As we come to the end of June, many parents are breathing a sigh of relief: Their children graduated another year of school. For a smaller subset, it is even more exciting: Their children have graduated from a college or university, with either an undergraduate or graduate degree.
It is a great feeling, I know. But as an adult with a long career in public service, this past graduation season found me on the other side – not in the audience as a young, about-to-be-graduate, or as a proud father cheering my child – but on the stage as a recipient of an honorary doctorate from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).
Let me say this to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk: You don’t need a rocket to fly to the moon. I am living proof.
This is an extraordinary honor for many reasons. Let me start with the most obvious one.
NJIT is an extraordinary school.
Its graduates go on to do great things in the fields of science and engineering. At the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, we currently have approximately 100 NJIT graduates on staff, with about 50 working in multiple disciplines within the Engineering Department, and over 300 consultants and contractors working on agency projects.
The Port Authority has a generational relationship with NJIT. We have graduates in our staff going back to the days when NJIT was called the Newark College of Engineering. So, we are very proud to have scores of NJIT alumni driving the vital work of our agency.
We are so proud of NJIT being part of our workforce that at the commencement, I told the graduates that Port Authority Chief Engineer Rizwan Baig and Chief of Major Capital Projects Steve Plate, in addition to myself, were offering ourselves as mentors, and would assist them in their careers. To date, nearly a dozen graduates are looking to take us up on that.
As today’s graduates go into the world, they are facing new challenges – things we did not think about decades ago with such urgency or at all – climate change, clean energy, AI. This is a bold, new, exciting world and it will take young leaders with courage to face it, improve it, and leave a legacy that futures will build upon. Courage is what NJIT graduates carry with them.
Those are obvious reasons why receiving an honorary doctorate from NJIT is so special. There is a personal one, and it isn’t reason, as much as it is an actual person – my mom.
At the commencement ceremony on May 21st, I spoke about my mother. Like many people in this region, I am a first generation American.
My mom was born in the hard soil of Wonsan, North Korea, and escaped the brutal war that raged in her homeland. At the age of 13, she ran with nothing but the clothes on her back and a ragged suitcase. She made the dangerous trek to South Korea, traveling only at night.
She settled in as a domestic helper and eventually worked for the South Korean military washing the clothes of front-line soldiers in a nearby river. She met my dad, a high school graduate and an American GI, and soon they began a relationship that would eventually lead them to settle in Cedar Grove and have seven children.
Despite my mom’s limited formal education, she told me that education was the most important tool to succeed, and treating others the way you wanted to be treated was the only code to live by. Pretty simple stuff, but it is also pretty hard to do every day of your life.
When I stood on the stage inside the Prudential Center in Newark for the commencement service, I thought of my mom. If you watch me on YouTube as “the hood,” the symbol of the degree, is placed over my head and onto my shoulders, I am looking up in disbelief, yes. But also looking up at my mother who I was sure was looking down at me saying, “Kevin, I am proud of you.”
It may sound trite to say who we are today is a good part due to who our parents were, and in many cases, who our moms were. Mother’s Day was more than six weeks ago but paying tribute to mom should not be restricted to a single Sunday in May.
The values that are instilled in us as children, and that we instill in our children, carry us across the generations that make up a family tree.
It is the same with institutions of higher education. They have values. They have expectations. And if you go to NJIT, they also have extraordinary faculty who work to inspire and shape our society’s next generation of leaders.
At that commencement, I said that I was an average student. I made it through Seton Hall by the skin of my teeth and the determination that I would succeed if I continued to apply myself. And I did because I did. And I did because my mom instilled in me that these were not words, but the very key to a successful life.
Receiving this honorary doctorate has lit a flame inside me to actively advocate for NJIT and to work, as appropriate, with its amazing leader, President Dr. Teik C. Lim, and the school’s Board of Trustees that helps shape the policies of this extraordinary New Jersey institution. I also pledge to become an active fundraiser and work with former legislative colleagues, including NJIT graduate Senator Paul Sarlo and Senate President Nicholas Scutari, to ensure that the best of the best continue to serve on NJIT’s Board of Trustees.
I’ve been to the moon and now, back on Earth, it’s time to get to work.
So, parents, breathe a sigh of relief if your child walks across a stage in May or June to receive a diploma. You did “good.” You may be done raising your children, but your children are just starting to raise themselves, and one day, they may raise you higher than you imagined.
That’s what happened to me on May 21st inside the Prudential Center as I received an honorary doctorate from NJIT. They gave an honorary degree to me, but as I looked up beyond the building’s ceiling, I knew they gave it to my mom.
Kevin J. O’Toole is the Chairman of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.