Marge Connelly Chief Operating Officer and President, Business Services Group Wachovia  Securities

Congratulations!

I’ll start by telling you a story….

It’s a story that starts quite awhile ago – back in the ‘30’s – and its about a girl who was born on a farm in the central part of New York.  This wasn’t one of those big farms with lots of equipment and thousands of acres – this was a small farm that barely eked out enough – in fact often didn’t – to keep the small family that lived there with food on the table and a roof over their head.  Starting when she was about 4 years old, she began to put in many hours a day to help out with the farm, because, despite its small size, there was always something to do – cows to milk, eggs to gather, chickens to feed, hay to spread, milk to churn, wood to split – every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Not too much later, there came a time that might be viewed as the first major choice of this young girls life – what to do about school.  Now technically, she had to go, but they lived in the country with a one room schoolhouse, so she could probably get away with going for just a few hours a day, just for the hours when her grade was being taught.  She was, after all, needed back home to help out with all the work.  And, on top of that, she was a girl – and girls didn’t do much in the way of education anyway.

But the family made a choice and she not only went to that one room school – she stayed – all day long every single day.  Her mom and dad found ways to make a few extra dollars to make up for her absence – hauling bricks, driving a bus, selling a few more chords of wood.  And while at school, this young girl didn’t just tune out or choose to do something else when the class went on to the next grade.  Instead, she chose to pay attention, to learn – with the result being that she graduated from high school when she was 14 years old!

The family still was poor, the farm still required an amazing amount of work and her Dad was starting to get ill – and yet this girl, with her family, made the next major choice – and that was to go to college where, on her first day, she was sent away because she was so young, they didn’t believe she had the credentials to be there.

But she went back and stuck it out, and – despite the fact that no one in either her mother’s or father’s family had done so – she graduated from college and became a teacher.  She went on to marry and had 2 children of her own – and both of them went onto college and more.  And now, these 2 people have a total of 5 children – all of which have been are or will be shortly attending college.

The point?  The choices that you make today can have impacts for not years, but literally generations. Particularly when it comes to education.

And I know that there are many in this room, some who are graduates here today, some who or parents or grandparents of these graduates, who made similar choices and who – like the girl in that story who was, I’m proud to say, my Mother – were the first in their family to go – despite great odds and challenges – to a college or university.

And even if that’s not quite your personal story, you have all had major life defining choices to make. And its clear that overall you’ve made good – thousands of good choices that have made it possible for you to be here today.  Some of those choices were perhaps tantalizing, but relatively simple. You chose to study instead of choosing to play video games or hang out with friends.  You chose to get up in the morning and make it to class instead of sleeping in.  For some of you, though, those choices were harder.  Some of you chose to tolerate the exhaustion that comes from going to school AND working a full-time job in order to pay for it. Some of you chose to tackle a different language and a different culture in order have a whole new set of experiences and opportunities that weren’t available in your native country. Some of you chose to take on academic challenges far greater than you’d ever taken on before.

And all of you chose VCU business school – part of the most diverse university in the state, with great education, great sports and located in one of the best cities on the planet – made even better because you are here. 

And you did it! Those choices added up and here you are. And I thank you for making all those choices – our businesses, our communities our whole world needs more people like you. And parents, grandparents, friend and other supporters – I thank you for helping them along the way. You all deserve to feel very proud.

And now, your accomplishments have given you options you otherwise never would have had.  In essence, you’ve earned the right to have greater choices.   Some of these choices will seem obvious while others will feel confusing and obscure.  And sometimes it will feel that you don’t have many choices – that all you can do is go with the tide and hope for the best. Don’t let that happen.  Always remember that you do have a choice, and that you have proven to the world and to yourselves that you are capable of making good ones.  You’ve made thousands so far and I know you will make thousands more.

Now, everyone has to find your own unique path and I encourage all of you to do so, but there are a few choices that I do encourage you to make.

First – keep learning.  Don’t let this be the end of your formal or informal education.  The world we live in is constantly changing and it is imperative that we adopt this notion of life-long learning in order to retain the opportunity to make choices like the ones you have earned so far.

And second – help others make the same kind of choices that got you here.  Help your brothers and sisters, your nieces and nephews, your neighbors, the people in your church and your community – help them make their own thousand right choices that result in a college degree.  And know while your doing it that you could be helping make choices that will impact people for generations to come.

There is no stronger correlation to success in our country than education.  You now have what it takes to get started – both in your heads and soon in your hands. 

In business, the need for educated people who are willing and able to learn new things is never ending.  It’s been that way throughout my entire 25 years in business.  And as our economy becomes more and more global, that need grows even greater.  As new competitors emerge from every corner of the globe, as markets in previously remote or closed lands continue to open, both the opportunities and the threats increase.  And while there is no silver bullet for ensuring continuous success, there is something that comes close – and that is education.

I’m sure most of you have seen some of the statistics that show how we are falling behind many parts of the world like China and India in terms of education.  And while that is true and it is cause for concern, I still am incredibly optimistic, even more so as I look around this room.  Because we have something that I think is unique, and you have it here in spades – and that is the combination of education, freedom and diversity – and that’s the ingredients for true innovation and that’s what will enable us to continue to develop our communities and make this country a great place live and a strong and positive leader throughout the world.

So, as you go out to begin your careers in business or government or go on for your next degree and you start to think about those next choices, let me leave you with one last thought – and this is a quote from a gentleman named Les Brown -"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

My best to all of you – and congratulations.

Marge Connelly recently was named to the VCU School of Business Foundation. She is the Chief Operating Officer and President, Business Services Group, Wachovia Securities. She was named to this position in March, 2006. She joined Wachovia Securities from Capital One, where she played a central role in the company’s formation and growth since its establishment in 1994.