachelor’s degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a master's degree in public administration from Marist College. After lauding his mother’s unwavering devotion, Adams’ message to the graduates and others in the audience was to “never give up on your children. They may fall down, but always give them an opportunity to get back up.”
Elected last year from the New York State’s 20th Senate District, Adams is co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care and a national spokesperson on law enforcement issues, who served for 22 years as a New York City Police Department Captain before his election to public office in November 2006.
Early in his talk, Adams recounted an incident that occurred many years ago. While driving down a lonely highway one night, he came upon a motorist stranded at the side of the road. Stopping to offer assistance, Adams learned that the car’s battery had died and needed a charge.
Adams maneuvered his vehicle into position and out came the jumper cables. The problem was that neither he nor the other motorist had a working flashlight. One of them, however, had a book of matches and carefully lit one match after another to provide needed light while the other linked the two batteries.
“The matches kept blowing out in the wind,” Adams noted, “but provided enough light over the course of time to finally get the job done.”
Adams went on to tell the graduates that the highway of life is much like that night on that deserted road, and cautioned them to avoid thinking that any one person can change the world through a single act. Changing the world usually requires a chain of actions, just as getting that car working again required the light of not one but a whole book of matches. “Each of us,” he concluded, “is one person among many, but the light that each of us casts is part of the process of change.”
At the conclusion of his remarks, Adams advised the graduates to never hesitate in life to pick up and run with the ball even when the game is almost over and may even seem lost. As he spoke, the graduating students batted a large balloon back and forth across the spacious auditorium to let him know that they understood his message and that his point was well taken. The symbolism was not lost on the larger audience, which roared in approval.
Following his remarks, Adams received the President's Award from City Tech President Russell K. Hotzler for the distinction he had brought to himself and his profession and for his outstanding service to the community. His highly acclaimed instructional workshops, "What To Do When Stopped By The Police," have helped thousands of young people throughout New York and across the country learn to better interact with the police, teachers, peers and others.
Despite his concerns over his less than perfect performance in that speech class, Philip Wong’s Valedictory Address was both a well-written blend of humor and humility and exceptionally well delivered. At 32 years of age, he spoke in forthright terms that both the graduates, whose average age was considerably less than his own, and their parents and other older folks in the audience could all relate to.
A computer systems technology major who had left college his first time around to take a job in the financial district, Wong was in his office at 4 World Trade Center when the Twin Towers fell nearly six years ago. The tragic events of that day caused him to reexamine his life and what he was doing with it. He realized that he needed to live each day as if it might be his last and that it was time to go back to school to move closer to his dream of one day becoming a CEO. He had thought about continuing his education before, but had lacked the motivation to do so. September 11 changed all of that.
That decision brought Wong to City Tech to pursue a bachelor’s degree. He works full-time at Charles Schwab & Company as a senior executive support specialist and will continue to do so while going on for an MBA. At the end of his talk, Wong confessed to his classmates that there recently had been another day just as special as this one. Less than two weeks before, he had married May, his childhood sweetheart.
Other speakers included Hon. Philip A. Berry, recently appointed vice chair of the City University of New York Board of Trustees; Iris Weinshall, CUNY vice chancellor for facilities planning, construction and management; Yvonne Riley-Tepie ‘92, president of the City Tech Alumni Association; and Kellyann Smith, president of the College’s Student Government Association. The National Anthem and Intermezzo were performed by soprano Lauri Shemaria-Aguirre, with piano accompaniment by Carla Lother.
It was an especially beautiful day outside Madison Square Garden at the conclusion of the ceremony. Moms and dads, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and other family members and friends hugged and kissed the graduates, expressing their pride in their achievement and wishing them all the best. At the corner of Seventh Avenue and 31st Street, one graduate gave another a high five and a hug. After the two young men said their final good-byes and set off in opposite directions, one turned back to the other and yelled out “Light those matches, man, light those matches.”
06/27/07
