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REMARKS BY:  DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE: EAST STROUDSBURG UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT, EAST STROUDSBURG, PA
DATE: MAY 23, 1998

It's a pleasure for me to be here today with the members of the East Stroudsburg University Class of 1998, your families and friends. And I hope you don't forget your other supporters-the hard working citizens of Pennsylvania whose taxes make this fine university possible.

As a teacher at heart, I'm extremely happy to be here to share my thoughts. Of course, I do remember an answer that a student actually gave to an essay question on Socrates. He wrote, "Socrates was a famous teacher who went about trying to give people advice....They poisoned him."

But on this occasion, you expect advice from your commencement speaker...and I'm going to give it to you. I know that many of you have already endured that painful ritual that marks the end of your college or graduate school days. I'm talking about interviewing for a full-time job. You've all heard the good advice: Don't fidget...Don't interrupt...Don't bite your nails. And be confident-but don't be too confident.

Consider these actual interview blunders as reported by the personal directors of some of American top corporations. One applicant announced that he was so well qualified, if he didn't get the job it would prove that the company's management was incompetent. An obviously gifted woman wore a Walkman and told the interviewer she could listen to him and the music at the same time. One inquisitive applicant asked about the photo of a woman in the room-When the interviewer said it was his wife, the applicant asked for her phone number...and whether she was at home. A balding candidate abruptly excused himself-and soon returned to the office wearing a hairpiece. Finally, during one interview, an alarm clock went off in the applicant's brief case. He took it out. Shut it off. And announced he had to leave for another interview.

These highlights-or maybe lowlights-prove that many people really aren't prepared for a job interview-or maybe a job itself. But how many of you, even with your part-time and summer work experience, are really prepared to answer the most difficult question in the world: "So what are you planning to do with your life?" A generation ago, people tended to find a full-time job...stick with it throughout their entire lives...and retire with a gold watch and a pension. But today there's no simple answer to the question, "What are you going to do with your life." In fact, it's perfectly legitimate and logical to simply answer: "I don't know."

How could you know? As we've moved from the industrial age through the technology age and into the information age, the pace of change has been constantly accelerating: 1000 new books are being published each and every day. The volume of knowledge is doubling every five years. It's predicted that the next 10 years will bring as much technological change as the last 40. By the time you're 30, 50 percent of all scientific knowledge will be obsolete. And when President Clinton took office five years ago, there were fifty-fifty-sites on the Internet-Today, we're adding more than 65,000 sites every hour. Even I have a site.

In this rapidly changing world, we can no longer think in terms of a single job...a single career...a single calling for a lifetime. You will change careers-not jobs, but careers-five to seven times over the course of your working lives. Today, the average 35 year old has changed jobs six or seven times since starting to work. Less and less of you will have predictable jobs or normal careers. That means far more flexibility and far less security than your parents enjoyed. And you may be working in a job tomorrow that doesn't exist today-or, vice versa, in a job today that won't exist tomorrow. This world of change, with all of its potential and promise, shouldn't be seen as an unfortunate development. It surely will be a challenge-the most important of your lives.

But how do you effectively respond to this change? How do you navigate the professional rapids? How do you ultimately succeed in our brave new world? The answers to all these questions can actually be found in the four lessons from the blockbuster movie: Titanic.

The first lesson is to find your dream. Just as Rose's dream of experiencing the world would give direction to her personal life...you need a dream to give direction to your professional life-a dream that can sustain and support you as you confront the winds of change. You need to discover what really interests you, what inspires you, what impels you. And following your dream can take you to unimagined heights-or maybe depths-as it did with an outstanding member of this class-senior Jeannine Napolitano. As some of you know, Jeannine followed a dream to England where she unearthed the first complete coat of Roman chain mail armor ever discovered in that country-And I still hope to read about it someday in National Geographic. Jannine personifies what Thoreau once noted: That only by advancing with confidence in the direction of your dreams-and by living the life you have imagined-will you meet with uncommon success.

But in today's professional world-as some of you have already learned-it's not enough to simply have a dream. Because the world is not static-your dream cannot remain static. And that leads me to the Titanic's second-and perhaps most important-lesson: You must change course when necessary. As "old Rose" states in the opening of the film, "Titanic was called the ship of dreams." But the dream sank when the ship didn't change course to avoid extremely dangerous waters. Similarly, you may have to change your professional course. It's ironic that the same forces of change that make it increasingly important to have a dream-also make it increasingly difficult to keep a dream. In other words, you must be ready to "reinvent" yourself-to change your job...your career...your calling... throughout your life. You will need to adjust and adapt your dream to suit the ever changing realities of our job market and economy. You may have to research and discover new ways to follow your dreams; new opportunities that excite you; new avenues to use your distinctive talents.

As you change course, you also need to heed the third, and most obvious, lesson of the Titanic: Be fully prepared for any situation or emergency that arises-through a lifetime of learning. Today you finish college or graduate school...but not your education. A national commission estimates that 75 percent of the current workforce will need significant retraining over the next decade. That's why President Clinton has made lifetime learning tax credits possible for graduate school and job training. And why the Department of Labor has a website that provides on-line information about education and training opportunities nationwide. These resources will help you keep learning-and earning-for a lifetime.

Using these resources; taking classes; enrolling in seminars; remaining committed to lifetime learning-it's up to you. It's up to you to keep up, to keep active, to keep in touch. I applaud East Stroudsburg University for emphasizing opportunities for lifetime learning as part of its core mission. And for recognizing that, given the pace of change, there will always be more to learn; more to discover; and more to explore.

That's quite a challenge. And it leads me to the Titanic's fourth lesson: If you want to succeed at any task, you'll need the three "D's": drive, dedication and determination. These are exactly the qualities that enabled Rose to rescue Jack when he was wrongly incarcerated...These are exactly the qualities that you'll need to survive in this rapidly changing world...And these are exactly the qualities that all of you have already exhibited throughout your university years. Many of you graduating today are the first generation of your family to go to college. You are here today because you worked hard in school and jobs to be here. Continue to bring your drive, dedication and determination to every job...every career...every calling, and you will go on to achieve great things...and leave lasting footprints.

If you learn these four lessons of the Titanic, I've no doubt that you'll be able to respond to change...to navigate the professional rapids...and to succeed in our brave new world. It seems only fitting that we should learn a few lessons from a film about the greatest moving object ever made. Because after all, life is a journey. As you set off on that journey, I hope you'll remember what to pack: Pack your creativity-in order to make a contribution to the world...Pack you compassion-in order to help others...And pack you civic commitment-in order to work for positive change. Because on your life's journey you ultimately won't be judged by whether you're a great professional-but by whether you're a good person.

And I'd like to give you one final piece of advice. As you travel along, I hope that sometimes you'll look back-at the knowledge and values you learned at East Stroudsburg University.

I hope that sometimes you'll look ahead-to see if you're still going in the right direction in every area of your life. And I hope that sometimes you'll look up: To fix your sights on the stars...And to remind yourselves that the playwright Schiller was correct when he noted that the stars of our own destiny are found within us.

To all the members of the Class of 1998, congratulations and god speed on your journey.