Jeanne Gang was the 2024 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Commencement speaker. Gang, an internationally renowned architect responsible for projects such as the Aqua and St. Regis towers on the Chicago skyline, graduated from the university in 1986 with a degree in architecture. The following is a transcript of her speech that was delivered at the universitywide ceremony on Saturday, May 11, 2024.
Good morning and thank you so much for that warm welcome. Thank you, Chancellor Jones, President Killeen and the Board of Trustees for inviting me today. Let me also congratulate my fellow honorary degree recipients and their families.
It’s just great to be back here at my dear alma mater, Illinois, and it is truly an honor to be asked to address you here today.
We all know there is a lot going on in the world right now, but we can still come together and take this time to recognize your big achievement. In fact, we need to come together because it is so important to mark this milestone, and to do it in-person is very special. It’s a bright moment, a joyous moment, and I’m truly happy to be here to celebrate with you.
And now, to the Class of 2024: Congratulations — you did it! Let’s celebrate with a big round of applause.
I want to briefly look back at the mountain you just climbed to get here.
Undergrads: you dealt with the worst of the pandemic in your very first year. That was a scary experience as an introduction to higher ed. If you were a freshman in 2020, you weathered that social isolation in a time meant for social connection.
Nevertheless, you found ways to build relationships and grow your knowledge — even in such an uncertain time. After all, it wasn’t just the pandemic, but other world-changing events, like international conflicts and fights for justice here at home, which called for your attention in a time when you also had to focus on book learning and taking exams.
Climate change anxiety has also been part of your experience — the race to get global warming under control, transition our economies and find new solutions to steady the planet to ensure our environment and future. It’s a lot!
You lived and worked through all of that, Class of 2024. You could have given up — and yet you’re here. Now that’s what I call resilience! It is a major accomplishment and deserves another round of applause.
The good news is you didn’t have to do this alone. I think it’s in order to thank the people who helped support you over these past years. Maybe they’re here today. Congratulations parents, family and friends. These graduates wouldn’t be here without your continued encouragement, financial help and love. And of course, congratulations to the many faculty and staff who offered their wisdom, teaching and advice. They all inspired you, taught you and believed in you throughout this journey — without all these supporters, this would have been a lot more difficult. So let’s give them all a big round of applause!
Thinking about all the hard work you did reminds me of when I was here on campus and makes me remember my favorite places to go study.
My number one choice was the Illini Union — old soft chairs, high ceilings, natural light and most important: snacks!
My number two choice was the Law Library — when you really needed to get serious — long tables, no windows … no talking.
Now if you were NOT studying hard — there was the Undergrad Library, where you would go to see your friends. It was less like going to a library, and more akin to say, going to KAMS, except without the bar. (No wonder they are closing down this library!)
But no matter where you chose to study, U. of I. is the place where you discovered that working hard at something is essential. You might have cruised through high school without much trouble, but here at U. of I. you can’t do that. You can’t cruise through without trying, without focus — no matter what your major is, you have to put in the hours.
As you may know, my major here at U. of I. was Architecture — yay FAA! And anyone who knows architecture majors knows that the lights in the architecture building are always on. Someone is always working on projects in the studio 24/7. Architects are notorious for all-nighters. But there is a little secret about that — which I’ll share in a minute.
The truth is, not only the architecture majors, but every single one of you studied at libraries, spent late nights driving ideas into your brain, you wrote, you prepared, you calculated. You had to be dedicated. You had to be disciplined.
And now, you are about to leave U. of I. and this world of classrooms, labs and libraries. So, when you get out into the working world, the mantra is “hard work is the key to success.” You’ll find a lot of companies out there who endorse the idea that hard work is fundamental to making it to the top. And since working hard is something you already know how to do, you should be good, right?
But what I want to tell you is … this is not the whole truth. Yes, working hard is associated with success, but putting in long hours alone doesn’t necessarily mean you will get somewhere or even manage to be effective at your job. People often struggle in their career, not because of the lack of hard work, but rather because their hard work might not align with what they love to do.
My point here is that after you leave Illinois, you will need to find out, or further define, what you love to do.
This is no easy task, and it will take more time to discover for some than others, but make sure to leave enough time and space in your life to find out what piques your interest, whether it’s in your chosen field or in another field. Don’t listen to what other people tell you on this, be analytical in judging where you do well and how you are most intellectually, artistically or socially impactful. Find ways to convert those things you love doing and are good at into what you do for a living.
That, by the way, is the secret reason why the lights were always on in the architecture studio. It’s because most architecture majors love what they’re doing. We’re working in studio, creating projects and envisioning future cities. We’re collaborating with each other — it hardly seems like work at all! So this is my first point:
Success on your terms will be when you’ve transformed the feeling of working hard into the feeling of hardly working.
And once you’re there, doing what you love to do, and it doesn’t seem like work, it’s time to start … daydreaming! That’s right, daydreaming. Parents, stay with me here. To offer you my second point for today, I want to turn our attention toward the importance of imagination.
We often hear about the imagination exclusively in reference to children, with their fairy tales and fantasy worlds, as if everyone else — all of us adults — could get by without it.
But on the contrary, imagination is essential for my job as an architect, as a creator, as a writer, as an urbanist and ultimately as a human being who cares about others and cares about the world. It was bell hooks, the famous American scholar and activist, who said, “The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is — it’s to imagine what is possible.” Indeed. Imagination is about seeing a possible future that doesn’t yet exist.
So why is imagination so important? Without making a seminar on the topic (though I think it could be a pretty good one!) the short answer is that the concept of imagination has evolved from the medieval practice of mimesis to the age of Enlightenment when it was seen as a threat to rational thinking. But in contemporary culture, imagination simply means the ability to form images and pictures of something that exist only in the mind’s eye. It’s about picturing something that is not actually there — deliberately and intentionally. (Not as a hallucination, that’s something else!)
Imagination isn’t only for artists: it’s for everyone. You can actually practice using your imagination and even harness it — to creative and productive ends. It’s about taking the time to visualize something you want to see in the world, whether it is social change, sustainable futures or other new ways of living. And through this visualization, you have taken the first steps to actually making it happen.
It was Albert Einstein who famously said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Coming from a scientist, this statement might be surprising, but he was referring to how he was able to envision his theory of relativity even before it could be physically proved. His longer quote explains this more fully: “I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
In saying this, Einstein was encouraging people to look beyond the current frontiers of what we already know and are comfortable with and into the realm of what we’re compelled to explore next. Theory can lead to practice, and vision can lead to change.
And this is precisely how imagination becomes crucial for our current, complex times. We need bold new ideas that will help to address our difficulties — like the issues you experienced outside the classroom over these last four years. We have to imagine the future we want before we can make that future a reality. In my work, I’ve called this “Actionable Idealism.”
It doesn’t stop there. Imagination is what makes it possible to cultivate empathy and compassion as well. You need to imagine what it’s like to be someone else — to feel what they feel, to walk in their shoes — in order to have a civil and thriving society.
Margaret Atwood, one of my favorite writers, inverts this notion to describe what you get without imagination. I quote: “Oppression involves a failure of the imagination: the failure to imagine the full humanity of other human beings.” As the author of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” we can see the terrifying trajectory of where that lack of imagination — that lack of empathy — can lead.
A number of weeks ago, in preparation for today, I reached out to speak with a few members of the Class of 2024 from different backgrounds and different majors. I wanted to hear what was on your minds.
Your classmates shared a variety of things with me. There was a general apprehension about work and the prospects of landing a job. Some students were even worried about whether the job they had prepared for at U. of I. would even exist in the future.
And that makes sense; I get that. Things are changing so rapidly with technology and AI that I can believe that the jobs you will start out with are not the jobs you will end up with. In fact, you may have to reinvent your career multiple times during your working life. All the more reason to discover and love what you do. It will transcend the immediacy of a job. This great university has prepared you for that.
I also heard another worry from your classmates — it was one that really stuck with me. Some students worried about just being able to be who they are and be safe in their workplace, or be safe in this country, because of their gender and how they identify. Let me say this: being safe to be who you truly are, or to love who you love, or to work at what you love doing … these are things that no one should have to worry about in 2024.
That form of oppression represents a failure of the imagination — a failure to empathize. That is not who we are as graduates of the University of Illinois, and we won’t stand for it going forward.
So dear Class of 2024, it may be that when you are applying for jobs, you might find zero job descriptions that state “seeking entry level computer programmer with a vivid imagination.” In fact, out there in the “real world,” you might encounter some people uncomfortable with outside-the-box thinking, whose favorite word is “No.”
In addition, in our time of major conflicts and challenges, it may seem like the imagination is no match for the systems and problems we seem trapped in — like there is no point in envisioning a different, better future.
But I guarantee you that in life you will need imagination — this human superpower — perhaps more than any other. Our collective future flourishing will come from you knowing what you love to do and boldly following that path, and from you using your imagination to face the present challenges and find the opportunities — to envision and work toward a better world.
My one assignment for you today, after all the celebrations, is that you take a few moments to imagine that safe and peaceful and joyful future you want to see, and in you doing that, we will all be that much closer to having this future come true. Dream big!
Congratulations graduates. I will see you out there!