Sweet Inspiration
On learning, growth, and resilience from a commencement address
Last week, I attended the graduation of my niece from Wellesley College. A graduation is full of advice but also hope for the future — as a class of students now sets off to make their mark in the world. But such advice is worth hearing no matter when or if you graduated.
I share some of this advice from two of the speakers, Black women - one looking forward and one looking back. Certainly they have strong voices and inspiring stories but also they spoke about the things that make us human.
“I am, because we are”
Elise Christina Wilson gave an excellent student address at the Wellesley graduation.
Elise Christina Wilson ‘26 (Photo courtesy of Wellesley College)
She talked about the individual’s relationship to clan and community, using a term her Ghanian “Nana” shared with her: ebusua.
“Among the Akan people of Ghana, ebusua means clan—a concept that reminds us that we belong to something: I am, because we are. Wherever we go, we carry our ebusua with us—our clan, our community, our family.”
Elise Wilson
Elise Wilson went on to explain that she found this community at Wellesley and it was something she would carry forward with her.
You can find the text of the commencent address by Elise Christina Wilson here.
As I think about the maker community, our lives and work have meaning and purpose because we belong to a community that knows us and cares about what we do. “I am a maker, because we are makers.”
Dr. Ruth Simmons on the lessons learned from failure
To be honest, I didn’t know anything about Dr. Ruth Simmons. Shame on me. Her life story is truly remarkable and inspiring. She grew up the youngest of 12 children of sharecroppers on a cotton farm in East Texas. “I lived on the Murray Farm, a massive plantation on which my large family of 12 children lived in an unprepossessing shack from which we ventured out daily to work the fields on the property. This was the setting that marked my early life and that, I now find, shaped me in so many ways,” she said.
Dr. Ruth Simmons (photo courtesy of Wellesley College)
Her first grade teacher in a segregated school let her know that “the work of the mind was as important, as useful, and as powerful as physical labor.” That motivated her, in part to compete with her older siblings. But she was also driven by her perception of how she would be treated in society. “It was the omnipresent assertion in the 1940s and ’50s that, because I was Black, I possessed less intelligence, less imagination, less creativity, and, of course, fewer rights, than whites, that no doubt prompted my interest in proving my intelligence.”
She continued: “At the age of 7, there was no way for me to understand the motivation for such a hostile regard. Still, I wanted to learn for myself whether my mind and character could prove me equal to others. Not certain that I could convincingly demonstrate my ability to others, I began by trying to demonstrate it to myself. Each of us, in order to be at peace with who we are, should recognize that our personal standards are more important by far than any others try to impose upon us.
Dr. Simmons spent her junior year of college at Wellesley. Previously, she had only experienced segregated learning environments. She said that the year at Wellesley opened her mind to a wider world but it also “introduced me to failure,” which she said was the greatest lesson she learned.
She struggled in a French class. When she went to the professor to say that she wanted to drop the class. what he told her made her think of him as “the cruelest of instructors.” His curt response was “Just work harder.” She wanted to drop out of college but instead she couldn’t afford the trip home so instead she worked harder on studying French. She went on to get her PhD in Romance Languages and Literature from Harvard University.
From the day I learned that I could conquer my fear, dig deeply, and provide my own rescue from failure, I lost all fear of undertaking challenging tasks. Today, when asked why I have led with what many presume to be courage, I relate this story about how this experience at Wellesley allowed me to shed the sense of inferiority imposed upon me during my childhood. I have led with an understanding that failure is tragic only if our efforts lack the intensity worthy of the goal we pursue.
Dr. Ruth Simmons has been President of Smith College, Brown University and Prairie View A&M. She told the graduating class of 2026:
Do not run from engagements that elevate your humanity, that sharpen your understanding and point you to rewarding work that can change your life forever. I am today defined by the lesson of the French course that I wanted to drop. Always leave room for lessons taken from failure. Learn to call yourself back from the precipice when you are prepared to abandon difficult work that can change your life and make a difference for others. It happens that great success and happiness often arise from failures and disappointments that our imagination magnifies to tragic status. They are often not tragic at all but merely setbacks offering the learning, growth, and resilience that we are privileged to enjoy as humans.
Here is the full text of the commencement address of Dr. Ruth Simmons.
Congratulations to all 2026 graduates.