Rafael L. Bras, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Georgia Institute of Technology
Ph.D. Commencement Address
May 4, 2018 | Atlanta, GA

Thank you, President Peterson. Good morning to our graduates, family, friends, and the rest of our Georgia Tech community. It’s a day of celebration, and I am proud to be here to share a few words with you on this very special day.

No matter how many commencement ceremonies I attend (and there have been many in my career!), the feeling and excitement never go away. It’s full of energy and anticipation and filled with possibility.

I hope you are incredibly proud today. We certainly are proud of you. Today, as you receive the highest degree offered by this institution, you enter a distinct class of individuals. Few in the world have attained this level of educational accomplishment.

And, as with many addresses of commencements past, I would tell you that today marks an ending, but also a beginning. There will be many more beginnings and endings to come. There will be many more opportunities and with them many more decisions to make.

After today, I would like everyone to forever remember this line, please repeat after me —

“I am not throwing away my shot…”

Once again — “I am not throwing away my shot…”

Many of you are likely familiar with Lin Manuel Miranda’s hit American musical — “Hamilton.” Since its Broadway debut more than two and half years ago, it’s been an absolute phenomenon, exciting audiences and opening up the world to American history in a whole new way.

I was privileged to see it a couple of months back and was absolutely blown away.

It’s a story of risk-taking and having courage in the face of extreme adversity, doubt, and uncertainty. It’s also about choices and consequences.

But to me, the most compelling part of the storyline kept coming back to the idea of OPPORTUNITY — and as the line says: “not throwing away your shot.”

I left the theater that night thinking of my own personal journey and have since kept coming back to that theme and what it takes to navigate life’s tough choices.

I made one of the first big decisions of my life at 17. I left Puerto Rico to begin my academic journey at MIT. To set the stage for you, I had a language barrier. I was entering a prestigious university where I would become painfully aware that I was behind the curve academically compared to my peers. I would have to prove that I could work hard and enter a world of unknowns without support. But I was not — what is the line I told you to remember? Say it again with me: I was not “throwing away my shot.”

Skip ahead 15 years. At 32, I was offered the first administrative job of my career — a job I had always wanted and a position that would have me following in the footsteps of my heroes. I was not, help me, “throwing away my shot.”

My career continued, and just a few short years later I found myself offered yet another move where I would serve as department head.

It was flattering and exciting, but this time I knew I wasn’t prepared. I was inexperienced and wanted to develop my academic career further. Opportunities for Provost and President positions would come even later down the road and again. I turned them down. There were certainly doubts walking away from opportunities, but looking back, I know they were the right decisions.

My career has taught me that not every opportunity is the right one. Sometimes, as difficult as it may be, the answer is NO.

Ten years ago, I left MIT, in a way my only true home after forty years. My wife and I decided to have a new, overdue, adventure, in California. I was enjoying our life there, feeling good and fulfilled as Dean of Engineering in the wonderful and, weather wise idyllic, University of California, Irvine. Then the call came from Georgia Tech. It was a difficult decision. I was feeling great, all was going wonderfully well, and I had just been there two years. But, you know the answer — I was not “throwing away my shot.”

As you go out and continue on your own scholarly or professional paths and careers, remember that sometimes “taking your shot” means knowing when to say yes and when the answer is “not now.” 

The real key is to know yourself and to be willing to take chances. You see, opportunities are created. They are not a result of luck. The best decisions are usually the ones where you are not comfortable with all of the outcomes. Know yourself. See the opportunity and when it’s right, take your shot.

Always push yourself! You certainly don’t earn a Ph.D. without having a curious spirit and mind, but don’t let today’s ceremony and the completion of your degree be the end of that curiosity. I encourage you to never stop seeking. Never stop asking questions. Make conscious decisions to push yourself to the absolute edge of your comfort zone. 

With your education likely comes influence. Use it wisely to do good. As you continue on, never forget your responsibility and obligation to serve others and to use your influence to improve the lives of those around you in every decision you make, in every shot you take.

Let me end by paraphrasing Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton — by the way I am proud to say that he is also from Puerto Rico. I invite you to repeat after me:

“I am not throwing away my shot.

With a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech,

I am not throwing away my shot.

I will go out and do the best,

I will serve and save the world,

I will give back, I will excel,

I am not throwing away my shot”

Thank you and go out and make us proud.