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Pratt Institute's Distinguished Teacher Award The Pratt Institute Distinguished Teacher Award recognizes exceptional dedication to Pratt's mission and applauds the accomplishments made over the course of a career. The Distinguished Teacher is nominated by students and the Award is conferred by the Academic Senate, the Administration, and the Board of Trustees. The recipient usually addresses the student body at Honors Convocation, presents the mace at graduation ceremonies, and delivers a lecture for the Institute community. ERIC WONG CHI-FAN , DISTINGUISHED TEACHER 2010-2011 Commencement Address delivered at Radio City Music Hall, May 17, 2010 Thank you President Schutte, thank you Peter, thank you the members of the committee, and I thank you, the students of Pratt. This is a tremendous honor and I really had no idea how big a deal this is until I was informed that I had to speak, here, and after all of them (the honorees)… Now, I’m really not good at this public speaking business so ill be brief and ill simply tell you what I’ve told some of you when you first came to Pratt. Also, in the week or so that I had to reflect over all of this in relative disbelief, I came to the conclusion that I don’t think I really deserve this recognition; at least not more than any of our teachers at Pratt. As educators it’s our responsibility to pass on knowledge, teach skills, and guide decisions. Its what we do. But above all else, an educator has to communicate and coax others to communicate. It’s the first step and the only step towards any form of understanding. From what little I know of Professor Bacich, it seemed that he was a friend as much as he was a teacher to the students. And among many other things that Professor Bacich did, he helped and guided his friends to learn to discover more about themselves. And how does one go about that? One learns to communicate with oneself. And that’s where education happens. Despite all the different names we call our disciplines, whether its fine arts, or industrial design, or photography, or interior design, or architecture, they are all just different tools and methods for us to communicate; at first with ourselves, then with others, then with material (either physically or conceptually), and finally with the world. Now none of this is easy. I’ve always thought about how crazy one has to be to have invented the brick. Imagine this guy walking by a river bank, sees some red clay, decides to pack it into 2” x 4” x 8” dimensions, firing them, and then lay them on top of each other in a staggering manner using some form of mortar… And in time we wind up with things like this (Radio City Music Hall) and beyond. So that’s pretty crazy, and one has to be a serious clay or mud whisperer to be able to coax this amorphous thing into becoming our known world. That’s some serious communication. So what you have learned to do has the potential to have immense effects on the world. What you do will be seen and experienced, in time, by thousands if not more. The impact would be quite profound and your responsibility equally so. The wise uncle of Spiderman said: “with great power comes great responsibility.” It is the arts that create the lasting image and character of the world. Think of any city, and what comes to mind but the buildings that inhabit it. Think of any period in time, and what comes to mind but the arts and their creators of the era. In the end, communication is education. And you will be going out into the world with the skill to communicate. And by that, you are all charged with the responsibility to educate. It is a huge responsibility. Four years ago, or five for some of you, it was a new beginning when you came to Pratt to be affected and to learn about yourselves. And now it’s a new beginning again when you will leave Pratt to learn about and affect the world. Congratulations on the beginning of the rest of your lives. E-Balloting In fall 2004, we introduced electronic balloting, which continues to be a collaborative effort among the Academic Senate, the offices of the Provost, Academic Computing, Registrar and Institutional Advancement. |
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