Williams Graduates Encouraged to 'Rescue Failure'
 College President Adam Falk, left, and commencement speaker Dr. Atul Gawande at Sunday's graduation exercises at Williams College. |
Ringed by cheering family and friends, graduates marched the stage — under a purple and gold sail — to receive a diploma or certificate from President Adam Falk that would launch them on a chase for more rainbows, as class speaker Kyle V. Martin described it.
"... My life so far has been like catching rainbows; the rainbows are the goals that I strive for — money, B-minuses, No. 1 — again and again and again," said Martin, recalling a muddy and unsuccessful chase across the campus for a rainbow that kept floating away. "But whenever I catch one there is always another one."
Chasing rainbows can be a risk but one worth taking, especially if you're prepared to handle the failure. Failure, or rather the rescue from failure, is a defining part of success, said Dr. Atul Gawande, the commencement speaker for the 223rd Williams Commencement.
"This, in fact, may be the real story of human and societal improvement, said Gawande, a surgeon a Brigham and Women's Hospital, researcher, journalist and best-selling author. "Things can and will go wrong. But some have better capacity to prepare for the possibility, to limit the damage, and sometimes even retrieve success from failure."
He gave for example an elderly patient who had to have surgery for a blockage that caused her to lose sight in one eye. After weighing the risks, she agreed to the surgery. But a rare and unexpected complication — a twist in her intestines — would have killed her if not for questioning of a young doctor and surgeons who listened to him and acted quickly.
They avoided the pitfalls of risk — choosing the wrong plan, having an inadequate plan or having no plan, said Gawande, pitfalls that British Petroleum on the other hand, fell into in Gulf of Mexico, precipitating a disastrous oil spill and the death of 11 workers. The key failure was the "delay in accepting that something serious was wrong."
"To take a risk, you must have confidence in yourself ... Yet you cannot blind yourself to failure, either. You have to prepare for it. For, strangely enough, only then is success possible," Gawande told the graudate.
Things won't always go right, the surgeon told the graduates, listing some of his own failed adventures, including a brief pursuit of philosophy and a rock band. But they weren't failures as experiences, he said, because he kept learning until finally finding his path in medicine.
"The only failure is the failure to rescue something," Gawande said. "The difference between triumph and defeat, you'll find, isn't about willingness to take risks. It's about mastery of rescue."
The college also conferred an honorary doctorate on Gawande, as well as political commentator David Brooks, actress and playwright Anne Deavere Smith, surgeon and clinical administrator Dr. Delos M. Cosgrove III and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts President Mary K. Grant.
Falk said his public college colleague the next town over had steered her alma mater during challenging financial times and deepened its connection to the community, remaking it into a growing center for science and local culture.
"You and MCLA have shown how a small college can have national clout even from the remote northwest corner of Massachusetts," said the president of a small college that knows about clout.
Bachelor's degrees were awarded to 513 graduates; master of arts degrees to 12 and master of arts in policy economics to 30. The graduates entered West College lawn through a gauntlet of flags recognizing the 51 different nations represented by this year's Williams graduates. The morning was mild and sunny and a luncheon was provided on the Paresky Student Center lawn afterward.
 MCLA President Mary K. Grant is awarded an honorary doctor of laws during the commencement. |
Where class speaker Martin had seen graduation almost as a wedding — " ... please never forget each other and our [rainbow] chase 'til death do us part" — Phi Beta Kappa speaker Anders Schneider saw a network of support radiating out from classmates and professors to high school teachers to family and loved ones.
"We're good at being there for one another. Even when there isn't enough time to do all of our own work, we somehow find time when a friend asks for help," said Schneider, who concluded his speech with a "Happy birthday, Dad!" "... Our time at Williams has given us the extraordinary capacity to act in support of others. As we begin the next chapters of our lives, let's realize that potential."
Class valedictorian Brian Li said their time in the Berkshires had forged them into a beautiful masterpiece, akin to a Swiss Army knive in their diversity and talents and strengths.
"We came to Williams as raw materials, and now we leave as finely crafted instruments," said Li. "When we use the tools that we have been given let us appreciate who and where they came from ... Finally, as we go from this place, let us remember that we will always be united, bearing the marks of our makers."
Whether in their heads or their hearts, he said, "there's a tiny little stamp that reads 'Made at Williams.'"
|
|||||||
Tags: graduation 2012, Williams College,
