MIT's Creative Connectors ~ The Graduates at Today's Commencement 2008!

Delightful to see another generation of over 2,300 MIT undergrad and grad students finishing up at Commencement 2008! Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus was the keynote and spoke eloquently about the power of social business, including his own work founding GrameenBank, the micro-credit pioneer, and GrameenPhone, the mobile telephony provider, both in Bangladesh. Yunus challenged each student to tackle problems at whatever scale they find tractable and then to iteratively escalate. While I have deep differences with his anti-capitalist stance -- or at least his simplistic straw man characterization of capitalism and profit-seeking -- he did well by urging people to listen to their own conscience and follow their own pathways. GSC President Leeland Ekstrom was quite eloquent in his brief remarks, followed by 2008 Class President Phi Ho presenting his record-setting class gift. President Hockfield charged the graduates to keep up the "do-something optimism" and continue the "constructive irreverence" which has made MIT such an epicenter of innovation!

By and large the program went smoothly, with the rain holding off for the most part. A few quacks tried to crash the party, but they soon waddled off... Afterwards I hung out in Lobby 10 and chatted with various passers-by, including Beth Garvin, Luis Ortiz, Barun Singh, Brian Hughes, Leeland Ekstrom, Paul Gray, Hiroshi Ishii, Diana Strange, Drew Endy, Dave Danielson, Amy Smith, Sarah Bird, GJ la 'O, Steve Brown, among others!