She actually seemed to like the butterflies, crawdads, lizards, snakes, salamanders, spiders, fossils, rocks, and plants that I brought home. She let me build and paint dozens of biological models in her living room, and never once acted like my interests were odd to her. And both parents always provided the chemistry sets, telescopes, microscopes, geology sets, and anything else that I had an interest in. As a parent, I don't think there is a more important lesson, than that a child can pursue any dream, big or small. I would like to acknowledge the role of public institutions in higher education.
Public institutions have a unique and essential role in higher education.
There is no better example than ESF, with its mission directed towards understanding and bettering the natural and human environments. Here we have the best of both worlds in that students have ready access to an exceptional public institution dedicated to the environment, and to an excellent private institution which with we should be proud of being associated. I also want to recognize the students here at ESF who are so willing to get involved with activities, even if it wasn't always clear what the results would be. If I had to pick the two most admirable qualities of students at ESF I'd say they are that students here have a very strong work ethic and want to improve the world in some way. I wonder where many of you who are graduating today started this part of your journey, and where you are going.