Elaine Houston
Co-Anchor, WNYT Channel 13, Albany, New York
Commencement, May 8, 2004

How am I going to follow that. We thank you First Lady Libby Pataki for those inspiring words.

I'd also like to thank God for this opportunity to stand before you and also share remarks.

And I'd like to thank President Sullivan and the members of the Board of Trustees for this great honor. I'm very appreciative and I'm going to have lots of fun making my colleagues address me now as Dr. Houston, not Elaine...I want them to call me doctor. It has a nice ring...Dr. Houston!

I won't gloat for long, maybe two or three months, I think my swollen head will have gone down by then. OK give me a week..can I have a week?

OK, I'll be good.... I will try to get over all of this pomp and ceremony by Monday morning...because I know—I've learned that honors and accomplishments are really just tools to help you complete your next assignment in life.

They are important, but who earns degrees to just sit back and admire them or show them off? No one.

They are earned, bestowed and given to us and we should use them to provide ourselves with a history—to remind us that when our next challenge seems impossible—that we have past successes—successes that yell to us "this challenge you are capable of overcoming too."

Accomplishments are not to be thrust in the faces of others. They are tools for the work that lies ahead.

A tool is a piece of equipment used for working. You need tools to complete jobs.

This year on Easter morning, I headed to Juarez, Mexico with a group of 30 kids and a half dozen adults from the Capital Region to build a home for the "Sobrevilla" family.

I was told before I got there to bring a hammer, safety glasses, a knife, nail apron,etc. So, there I was working on the house,applying stucco, when a student came to relieve me. But, the student did not have any tools—no gloves, nothing.

To apply stucco on a house, you need to pick up the mud-like substance from a wheelbarrow and with one hand push it off the pallett and with the trowel, you push it on to the wall. For a solid 10 minutes most of the mixture I was trying to put on the house, ended up on the ground! But I kept at it. I had the tools!

Because the student didn't, I turned over "my" tools to the student. The student did not immediately jump at the job. The student was apprehensive. But, after a little explanation of how to do it and some reassurance, the student got the hang of it and I walked away.

You have been given instruction and today you get your tools. And now, I want to give you that word of assurance that will send you on your way. You are prepared, you are now equipped to do what is before you. You probably
feel apprehensive, uneasy, but, you have the tools.

In the next few months, you are going to have to talk to a lot of people and no doubt you'll want to tell them about your "academic" history and some people may "not" want to hire you because they will say you have no experience.

Don't let that frighten you. Remember, when you walk in, you have the tools. And when they begin to talk about your degree and your accomplishments as a student, you say yes, I have those things, but let me tell you what I'm prepared to do with them—what I want to build.

If you are to be a teacher, what will you offer the kids, will you use your degree, your tools to build lives? There are so many kids looking for a teacher like you—they are not going to ask you about your credentials, they want to know that you have the patience,the compassion to help them learn.

What will you do with the tools you get today? Can you tell your prospective employer that I'm here to make a difference in the lives of my students, or will you talk about the 4.0 average you achieved?

When I travel to schools to do stories and I talk to principals about teacher shortages and what they are looking for, they tell me they are looking for teachers who are excited, passionate! They never talk about grade point averages. They know that if you are to be a teacher, you should have those tools. But, what will you accomplish with them?

Before, we went to Mexico, the Sobrevilla family lived for 2 years without a roof. Can you imagine that? Two and a half years, with the rain coming down on them, two and a half years with the scorching Mexican sun shining down on them, two and a half years with dust and dirt and bugs and dogs running in the house.

Today, because we stopped by with our tools and 'didn't' brag or waste time talking about how "much" more money we had than them, or how privileged we were or how much education we had—but because we used all those accomplishments and a lot of muscle, they, the Sobrevillas, are living with a roof over their heads.

In closing, I ask you whose house will you build? To the class of 2004, I say the world is waiting. You have the tools, so now let's get started, build something.

Thank you.

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