Student Speaker Zoe Cagan '21 MM, '22 GD Inspires at NEC Convocation

Last Thursday morning, NEC held its 2021 Convocation program for students, staff, and faculty, in person in Jordan Hall for the first time since September 2019.

During the celebration—which included galvanizing remarks from President Andrea Kalyn and Provost and Dean of the Faculty Benjamin Sosland, as well as incredible student performances by the Balourdet String Quartet and by Astghik Martirosyan, George Behrakis, Anna Abondolo, and Nadav Friedman—Student Speaker Zoe Cagan '21 MM, '22 GD delivered an inspiring, poignant, and timely speech to the NEC community.

Cagan emphasized that kindness, to each other and to ourselves, was more important than ever in our world today:

As we gather together this year, I have a request for all of us. Extend your compassion and your empathy to the person to your left, the person to your right, the person to the back of the hall. And to yourselves. Be kind to yourselves. Things have been hard. Give yourselves the permission to fail. Have the patience to listen, learn, understand, re-coordinate and try again. Encourage yourselves and each other to focus on what you can do now and to be the best you can be. This is what the world—our world—needs. You. Us. In all the beauty that makes us human; because in this year, and in this time, what we do here is much much more than the music.

And she prompted everyone to answer for themselves the question, "What do you think our world needs from us?"

You can watch the full video of Zoe's speech here (and read the original transcript of the speech below):

Original Speech Transcript

Good Morning Everyone!! It’s so amazing to see you all! It feels really good to have made it to this point where we’re all here together. Especially since things have been quite rough… 

These past 18 months, I kept hearing people say “at least we have our music,” and “the world needs our music” to keep us hopeful and inspired. However, I will be honest with you all. I wasn’t too convinced. From my perspective, we clearly did not have our music. Gigs disappeared. Concert halls and performance venues closed their doors. Many students decided not to come back. Some could not come back due to the circumstances. Those of us who did decide to return had to make many compromises. “At least we have our music. The world needs our music.” I wasn’t too sure. So. I had to take a moment to ask myself, “What do we have that the world does need?” “What do we have, by nature of what we come to do here everyday, that the world needs?”

Compassion, understanding, consideration and sensitivity to those around us. The discipline, the creativity, and the spirit to create something meaningful within a community of people whom we respect and cherish. A genuine and care-filled approach to pursuing knowledge, and a desire to share what we’ve learned; a desire to be better, and the will to keep going forward. This is what we have.

As we gather together this year, I have a request for all of us. Extend your compassion and your empathy to the person to your left, the person to your right, the person to the back of the hall. And to yourselves. Be kind to yourselves. Things have been hard. Give yourselves the permission to fail. Have the patience to listen, learn, understand, re-coordinate and try again. Encourage yourselves and each other to focus on what you can do now and to be the best you can be. This is what the world—our world—needs. You. Us. In all the beauty that makes us human; because in this year, and in this time, what we do here is much much more than the music. 

No matter how you look at it, we are living during an historic time. Who we are matters, and the things we do will influence the world around us. But that’s just what I think. What do you think we have? What do you think our world needs from us? While all of you come up with your own answers, let’s make this year and the time we have together something special, something memorable, and something to treasure. To the new students, Welcome to NEC! And to the returning students, Welcome Back! Thank you.