May 19, 2022
Commencement Address to the Class of 2022 by Dean Shari E. Miller, PhD
On behalf of the faculty, staff, and alumni of the Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare, congratulations to the class of 2022!
That you’ve ALL arrived here today is the strongest testament to your determination, your dedication, your strength, your commitment, your drive, and your passion. You made it here across a span of time DEFINED by the unprecedented, and by upheaval, disruption, deconstruction, and a swirling sea of information and inputs. I WON’T say you made it here despite all of this, but instead you made it here in some ways because of, and informed by, all of this. You all came to social work for a reason – SOMETHING drove you to want to do this hard and most essential of work. Whatever it is that drove you here, I URGE you to reflect on it and consider how it’s changed, grown, evolved, as YOU have over the last year, two, three, four. What does that driving passion look like for you today? Tell yourself that story, and take it with you as you move onto your next steps as social workers.
You brought your MOST genuine of selves to this hard work. You focused on your classes, on the clients, communities, and organizations you served in your field internships, you participated as engaged citizens in the School of Social Welfare, you grounded yourselves solidly in YOUR communities, doing what you could to be part of something larger than yourselves. Some of you did all of this while also working in much needed jobs, and taking care of family responsibilities, and loved ones who may have been in need.
Nothing says social work like THAT kind of force of will, grounded in an unwavering belief that change is possible, AND a passionate, willful commitment to making the world a better place.
Your graduation from the Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare is evidence of your strength, your substance, THAT force of will, and your remarkable accomplishments. But, if there’s one thing social workers know, it’s that we accomplish so much more together than alone, and in fact, NO SINGLE PERSON EVER STANDS ALONE. So, I’d like to acknowledge and celebrate some exceedingly important people here today. First, I’d like to introduce the faculty of the School of Social Welfare – would the faculty all please rise as you are able. I’d also like to acknowledge the staff of the School of Social Welfare. Would you all please rise as you are able. Please join me in extending gratitude to this incredible group of humans for all that they do each and every day to support you, our students, to challenge you to grow and develop as social workers, and ALSO all that they do to nurture the community of the School of Social Welfare and its reach into our larger community beyond. And I’d like to extend a specific thank you to the members of the staff and administration of the School, who worked tirelessly to make today’s convocation possible – it is no small feat to coordinate this kind of event, and the spirit with which you all did this is incomparable. Thank you. Now, there is no way ANY of this, your education OR your graduation, could have been possible without the support and care of your loved ones. I’d like to ask our graduating students and our faculty and staff to please rise as able to celebrate and applaud with gusto and appreciation, the families and friends who are here with us today
Thank you all.
The world needs social workers NOW more than ever. I would probably have said the exact same thing last year, the year before that, six years ago, twenty, thirty, fifty years ago and beyond, and it would have been just as true then as it is now. The world always needs social workers NOW! Social work is defined by its adaptiveness, responsiveness, its capacity to nimbly shift to meet the context and the times where they are. Social workers are poised and at the ready, with the kind of competence and meta competence necessary to practice reflexively across systems and structures of all shapes and sizes, in the face of change and ambiguity.
Living through crisis in the ways we have been doing collectively for a number of years now, AND that you’ve been educated as social workers during crisis, indelibly marks the narrative of who you are and how you’ll practice. This 21st century world is full of epic challenges, and social workers are engaged to try to address those challenges on every front including: in healthcare, schools, disabilities, mental and behavioral health, addictions, housing, trauma, forensics, immigration, poverty, food insecurity, decarceration, racial injustice, gender injustice, environmental and economic injustice, to name just some. Social workers engage in these spaces with people across the lifespan, through direct service, clinical work, research, education, policy, advocacy, and community organizing. The work we do in all of these areas (and others), ultimately, is to fight for justice, for human rights, for the well-being of people and the planet, and we work to dismantle the structural inequities that are threaded through our society locally and globally.
Our work is unremitting, sometimes painstaking. Sometimes, it's difficult to see change or progress, but we’re driven by a constant belief that it’s possible. We come together. We connect and WE DO THE WORK. And bit by bit, even as we make our way through the minimum spaces, we make change happen, collectively. In coming together, in CONNECTING, we have the most anchoring and defining responsibility to look closely at ourselves, to confront, name and unravel our own biases to acknowledge and embrace difference, and ALSO find ways to productively, openly, and with genuineness and empathy, CONNECT across differences. To be accountable to and for ourselves and our behavior, to engage with integrity, and meet people where they are with our most authentic and ethical selves, THIS is how change happens.
So, as you make your way out into the world graduates, whether your next steps are to continue your social work education or to begin your social work careers as part of our essential workforce, know that WE SEE YOU. You are now, and will always be, a part of the Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare community. Our social work profession is defined by connection. YES, our challenges are epic, BUT, we’re here together, connected to do the work to make change. Remember no single person ever stands alone. John Muir once said: “when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe”. When I reflect on that idea, it always strikes me that this, in many ways, is where hope lies. THAT CONNECTEDNESS is what you ALL walk in and carry with you as you enter the next steps in your social work careers. Stay connected to the School of Social Welfare. Stay connected to each other, to your networks, AND stay “hitched to everything else in the universe”. Catalyze that so it propels whatever it is that drives you forward on your social work journey. Congratulations School of Social Welfare class of 2022!!!
