Jane Meza, PhD, associate vice chancellor of global engagement, and professor of biostatistics, shared with degree candidates at the UNMC Graduate Studies winter honors convocation the wisdom of Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer:
“You are full of complexities and wonders that haven’t even begun to surface,” Dr. Meza told the degree candidates, quoting Spencer.
“I can’t think of anything more liberating than that,” Dr. Meza added.
Dr. Meza delivered the keynote address at the Dec. 15, 2022, event at which the soon-to-be graduates were hooded by mentors in the time-honored academic tradition.
Eighteen master’s degree candidates and 46 PhD degree candidates were honored at the ceremony, to mark August and December 2022 commencements.
UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, personally welcomed the degree candidates, their faculty advisors, and parents and other loved ones to the event. Dele Davies, MD, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean for graduate studies, served as host.
PhD candidate Rachel Kunkle gave the student-led invocation.
Dr. Meza urged the class of 2022 to allow themselves to follow paths that might veer from their pre-ordained career plans.
She drew from her own experiences in which she’d carefully plotted out a path toward a career as a biostatistics faculty position.
“I thought there was no better job,” Dr. Meza said. “Today, that type of work seems completely foreign to me.
“I’ve realized I am not necessarily the introverted statistician I thought I was.”
Instead, she’d somehow mustered the courage to say “yes” to an opportunity she’d never imagined, as a temporary interim dean of the College of Public Health while it searched for a permanent leader. This turned out to be her most important career move, she said.
“It made me realize there were more options for me,” she said. “It awakened skills I didn’t know I had.”
She urged the degree candidates to have the courage to say “yes.”
“Dream your dreams,” she said, “and be flexible enough for them to change.”