Keynote speaker Bill Anaya delivered his address during the two Dec. 16 commencement ceremonies. Anaya, a 1993 UM-Dearborn graduate who works at Coupang as the global government affairs vice president, talked about how the people and lessons in his life helped propel him to success and fulfillment. If you missed the ceremonies, here’s the advice Anaya shared with the Class of 2023.
It is a privilege to share in this day with you.
Thank you Chancellor Grasso, a dynamic and caring leader who is devoted to our students, and the great university leadership team for inviting me to share this milestone moment with all of you.
I am overjoyed to see each of you and your loved ones.
Today, I am joined by the most important person in my life, my bride of 25 years. Erica is a fearless advocate for children in need and women who deserve a second chance. She’s also the mother of our children — William and Laura — who are studying at the public university in Charlottesville, Virginia that is ranked just behind this one. Our son will have a career in finance, and our daughter will be a nurse. So proud of them.
This occasion for many of us represents a major accomplishment, maybe even something seemingly impossible because it felt out of reach. Yet, here we are recognizing you, celebrating learning, and reflecting on from where we came while preparing for the impact we will make from this point forward. Sounds pretty meaningful and important, doesn’t it? Which is why standing here with you feels like an undeserved gift to me - in so many ways.
Please let me explain.
Thirty years ago, I was privileged to graduate from this special place. It took me 4.5 years to do it. But, the team here had my back all the way.
When I was growing up, going to and graduating college was not something I felt was possible for me.
Maybe some of us have this in common.
You see, before I was even 10 years old, I worked with my father and grandfather as a janitor. I cleaned places like local office buildings, laundromats and even bathrooms in a trucking company in a rock quarry — not too far from where we are now assembled in this beautiful space.
As you can imagine, in more ways than one . . . that work left an indelible mark on me. Like many families, we had to find a way to make ends meet. I was working with two of the biggest lions in my life. And we worked hard. I learned priceless life lessons from them.
And, I learned different lessons from my interactions with the men who owned the facilities we cleaned. They could be dismissive of us.
Those experiences, however, helped to form a younger me and steel my resolve to seek a brighter tomorrow — and to prove to potential mentors and sherpas that I was worthy of their investment in my future.
Oftentimes, at the rock quarry, I would finish my work and then slip out of one of the bays where the heavy trucks were parked and head over to where there was a massive hole in the earth that seemed to me to be a mile deep. From that hole, the trucks would haul out stone that would be used to build some of the infrastructure around us.
To get to the hole, I would crawl under a barbed wire fence. I would make my way to the edge and dangle my feet, somehow calmly, above the most beautiful pool of deep blue water that had collected way down at the bottom.
Over the years, it became a sort of wishing well that allowed me to stare down into it and transport myself from the honorable work we were doing toward dreams of going to college and building a different career.
Like each of the family members here today, my parents always wanted more for their children. While they ultimately divorced, they made sure I understood the dignity of work done to the best of one’s ability and the singular importance of responsibility. They hoped I would get a college education.
Indeed, my father, while suffering from terminal cancer, essentially directed me to apply to Dearborn. I wondered whether it would even be worth it. After all, we did not have the economic resources to make it work.
But, thankfully, I listened.
And, before he would conclude his valiant and selfless battle for his life, he learned that this special place had awarded the Chancellor’s Scholarship to his son. Because of Dearborn’s decision to grant a full academic scholarship to me, I would be able to earn an otherwise unobtainable world-class education — and so much more.
I began here as a student who wanted to prepare for medical school. But a prerequisite in political science turned my plans inside out. I would soon be taking any class offered by Dr. Helen Graves.
During my time here, she and then-Congressman John Dingell became another set of heroes and giants in my life. Dr. Graves was a force of nature in our classrooms and among the organizations, both corporate and governmental, which she convinced to take interns.
Chairman Dingell was one of the most extraordinarily thoughtful and powerful policymakers in American Government for more than half a century — and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell is extending this legacy. She is a leader and one of the most effective and influential lawmakers in the Capitol. The Congresswoman battles every day and wins for our school and all of us.
These special people took me under their wings.
They made THE difference in my life.
Helen Graves worked with me to secure my first internship in Washington, D.C., where I would be of service to the then-Majority Leader, himself a Michigan Law School grad. After that, Professor Graves also forced me into an internship across the street from here at Ford World Headquarters.
I mean it.
She made me do it.
Pretty much against my will!
If you were lucky enough to know Helen, you knew there was no sense in disagreeing with her. Helen Graves was a juggernaut in a small frame. I am not sure that she was even five feet tall, but I was afraid of her
