BRATTLEBORO — I was actually a bit surprised when Marlboro College President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell asked me to deliver a commencement address. I do not have a graduate degree, much less have earned one as many graduates have - while holding a full-time job, paying a mortgage, and raising a family.
So I asked Ellen straight out why she was inviting me to speak.
She said, “Because, Matt, you are an optimist.”
I found that moniker flattering. But I have to be honest: my optimism recently has been challenged.
Here in America, we are now seeing the greatest divide between the rich and poor - ever.
The polar ice is melting so fast that we can watch Greenland change color from white.
Emerging democracies, where we had great hope, are falling into increasingly authoritarian hands, becoming places where a rock band can be imprisoned for the content of their lyrics.
Despite millions of new dollars spent on science education, fewer women are entering fields of engineering and computer science.
Greece - the cradle of democracy, philosophy, and literature - is watching its history literally crumble under the weight of the country's economic free fall.
And here in our country, the largest and most powerful in the world, we continue to have one of the worst infant mortality rates and provide health insurance to the fewest people of any first world country, while spending the most on health care per capita.
In the heart of a presidential race, legitimate candidates for the U.S. Senate are actually engaging in a debate about whether climate change is real and the definition of “legitimate rape” when discussing whether women should control their own bodies.
It might give even the biggest optimist in the world a moment of pause.
But looking out at the new graduates of Marlboro's programs restores that optimism.
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Sustainability and nonprofit managers, social justice and technology teachers, social and technology entrepreneurs. I can think of a no better set of careers to leverage the opportunities of our time to tackle the challenges of our generation.
Moreover, we are at a time like no other, when small social enterprises, innovative hospital administrators, or rural educators can have a profound impact on the world.
I work for Google, where I head up our local social responsibility efforts. At Google, we believe in a few principles to maintain an ecosystem of innovation:
• Don't spend time planning when you can be doing. Endless planning stifles new ideas that can emerge from anywhere at any time. Endless planning suggests that those who build the plans are all knowledgeable, can stop listening, can stop learning.
• Maintain a healthy disregard for the impossible. We are literally told, “Pretend traditional constraints don't exist. If it is a great idea or innovation, the capacity to make it real will emerge from others excited about the idea.”
• Create environments where real, in-person, informal collaboration can take place. Many people are surprised that an Internet company would value such “analog” connections, but we know and have actually measured extensively that for true synergy and collaboration to take place, individuals need to not only be physically in the same community or same building, but on the same floor.
We know and believe that technology can solve many things and provide the delivery of facts, frameworks, and content and can connect people over extraordinary distances. But nothing can replace the magical chemistry of an in-person conversation, the momentum of a brainstorm, and the building on the relationship of the collection of past experiences and passions of a group of people.
These are not much different from what it takes to be a successful social entrepreneur or change agent in any field.
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Nor are these Google principles far from the spirit and philosophies of Marlboro, an institution founded by members of the greatest generation to ensure the future of strong democracies.
Providing leadership for a strong, progressive democracy is not about memorizing a set of facts, historical timelines, or cases. What Marlboro has understood from its inception is that preparing for leadership in a democratic society must be infused with learning, understanding, and experiencing relationships while actually tackling real-world problems.
The emphasis on the interaction between teacher and learner that is the hallmark of Marlboro's undergraduate program is also a strong value of the graduate and certificate studies.
Adult students and career-changers have developed capstone projects that do not just live in a theoretical construct but are also rooted in the reality of the day. They use their valuable time in a community of creative thinkers to identify out-of-the-box approaches to solving problems.
And through this process, they have learned differently because of their relationship with their education - an experience that will serve them beyond the walls of any particular program and into a lifetime of learning and innovation.
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Graduates also take with them the energy of this region. Those who don't actually live in Vermont? By attending Marlboro, they can't help but be infused with its spirit.
This state has been a fountain of innovation and social activism. From these quiet remote hills came the cutting edge of munitions to defend the first modern democracy, the first electric motor to power a new era, and even groundbreaking organs to bring sweet music to the world.
This state was the home of outspoken activists who opposed slavery first, challenged efforts to curtail free speech, stood up to McCarthy, and called out the realities of misguided wars.
Vermont is also a state where our commitment to social responsibility and service runs deep. As President Calvin Coolidge, a native of the state, said:
“[Vermonters] are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.”
It was true in 1927, and as we have seen in our response to Tropical Storm Irene, that spirit remains stronger than ever.
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And today, the opportunities for entrepreneurs, educators, and leaders from “brave little states” to create social change is stronger than ever.
In the last 10 years, technology has evolved to allow people from the smallest of organizations to have the computing and communication power that used to be reserved for large governments, corporations, and massive non-government organizations. The content of the world's books can be available to anyone.
A 13-year-old in Brattleboro can video conference with a 13-year-old in Mumbai at the touch of a button and, soon, one child will be able to speak Hindi and the other child hear the words in English.
A family doctor can check in, eye to eye, on a shut-in patient for five minutes every day without leaving her office.
Middlebury College scholar, author, and climate-change activist Bill McKibben can organize 100,000 people on five continents to raise awareness around his cause at the same time, and see one another's progress in real time.
Anyone can publish ideas to the world and bring interactive courses on any subject matter to nearly any school.
An Arab Spring cannot be controlled in the darkness of an oppressive regime.
All of this communication can happen virtually anywhere today, at virtually no cost, without having to ask for permission.
Today's graduates know how to use these tools. They know the power of personal relationships. They are the next innovators.
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We are at a moment when ideas that resonate can reach around the globe based on the authenticity of the message, where universal truths of human rights, education, science, and freedom can ring out because the tools for amplification for anyone are approaching those controlled only by the rich and the powerful.
As I read the summaries of Marlboro graduates' capstone projects, I realized that these people are precisely what we need at this moment. They have joined more than 500 alumni who are focused on action, not theory; who are pushing the boundaries of what most would say is possible; who are creating tools, relationships, and communities to build momentum for positive change.
Graduates have recognized that in this day and age that they can affect change locally and globally at the same time. They are bringing their passion, their values and, yes, their optimism to a world where social entrepreneurs, innovative managers, and global educators can thrive like never before.
I came to Brattleboro newly inspired, and I can't wait to see the world they are now destined to shape.