rock chalk jayhawk indeed. chancellor little, distinguished faculty, honored guests, proud family members, and graduates of the class of 2012, thank you for giving me the great honor of being part of this very special moment in your lives. it is a privilege for me to be here today and also to stand alongside the other honorary degree recipients. each recipient has dedicated themselves to lifelong service and contribution to society. i don't speak for them, but i am so honored to be among them. before we do anything else, i have one last assignment for our graduates, nobody makes it through college without a lot of support. certainly financially. but also there are people who encouraged you, who gave you emotional support, who believed in you, and will help you believe in yourself. class of 2012, please join me in ruined of applause to thank your family and especially your mothers on this special day, friends, faculty. [applause] >> that was simply great. you-all passed. we all can clearly see why you are gradua

i became a jayhawks didn't because of the academics. -- students because of the academics. it is a world-class university. when people ask me what they should do to be successful in life, i tell them the first thing is to get a degree from the university of kansas. my congratulations to all of you. you are minutes away from holding that diploma in your hands. this is truly no ordinary moment. when you leave here today, you will have the advantage of having a great education. what will you do next? in the next few weeks, commencement speakers will be urging graduates like yourselves to follow your passion. discover what motivates and excites you in life and pursue it with passion. i am a strong believer in following your passion. i am also an engineer. we engineers love continuous improvement. i am blind to give you my version of follow your passion 2.0. it is about a interesting to something bigger than ourselves. follow your passion 2.0 means working together with others and it also encourages us to be open to all the lives experiences. the setbacks as well as the successe

so in my family, hoya comes second only to rock chock jayhawk.[laughter] and i was really delighted to be invited to speak to you, the public policy graduates. having spent my entire life in public service -- [inaudible conversations] i spent my entire life in public service. [laughter] [cheers and applause] and what i know is that you've chosen the most challenging, frustrating, exciting, consequential and rewarding career there is. and today i want to just share a few lessons that i learned along the way and, hopefully, they'll be useful as you begin your careers. i started out as an unpaid volunteer. my dad got into politics when i was 5, so for most of my childhood i spent days in the fall putting up yard signs and going door to door. actually, the more accurate term might be forced labor. [laughter] there wasn't a lot of choice in that matter. it was only later that i discovered that lots of families were going to football games and picnics while i was attending political rallies. but what i got from those fall outings and from our conversat

so in my family, it comes second only to rock chalk jayhawk. [applause] and what i know is that you have chosen the most challenging, frustrating, exciting consequential and rewarding career there is. today i want to just share a few lessons that i learned along the way and hopefully they will be useful as you begin your careers. i started out as an unpaid volunteer. my dad got into politics when i was five. so for most of my childhood, i spent the days in the fall putting up yard signs and going door to door. actually, the more accurate term might be forced labor. [laughter] there wasn't a lot of choice in that matter. it was only later that i discovered lots of families were going to football games and picnics while i was attending political rallies. but what i got from those fall outings and from our conversations around the dinner table was a deep belief in the value of public service and throughout my career, that unwavering belief that carried me to my highest point and has gotten me through my lowest. i know you graduates share that beli