Wheelock College - Sobhan namvar's commencement speech

[APPLAUSE] All right, this has got to be scarier than wrestling, I swear. All right,a g first, congratulations to my colleagues. Thank you to our faculty and staff. And welcome to our families and friends. I stand humbly but proud before you and recall our collective journey to becoming professional change agents. This journey for many of us started long before we even knew. But for the past two years at Wheelock, I've been lucky enough to have met many graduate students who are connected and dedicated to their cultures, communities, and families. But more importantly, they're people with big hearts with a certain passion to change the world around them. They're a unique group who allowed their stories to motivate, empower, and guide them, to look for more than just good enough, and to look for more than just ordinary. A group that's taken extraordinary measures to change the world around them where caring, justice, and safety is an expectation for all children and families rather than an exception. As we move forward in the world where technology erases borders and communities unite families from different religions, backgrounds, ethnicities, races, and cultures, I feel lucky to say I have an education with a curriculum emphasizing human rights a generalist view, and the strength-based focus to improve the lives of children and families in our communities and beyond. [APPLAUSE] We've learned to empower, educate, and collaborate as we're all one-- a collective power of one that sees change as a hand up not a handout. As a new generation of change agents, we've learned to evaluate the world around us from a unique and global perspective. The importance of technology becomes more relevant every day. You heard Brittany say, everybody's probably updating their Facebook statuses right now. [LAUGHTER] And, as we know, the importance of social networking has shown us all that words and emotions can be carried across all borders and seas in an instant. To tweet or not to tweet-- that's the new question. [LAUGHTER] Currently, Iranians, Egyptians, Libyans, and many other African and Middle Eastern nations fight for their freedom by creating awareness around the world. In turn, we will respond by not only supporting the cause of freedom throughout the world, but also by creating freedom and equality at home. I know first hand what some of these communities of fighting for. I would like to remind you. Today, I stand proud to say I've come from across the world and can share this moment with you all. From Tehran, Iran-- that's where I come from even though I'm going to represent United States in the Olympics, hopefully. [LAUGHTER] I feel fortunate to say, against all odds, I survived the journey that did not have a promised ending. Today, each of us will step off this stage a Wheelock graduate. In this moment, I can't help but hear the little boy who survived the Iran-Iraq War, lost friends to the harsh rules of poverty, watched his mother get called many degrading names for being an American on Iranian soil. I can't help but hear that little boy's mother fighting the Basij, and the Iranian police for accusing, torturing, and incarcerating her son. I can't help but hear that little boy who said I look up to my mother-- a woman who, by herself, carried water for miles and miles in Iran just so we could take a shower for a minute and a woman who would hug us all in the bomb shelter and make that circle where she hugged us in feel like the best place in the world even though it might have been the last place that could be. But I said I look up to that woman in a male-dominate country. I can't help but hear that little boy who had to drop out of eighth grade with no hope of ever going back to school. That boy still questions if this moment is real and what may be next. But I've met some very inspirational, risk-taking, selfless, and loving individuals along the way-- some of them are in this crowd-- that never stopped believing in me, that never stopped caring for me, and they never stopped fighting for me. It's my hope that the little boys and girls in all of us today inspire us to have a heart to feel and an ear to hear the cause of children and families around the world for change, for change, for change. So let's use this opportunity and education to kick down doors to injustices around the world, and let's start at home from our own doorsteps, from our own communities, and from our own neighborhoods-- something Wheelock's real good at. As we sit next to each other today, let's soak in the joy of these moments and use our oneness as strength for the journeys ahead. Thank you all for your passion and hope that you represent through your hard work, and, again, congratulations to everyone. And as we like to wrap it up in Iran and in Farsi we say, [SPEAKING FARSI]-- peace and much love. [APPLAUSE]