So I'll be talking about the success of my campus, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, UMBC, in educating students of all types, across the arts and humanities and the science and engineering areas. What makes our story especially important is that we have learned so much from a group of students who are typically not at the top of the academic ladder -- students of color, students underrepresented in selected areas. And what makes the story especially unique is that we have learned how to help African-American students, Latino students, students from low-income backgrounds, to become some of the best in the world in science and engineering.
Govoriću vam o uspehu mog kampusa, na Univerzitetu u Merilendu, okrug Baltimor, UMBC, u obrazovanju studenata svih tipova, preko umetnosti i humanističkih nauka, prirodnih nauka i inženjerstva. Ono što čini našu priču izuzetno važnom je da smo mnogo naučili kroz grupu studenata koji obično nisu na vrhu akademske lestvice: studenti tamnije boje kože, oni koji su nedovoljno zastupljeni u određenim poljima. A ono što čini priču izuzetno jedinstvenom je to da smo naučili kako da pomognemo afroameričkim i latinoameričkim studentima, studentima sa niskim primanjima u porodici, da postanu neki od najboljih svetskih naučnika i inženjera.
And so I begin with a story about my childhood. We all are products of our childhood experiences. It's hard for me to believe that it's been 50 years since I had the experience of being a ninth grade kid in Birmingham, Alabama, a kid who loved getting A's, a kid who loved math, who loved to read, a kid who would say to the teacher -- when the teacher said, "Here are 10 problems," to the class, this little fat kid would say, "Give us 10 more." And the whole class would say, "Shut up, Freeman." And there was a designated kicker every day. And so I was always asking this question: "Well how could we get more kids to really love to learn?"
A počeću sa pričom o svom detinjstvu. Svi smo mi proizvodi svojih iskustava iz detinjstva. Teško mi je da poverujem da je prošlo 50 godina od kad sam bio dete u šestom razredu u Bermingemu, Alabami, dete koje je volelo da dobija petice, dete koje je volelo matematiku, koje je volelo da čita, dete koje bi nastavniku govorilo, kada bi nastavnik razredu rekao: "Evo 10 zadataka", to malo debelo dete bi reklo: "Dajte nam još 10". A ceo razred bi rekao: "Ućuti, Frimene". I svaki dan bih dobijao batine. I tako sam se uvek pitao: "Pa kako bismo mogli da navedemo više dece da zaista vole da uče?"
And amazingly, one week in church, when I really didn't want to be there and I was in the back of the room being placated by doing math problems, I heard this man say this: "If we can get the children to participate in this peaceful demonstration here in Birmingham, we can show America that even children know the difference between right and wrong and that children really do want to get the best possible education." And I looked up and said, "Who is that man?" And they said his name was Dr. Martin Luther King. And I said to my parents, "I've got to go. I want to go. I want to be a part of this." And they said, "Absolutely not."
I, zadivljujuće, jedne nedelje u crkvi, kada zaista nisam želeo da budem tamo i bio sam u dnu prostorije zadubljen u zadatke iz matematike, čuo sam jednog čoveka kako je rekao: "Ako uspemo u tome da deca učestvuju u ovim mirnim demonstracijama u Bermingemu, pokazaćemo Americi da čak i deca znaju razliku između dobrog i lošeg i da deca zaista žele da imaju najbolje moguće obrazovanje". I ja sam pogledao i pitao: "Ko je taj čovek?" A oni su mi rekli da je njegovo ime dr Martin Luter King. Rekao sam roditeljima: "Ja moram da idem. Ja želim da idem. Želim da budem deo ovoga." A oni su odgovorili: "Ne dolazi u obzir."
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And we had a rough go of it. And at that time, quite frankly, you really did not talk back to your parents. And somehow I said, "You know, you guys are hypocrites. You make me go to this. You make me listen. The man wants me to go, and now you say no." And they thought about it all night. And they came into my room the next morning. They had not slept. They had been literally crying and praying and thinking, "Will we let our 12-year-old participate in this march and probably have to go to jail?" And they decided to do it. And when they came in to tell me, I was at first elated. And then all of a sudden I began thinking about the dogs and the fire hoses, and I got really scared, I really did. And one of the points I make to people all the time is that sometimes when people do things that are courageous, it doesn't really mean that they're that courageous. It simply means that they believe it's important to do it.
Prilično smo se posvađali. A u to vreme, nisi smeo da se suprotstavljaš roditeljima. I nekako sam im rekao: "Znate, vi ste licemeri. Naterate me da idem na to. Naterate me da slušam. Čovek želi da idem, a vi sada kažete da ne može". Razmišljali su o tome celu noć. I ušli su u moju sobu sledećeg jutra. Nisu spavali. Doslovno su plakali, molili se i razmišljali: "Hoćemo li pustiti naše dvanaestogodišnje dete da učestvuje u ovom maršu i verovatno završi u zatvoru?" I odlučili su da to urade. A kada su ušli da mi to kažu, u početku sam bio ushićen. A onda sam odjednom počeo da razmišljam o psima i vatrogasnim crevima i zaista sam se strašno uplašio. A jedna stvar koju uvek govorim ljudima je da ponekad kada ljudi čine odvažne stvari, to ne znači da su oni toliko odvažni. To jednostavno znači da oni veruju da je važno da to urade.
I wanted a better education. I did not want to have to have hand-me-down books. I wanted to know that the school I attended not only had good teachers, but the resources we needed. And as a result of that experience, in the middle of the week, while I was there in jail, Dr. King came and said with our parents, "What you children do this day will have an impact on children who have not been born."
Ja sam želeo bolje obrazovanje. Nisam želeo da moram da koristim polovne knjige. Želeo sam da znam da škola u koju idem ne samo da ima dobre nastavnike, već i neophodna sredstva. A kao rezultat tog iskustva, usred nedelje, dok sam bio u zatvoru, dr King je došao i rekao našim roditeljima: "Ono što vaša deca urade danas imaće efekat na decu koja se još nisu ni rodila."
I recently realized that two-thirds of Americans today had not been born at the time of 1963. And so for them, when they hear about the Children's Crusade in Birmingham, in many ways, if they see it on TV, it's like our looking at the 1863 "Lincoln" movie: It's history. And the real question is, what lessons did we learn? Well amazingly, the most important for me was this: That children can be empowered to take ownership of their education. They can be taught to be passionate about wanting to learn and to love the idea of asking questions.
Nedavno sam shvatio da dve trećine Amerikanaca danas nisu bili rođeni pre 1963. I za njih, kada čuju za Dečji krstaški rat u Bermingemu, na mnoge načine, ako ga vide na televiziji, on je nalik na to kada mi gledamo film o Linkolnu iz 1863. Deo je istorije. A pravo pitanje je: koje lekcije smo naučili? Pa, zapanjujuće, najvažnija za mene je sledeća: Deca se mogu osposobiti da preuzmu kontrolu nad svojim obrazovanjem. Mogu se naučiti da budu strastvena u želji za učenjem i da vole da pitaju pitanja.
And so it is especially significant that the university I now lead, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, UMBC, was founded the very year I went to jail with Dr. King, in 1963. And what made that institutional founding especially important is that Maryland is the South, as you know, and, quite frankly, it was the first university in our state founded at a time when students of all races could go there. And so we had black and white students and others who began to attend. And it has been for 50 years an experiment. The experiment is this: Is it possible to have institutions in our country, universities, where people from all backgrounds can come and learn and learn to work together and learn to become leaders and to support each other in that experience?
Tako da je posebno važno da je univerzitet koji ja sada vodim, Univerzitet u Merilendu, Okrug Baltimor, UMBC, osnovan upravo one godine kada sam ja otišao u zatvor sa gospodinom Kingom, 1963. A ono što čini osnivanje te institucije posebno važnim je da je Merilend na jugu, kao što znate, i to je bio prvi univerzitet u našoj saveznoj državi u to vreme, u koji su mogli da idu studenti svih rasa. I tako smo imali studente crnce i belce, i druge koji su počeli da studiraju. I 50 godina traje eksperiment. A eksperiment je sledeći: da li je moguće imati institucije u našoj državi, univerzitete, u koje svi mogu da dođu i uče i da nauče kako da rade zajedno i da nauče kako da postanu vođe i da podrže jedni druge u tom iskustvu?
Now what is especially important about that experience for me is this: We found that we could do a lot in the arts and humanities and social sciences. And so we began to work on that, for years in the '60s. And we produced a number of people in law, all the way to the humanities. We produced great artists. Beckett is our muse. A lot of our students get into theater. It's great work. The problem that we faced was the same problem America continues to face -- that students in the sciences and engineering, black students were not succeeding. But when I looked at the data, what I found was that, quite frankly, students in general, large numbers were not making it. And as a result of that, we decided to do something that would help, first of all, the group at the bottom, African-American students, and then Hispanic students.
Ono što je meni posebno važno u vezi sa tim iskustvom je da smo otkrili da možemo mnogo da postignemo u umetnosti i humanističkim i društvenim naukama. I tako smo počeli da radimo godinama na tome u '60-tim. I stvorili smo veliki broj ljudi u pravu pa sve do humanističkih nauka. Stvorili smo velike umetnike. Beket je naša muza. Mnogo naših studenata zaposli se u pozorištu. Radimo odličan posao. Problem sa kojim smo se suočili je isti onaj sa kojim se Amerika svakodnevno suočava: studenti u prirodnim naukama i inžinjerstvu, studenti koji su crnci, ne postižu uspeh. Ali kada sam pregledao podatke pronašao sam da veliki broj studenata generalno ne uspeva u tome. I na osnovu toga, odlučili smo da uradimo nešto što bi pomoglo, prvo grupi na dnu, afroameričkim studentima, a onda hispano studentima.
And Robert and Jane Meyerhoff, philanthropists, said, "We'd like to help." Robert Meyerhoff said, "Why is it that everything I see on TV about black boys, if it's not about basketball, is not positive? I'd like to make a difference, to do something that's positive." We married those ideas, and we created this Meyerhoff Scholars program. And what is significant about the program is that we learned a number of things. And the question is this: How is it that now we lead the country in producing African-Americans who go on to complete Ph.D.'s in science and engineering and M.D./Ph.D.'s? That's a big deal. Give me a hand for that. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. It really is.
A filantropi, Robert i Džejn Majerhof rekli su: "Mi bismo hteli da pomognemo." Robert Majerhof rekao je: "Zašto sve što vidim o crnim dečacima na televiziji, osim ako se ne radi o košarci, nije pozitivno? Želim da promenim nešto, da uradim nešto pozitivno." Zaljubili smo se u te ideje i stvorili smo program Majerhof stipendije. A ono što je važno u vezi sa ovim programom je da smo naučili mnogo stvari. A pitanje je: kako to da smo sada vodeći u zemlji po stvaranju Afroamerikanaca koji završe doktorske studije iz prirodnih nauka, inžinjerstva i medicine? To je velika stvar. Molim vas aplauz za to. To je velika stvar. Stvarno jeste velika stvar.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
You see, most people don't realize that it's not just minorities who don't do well in science and engineering. Quite frankly, you're talking about Americans. If you don't know it, while 20 percent of blacks and Hispanics who begin with a major in science and engineering will actually graduate in science and engineering, only 32 percent of whites who begin with majors in those areas actually succeed and graduate in those areas, and only 42 percent of Asian-Americans.
Većina ljudi ne shvata da nisu samo manjine oni koji ne uspevaju u prirodnim naukama i inžinjerstvu. Zapravo, radi se o Amerikancima. Ako niste znali, dok 20% crnaca i hispanaca koji počnu da studiraju prirodne nauke ili inžinjerstvo zapravo i diplomira u ovim poljima, samo 32% belaca koji počnu ovo da studiraju zapravo uspe da diplomira u tim poljima, a samo 42% azijskih Amerikanaca
And so, the real question is, what is the challenge? Well a part of it, of course, is K-12. We need to strengthen K-12. But the other part has to do with the culture of science and engineering on our campuses. Whether you know it or not, large numbers of students with high SAT's and large numbers of A.P. credits who go to the most prestigious universities in our country begin in pre-med or pre-engineering and engineering, and they end up changing their majors. And the number one reason, we find, quite frankly, is they did not do well in first year science courses. In fact, we call first year science and engineering, typically around America, weed-out courses or barrier courses.
Dakle, pravo pitanje je: koji je izazov? Pa, deo njega, naravno, je osnovno i srednje obrazovanje. Moramo da ga ojačamo. A drugi deo ima veze sa kulturom prirodnih nauka i inžinjerstva na našim fakultetima. Možda to ne znate, ali veliki broj studenata sa visokim rezultatima SAT ispita i visokim brojem AP poena koji krenu u najprestižnije univerzitete u našoj zemlji, počnu da studiraju medicinu ili inžinjerstvo, a završe na nekom drugom polju. A otkrili smo da je glavni razlog to što im nije išlo na prvoj godini studija prirodnih nauka. Zapravo, u Americi imamo izraz za prvu godinu prirodnih nauka i inžinjerstva: čistka ili barijera.
How many of you in this audience know somebody who started off in pre-med or engineering and changed their major within a year or two? It's an American challenge. Half of you in the room. I know. I know. I know. And what is interesting about that is that so many students are smart and can do it. We need to find ways of making it happen.
Koliko vas u publici poznaje nekoga ko je počeo sa medicinom ili inžinjerstvom i prebacio se na nešto drugo u roku od godinu ili dve? To je američki izazov. Polovina vas u prostoriji. Znam. Znam. A interesantno je da su mnogi studenti pametni i mogli bi da uspeju. Mi moramo da pronađemo način da to omogućimo.
So what are the four things we did to help minority students that now are helping students in general? Number one: high expectations. It takes an understanding of the academic preparation of students -- their grades, the rigor of the course work, their test-taking skills, their attitude, the fire in their belly, the passion for the work, to make it. And so doing things to help students prepare to be in that position, very important. But equally important, it takes an understanding that it's hard work that makes the difference. I don't care how smart you are or how smart you think you are. Smart simply means you're ready to learn. You're excited about learning and you want to ask good questions.
Pa, koje su to 4 stvari koje smo uradili da pomognemo studentima manjina, a koje sada pomažu studentima generalno? Prvo, visoka očekivanja. Potrebno je razumeti akademske pripreme studenata: njihove ocene, težinu posla na kursevima, sposobnosti rađenja testova, njihov stav, vatru koja ih pokreće, strast za radom - da bi se uspelo. I veoma je bitno pomoći studentima da se pripreme da budu u toj poziciji. Ali, jednako važno je razumeti da naporan rad pravi razliku. Ne zanima me koliko si pametan, ili koliko misliš da si pametan. To što si pametan, samo znači da si spreman da učiš. Uzbuđen si zbog učenja i želiš da pitaš dobra pitanja.
I. I. Rabi, a Nobel laureate, said that when he was growing up in New York, all of his friends' parents would ask them "What did you learn in school?" at the end of a day. And he said, in contrast, his Jewish mother would say, "Izzy, did you ask a good question today?" And so high expectations have to do with curiosity and encouraging young people to be curious. And as a result of those high expectations, we began to find students we wanted to work with to see what could we do to help them, not simply to survive in science and engineering, but to become the very best, to excel.
Isidor Rabi, dobitnik Nobelove nagrade, rekao je da kad je odrastao u Njujorku roditelji svih njegovih prijatelja pitali bi ih na kraju dana: "Šta si naučio u školi?" A, nasuprot tome, njegova majka, Jevrejka, pitala bi: "Izi, jesi li danas postavio neko dobro pitanje?" Tako da visoka očekivanja imaju veze sa radoznalošću i ohrabrivanjem mladih ljudi da budu radoznali. A kao rezultat takvih visokih očekivanja, počeli smo da pronalazimo studente s kojima želimo da radimo, da vidimo šta možemo da uradimo da im pomognemo ne samo da prežive u prirodnim naukama i inžinjerstvu nego da postanu najbolji, da budu sjajni.
Interestingly enough, an example: One young man who earned a C in the first course and wanted to go on to med school, we said, "We need to have you retake the course, because you need a strong foundation if you're going to move to the next level." Every foundation makes the difference in the next level. He retook the course. That young man went on to graduate from UMBC, to become the first black to get the M.D./Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He now works at Harvard. Nice story. Give him a hand for that too.
Zanimljiv primer: jedan mladić završio je prvu godinu sa prosečnim ocenama i želeo je da nastavi da studira medicinu. Rekli smo mu: "Želimo da obnoviš godinu, jer ti je potrebna jaka osnova ako želiš na sledeći nivo". Svaka osnova pravi razliku na sledećem nivou. Obnovio je godinu. Taj mladić je diplomirao na UMBC-u i postao prvi doktor medicine na Univerzitetu u Pensilvaniji koji je crnac. Sada radi na Harvardu. Lepa priča. Dajte jedan aplauz za njega.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Secondly, it's not about test scores only. Test scores are important, but they're not the most important thing. One young woman had great grades, but test scores were not as high. But she had a factor that was very important. She never missed a day of school, K-12. There was fire in that belly. That young woman went on, and she is today with an M.D./Ph.D. from Hopkins. She's on the faculty, tenure track in psychiatry, Ph.D. in neuroscience. She and her adviser have a patent on a second use of Viagra for diabetes patients. Big hand for her. Big hand for her. (Applause) And so high expectations, very important.
Drugo, ne radi se samo o rezultatima testova. Rezultati su važni, ali nisu najvažniji. Jedna mlada žena imala je odlične ocene, ali rezultati testova su joj bili niži. Ali posedovala je vrlo bitan faktor. Nije propustila ni dana osnovne i srednje škole. Bilo je one vatre u njoj. Ta devojka je nastavila studije i danas je doktor medicine sa Hopkinsa. Zaposlena je za stalno kao psihijatar, doktor neuronauka. Ona i njen kolega patentirali su upotrebu vijagre za lečenje dijabetesa. Veliki aplauz za nju. Veliki aplauz. (Aplauz) Dakle, visoka očekivanja su izuzetno bitna.
Secondly, the idea of building community among the students. You all know that so often in science and engineering we tend to think cutthroat. Students are not taught to work in groups. And that's what we work to do with that group to get them to understand each other, to build trust among them, to support each other, to learn how to ask good questions, but also to learn how to explain concepts with clarity. As you know, it's one thing to earn an A yourself, it's another thing to help someone else do well. And so to feel that sense of responsibility makes all the difference in the world. So building community among those students, very important.
Drugo, ideja građenja zajednice među studentima. Znate da u prirodnim naukama i inžinjerstvu često razmišljamo kao o nemilosrdnom takmičenju. Studenti se ne uče da rade u grupama. A to je ono na čemu mi radimo kako bismo ih naveli da razumeju jedni druge, da grade poverenje među sobom, podrže jedni druge, nauče da pitaju dobra pitanja, ali isto tako, da nauče da jasno objasne pojmove. Jer jedno je zaslužiti desetku, a nešto sasvim drugo pomoći nekome da uspe. I tako osećaj odgovornosti pravi ogromnu razliku. Dakle, građenje zajednice među studentima veoma je bitno.
Third, the idea of, it takes researchers to produce researchers. Whether you're talking about artists producing artists or you're talking about people getting into the social sciences, whatever the discipline -- and especially in science and engineering, as in art, for example -- you need scientists to pull the students into the work. And so our students are working in labs regularly.
Treće, ideja da eksperti stvaraju eksperte. Bilo da govorimo o umetnicima koji stvaraju umetnike ili da govorimo o ljudima koji se bave društvenim naukama, bilo koja da je disciplina, a posebno prirodne nauke i inžinjerstvo, kao i umetnost, na primer, potrebni su naučnici da povuku studente da rade. Tako da naši studenti redovno rade u laboratorijama.
And one great example that you'll appreciate: During a snowstorm in Baltimore several years ago, the guy on our campus with this Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant literally came back to work in his lab after several days, and all these students had refused to leave the lab. They had food they had packed out. They were in the lab working, and they saw the work, not as schoolwork, but as their lives. They knew they were working on AIDS research. They were looking at this amazing protein design. And what was interesting was each one of them focused on that work. And he said, "It doesn't get any better than that."
A svideće vam se jedan odličan primer: u toku snežne oluje u Baltimoru pre nekoliko godina, čovek sa našeg fakulteta koji ima stipendiju prestižnog medicinskog instituta bukvalno se vratio da radi u svoju laboratoriju nakon nekoliko dana, a svi studenti su odbili da napuste laboratoriju. Imali su spakovanu hranu. Bili su u laboratoriji i radili su, a taj posao su posmatrali, ne kao posao za školu, nego kao svoj život. Znali su da rade na istraživanju o AIDS-u. Posmatrali su neverovatan dizajn proteina. A zanimljivo je da se svako od njih fokusirao na svoj posao. A on je rekao: "Ne može bolje od ovoga."
And then finally, if you've got the community and you've got the high expectations and you've got researchers producing researchers, you have to have people who are willing as faculty to get involved with those students, even in the classroom. I'll never forget a faculty member calling the staff and saying, "I've got this young man in class, a young black guy, and he seems like he's just not excited about the work. He's not taking notes. We need to talk to him." What was significant was that the faculty member was observing every student to understand who was really involved and who was not and was saying, "Let me see how I can work with them. Let me get the staff to help me out." It was that connecting. That young man today is actually a faculty member M.D./Ph.D. in neuroengineering at Duke. Give him a big hand for that.
I konačno, ako imate zajednicu i ako imate visoka očekivanja i eksperte koji stvaraju eksperte, morate imati profesore koji su spremni da se uključe u rad sa studentima, čak i u učionici. Nikada neću zaboraviti jednog profesora koji je nazvao upravu i rekao: "Imam jednog mladića u grupi, mladog crnca i izgleda kao da uopšte nije uzbuđen zbog posla. Ne pravi beleške. Moramo da razgovaramo sa njim." Ono što je bitno je da je taj profesor posmatrao svakog studenta kako bi shvatio ko je zaista uključen, a ko nije i onda je rekao: "Hajde da vidim kako mogu da radim s njima. Hajde da dovedem upravu da mi pomogne." Bila je ta povezanost. Taj mladić je danas profesor doktor neuroinžinjerstva na Djuk univerzitetu. Dajte veliki aplauz za to.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
And so the significance is that we have now developed this model that is helping us, not only finally with evaluation, assessing what works. And what we learned was that we needed to think about redesigning courses. And so we redesigned chemistry, we redesigned physics. But now we are looking at redesigning the humanities and social sciences. Because so many students are bored in class. Do you know that? Many students, K-12 and in universities, don't want to just sit there and listen to somebody talk. They need to be engaged.
Važno je to da smo sada razvili taj model koji nam pomaže, ne samo sa evaluacijom, procenom onoga što funkcioniše. Nego smo shvatili smo da moramo da razmislimo o promeni dizajna kurseva. I promenili smo hemiju, promenili smo fiziku. A sada razmišljamo o promeni humanističkih i društvenih nauka. Jer, previše studenata se dosađuje na predavanjima. Jeste li to znali? Mnogi učenici, u osnovnim, srednjim školama i na univerzitetima ne žele samo da sede i slušaju nekoga kako priča. Žele da učestvuju.
And so we have done -- if you look at our website at the Chemistry Discovery Center, you'll see people coming from all over the country to look at how we are redesigning courses, having an emphasis on collaboration, use of technology, using problems out of our biotech companies on our campus, and not giving students the theories, but having them struggle with those theories. And it's working so well that throughout our university system in Maryland, more and more courses are being redesigned.
Tako da smo uradili nešto, ako pogledate naš veb sajt na Centru za otkrivanje hemije, videćete ljude koji su došli iz cele zemje da vide kako smo promenili kurseve, stavljajući akcenat na saradnju, korišćenje tehnologije, uzimanje problema iz naših biotehnoloških kompanija. Ne dajemo studentima teorije, nego im dajemo da se bore sa tim teorijama. I to funkcioniše toliko dobro, da se u našem sistemu na Merilendu menja sve više kurseva.
It's called academic innovation.
To se zove akademska inovacija.
And what does all of that mean? It means that now, not just in science and engineering, we now have programs in the arts, in the humanities, in the social sciences, in teacher education, even particularly for women in I.T. If you don't know it, there's been a 79-percent decline in the number of women majoring in computer science just since 2000. And what I'm saying is that what will make the difference will be building community among students, telling young women, young minority students and students in general, you can do this work. And most important, giving them a chance to build that community with faculty pulling them into the work and our assessing what works and what does not work. Most important, if a student has a sense of self, it is amazing how the dreams and the values can make all the difference in the world.
A šta to sve znači? Znači da sada, ne samo u prirodnim naukama i inžinjerstvu, sada imamo programe u umetnosti, humanističkim i društvenim naukama, obrazovanju nastavnika, čak posebno žena u informacionim tehnologijama. Ako niste znali, postoji pad od 79% u broju žena koje studiraju kompjuterske nauke samo od 2000. A ja tvrdim da je ono što će napraviti razliku biti građenje zajednice među studentima. Treba da govorimo mladim ženama, mladim studentima manjina i studentima generalno: "Vi to možete." I što je najvažnije, treba da im damo priliku da izgrade tu zajednicu sa profesorima koji će ih povući da rade, a sa nama koji procenjujemo šta funkcioniše, a šta ne. Što je najvažnije, ako je student svestan sebe, neverovatno je kako snovi i vrednosti mogu da naprave ogromnu razliku.
When I was a 12-year-old child in the jail in Birmingham, I kept thinking, "I wonder what my future could be." I had no idea that it was possible for this little black boy in Birmingham to one day be president of a university that has students from 150 countries, where students are not there just to survive, where they love learning, where they enjoy being the best, where they will one day change the world.
Kada sam bio dvanaestogodišnjak u zatvoru u Bermingemu, uporno sam razmišljao: "Kakva bi mogla da bude moja budućnost?" Nisam mogao da zamislim da je moguće da taj mali crni dečak iz Bermingema jednog dana postane predsednik Univerziteta koji okuplja studente iz 150 država, gde studenti nisu tamo samo da prežive, gde oni vole da uče, gde uživaju u tome da budu najbolji, gde će jednoga dana promeniti svet.
Aristotle said, "Excellence is never an accident. It is the result of high intention, sincere effort and intelligent execution. It represents the wisest option among many alternatives." And then he said something that gives me goosebumps. He said, "Choice, not chance, determines your destiny." Choice, not chance, determines your destiny, dreams and values.
Aristotel je rekao: "Izvrsnost nikada nije slučajna. Ona je rezultat jake namere, iskrenog truda i inteligentnog delovanja. Ona predstavlja najmudriju opciju među brojnim alternativama." A onda je rekao nešto od čega se naježim. Rekao je: "Izbor, ne verovatnoća, određuje vašu sudbinu." Izbor, ne verovatnoća, određuje vašu sudbinu, snove i vrednosti.
Thank you all very much.
Hvala vam mnogo.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)