I had the opportunity to attend commencement ceremonies and celebrate the successes of our graduating seniors. I particularly enjoyed the department’s open house and the chance it gave me to speak with many of our graduates and their parents. In preparing to speak at the open house, I kept returning to the idea of uncertainty. I have two college-aged children, and I see how the uncertainty surrounding the future—because of AI and other forces—is stressful for many college students.

While I do not believe that the uncertainty (or the related stress) is going away soon, I am excited by the ways in which our students are preparing themselves to thrive. Through their coursework and extracurricular activities, our students have developed a wide range of skills: public speaking, writing, data analysis, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and more. These are transferable skills that students will be able to adapt to whatever situations the future holds. I am confident in their ability to do so because I have seen many of them apply their skills while still in college: conducting original research, creating educational social media content, running a nonprofit, helping run the student newspaper, and more.

I finished my comments to the students with one piece of advice: take chances. Research suggests that, in the long run, people regret the actions they did not take more than the actions they took that did not work out. With uncertainty comes great opportunity. My hope is that all our graduates will take chances. Some actions will lead to momentary failures, but many of those actions will lead to great successes. Be bold!