Speech Story
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE -- Shonda Rhimes told Dartmouth College graduates June 9, that on her graduation day, she was grieving and felt lost in the real world.
In a commencement speech, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal” creator told graduates that they should ditch their dream and be a doer. She said graduates may not know their dream but that it doesn't matter, they must keep moving forward and seizing every opportunity.
“But dreams do not come true just because you dream them,” Rhimes said. “It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change.”
Rhimes told graduates while she dreamed of being like Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, she was living in her sister's basement. She said one day, she read something in the New York Times that inspired her to stop dreaming and start doing, so she enrolled in film school.
“At film school, I discovered an entirely new way of telling stories,” Rhimes said. “A way that suited me. A way that brought me joy. A way that flipped this switch in my brain and changed the way I saw the world.”
Rhimes, 44, said that years later she had dinner with Toni Morrison and all they talked about was "Grey’s Anatomy". She said that none of that would’ve happened if she didn’t stop dreaming and started doing.
Rhimes told graduates that tomorrow is going to be the worst day for them. When she graduated from Dartmouth, Rhimes said she was drunk the night before because she knew she would never return to Hanover again.
“I literally lay down on the floor of my dorm room and cried while my mother packed up my room,” Rhimes said. “I refused to help her. Like, hell no I won’t go. I nonviolent-protested leaving here.”
Despite many students that laughed at the mention of drinking, a few students nodded their heads and parents shared glances with each other.
“I really liked how she went about her speech to make it relatable to the audience,” Miranda Pierce, a college student, said. “But I didn't like how casual it was, especially coming from a speaker at an Ivy League commencement speech.”
Rhimes said graduates should be aware of the circumstances happening around the world and have perspective. She said a hashtag does not cause change but rather graduates should volunteer and devote time to make the world “suck” a little less.
“We are incredibly lucky,” Rhimes said. “We have been given a gift. An incredible education has been placed before us.”
Rhimes told graduates that she doesn’t do it all. She recounted the events she missed in her work and children's lives. She said that there is always something missing, yet she wants her daughters to know her as a woman who works.
“Whenever you see me somewhere succeeding in one area of my life, that almost certainly means I am failing in another area of my life,” Rhimes said.
Rhimes said she hopes graduates are excited to take the world by storm. She said they can expect the world to be hard and it can be scary to graduate.
“You can still wake up one day and find yourself living a life you never even imagined dreaming of,” Rhimes said. “My dreams did not come true. But I worked really hard. And I ended up building an empire out of my imagination. So my dreams? Can suck it.”
Groups of students laughed and clapped at Rhimes's advice on making the fullest of their degree.
“I liked the way she talked about dreams and the way they are just dreams, how dreams aren't real and you have to work to make it happen,” Sydney Behrens, a college student, said.
Rhimes said graduates are no longer students and have a responsibility to contribute to society. She told graduates to be brave, heard, and to be themselves.
Spot News Story
With over 6,000 rubber ducks sold, the Waco community gathered on Oct. 8, at the Brazos River to witness The Great Waco Duck Race. This was an opportunity to raise money through a charitable raffle and to come together as a community to benefit the Imagination
Library of Waco.
“The Imagination Library is a great organization because they give little kids free books from birth to age five,” Jarrod Trevathan, a Waco resident, said. “You know all this money is going towards that organization to help provide books and expand the program within the Waco area.”
Trevathan said the raffle brought everyone together to come over to the Brazos River for an exciting event. He said that The Great Waco Duck Race was a good way to allow people to contribute to the Imagination Library of Waco and to raise money through direct donations or adopting a duck.
“I think literacy is really important,” Kelsey Samford, a Waco resident, said. “I'm a teacher so I think it's really important for students, so I think it's kind of cool to instill it when they're young.”
Samford said she came to support the charitable event because her son gets books from the Imagination Library and she is a part of the library program. She said she adopted a rubber duck to benefit the Waco community and to spend time with her family along the Brazos River. She said that since her family is new to the Waco area and hasn’t attended many charitable events in a long time, this event was the first one that catered toward her family to attend on the weekend. She said this organization was special because it allowed children to be provided with access to books.
According to the Imagination Library of Waco, The Great Waco Duck Race is a non-profit organization made possible by sponsors who contributed to the cause to feature a charitable event. All the proceeds made by donations and adoptions of rubber ducks benefit the Imagination Library of Waco.
“This is a good distraction from just day to day stuff, to calm down, and enjoy the outdoors,” Jerry Carbajal, a Hillsboro resident, said. “It's cool, it's not too hot. It makes it a little more bearable and enjoyable, just seeing everybody around and having a time with the kids without electronics.”
Carbajal said he came to the Duck Race to support young children in getting access to books. He said this event gave him the opportunity to support his wife, who works for the Ascension clinic in Hillsboro, and the Waco Ascension sponsors around the area that made the event possible. He said he went to many cancer walks around Hillsboro, but this event was unique because it was able to allow his family to play games and see rubber ducks being dropped from a bridge.
“I think just it brought people together, come see downtown, spend some time with family on a Sunday, not everybody watches football,” Carbajal said. “It's a cool event that I've never been to before, it's pretty cool to just see the ducks.”
News Story
With over 120 employers hosted at Career Day on Sept. 20, Baylor students gathered at the chance to obtain potential career opportunities. For some students, not everyone was able to secure a job or internship because of limited majors and age setbacks.
"I’ve had a lot of hours shadowing but I've never done an internship in the US,” Vikram Lekkala, a Baylor freshman, said. “Even with some experience, no employers were able to offer me a job.”
Lekkala said a lot of employer booths were aimed toward business majors. He said as a pre-med student, he expected more opportunities. He attended with all his friends, who are freshmen, and none of them were able to secure an internship either.
"A lot of the opportunities offered were more centered towards upperclassmen. I think if you’re a junior or senior, you will get more out of it,” Lekkala said.
According to Baylor’s Career Center website, Career Day can serve as an excellent networking event for all majors.
Michael Dominguez, a Baylor senior, said he met a lot of employers this year who offered him job-seeking advice. He said a lot of seniors seemed to go, either fall or spring, to Career Day because many of them have a resume with work experience.
“Compared to my sophomore year, I felt like more employers were interested in my resume cause I’m about to graduate and I’m currently working a job,” Dominguez said.“ I think that the reason I didn’t get any jobs last time I went was because of my age, but I was able to get networking skills which benefited me.”
Dominguez said he attended Career Day to learn more about his major and the career opportunities offered. He said that he switched majors in his junior year and found that there were fewer jobs offered for his current major in international studies.
“I think it’s very beneficial to go every year cause a lot changed between my years here at Baylor, so the older I got, the more chances I had towards finding someone to connect me to a job I want,” Dominguez said. “I didn’t find something in international studies and cyber security, but I did find something in business that had some similarities to the job I want in the future.”