Durazo to Seniors: Keep Feeling 22

Praising the value of youthful idealism, 森州. Maria Elena Durazo (D-洛杉矶) urged the members of the Class of 2022 not to lose touch with their younger selves after graduation at Occidental’s 140th Commencement ceremony on May 15.

“你看, the person who will inspire you all your life is sitting in your chair, wearing your graduation gown,“Durazo, one of the country’s leading labor leaders over the last four decades, told the 489 graduates and more than 3,000 family members and friends who filled Remsen Bird Hillside Theater under sunny skies.

“The younger version of yourself is who needs to go with you when you march out of here with your diploma,”她说。. “你的不敬, your disregard for the way things have always been done, your unrealistic dreams, 你的不耐烦, 甚至你的愤怒. Embrace the impossible because you can make it possible. Cherish 你的不耐烦 and channel your anger just long enough to succeed.”

Durazo used her own life story as an example of the value of not losing touch with your younger self, telling of how she grew up picking crops with her parents, turning to activism in college, and becoming a union organizer who, 按她自己的说法, failed in her first effort at organizing garment workers.

“她没有成功, but that young woman’s failure is what inspires me 40 years later to carry on the fight and win what we won last year”—the passage of Senate Bill 62, the Garment Worker Protection Act, which eliminated piece rates, strengthened safeguards for wages and dignified working conditions, and expanded liability for wage violations.

“Do not grow out of who you are today,” she continued. “Walk away today with a commitment to keeping your unrealistic dreams. … Use your younger selves to make our world better. Use your younger selves to make our world freer. Use your younger selves to make our world more hopeful.”

Durazo, whose speech prompted a standing ovation, was one of two honorary degree recipients at the ceremony. Dr. Kimberly Shriner ’80 also received an honorary degree in recognition of her work as “the San Gabriel Valley’s Dr. Fauci” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A separate ceremony was held in Hillside Theater after the main program for 16 seniors who tested positive for COVID-19 just before Commencement. “We are delighted to be in the position to make sure that 每一个 member of the Class of 2022 is able to walk across the stage in Hillside Theater today and receive their diploma—the symbol not only of academic achievement but of so much hard work, 毅力, and resiliency in the face of unprecedented challenges,埃兰说.

Another unanticipated twist occurred during the main ceremony just before seniors began to walk across stage to receive their diplomas when someone in the audience shouted out,生日快乐, 哈利!” In response, seniors spontaneously sang “Happy Birthday” to the president.