Alfred Nobel intended that his prizes make the planet's most valuable inhabitants independently wealthy, so that their work could not be inhibited or bent this way or that way by powerful politicians or patrons. I am reminded of a scene in a W. C. Fields movie, in which he is watching a poker game in a saloon in a gold-rush town. The players barely look up from the game. But the cost of a college education, a minor fraction of a million dollars, is anything but chump change to most Americans. In a few cases.
Rice can no doubt name a handful of celebrities who came from here.
I know about. But most graduates from Rice, or from Harvard, or Oxford, or the Sorbonne, or anyplace else you care to name, have been of use locally rather than nationally. In place of fame, they may have had to be content with someone's seemingly heartfelt thanks for something well done from time to time. In time, this will prove to have been the destiny of most, but not all, of the Adams and Eves in this, the Class of 1998 at Rice, and the graduate students as well. They will find themselves building or strengthening their communities.