The keynote speaker, at UCSD’s first all-campus commencement ceremony in 16 years, told over 8,000 graduating students to be job creators, not seekers.
Muhammah Yunus, a Bangladesh-born economist and founder of the global microfinance movement, wants students to believe that “everyone is an entrepreneur, whether they realize it or not.”
In his commencement speech, he discussed the ways that education and banking systems can help to eradicate poverty and solve other global issues.
#UCSD2016 Commencement Speaker Muhammad Yunus: “don’t be a job seeker, be a job creator” pic.twitter.com/UvsWfpaVHG
— Sherry Mallory (@SherryMallory) June 11, 2016
“I would say it’s in human DNA to be go-getters and problem solvers which we call entrepreneurship,” he told Biz News.com. “I believe human beings are born with unlimited creative capacity.”
Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 after starting a nonprofit Grameen Bank, according to UCSD. The bank focuses on reducing poverty by helping poor people start their own businesses so they can be self-sufficient. He believes that credit is a fundamental human right.
“Sometimes, not knowing the details is a blessing. So don’t give up on something that you don’t know.” – Muhammad Yunus #UCSD2016
— Matt Lane (@MatthewELane) June 11, 2016
UCSD said the speaker’s awards include two of the highest civilian honors in the United States: the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold medal. There are replicas of the Grameen Bank model in over 100 countries worldwide.
The university says they chose Yunus as the keynote speaker because he embodies UCSD’s ideals of “public service, social mobility and global citizenship.” The bank he established in Bangladesh has lent billions of dollars to poor people, who were mostly women. His overall message is to help impoverished people pull themselves out of poverty through their own creative spirit of entrepreneurship.
Mohammad Yunus’s three zeroes: 0 poverty, 0 unemployment, 0 net carbon emissions. #UCSD2016 pic.twitter.com/ck3vvr7Ncj
— Brianna Jung Egan (@briannajegan) June 11, 2016
The undergraduate student speaker, Karina Mohajerani, was inspired by the speaker’s message to students, according to UCSD. Her career plan involves working with social businesses to address poverty.
“Having a Nobel Peace Prize recipient as this year’s guest speaker is already a noteworthy experience; furthermore, his work with social businesses is exactly what influenced me to take the career path that I have chosen,” she told UCSD.
