A Walk to Remember

Student Address to Undergraduate Degree Recipients

by Siza Mtimbiri, ALB ’06

Siza Mtimbiri

As far as academics, Harvard Extension is the best-kept secret in academia. When I first came to America I had a difficult time understanding the concept of the American dream; coming to the Extension School made that vividly clear. This has been my American dream—to be able to graduate from such a great institution at an affordable price. My journey has been a walk to remember: from the very first time I walked through Harvard Yard as a sightseer to this very moment of walking on this stage. I’d like to share some of the memories of this most beautiful and enchanting walk.

Walking into Dr. Catalina Laserna’s office was what really began it all for me. When I took my first class with her, I wondered how I had been teaching all these years without the crucial information offered in her class. I discovered a way in which students in school can be encouraged to build on each other’s knowledge and how to democratize the learning process so that learning happens anywhere and everywhere, with the teacher becoming a guide rather than the centerpiece. Studying with Dr. Laserna enabled me to obtain a fellowship to study comparative education at Oxford University, thereby extending my walk across the Atlantic.

Walking into Dr. Pashington Obeng’s class, Africana People in Cinema, enabled me to discover things about myself, which I would have never known had I not left my own country, Zimbabwe. I found out how the use of imagery in cinema had been used—and is still being used in some cases— to cast the less powerful people into roles that make them despise themselves and their own culture and, as a result, become a self-deprecating people susceptible to political and economic abuse. It made the Africans think that they are not intelligent, stunting their intellectual creativity—an absolutely important ingredient for any society to thrive.

Walking into Dr. Anne Monius’ class, Comparative Religious Ethics, taught me about tolerance. Learning about other religions and having students from those religions discussing and contrasting Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity enabled me to have an appreciation for people who believe differently than I do. I was inspired to dig deeper into aspects of my own religion and also to allow others to dig into theirs.

Walking into any of the Extension classes, you come across accomplished business leaders studying alongside those aspiring to attend business school, filmmakers and accountants, teachers and soccer moms, graduate students and freshmen. This diversity enriches our school in allowing us to learn from many different perspectives.

Walking into Harvard taught me that we, the Harvard community, are like a tribe whose chief leads yet remains as part of the clan, not the centerpiece. I come from Africa, a place with many tribes. However, there is always a chief in those tribes, and some of the most important traits in those tribes are allegiance to the chief despite what their decisions may be and an entrenched fear about the unknown, especially other tribes. Tribes, of course, can be those ideologies that we strongly adhere to or ideologies that hold us hostage to seeing anything different as dangerous. Here at Harvard we are a tribe that can explore other tribes without fear of being excluded from the tribe: learning about people who are different from us helps us to make informed decisions about the world around us. Harvard is a tribe guided by ideas of tolerance.

A walk to remember: our walk to remember. As we walk on to other worlds, may they be forever memorable, instilling the freedom of thought wherever we go. May our hard-earned degrees put a fresh step in our walk and enable us to continue to achieve our dreams.

Good luck!

A teacher from Zimbabwe, Mtimbiri has been involved in local and international community service for ten years. As an ALB candidate he concentrated in social science and completed courses in a variety of disciplines, including government, psychology, and legal studies. In addition to being the Commencement speaker, Mtimbiri earned the Derek Bok Public Service Prize. He is currently pursuing a Master of Liberal Arts in Educational Technologies at Harvard Extension School and plans to return to Zimbabwe to open the Hope Academy and Medical Center, a school and medical facility for orphaned children whose parents died of AIDS.