Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)
PAUL SIMON JOB CORPS CENTER WINTER 2012 GRADUATION CEREMONY
ADDRESS BY PATRICIA A. SHIU, DIRECTOR
Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs - U.S. Department Of Labor
Paul Simon Job Corps Center - 3348 South Kedzie Avenue - Chicago, Illinois
Friday, January 27, 2012 2:30 PM [CST]
Thank you, Bryan. It’s a pleasure to be back here at the Paul Simon Job Corps Center. I had the distinct pleasure of visiting this facility last summer, and I am so honored that you invited me to return for graduation day.
Director Mason, Deputy Director Arroyo, members of the Graduation Committee, honored guests, friends, families and, of course, graduates… Good afternoon!
In the words of President John F. Kennedy, what we observe today symbolizes "an end, as well as a beginning – signifying renewal, as well as change."
We call graduation a commencement because today we mark the beginning of the next exciting chapter in the lives of these students.
Graduates, when you leave here today, you don’t just walk away with a diploma. You are now part of a legacy that includes almost 2 million young Americans who participated in job corps programs over the past half century.
Today, you become alumni of one of the largest and most successful federally-funded education programs in our country.
One of your fellow alums was a young man from Marshall, Texas, who dropped out of high school and worried that he was going to be stuck living life on the streets – without hope, without opportunity and without much of a future.
That was… until he discovered Job Corps.
He enrolled in Job Corps programs in Oregon and California. Like some of you, he studied masonry and carpentry. He learned self-discipline and developed his work ethic. He didn’t simply learn a trade. He learned a lifestyle – one that taught him responsibility and gave him a sense of self-worth.
And while he was at it, he took boxing classes and learned how to throw a mean punch.
Today, George Foreman is known throughout the world, not only for being a championship fighter and Olympic gold medalist, but also for being a successful businessman, author and job creator.
The next time you’re cooking a burger on a George Foreman grill, you can give a hat tip to the good folks at Job Corps!
Troy Carter was also a job corps graduate. He grew up in West Philadelphia and dreamed of working in the music industry. After getting his GED at a Job Corps center in Maryland, he began a career path that led him to work with some of the biggest names in the business: Sean "Diddy" Combs, Eve, Nelly and Lady Gaga. Today, Troy is the CEO of his own artist management and digital music company.
And that is thanks, in part, to Job Corps.
What George Foreman and Troy Carter have in common – what they share with all of you – is that they refused to let their lives be defined by their circumstances. They bet on themselves and backed it up with education. They dreamed bigger than most kids from Marshall, Texas, or West Philly probably thought was possible.
Langston Hughes is my all-time favorite poet. He famously asked,
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore – and then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over – like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Our job – as a society – is to make that question irrelevant. It is to make sure that no young person in America ever has to defer, diminish or deny the dreams you have for yourselves.
That commitment is shared by the people around you today.
Look around.
Seriously, take a moment to look around this audience and really see the people who are seated around you – the people who have stood for you and with you over the years.
I want you to make eye contact right now with at least one person – a parent, a sibling, a teacher, a mentor or a friend.
Find someone in this audience who has been your champion, who has taught you something valuable and who has helped you get to this place.
And now I want you to say thank you to that person.
Before this day is over, I hope you will take some time to really tell those people in your life how much they mean to you and how much you appreciate them. None of us succeeds completely on our own. All of us stand on the shoulders of giants – those who paved the way for us to be here.
Graduates, your dreams will not be deferred because there is an army of people – including folks you may not even know – who have dedicated their lives and sacrificed to make sure you have the resources to succeed in your careers.
This ceremony is about them, too. And the best way you can honor those folks is by thanking them today and by living every day of your life with the thought of making them as proud of you then as they are right now.
So graduates, please join me in thanking your cheerleaders, your champions, your personal army.
Of course, today is mostly about you.
We are here to salute you for your hard work, your perseverance and your commitment to bettering yourselves through education. You have made all of us so proud.
I am here to tell you that the President of the United States is also proud of you. On his behalf, I want to congratulate each and every one of you on your graduation.
We know that the strength of our country comes from her people – the most creative, talented and innovative workers in the world.
On Tuesday, during his State of the Union address, President Obama said he had heard from many business leaders who want to hire folks, but can’t find the workers with the right technical skills. He pointed out that, in certain industries, we have twice as many job openings as we have workers who can do the job. "Think about that," he said, "openings at a time when millions of Americans are looking for work."
Let me be clear: he wasn’t talking about you.
Today, you leave this center with the skills, the training and, I hope, the confidence to take on the jobs where we so desperately need your talents.
It won’t be easy. And I know how tough things are right now in the job market.
But don’t confuse a crisis of the economy with a crisis of opportunity.
We got knocked down for a bit. But as George Foreman knows, we’re not out. Not in America. And certainly not in this great city – my hometown of Chicago.
The President and I believe that we will rebuild our economy, better and stronger than before. We will do it the way Americans have always done – from one generation to the next – by investing in our infrastructure, by investing in our people and by investing in our collective future.
We are going to recover the jobs that have been lost over the past few years – in manufacturing, in construction, in health care and in high tech. The degrees you will receive in a few minutes reflect the best hope we have for being the world’s leader in those fields.
We are going to regain our confidence as a people, because it turns out that no matter what hits we take, the greatest national resource we have is that our people – especially your generation – believe in themselves. No one can outsource confidence. It’s a homegrown recipe that’s unique to these United States.
And, finally, when you go to work, when you bring home that paycheck, when you become self-sufficient and when you rise in your chosen careers, you will, by your actions, redeem the promise of this nation: that the American dream must never be deferred for anyone.
We renew that dream, once again, right here and right now.
But this graduation also marks an ending. It’s the end of a journey you have all taken together. A journey in which you didn’t just learn a trade, memorize a text book or hone a particular skill.
Don’t get me wrong: the schooling ends for now, but the learning continues for a lifetime.
The journey you have taken during your time at this center is significant because, since the beginning of Job Corps in 1964, there have been opponents to the idea that government has a role to play in training and educating the next generation of American workers.
That kind of thinking is wrong-headed and we just don’t buy it. What greater investment could we make in our future than to invest in you?
I have the privilege of working at the Department of Labor. As our Secretary Hilda Solis likes to say, we are the department of "good jobs for everyone."
It is our mission to make sure that all work places are safe, fair and free of discrimination.
We make sure that you get the wages and benefits to which you are entitled.
We support programs – like Job Corps – that seek to prepare young people for the job market.
And we make sure that the doors of opportunity are open to every worker – even if we have to pry those doors open from time to time.
As I mentioned, I grew up here in Chicago. Like the President, I lived on the South Side at a time when this city was becoming increasingly diverse. My neighborhood reflected a changing America and my sister and I were raised to believe that this diversity was our greatest strength.
In the 1960s, that belief wasn’t commonly held in many parts of our country. And that’s why leaders like President Kennedy, and President Lyndon Johnson after him, worked in partnership with leaders in the civil rights, women’s rights and union movements to enact laws that would prohibit discrimination and promote opportunity for everyone.
Discrimination in employment goes against the most basic principles of our nation. We are a great country because generations of immigrants – like my Chinese and Irish families – came here believing that, in America, anyone can succeed if they’re willing to work for it.
The hard-won civil rights laws of the last century require our constant vigilance in this century. And civil rights without meaningful opportunities for employment are just words on a piece of paper.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood this when he went to the White House in 1965 and persuaded the President of the United States to open the doors of America’s prosperity to all her children.
That conversation gave birth to a new government agency called the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, or OFCCP, which I have the honor to lead today.
Our job is to make sure that companies that do business with taxpayer dollars build workforces that reflect the great diversity of our nation.
That means we look at thousands of businesses each year – in almost every industry you can imagine – to make sure that employers make decisions about who to hire, who to fire, who to promote and how much to pay their workers in a way that doesn’t discriminate.
President Johnson said that, "Our mission is at once the oldest and most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man."
I mention this work to you because you are about to enter a very competitive job market. For some of you, this may be the first time you will be seeking full-time employment.
Employers have a responsibility to abide by the law and to treat their workers fairly.
Government has a responsibility to protect workers and make sure that the doors of opportunity are open for everyone.
You also have a responsibility: it’s your job to know your rights and to stand up for equality, not only for yourselves but for your co-workers and for your communities.
If you see discrimination happening – even if it doesn’t seem to directly affect you – you have a responsibility to speak out and do something about it.
Some of my colleagues from the OFCCP are here today. Please raise your hands.
These are just a few of the nearly 800 men and women around the country who are part of your army of supporters. Every day, they come to work with a single goal: to make sure that we have your backs.
They are here to protect you from unfair discrimination, to make sure you have a fair shot at competing for good jobs.
They make sure that the vast majority of employers – good folks who want to comply with the law – know how to find you and bring you into their companies.
And they are here to make sure that your rights are protected every time you go on a job interview or clock into work.
Our country is not perfect. But the beauty of America has always been that we wake up every morning trying to build a more perfect union.
And throughout our history, when we have gotten off track, when we have lost our way, it has been young people who have helped us correct our course.
Last year, we saw a revolution spread across countries in the Middle East – places like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. There, they wanted the most basic freedoms that many of us take for granted. They took to the streets and demanded democracy.
At the same time, a revolution of sorts was starting right here at home, in the Midwest.
In neighboring states like Wisconsin and Ohio, we saw workers organize against radical efforts to cut wages and benefits. And out of that movement, grew a call for corporations and employers to be more responsible to their workers and to all our citizens.
The common thread from Cairo to Columbus and from Tahrir Square to Wall Street was a new generation of young leaders who gave voice to injustice and called on all of us to correct course.
During your education at this center, you have learned the importance of service. I know, for example, that this graduating class was instrumental in organizing a service project with the local council of carpenters to build shelving and other structures for an annual family festival.
There’s a reason why your time here has included a focus on service. We didn’t want you to walk away with just a diploma and a new set of skills. We wanted you to see yourselves as participants – not spectators – in our democracy.
Dr. King believed that, everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.
My message to you this afternoon is pretty simple: be great. Serve one another and, in so doing, make our country a better place.
The dream of Langston Hughes and LBJ, the hopes of Kennedy and King, they were all investments in you.
For our part, the President and I will make sure the doors of opportunity are open for you. Now all you have to do is run (don’t walk) right on through.
The world is your oyster and I can’t wait to see and hear what you do next.
Congratulations graduates and best of luck to you all!
