NJ Governor Murphy Tells NJIT Grads to "Always Retain a Proper Perspective" at 2019 Commencement

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) conferred 1,733 bachelor’s degrees at the 103rd commencement ceremony on May 21, 2019, at the Prudential Center in Newark.

New Jersey Governor Philip A. Murphy received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters and delivered the commencement address in which he advised graduates to “always maintain a proper perspective on things.” He recalled the time when, 40 years ago, he was a soon-to-be-minted graduate with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a goal of pursuing his MBA. His commencement speaker was Helmut Schmidt, the chancellor of West Germany. Admittedly, he didn’t really pay much attention to Schmidt’s speech and was more worried about where he would find his first job. A few years later, Gov. Murphy had earned his MBA and was heading the office of a global business firm in Germany. He would later become the United States Ambassador to Germany and had become close friends with Schmidt.

“Don’t ignore what may seem like small details, because those details can loom extraordinarily large later in life,” he said. “And, likewise, don’t get caught up in the latest outrage for outrage’s sake, because in the grander scheme of issues facing our society, there are likely more pressing and existential issues. Don’t mistake the molehills for mountains, and vice versa.”

During the main ceremony, the university also awarded honorary degrees to Sandra A. Carter, Vice President of Windows and Enterprise Workloads at Amazon Web Services, and Clifford M. Samuel ’88, Senior Vice President of Access Operations and Emerging Markets at Gilead Sciences, Inc., who each received an honorary Doctor of Science.

Consistently recognized by her peers as one of the most influential and powerful women in technology, Carter spoke of her passion for women in technology and how diversity drives innovation.

“Technology is in every company and it really makes a difference,” she said.

In her remarks, Carter provided her three wishes for the Class of 2019: 1) “You live your life without any regrets”; 2) “You are very thoughtful about your choices”; and 3) “You will always reach back and pull someone forward with you.”  

Samuel shared his trajectory from a mechanical engineering student at NJIT to his current position at Gilead Sciences, Inc., where he oversees the ongoing development and implementation of innovative manufacturing, distribution and business models to make the company’s HIV, viral hepatitis and fungal medicines available at affordable prices in resource-limited and evolving economies. In addition to coordinating Gilead’s internal operations in these markets, Samuel builds strategic partnerships around the world, including collaborations with governments, non-governmental organizations and generic drug manufacturers to ensure that large-scale access to medicines is achieved.

Under Samuel’s leadership, Gilead has entered into generic licensing agreements with 19 companies in China, India and South Africa, creating a competitive market for generic HIV and hepatitis B drugs that has dramatically reduced prices and helped to deliver medicines to more than 10 million people in need. 

“My title isn’t engineer, but I apply the principles of my engineering background every day,” he said.

Presiding over the ceremony was NJIT President Joel S. Bloom, who told the graduates that they are leaving NJIT at a time when technology is changing every industry in the world in ways that could not have been imagined as recently as a few years ago.

“We are living in times with momentous challenges, and society’s most critical problems can be solved only when informed, innovative, and determined minds work collaboratively, share knowledge, challenge one another’s assumptions, and are more concerned with developing practical solutions than disproving an opposing position or validating a preconceived notion,” he said. “This is what you have experienced at NJIT, and it should be modeled in your future endeavors.”

Student speaker Kelvin Siebeng, who received a B.S. in industrial engineering and served as Senior Class President during the past academic year, described how his experience in NJIT’s Educational Opportunity Program provided him with “a support system that we need to meet the challenges that life may throw at us.”  

“Indeed you have reached a milestone,” he told the Class of 2019. “Grab life by the reins and ride it.”

NJIT will confer master’s and doctoral degrees at the Wellness and Events Center on the NJIT campus at 9:40 a.m. on May 23 (College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, Martin Tuchman School of Management and Ying Wu College of Computing) and at 3:40 p.m (Newark College of Engineering).

For more information about NJIT’s 103rd Commencement ceremony, please visit commencement.njit.edu.