Makingadifference..docVIP

“Making a Difference” Commencement Address to the Class of 2010 Concordia University – St. Paul, MN May 14, 2010 Shirley J. Miske, Ph.D. Members of the Board of Regents, President Holst, esteemed faculty, and honored guests, and to you, graduates of the Class of 2010, Congratulations!—and a question: “Did it make a difference?” After four or five years of attending classes, writing papers, taking exams, and participating in the activities and life of the Concordia community, did it make a difference in your lives? Did it have an impact on what you know, and on how you view the world? In preparation for this commencement address, I interviewed some members of your graduating class and a few Concordia alumni currently working in Ankara, Turkey. Their collective responses to these questions were intriguing, and I will share them with you shortly. This question —“Did it make a difference?”— is the question professionals in my field ask regularly and persistently. My work involves designing, implementing, and evaluating programs with governments and with organizations such as UNICEF, the World Bank, and Save the Children to improve education in countries of Africa, Asia, Central America, and Eastern Europe. The organizations that fund these education programs and we who design them want to know, “Did the program make a difference?” When an agency builds schools or gives scholarships to girls in countries where girls’ enrolment lags behind boys, we want to know, “Does this make a difference in the lives of the girls, their families, their communities, and their countries?” Or when an individual or an organization (like Room to Read or like Books for Africa based here in St. Paul) donates millions of books to schools and communities in Africa or Asia, they want to know, “Does it make a difference?” To answer this question, professionals in my field prepare rigorous research designs. We distribute surveys, collect data, and analyze statist