The Commencement Address

Jenifer Rajkumar ’00

New York State Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar ’00 addresses the Class of 2023 and families during the Commencement Ceremony held on June 10, 2023.

Thank you to Head of School Michael Wirtz and Director of the Upper School Andy King, who was my U .S . History teacher here at Hackley . Your educators have one of the most important jobs in this community . They have prepared you to be a force in this world . Let’s give all your educators and teachers a big round of applause!

Congratulations to the 2023 graduating class of Hackley School. This is personal to me because 23 years ago, I was graduating from Hackley myself. It was the year 2000. It was the turn of the century. I was sitting exactly where you sit. I remember exactly where I was sitting on the edge of this crowd. I would tell that 17-year-old girl, it doesn’t matter what anyone says about you, your capabilities or what you can do. It matters what you believe. I would tell my 17-year-old self, “You are powerful.”

As you take your next step, I want you to make me one promise. Promise me that you will always remember how powerful you are. With your one voice, you can do so much.

As the Sufi Poet Rumi said, writing more than 800 years ago: “You have the entire universe inside of you. You are the universe in ecstatic motion. Shine like the whole universe is yours.”

And if you don’t believe you have all that power in you, just look at me. I am standing on this stage as a State Representative today, but when I ran for this position, people said to me, “Jenifer, you’re a nice girl, but you have no shot.” But we won. Not only did we win, we won by the largest margin of any challenger in this entire state. And I made history as the first

South Asian woman ever elected to office in this state. My parents came to this country from India with just $300 and a suitcase. My mom was born in a mud hut in India. And now I have the privilege of being a State Assemblywoman. I am so grateful for this chance, for this opportunity. My parents did something very special. When they came to America, they invested in my education and that gave me the tools, the ability and the passion to succeed. And guess what? Your parents invested in YOUR education and have supported you so that you can succeed. So at this time, I would like everyone to stand up, turn toward your families, and give a big round of applause to the people who invested in you—your parents and parentlike figures. Thank you, parents!

Graduates, this is a major day in your lives. Today I ask you to think: How will you use YOUR power? How will you use your powerful voice in this world?

I have a few suggestions.

First, carpe diem. Who knows what that means? That’s right—that’s Latin for “seize the day.” This moment only comes once. Your life only comes once. So be yourself. Dare to be you. Steve Jobs said it best: Don’t waste your time living someone else’s life. Follow your instincts and passions and be uniquely you. Seize the day and have the courage to love. It takes courage to be kind and loving, to extend a hand to those in need. If someone is being mistreated or bullied, dare to be the individual who stands up against it. Be an individual. As one of my favorite American poets Robert Frost said in The Road Not Taken, “I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in a wood and I—I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.”

Start being courageous today, because courage is a muscle, and the more you exercise it, the stronger the courage muscle gets and the more courageous things you can do. I used the courage muscle to become a lawyer and decided to be one of only a handful of law school graduates to use that law degree only for the public interest, for helping people. I made the radical decision to direct immigration for the state of New York, securing a lawyer for every immigrant in detention who cannot afford one. I made the courageous decision to show up at an inner-city college and say, “I will teach here.” And when they asked me why, I said, “because I believe I can make a difference here.” I made the decision to uplift women and represented them in a landmark case that became one of the top 10 cases in the world advancing women’s rights. I made the courageous decision to move deep into a South Queens neighborhood and to say, “I will represent the people.” I made the courageous decision to get to know people a lot different than me and to love them. I made the decision to run for office, to one day stand upon a stump and say I want to represent the people. I made the courageous decision to learn whole new fields that I knew nothing about and to become an expert in them. These are the courageous leaps that have made me who I am.

I left my Hackley graduation 23 years ago and decided I was going to be uniquely me. That’s what led me here to this stage today. Now, I challenge all of you to also be uniquely you, to seize the day and to exercise your courage muscle.

Second, be persistent and embrace failure. Failure is just one step in the path to success. Behind every one of my great successes, including making history, are a bunch of failures. Failures are incredible and even exciting learning experiences that can propel you to success. On my resume, I only list my successes, but the best stories—and some of the most exciting adventures—are on my resume of failures. And you know what? Thomas Edison agrees with me. Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb. When a reporter asked him, “Hey Thomas, how did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Thomas Edison replied, “I did not fail 1,000 times. The lightbulb was an invention that required 1,000 steps.”

In one of my favorite quotes, Michael Jordan said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career, I’ve lost 300 games, 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And THAT is why I succeed.”

Third, be humble. I personally have kissed the ground to reach the greatest heights. When you humble yourself before people who are vulnerable, struggling or different than you, amazing results follow. Vulnerable people soon become powerful. You lift them, and then one day, they can lift you, too. Together, we can accomplish anything. When you humble yourself before people who are different from you, treating others with an open heart and mind, you gain insights you never had before. When you’re humble, you become a smarter person. When you’re humble, you become a better learner. Indeed, humbling yourself before your teachers allows you to open yourself up to learning. And knowledge is power. Scientia est potentia. That’s more Latin for you. (I took a lot of Latin at Hackley.)

Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman ever to be elected to the U.S. Congress and run for President. And she was also once a State Assemblywoman in New York, like me. She said, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” If you feel like you’re being excluded or that you don’t belong in “the club,” that you do not belong at the table of power, you should humbly bring your own folding chair to the table. I have done that many times. I did not have a seat at the table, and there were many times I had to bring my own folding chair. But now, I’m elected to office and hopefully my path makes your paths easier. Because you deserve the world, and I am counting on you to fix this world. I believe your generation can cure cancer, end wars, eliminate poverty and save our planet. I did this so that I can lift you up. Together we can accomplish and overcome anything.

Fourth, remember that life is an adventure. Enjoy that adventure every day. Wake up every morning with exhilaration. I have a saying of my own: “I live for the thrills and exhilaration.” (Every morning as I blast my J-Lo or Destiny’s Child.) After two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have learned that every day on this earth is a gift. Make the most of it. Do what makes your spirit soar. Enjoy learning and never let anything take away your joy.

Fifth, live with gratitude every day. Be grateful and remember how lucky you are. In other parts of the world, young people don’t have water to drink. They live without a roof over their heads and they are not safe, and sometimes they cannot even go to school. We are all so lucky.

Hackley graduates, make your lives EPIC. I ask you all to strive valiantly and dare greatly. I leave you with the words of the great American President Teddy Roosevelt, who talked about being the man or woman in the arena: “It is not the critic who counts—not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who, at the best knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.”

I am here to help you achieve and dare greatly. Anything is possible from Hackley. You can reinvent yourself. You can be and do whatever you imagine. The sky is the limit for you. You are powerful. And we are counting on you. So, do you promise me you will always remember how powerful you are? Thank you.

Congratulations!