Education Is the Most Powerful Weapon Which You Can Use to Change the World

Julianne Rader
Graduate in Landscape Architecture

Hello. My name is Julianne Rader, and I am part of the 2009 class of landscape architecture. Seeing as we are now officially graduates, I would like to take just a few minutes to offer up a suggestion regarding what you might do with your newly acquired degree.

I’ll begin, though, by stating the obvious: times are tough. And, certainly, no one relishes having just devoted five years to the pursuit of design only to find themselves without a bounty of job prospects. Not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars it has taken to get to this stage. I mean, seriously, some of you had plot bills this past semester that could have supported a family of four for a month.

But, without sounding completely insensitive to the perils our industry is facing, we are not the only ones feeling the economic pinch. Everyone, everywhere, is feeling the strain. In fact, there are now over eleven million Americans out of work and a staggering thirty-seven million living in poverty. There is a common factor, though, amongst many of the problems we, as a country, are facing - they can be easily solved though thoughtful design and problem solving skills.

Unfortunately, though, architects are often needed by the very people who cannot afford their services. In fact, only two percent of the world can afford to hire a designer. But, America, it’s your lucky day. Because, today is the day that a group of talented, young designers, not yet jaded by adult life, are unleashed on the workforce.

Which brings me to my one and only suggestion. Offer the skills, knowledge and talent you have cultivated over the past five years to those who so desperately need them. Just because you have learned to design office buildings, museums, recreation complexes, or golf courses does not mean that is what you are limited to. Volunteer your time with Habitat for Humanity, help clean up a local park, spend a week in New Orleans, or convince your principal to take on a small pro-bono project. Or, better yet, why not take it a step further. What if architects and landscape architects worked with FEMA to develop post-disaster neighborhoods rather than rows and rows of closely spaced trailers? What if architects included community health clinics and food co-ops in all housing projects? Or planners worked to create more walkable communities, ones in which you didn’t have to be able to afford a car? Or, bear with me for just one more scale of ideas, what if landscape architects and planners used their land planning skills to provide access to clean water for the nearly 1.1 billion people currently without it? Or, what if architects and interior architects designed mobile health clinics to help combat the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa?

Before I step down from my soapbox, though, I would like to clarify. I do not believe we have a responsibility to help everyone, or that all the world’s problems fall on our one hundred and thirteen shoulders. I do believe we have the opportunity to foster good design and to bring innovative solutions to places where resources and expertise are otherwise scarce. While these ideas may seem ridiculous or far-fetched, the reality is that if every American designer contributed just one percent of their forty-hour week - not even five minutes each day - to solving some of the problems our country faces, it would be the equivalent of a nearly three thousand person firm working solely on not-for-profit projects.

So, I apologize for the depressing figures and for reminding you that you might not have a job. But, more than anything, I hope everyone here remembers that the piece of paper you will receive in the mail a few weeks from now gives you so much more than the ability to churn out construction documents for Taco Bells. As Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Thank you and congratulations.