Greetings graduates, family members, friends and my NTU history department colleagues. I am honored to speak with you on this very special day. First, and foremost, my sincere congratulations to the graduating students on this superb accomplishment. You have worked tremendously hard to earn your degrees, sacrificing sleep and time with your family and friends in order to study. I also applaud you for your perseverance, fortitude and flexibility as you navigated a stressful Covid-19 pandemic that pushed you into online learning just as you were finishing your collegiate careers. Although we will not know exactly how future historians will view this moment, we can be fairly certain that your generation will be singled out for its resilience in the face of tremendous adversity.

My time at NTU has been brief, but it was clear to me in the first few weeks of the semester that I was in the midst of a dynamic and committed group of history students. Your curiosity and enthusiasm for the study of history; appreciation for education; and love of NTU were obvious and infectious. As you move on to the next stage of your life, I know that you realize how much your professors have cared about your success and sought to equip you with the knowledge and skills you will need to make your way in the world. Thank you for creating such a vibrant community and allowing me to be a small part of it.

As a Roosevelt scholar, I have always been struck by the devotion that Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt displayed toward public service and education. Throughout her life, Eleanor Roosevelt, who was once a teacher herself, saw education as essential to democracy, because school was a place where children began to think for themselves as citizens. As such, she worked closely with, and advocated for, various student groups, especially those that fought for racial justice. In May 1934, speaking to a group of educators about the need for racial integration in the United States, she said, “We will all go ahead together, or we will all go down together.”

With this degree, you enter into an elite and small world of graduates from Taiwan’s most prestigious university. I ask that you not only express pride in this hard-earned degree, but also consider how your degree relates to Eleanor’s words. In whatever way possible, use your knowledge and identity as an NTU graduate to reach back and help someone else up the ladder of success. Put your history degree in service to others; ask how your knowledge and skills might benefit your community, whether local, national or global, in ways big or small. That, I believe is the spirit that connects us as educators in Taiwan and the United States. Thank you and again, my heartfelt congratulations to all of you.

Margaret Rung
June 26, 2021