The Graduate

The Graduate
Originally uploaded by bedouina.

Commencement renewed my admiration for Mills College's progressive values.

Mills is such a combination of old-line women's college and progressive ideals. Our commencement speaker was Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, under-secretary of the United Nations and head of the Population Fund. She's a Mills alumna (1966) and she's Saudi Arabian. Her whole speech was about the need for birth control, education and good obstetrical care for women.

Mills' president, Janet Holmgren, spoke several times about the war in Iraq and what a misguided mess it is - she lauded another Mills alumna, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who is our representative here in Oakland and who stood alone against the Patriot Act and close to alone against the Iraq war.

Afterwards I managed to get a picture with Fred Frith, the iconic guitarist, whose playing blew us away when we were young. Mills' music department has a long reputation of avant-garde experimentation, especially with jazz and fusion music as well as electronics.

The message of the day was very clear: Mills is devoted to empowering women (and its male graduate students too). The school motto is (in Latin) "Many paths, one destination." My path to a masters degree has been quite unusual but at Mills I am not a freak.

Empowerment of women. Progressive values. Innovation in the arts and sciences.

Any woman who wants a great education in a nurturing environment (with express buses to San Francisco and an hourly van to UC Berkeley) should consider Mills.

Comments

[Peter]

Congratulations, Leila!

[Leila A.]

Thank you, Peter...

[David All]

Congratualations, too, Leila, on graduating. You look great!

[Sophia]

Mabrouk.

[Alison Chaiken]

Congratulations. I've always felt that my pricey education at taxpayer expense means that I am obligated to have high aspirations. A degree will not transform you into a successful, important or famous person but a worthy education should make you want to accomplish worthy deeds and attempt lofty goals. So get out there and show 'em!

[Randa]

Mabrouk, Habibti, and rock on with the manuscript!

[Leila A.]

Thanks for the comments, everybody. I so appreciate it.

Alison, regarding the degree...
Since I was the lone college dropout in a family full of Ph.Ds for many years, I learned to believe completely that my personal worth is not tied to any degree. Later, when I acquired the degrees, they were still not about self-esteem. I got the BA in order to complete unfinished business, and to do creative writing. I went directly from that degree to full-time motherhood.

I did the MFA because I wanted to do the work. I wanted the two years of workshop and reading and learning. I would have done it without the degree.

As a faculty brat, I am underwhelmed by the "magic" of a degree. For one thing, my degree is still not as fancy as my brother's chemistry Ph.d, or the Ph.ds of my mother and father. For another thing, I just know too much about what goes into making a college degree. It's not quite as bad as the making of sausage, but there are similarities. You don't really want to know what goes on behind the college curtain...

Now that I'm done, I am setting up the structure to write my novel, do other writing, and teach. This week I had to deal with children's needs but I still pulled out the MFA thesis and am writing on it again. It's not a book yet and I want to write it.

[George Ajjan]

Congratulations Leila and what other cool music do you listen to?

[Leila A.]

Thank you, George. Have a look at this old post of mine to see some fun song selections - mostly oldies from an eclectic range of sources:

http://bedouina.typepad.com/doves_eye/2007/03/spring_break_fe.html

Warning, sound is enabled so don't access this at work, or mute the sound first.

[James R MacLean]

Congratulations, Leila--sorry I've been hiding under a moss-clad rock in northwestern Washington, missing Oakland like anything.