Devin Brown

Welcome faculty, family, friends and, most importantly, graduates. I am honored to stand here with you today to celebrate our collective achievements and represent our class. Undoubtedly, we have all been through a great deal to get to this point, and it is important that we take a moment to exhale, but not before we remember all the great experiences that brought us here. A quick inventory of our collective journey will remind us how much we endured and make this celebration all the greater.

Over time, I know we will miss the team projects, asynchronous and synchronous learning, and writing tomes by grinding away on Google Scholar to get our citations straight. And I’m sure we’ll miss the Teams messages that haunted our dreams in the middle of the night, Honorlock exams that made us anxious with fright, and, most of all, robotic food delivery just when the time was right. One day, when we are old, we will be sitting in our rocking chairs pondering the great philosophies of time and remember the GroupMe app, and question why we still cannot delete old threads that have not been used in forever.

For me, the School of Interdisciplinary Studies became the place of belonging I did not know I needed. For a wary business student (sorry, JSOM), it was my refuge from tunnel vision and allowed me to be creative while pursuing the foundational skills that would propel my future career success. Though I did not initially grasp what it meant to be an interdisciplinarian, I now know that this is exactly what I am meant to be.

Before we arrive in that metaphorical rocking chair, however, we must acknowledge the new beginning that we have before us and commit ourselves to making an impact. We have toiled through arguably one of the most tumultuous times in history. We have lived through COVID, global economic downturn, social strife and daily health check emails. These increasingly uncertain circumstances might be enough to make the majority throw in the towel, but for us, this is the call. For interdisciplinary students, we are in prime condition to right-size these challenging circumstances around us and leverage our objectivity and perspective to provide leadership and balance to the world.

Though our achievement today is academic in nature, I implore you to see it as something more. Our university has provided us with a unique foundation to experience cultures, beliefs and perspectives from around the globe. When considering the disillusionment and distrust that plague our society today, recall your experience working with others during this program. If we can all commit to the pursuit of harmony we enjoyed while seeking our degrees, we can start to remake the outside world one brick at a time. More important than our formal education is this cultural framework and ecosystem we have been so fortunate to be a part of. We are all from a multitude of backgrounds, we all came to call this institution home, and we did so with respect for one another.

Remember that while others choose to specialize, we have chosen to diversify. We are the pioneering generation for the world that is and the world that is to come. This is a great responsibility and one that must not be taken lightly. Employ your diverse talent for good and never lose your desire to learn as you progress in your lives, careers and endeavors. Always remain curious and open with your fellow man and with your circumstances.

For many of us, the decision to choose an interdisciplinary path is one that allows for continued challenges and a quest to learn more. For me, it was an out from the proverbial “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Though I did not know it going into the program, interdisciplinary studies prepared me to begin my career. The system of shifting perspectives and objective thinking was a perfect preface to my profession, but also to being a good neighbor, a more understanding friend and an open-minded leader.

What used to be the future — intelligent thinking, mitigating complexities and bridging the gap in the face of insurmountable odds — is now the present. In the immortal words of 21^st-century musician Drake, “We started from the bottom, now we here.”

Prior to earning a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies, Devin Brown received his undergraduate degree in interdisciplinary studies from The University of Texas at Dallas in 2008. He has spent the past 20 years working in logistics. He is currently a worldwide account manager of global health care for FedEx Corporation. In his spare time, he loves crafting new dishes in the kitchen, designing, building and playing electric guitars, and manufacturing electronics for musicians.