FLINT, MI -- Among the pomp and circumstance of graduation day, University of Michigan-Flint Chancellor Sue Borrego saw hundreds of sparks on the floor Sunday afternoon at the Dort Federal Event Center.
They came in the form of 600 students majoring in accounting, education, arts and other fields that will become teachers, business leaders, artists, and other roles in the world.
Having traveled over the weekend to see the new Star Wars movie, Borrego referred to a quote in the latest installment of the science fiction franchise: "We are the spark that will light the fire to burn down the First Order."
"Burning down the First Order was not the context for me," she said, in a reference to the dark side's push for domination in outer space in the film. "But we are the spark that will light the fire. I thought about my U of M Flint colleagues, faculty, staff, and students and how many times we are the spark."
Through serving meals to those seeking a dinner in Flint on Thanksgiving, a theater production of "Baltimore" tackling race and the subsequent discussions on tough topics, Borrego commented "This university community has a history of lighting the fire, the fire of knowledge production, community-based research and service that is a spark in both Flint and in the lives of many."
Commencement speaker Dr. Mohja Kahf felt the difference taking place in the community ahead of her address with students, noting the sense of welcome she received as a Syrian woman in a current world climate fueled in part by nationalistic and religious extremism.
"I am in awe of Flint, its activism," she told the crowd filled with students and parents, friends of the 600 graduates receiving degrees.
Kahf, a professor of comparative literature at the University of Arkansas, author of The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf and Hagar Poems, and a social justice activist encouraged the students to not let their spark waver upon graduation.
"I am giving you an assignment. I know I have some nerve giving you an assignment on your graduation day," she laughed. "You have one final assignment: fix the world so that all human beings have equal rights and equal access to vital resources. It is not unrealistic. It is not too much to give you."
Kahf offered three keys to graduates with hopes of accomplishing that task: envisioning the reality you want they want to see, taking the broad view in terms of setting long-term goals, and knowing that they are not alone in the world.
While individual acts may seem insignificant in such a large task, Kahf argued each small achievement will carry on the next generation making the current one "the ancestors," the spark.
"People will look back at you and say, 'Those are the ones that made it possible, they are the mother of it all," she said, calling on the graduates to use the knowledge they have accumulated to make a good life for themselves, their loved ones, but one additional cause.
"Use it for your planetary community, for that achievable reality of deep democracy, economic justice, freedom, water, air where all can breathe," said Kahf.
Student speaker Christine Michaela-Kay Nogaj pointed towards her fellow graduates at one point during her speech and asked them to look at the community they have earned their education as a guiding point in continuing to make the world a better place.
"This city is the rock that ignites a fire because of its strength and desire to keep fighting the fight despite all it has been through," she said, in a spoken word poem. "I dare you to find a more tenacious and audacious place because the people in it keep running the race. They find the opportunity to embrace community and dance in the middle of their circumstance.
"You guys, that's you. For a moment in time you were a part of Flint and whether you stay or go, don't lose that spark, that spunk, that fight," urged Nogaj. "Don't wait for the situation to fall to your favor. Take a chance and dance and savor the flavor of making the most out of life."