Last month, my wife and I had the privilege to attend our son’s business school graduate degree commencement at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The ceremony included one hundred and thirty-six business school graduates that were brought to stage and individually recognized for earning their bestowed Master or Ph.D. degrees. At the onset, much like when a ground-breaking ceremony for a new education facility takes place, the dean of the college acknowledged everyone, including the students, the university faculty and support staff, parents and extended family who nourished, orchestrated, and gave their time, skillset, and knowledge to facilitate the students achieving their accomplishments and making the day’s event possible.
The Keynote Speaker was Carol Callan, a former educator, high school coach and athletic director who became the Women’s National Team Director, USA Basketball, and Honorary President of the FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, the world governing body for basketball. Carol provided an inspiring speech to the graduates and audience. The basis of her message was derived from her experiences directing seven straight Olympic Games gold medal-winning USA teams from 1996 to 2020 and five of the last six World Championships since 1998 to 2018.
Her takeaway to the students was to trust your instincts, or DNA, to not always be concerned with work’s monetary benefit, but rather follow your passion, and be a collaborative, good, and respectful teammate. Be mature, meaning—to think more of others than you do of yourself.
She explained that to obtain success and make good decisions you must know who you are and what values are important to you. Carol went on to quote among others, Roy Disney who said, “When principles are clear, decision making is easy. Then once you decide, make it your best decision ever.” She explained that in any career or business that “understanding a core scope of principles and values will serve as the basis for success and culture, which establishes conviction. And once you have a conviction, you will make courageous decisions.”
When listening to Carol, I was awestruck by how her message to the graduates was aligned with Learning By Design’s mission: …to help foster the creation and improvement of learning spaces for all types of communities. Much like when a comprehensive education campus plan is developed or when a single building design and construction process is put in place, your ideas and decisions shouldn’t be made for selfish reasons, but rather for what is best for all constituents who stand to benefit. That no matter what your role: Administrator, Educator, Architect, Planner, Designer, Facilities Executive, or Community Member, others will trust you to lead, and will appreciate that you show respect for their ideas and situations, resulting in things getting passed and done together. As enumerated in this edition, the six 2025 ICON in Education Design Award recipients are reflective of Carol’s message for being passionate, having conviction, and collaborating with others as a catalyst for improvement.
In life, in work, and at school, if others you surround yourself with are successful, then the whole team or project will be successful. In closing her Keynote, Carol bestowed these words to the graduates, “teams are everywhere, be the person who brings the team together, be the person who people count on, simply be a good teammate.”