06/15/2024
The speech given by this year’s student, a project management certificate recipient, Kristina Spencer:
Hello and welcome.
My name is Kristina Spencer. I stand before you in a cap and gown exactly 20 years since the last time I had one on. I am a graduate of the Business Management program at Edmonds college, with my Project Management Certificate. It took me 20 years out of high school and a couple tries to get back into college and complete a certificate, but I am so proud to share this moment with you and my loved ones including my kids, Barley 17, Anisten 10, and Ramsey who’s 6. They are probably surprised to see me up here because I didn’t tell them I was speaking tonight.
My teacher, Claudia Levi, encouraged me to apply as a speaker citing my resourcefulness and grit – but ultimately I’m sure it’s because I used to be a hot dog.
In 2009, while living in Montana, I called upon that resourcefulness to escape a 2-year abusive relationship. I had a toddler and no money. I emailed a popular court TV show and told the producers I wanted to sue my ex-boyfriend for damages on their show. As one would have it, they called me back, flew me and my toddler to Chicago and I sued him on television. That settlement paid for us to drive home to Seattle and rebuild our lives.
Once in Seattle, I applied for dozens of jobs including a position as the hot dog for Matt’s Gourmet Hotdog’s. My high school mascot experience (go Kangs) and past work as a Papa John’s pizza made me a shoe in. For a couple months I held a sign and danced my heart out, but continued to apply for other opportunities. With some strategic resume writing, I got an interview for a great job at Seattle Childrens Hospital! I consulted with a friend and mentor, Mary Kaercher. Her advice? “no matter what they say you the job entails, tell them you can do it and in fact you’d love to do it. Figure it out later. Just get your foot in the door.” Mary advised.
During the interview, they tell me the position begins at 5am so I lied and said I am a morning person. They follow with telling me I will sometimes work until 11pm. “Great!” I say. “I do some of my best work at night.” (foot in the door, foot in the door) Then we discuss my experience... According to my resume I am currently serving as a marketing representative for a local restaurant.
But listen... I WAS a marketing representative! Wasn’t I? I wore a suit developed for marketing and held a sign that said “Matt’s Gourmet Hot Dogs THAT way”... I was not only A marketing representative, I was THE marketing representative for MGH and Seattle Children’s would be so lucky to have such a qualified candidate! And guess what? They thought so too and in October, I will celebrate 15 years at Seattle Children’s. Then, in 2020, I also got my Washington State real estate broker’s license. Completing my Project Management certificate at Edmond’s College will help me continue to provide value to my team at Children’s and my real estate clients.
Now, I know I am not the only one with a story involving some hard work and dressing up as a food product or two to get here – and I want to acknowledge that whether it took 12 months or twenty years to get here - you can be so proud of yourself to be included in this diverse group.
Each of us has a life behind us and experiences that led us here. We see through those experiences as our lived lens that shapes our values and our biases. I have discovered that diversity and inclusion isn’t only about what other’s look like and where they came from. It’s also about trusting other people’s experiences and realizing people’s views won’t always make sense simply because your lived lens is different than theirs, not because one of you is wrong. Opening our lives to people with different values humanizes differences and allows us to open our minds through experience and not just through hearsay.
If you strive to have diversity and inclusion in your personal values, I want to leave you with a couple action items that I didn’t consider until the last several years: I encourage you to seek out conversations with others that DON’T think like you but are willing to have respectful conversations. Seek out reading materials in geographical areas that appear to have different values than you and see what people in those areas are fed every day when they open the newspaper or turn on their local news. Consider what they see and hear vs what you currently see and hear. Try not to put yourself in a box of others that THINK exactly like you. Expand your circles and take the time to increase your diversity of MIND. Always reserve your right to change your opinion, and though you may disagree with someone maybe you can learn to understand we’re all just doing our best and we’re not against each other.
In closing, I’ll share a secret to those of you entering the corporate world form here: leaders often think it’s a great idea to start a meeting with “tell us something interesting about yourself.” Luckily for me, I used to be a dancing hot dog and now lucky for YOU, you can say “A former dancing hot dog gave a speech at my college commencement.”
Congratulations class of 2024!
