My Commencement Speech for SCGSSM 2017
I was recently honored with Alumni of the Year award from my high school alma mater, the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Math . For this award, I was also offered some time to give a short speech at this year's commencement ceremonies. Note that the main speaker was Mick Mulvaney , who is Trump's budget director at the Office of Management and Budget. As you might know, Mulvaney is in charge of putting together the proposed US government budget, which essentially cuts... well, pretty much everything except the military . Given that I am a scientist myself, and am an alum of a school for science and math, and would be speaking after someone who is proposing massive cuts to the National Science Foundation, EPA, National Institutes for Health, ARPA-E, Centers for Disease Control, NASA, and more , I felt I had to make a strong case for why science really matters, and to still encourage the graduating seniors that there is hope for the future. And yes, I d