We were pleased to welcome former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to campus as our first guest for the President's Speaker Series. As a respected lawyer, businessman, and politician, Governor Patrick shared profound insights on leadership, ambition, and perseverance with the Curry College community.
Born in Chicago Illinois, Governor Patrick attended nearby Milton Academy as part of the A Better Chance (ABC) program, a nonprofit organization that seeks to enhance the number of young people of color in college preparatory programs. As the oldest and only national organization of its kind, ABC identifies, prepares, places, and supports high-achieving middle and high school students of color in some of the most demanding and esteemed independent day schools, boarding schools, and public schools in the country. After Milton Academy, he received a Bachelor's Degree in English and American Literature from Harvard University.
In 2006, he made history by becoming the first African American elected governor of Massachusetts. His campaign centered on progressive ideals, including education reform, expanding healthcare access, and fostering economic growth.
Patrick is currently a professor of practice and co-director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and also serves as Senior Advisor to The Vistria Group.
Before the main event, Governor Patrick and President Jay Gonzalez connected with students from The President's Leadership Program (PLP), a new initiative at Curry that prepares students for a life of leadership, civic responsibility, and career success through a range of activities, workshops, and events.
The PLP is made up of a highly selective group of talented, driven, compassionate, and accomplished students and is designed to inspire and foster leaders of tomorrow. Students are chosen based on past achievements, creative accomplishments, and demonstrated leadership in academic or community spaces.
Curry students intently listened to Governor Patrick's trials and tribulations throughout his unconventional career in politics, while he in turn yearned for their stories of leadership and purpose. Lorelei Kellum, a first-year Business Administration major, was inspired by Governor Patrick’s approach to leadership, which emphasizes that the smallest of acts can embody leadership. When she inquired about who had inspired him, he mentioned an unknown bus driver who made a small difference in his day, but had a significant impact on his career.
At 14 years old, Patrick boarded a bus on the South Side of Chicago, only to realize he didn't have enough money to cover the fare. Patrick noticed the bus driver sizing him up and braced himself to be thrown off the bus. Instead, the driver surprised him by forgiving the fare shortfall and encouraged him to pass on the kindness. This unexpected act had a deep impact on Patrick, and he carries that experience with him to this day.
That story shows that anyone can make an impact, whether you think you are or not. For that bus driver, he inspired Governor Deval to do so much and he might not even know it. That's leadership," said Kellum.
President Gonzalez joined Patrick in a packed Keith Auditorium for a Q&A session among Curry students, faculty, and staff. During the engaging conversation, President Gonzalez asked Patrick to speak on behalf of something he'd written in his memoir, A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life. The excerpt pertained to how it was implied that Patrick had a choice to make between two different worlds to feel like he belonged in one versus the other–his life at Milton Academy versus his life in Southside Chicago. Gonzalez related the question to the huge life adjustment that many Curry students face in transitioning to College, and how our community strives to make that adjustment as smooth and as well-supported as possible.
The question of belonging isn't entirely about the place. It's about you and whether you belong in your own skin, whether you understand who and what you are and what you want to be and what you stand for. And that as you come to those understandings, you may lose parts of you that you feel that are associated with this. It may not always feel comfortable, but because I had this notion, I wanted to be able to live in more than one environment in the course of my life.
When you figure out that you can figure it out, you can do anything you want. Anything.