May 26, 2017
Greetings to Dean Williams, former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, faculty, staff and alumni. And to the Class of 2017—congratulations! Congratulations also and welcome to our parents, friends, and loved ones, without whom we wouldn’t be here today.
When we told our families we were applying to study at Harvard, of course they were all delighted, and I’m sure a question we were all asked is—what is public health? It’s the same question we asked ourselves on our first day of classes. Public health is what brought us together from around the world and it’s what unites us today in these difficult times—yet few of us have the same answer to this seemingly simple question.
That I can’t provide a definition of public health that would mean the same to all of us is because I think that public health is more than a discipline. It’s also an aspiration—the state of the public being healthy. Now, on the face of it, you’d think we could all define something as simple as that. Yet public health is often invisible. When it works, we don’t read about it. We don’t read about how the water we drink not only hydrates us but also prevents our teeth from decaying; we don’t read about how many lives are saved by surveillance workers in an outbreak of infectious disease.
But our lack of public health is clear for all to see. Every day as I cycle on the streets between Cambridge and here—the very same journey we’ve all made this morning in the pouring rain—we see people who call these streets their home. Scarred from sleeping rough, their suffering is a constant reminder of our lack of public health. So too is the fact that a baby born right here can expect to live 30 years longer than a child born just two miles south of here. 30 years. If I asked you to explain this horrible racial disparity, I’d likely hear a number of reasons—poor nutrition, substance misuse, smoking, gun violence, poor access to medical care and to education. Tackling problems as great as these requires a diverse group of individuals with different skills and knowledge.
And that’s exactly what I see when I look at the people graduating today. I see researchers, policymakers, philosophers, servicewomen, physicians, basic scientists, educators, consultants, and many, many more. While each of us may approach problems from different perspectives, we are united in our commitment to improving the public’s health, and this school has given us a set of common skills, and the resilience and inspiration to get out there and prevent disease and promote health.
But public health is about more than just bringing people from different backgrounds together; it’s also about serving others. We are fortunate to have the health, resources and support to be here; lucky to be educated individuals at the best public health school in the world. Few have had greater choice in the directions our lives could take—and so while our talents may be arbitrary, our choices are not. And we have chosen to answer our call to serve.
Now, something Harvard students do particularly well is social media—and I want to try something out with you today. There’s a guy called Mark from a website you might have heard of called Facebook who is speaking right about now across the river in Cambridge. I’m sure my buddy Mark has probably attracted a few of the public health crowd to his talk (and shame on them)—so for them, for Mark, and for all our family and friends who for whatever reason can’t be with us today, I want you to get out your phones right now and I want you to take a picture of the beautiful flags in this tent—and I want you to upload your pictures to Facebook using the hashtag HarvardChan17, and I want you to put a particular caption on these photos, and the caption is: Talents are arbitrary, choices are not.
The pictures you are taking now represent just a fraction of the diversity of the people who have been brought together by this school. So yes—public health unites us and yes, it’s about serving others. But more than that, it’s an aspiration—a journey to which we commit ourselves today. And I know that each and every one of you will do your bit so we can all, regardless of where we come from and the opportunities we may have had, get there one day. Thank you.
photo: J.D. Levine
Additional coverage
Harvard Chan graduates urged to ‘speak truth to power’
Commencement day photo gallery
Commencement eve photo gallery
Commencement slideshow
Storify, a collection of photos taken by students, families, and friends
Student, faculty, and staff award winners
Dean Michelle Williams address
Former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy address
Watch a webcast of Gina McCarthy’s address
Alumni Council President Sameh El-Saharty address