In my Convocation speech last week, I said, “Before I took this job, some friends in academia warned me that students these days are apathetic and lazy. That’s not true of the students I’ve met here at Stevens.” Here’s an example: Komal, a student in my class who heads a dance troop at Stevens, is performing this weekend in NYC at Dance for Darfur, an event intended to raise awareness about the catastrophe taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan.

From the Dance for Darfur website:

The idea of Dance for Darfur was started in April of 2006 as a way to raise awareness, funds, and supplies for the refugees impacted by the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. It will be a “block-party” style philanthropic event located in New York City on September 16th, 2006 (rain date, September 17th, 2006) from 11am to 6pm, whose primary goal is to raise awareness about the tragic situations occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan. Dance for Darfur’s secondary goals will be to raise as much money and supplies as possible for the refuges through various methods of fundraising.

Again from my speech: “We live in troubled times, and I tend to be a pessimist. But you young people make me hopeful about the future. That may sound like Convocation Day BS, but it’s true.”

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