Good morning.
Convocation is one of my favorite moments on the academic calendar. It is a time of new beginnings, where you can feel that sense of possibility across campus. Our studios, classrooms, residence halls, and gathering spaces come alive. There are new faces and new friendships, and new ideas taking shape.
For those of you who are new to MICA, I hope you will remember this feeling. There is only one first day, one moment when everything before you is still unwritten.
And to any of our returning students, faculty, and staff here today: Welcome back. You bring with you your own sense of renewal, and the creative energy that makes this community what it is.
This year, that sense of possibility carries even greater meaning.
Over the past several months, we have had the opportunity to reflect on MICA’s 200-year history, and on the generations of artists, designers, educators, and creative thinkers who have shaped this institution and, in turn, helped design the world around them.
Now, as we continue this celebration, our focus also turns forward.
What will MICA look like in 5 years, 10 years, or more? And what role will each of you play in defining what comes next?
For me and at the heart of all these questions is the extraordinary power of education. Nelson Mandela famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Think about that for a moment.
He didn’t say wealth. Or status. Or influence.
He said “education.”
Because education changes what we see, what we believe, and ultimately, what we are capable of doing. A degree may mark a milestone, but education continues once you cross that stage. It stays with you. It becomes part of how you think, how you solve problems, how you communicate, how you respond to change, and how you will understand the world.
Education is a lifelong investment.
And here at MICA, that investment is about learning how to observe closely. How to ask better questions. How to think critically. How to take an idea and make it real.
You are learning creativity, design thinking, how to prototype and revise, how to work through ambiguity, and how to turn an idea into a livelihood.
Those skills matter enormously in a world that is changing at extraordinary speedWhile we cannot know exactly what the workplace will look like 10 or 20 years from now, I can tell you this: The ability to imagine, adapt, communicate, collaborate, and create will continue to matter.
That is the lasting return on an education.
It opens doors to opportunity. It gives you skills that travel with you from one job to another, one stage of life to another.
And sometimes education opens a door you didn’t even know was there.
I see that happening across MICA every day.
Our students continuously earn national recognition in painting, photography, illustration, graphic design, and game design. They combine biodesign with sound or ceramics. They use creative practice to explore history, culture, and community. One recent graduate even turned the discovery of an ancient hominin tooth on a research expedition in Kenya into her thesis work.
These experiences show just how far an education can lead. So, where might an education take you?
I’d say, somewhere you never imagined.
That is why you must resist the temptation to think of your education as a linear path from where you are today to some predetermined destination.
It is much more interesting than that and you must continue to learn over your lifetime.
The poet William Butler Yeats once said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
That fire is curiosity.
Follow the question that fascinates you. Take the class that intimidates you. Meet the person whose work
is completely different from yours. Walk into a studio you have never visited. Explore Baltimore. Try something you are not sure you will be good at.
Because, and this may be the most important thing I tell you today, you have the freedom to learn and to get better along the way.
You are going to make mistakes. You will create work that does not turn out the way you envisioned. You will receive a critique that might sting. You will struggle with an assignment. You will pursue an idea that leads absolutely nowhere.
And then you will try again.
That is not education going wrong.
That is education working.
Some of the greatest growth in your life will come from moments when things do not go according to plan.
Creative practice requires experimentation. You make something. You look at it. You question it. You revise it. Sometimes begin again.In the process, something important happens: You learn that failure is information.
You become more resilient.
You discover that making mistakes does not diminish you; it can teach you.
And eventually, you begin to approach uncertainty with curiosity.
But there is one more dimension to the power of education.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”
Your education is not only about what you will know or what you will make. It is also about who you will
become at MICA, in Baltimore, and in the creative world.
For 200 years, MICA students have challenged conventions, expanded the boundaries of art and design, and used creativity to engage with the world around them.
Now, that legacy belongs to you.
Remember that the real measure of your education is not just the diploma you receive. It is what you do with what you have learned, and who you become along your way to changing the world.
I began this morning with Nelson Mandela’s quote: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
But remember: education does not change the world on its own. People do. People who take what they have learned and use it to imagine, question, create, and act.
For 200 years, MICA has prepared artists, designers, and creative thinkers to do exactly that.
Now it is your turn.
Start the year. Learn. Create. And go change the world a little bit at a time.
Thank you.