Aaron Keller, a chemistry undergrad, will give this May’s student commencement address. Keller will graduate this December, and is working toward his goal as a high school science teacher. Chemistry will be his second degree. He obtained a B.A. in both philosophy and German from the University of Connecticut in 2000.
Q: You must be excited to speak at commencement. Have you given any other public speeches?
A: No, not really. About the only public speaking I’ve done is as a teacher in front of students. This was sort of a whim on my part to submit a speech for consideration. A professor handed me an information sheet suggesting I write something, so I did!
Q: I notice you have a B.A. in both philosophy and German from UConn; what is your favorite philosophy text and why?
A: The best thing that I’ve read in recent years is “G?del, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid,” by Douglass Hofstadter. It won a Pulitzer Prize and it’s a really fantastic book about the way the mind works-originally published in 1979. It talks about symbolic numerical systems, systems of language and music, and how systems work together.
Q: Will your speech echo this text?
A: My speech echoes some ideas of my own and my reading of Kurt Vonnegut. Ideas about how the world ought to work and how kindness can go a long way toward making the world a better place. My speech is about the hope a graduating class contains within it, and the hope that they can offer to the world.
Q: What do you think the current graduates will remember about their USM experience?
A: I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m going to remember that faculty and staff are very dedicated to the students and dedicated to making sure that we learn as much as we can. I find that the administrative staff has been nothing but helpful. And I think the atmosphere at USM is progressive-it’s forward looking. The interest in sustainable energy sources-the Abromson Building…I’m really proud to have been a part of USM, and really glad to have gone to this school.
Q: Currently, you’re a chemistry student. Tell me about your upcoming internship this summer; where do you hope this will lead, where have they led?
A: It isn’t a certainty yet, but it’s the USM Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. It will enable me to continue some research I did last fall with Professor Tracy in the Chemistry Department… I’m hoping it will lead to graduate school.
I spent last summer with NASA at Johnson Space Ctr. in Houston. That was a great “resume-
builder.”
Anytime you can put the four letters N-A-S-A on your resume that’s kind of impressive.
Q: What are some of the larger challenges facing graduates today?
A: I think in our times, you don’t get a job and stick with it the rest of your life, or even a significant portion of your life. There’s a lot more change and stress…I think that’s a big challenge. I also think that in our country a very big challenge is the corporate nature of how our country is governed. I mean the fact that corporations make a lot of decisions which determine a lot about our lives, which none of us have any say in, except for shareholders, and even they have very little say in what happens given the drive to improve the bottom line.
Its shareholder value that’s most important to corporations and other things tend to fall by the wayside. I think in our culture, at least in Maine, there are a lot of people that feel this way-that that’s not acceptable and needs to change.
I think that’s the major challenge of our time…If this is really a democracy, it needs to be a democracy, not run by large corporations who stand in as individuals.