Address: Find Your Fuel
2008 Commencement Address, Crook County High School
Crook County Judge Scott R. Cooper
June 6, 2008, Prineville, Oregon
Superintendent Swisher, Principal Golden, Members of the School Board, Distinguished Members of the Faculty and Graduating Members of the Class of 2008 and friends. It is a privilege and an honor to be here today to offer on behalf of all of Crook County congratulations to the Class of 2008 congratulations on being the 100th graduating class of Crook County High School.
If truth be told, I am here today as the principal’s “second choice.” I know that because Mr. Golden told me so, when he asked me to do this. His exact words were, “I wanted to ask Mike Geisen, but he has some sort of National Teacher of the Year Thing in New York and since you graduated from Crook County High School, I thought maybe you might fill in.”
Thanks, Jim. I’m truly honored. As for the rest of you, I suggest you watch out about May 2009. Since the main qualification for this job appears to be graduating from CCHS, any one of you might be giving this address next year!
I’m telling that story for two reasons. Mainly I wanted the pleasure of watching Mr. Golden’s face turn red. I’m sure no one in the Class of 2008 has never been made to squirm by the principal and his sense of humor. Just remember, Jim, what goes around comes around. Secondly, I wanted an opportunity to mention early on in this speech the incredible achievement of Mike Geisen, a Crook County Middle School Teacher, who was recently named National Teacher of the Year. Mr. Geisen is a great example of the type of educator in which this District is investing, and I know that we have many more years of exceptional graduating classes which will be crossing this stage, well-educated to face the future.
Mr. Geisen nearly didn’t become teacher of the year, you know. To become teacher of the year, he first had to become Oregon Teacher of the Year. The way he found out he was Oregon Teacher of the Year was at an assembly at the Middle School. Local dignitaries were invited to join the State Secretary of Education in announcing that a great honor had been bestowed on a teacher in Crook County. When Mr. Geisen’s name was called, he was sitting near the top of the bleachers, and he came bounding down giving high fives along the way. When he reached the bottom bleacher, he caught his foot and fell face forward . If he hadn’t had the good sense to duck and roll, he probably would have broken his neck, and we wouldn’t be here today talking about him.
But Mr. Geisen did have the good sense to tuck and roll. And as a result, he simply stood up and brushed himself off and went on with the business of accepting his award. And in that one moment, I who hadn’t known Mr. Geisen before, became a big fan. I think Mr. Geisen is a great metaphor for that decision we all have to make at various times in our lives: When things don’t go quite the way we planned, are we going to lay on the floor humiliated or are we going to pick ourselves up and go on to greatness?
Greatness is what I’m hoping for out of the Class of 2008. Certainly, if 100 years of history is any guide, you have no reason to be concerned about whether this institution has given you the education you need to succeed in the world that now lies before you.
I recently met a man who graduated Crook County High School in 1960. Based in California, this man has a doctorate and until recently was head of the world’s largest screening center for prenatal and newborn genetic disease. I wonder what kind of mentor he had in CCHS chemistry that started him down that path?
Not too long ago I read about another Crook County High School graduate who graduated from these halls in 1943. After a distinguished military career in World War II, he went on to become chief judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he continues to preside over the bench with senior status. I wonder how he did in U.S. Government class at CCHS?
A classmate of mine after graduating in 1982, went on to undergraduate studies at Harvard University and then to medical school at Albert Einstein University in New York before returning to Harvard to get a Ph.D. in biology. I didn’t see her for many years after we graduated, until I opened Fortune magazine one day and found an article about her pioneering work mapping the genome of the fruit fly—a project which laid the foundation for genetic mapping of all other species. Today, she has her own lab at Harvard named for her and supervises the work of 15 graduate students. I don’t have to ask what she got in biology. I was there, and let’s just say that her grades were always better than mine.
You see, as you become Crook County high school graduates today you join a long line of distinguished individuals who have made or are currently making a mark on the world. Regardless of what your experiences may have been to date, there is no reason why your potential horizons have to be limited to the rimrocks surrounding Prineville. The world lies before you. How you encounter it, is up to you.
As I look out over this audience today, I wonder what the future holds for each of you. Is the next Bill Gates out there? The next Mother Teresa? The next Les Schwab or a future President of the United States? Your lives are fraught with possibility.
In each of you, there is a special spark. Your teachers and all the rest of us gathered here today have been blowing on that spark for the past 12 years trying to make it jump into flames. Some of you have responded very well and have quite a blaze going. Some of you—well, let’s say that at least you’re still glowing.
What all of us want is to see that spark come alive, but what none of us, except you, really know is what kind of fuel it is that will make that spark jump into flames.
As you leave this place today, your greatest challenge is to find the fuel that that makes you burn. As you walk out of this hall/arena/stadium, take some time to think exactly where it is that your passion lies. Passion will take you places that hard work alone won’t. Passion will help make you the kind of alumnus who will be worthy of being remember by a graduating class 100 years from now.
What do I mean by passion?
Maybe you’re the kind of person who cares about other people: if that’s your passion, devote yourself to that purpose. Go on a mission. Join the Peace Corps. Find a career where people really need someone like you, whether that’s nursing or teaching or practicing medicine, whether it’s meaningful work as a minister, a mental health counselor or a coach.
Or maybe business is what excites you—that opportunity to stand astride the stock market and make it quiver at your every word. If that’s you, go for it: make a better mousetrap and sell, sell, sell. Figure out the next great running shoe, put Phil Knight out of business and endow Oregon State University for once. Whatever you do, do it well. Don’t settle for an 8-5 job. Tell yourself when you walk out of here, I’m going to be the very best at what I do, and then walk out of here and do it.
And if you’re one of those people who isn’t quite sure yet what you want to do, well do whatever you do with passion and zeal and excitement until you get it right. Try and try again. And when things get tough, remember the lessons taught by those who went ahead of you. Einstein nearly failed kindergarten long before he became the smartest man in the world; Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team for “lack of skill,” Henry Ford’s first two automobile companies failed; The Beatles were rejected by a major record label because, its executives said, “We don’t like your sound,” and Mike Geisen rolled his way to the feet of the Oregon Superintendent of Schools, and then picked himself up and walked away to be honored by the President of the United States in the Rose Garden at the White House.
As you enter the Great Big World, Class of 2008, don’t be afraid to dare to do big things. Spread your wings and to show us how high you can fly. Try many things, trip and fall frequently and whenever you do, pick yourself up off the floor and try again.
One hundred years from now, the graduating class of 2108 will be sitting where you are today. They are going to need their heroes, too, and their heroes might as well be you.
Crook County Judge Scott R. Cooper
June 6, 2008, Prineville, Oregon
Superintendent Swisher, Principal Golden, Members of the School Board, Distinguished Members of the Faculty and Graduating Members of the Class of 2008 and friends. It is a privilege and an honor to be here today to offer on behalf of all of Crook County congratulations to the Class of 2008 congratulations on being the 100th graduating class of Crook County High School.
If truth be told, I am here today as the principal’s “second choice.” I know that because Mr. Golden told me so, when he asked me to do this. His exact words were, “I wanted to ask Mike Geisen, but he has some sort of National Teacher of the Year Thing in New York and since you graduated from Crook County High School, I thought maybe you might fill in.”
Thanks, Jim. I’m truly honored. As for the rest of you, I suggest you watch out about May 2009. Since the main qualification for this job appears to be graduating from CCHS, any one of you might be giving this address next year!
I’m telling that story for two reasons. Mainly I wanted the pleasure of watching Mr. Golden’s face turn red. I’m sure no one in the Class of 2008 has never been made to squirm by the principal and his sense of humor. Just remember, Jim, what goes around comes around. Secondly, I wanted an opportunity to mention early on in this speech the incredible achievement of Mike Geisen, a Crook County Middle School Teacher, who was recently named National Teacher of the Year. Mr. Geisen is a great example of the type of educator in which this District is investing, and I know that we have many more years of exceptional graduating classes which will be crossing this stage, well-educated to face the future.
Mr. Geisen nearly didn’t become teacher of the year, you know. To become teacher of the year, he first had to become Oregon Teacher of the Year. The way he found out he was Oregon Teacher of the Year was at an assembly at the Middle School. Local dignitaries were invited to join the State Secretary of Education in announcing that a great honor had been bestowed on a teacher in Crook County. When Mr. Geisen’s name was called, he was sitting near the top of the bleachers, and he came bounding down giving high fives along the way. When he reached the bottom bleacher, he caught his foot and fell face forward . If he hadn’t had the good sense to duck and roll, he probably would have broken his neck, and we wouldn’t be here today talking about him.
But Mr. Geisen did have the good sense to tuck and roll. And as a result, he simply stood up and brushed himself off and went on with the business of accepting his award. And in that one moment, I who hadn’t known Mr. Geisen before, became a big fan. I think Mr. Geisen is a great metaphor for that decision we all have to make at various times in our lives: When things don’t go quite the way we planned, are we going to lay on the floor humiliated or are we going to pick ourselves up and go on to greatness?
Greatness is what I’m hoping for out of the Class of 2008. Certainly, if 100 years of history is any guide, you have no reason to be concerned about whether this institution has given you the education you need to succeed in the world that now lies before you.
I recently met a man who graduated Crook County High School in 1960. Based in California, this man has a doctorate and until recently was head of the world’s largest screening center for prenatal and newborn genetic disease. I wonder what kind of mentor he had in CCHS chemistry that started him down that path?
Not too long ago I read about another Crook County High School graduate who graduated from these halls in 1943. After a distinguished military career in World War II, he went on to become chief judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he continues to preside over the bench with senior status. I wonder how he did in U.S. Government class at CCHS?
A classmate of mine after graduating in 1982, went on to undergraduate studies at Harvard University and then to medical school at Albert Einstein University in New York before returning to Harvard to get a Ph.D. in biology. I didn’t see her for many years after we graduated, until I opened Fortune magazine one day and found an article about her pioneering work mapping the genome of the fruit fly—a project which laid the foundation for genetic mapping of all other species. Today, she has her own lab at Harvard named for her and supervises the work of 15 graduate students. I don’t have to ask what she got in biology. I was there, and let’s just say that her grades were always better than mine.
You see, as you become Crook County high school graduates today you join a long line of distinguished individuals who have made or are currently making a mark on the world. Regardless of what your experiences may have been to date, there is no reason why your potential horizons have to be limited to the rimrocks surrounding Prineville. The world lies before you. How you encounter it, is up to you.
As I look out over this audience today, I wonder what the future holds for each of you. Is the next Bill Gates out there? The next Mother Teresa? The next Les Schwab or a future President of the United States? Your lives are fraught with possibility.
In each of you, there is a special spark. Your teachers and all the rest of us gathered here today have been blowing on that spark for the past 12 years trying to make it jump into flames. Some of you have responded very well and have quite a blaze going. Some of you—well, let’s say that at least you’re still glowing.
What all of us want is to see that spark come alive, but what none of us, except you, really know is what kind of fuel it is that will make that spark jump into flames.
As you leave this place today, your greatest challenge is to find the fuel that that makes you burn. As you walk out of this hall/arena/stadium, take some time to think exactly where it is that your passion lies. Passion will take you places that hard work alone won’t. Passion will help make you the kind of alumnus who will be worthy of being remember by a graduating class 100 years from now.
What do I mean by passion?
Maybe you’re the kind of person who cares about other people: if that’s your passion, devote yourself to that purpose. Go on a mission. Join the Peace Corps. Find a career where people really need someone like you, whether that’s nursing or teaching or practicing medicine, whether it’s meaningful work as a minister, a mental health counselor or a coach.
Or maybe business is what excites you—that opportunity to stand astride the stock market and make it quiver at your every word. If that’s you, go for it: make a better mousetrap and sell, sell, sell. Figure out the next great running shoe, put Phil Knight out of business and endow Oregon State University for once. Whatever you do, do it well. Don’t settle for an 8-5 job. Tell yourself when you walk out of here, I’m going to be the very best at what I do, and then walk out of here and do it.
And if you’re one of those people who isn’t quite sure yet what you want to do, well do whatever you do with passion and zeal and excitement until you get it right. Try and try again. And when things get tough, remember the lessons taught by those who went ahead of you. Einstein nearly failed kindergarten long before he became the smartest man in the world; Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team for “lack of skill,” Henry Ford’s first two automobile companies failed; The Beatles were rejected by a major record label because, its executives said, “We don’t like your sound,” and Mike Geisen rolled his way to the feet of the Oregon Superintendent of Schools, and then picked himself up and walked away to be honored by the President of the United States in the Rose Garden at the White House.
As you enter the Great Big World, Class of 2008, don’t be afraid to dare to do big things. Spread your wings and to show us how high you can fly. Try many things, trip and fall frequently and whenever you do, pick yourself up off the floor and try again.
One hundred years from now, the graduating class of 2108 will be sitting where you are today. They are going to need their heroes, too, and their heroes might as well be you.
posted by Scott Cooper | 1:52 AM
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