2008 Commencement-Graduate Address

Our student speaker has been a leader in our Student Government and served for two years as a member of the MSPP Board of Trustees. While generously involved with MSPP governance, he has done exceptional work in class and in the field. He was selected from among his peers to address the group today.

Dr. Alan Beck will say a word of introduction about our Student Speaker Josh Eagle.

—Nicholas Covino, PsyD

Joshua Lev Eagle, esteemed by his colleagues, has been selected as this year’s graduate speaker.  Josh came to us with an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, an early and promising career in journalism and publishing and a deep desire to “do more” and make a more direct contribution in the service of meeting human needs.  Trained at Nashua Regional High School, the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and the Brookline Center, Josh has also been a member of the MSPP Board of Trustees during his time in the Doctoral Program.  Acclaimed by his supervisors and teachers as a talented student and trainee who is intellectually and emotionally available to patients and colleagues alike, who is motivated, earnest, tireless, a leader and, throughout, a man of good will and good humor.

Please welcome Josh Eagle

—Dr. Alan Dodge Beck

Joshua Lev Eagle, PsyD (Candidate)

Thank you, Dean Beck. And thank you to my classmates and peers for bestowing upon me the honor of speaking for all of us on this significant day.

I'd like to begin with a few thank yous to those who helped us make it to this milestone. Thanks to the entire MSPP administration and faculty for your excellent leadership and instruction. Thanks as well go to our board of trustees. Please keep up your top-notch stewardship of out school. Also, thanks to the "unsung heroes" of the MSPP experience. Folks like Kevin Costello, Eileen Healy, Matt Kramer, and Elaine Toomey, who worked patiently with us and provided immeasurable support, and also sometimes pizza and candy when we were nice. The MSPP experience is truly a unique one and it would not be nearly as special if it weren't for the slew of good people working throughout our hallowed halls. I guess I'd like to thank the entire MSPP community for helping us all along the way to today.

I'd be remiss if I didn't take a chance to thank all of you out in that dauntingly large crowd of family and friends. You hung with us for at least four of the most challenging years of our lives, and without your support, love and guidance, we might not have made it through. We all heard the jokes and warnings about what graduate school can inevitably do to important relationships in one's life, and we are thankful that you never let us get too big for our bridges nor did you get too mad at us when we cancelled plans at the last minute because of unexpected assignments. This day belongs as much to you as it does to us, so we hope you are able to join us in its depth and meaning.

I'm distinctly honored to be sharing the dais with our "real" graduation speaker, the honorable Ruth B. Balser, state representative of the 12th Middlesex District and House Chair of the Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse and longtime friend of the MSPP community. I've had the pleasure of knowing Rep. Balser personally, getting the chance to pick her brain on matters both psychological and political on numerous occasions. Her dedication to advancing mental health issues on the state political level has served as an inspiration for me throughout these past four years. Her presence on this stage today also helped me focus in on what I would like to share with you all today.

While at first I was a little dumbstruck at my classmates' Questionable choice of a graduation speaker, I slowly came to accept the task at hand, I began thinking back to my past career in writing and marketing. Specifically, I remembered one boss from my internet days, who said, "When you talk to large groups, don't say too much. Stay on message, and keep it to three or fewer points."

Since he's now a multimillionaire, and I'm not, I guess he's worth listening to. Thus bearing these wise words in mind, my classmates and friends, I am going to ask you that as we go forward into the world as professional psychologists, that we remind ourselves from time to time of something I'd like to call "the new psychologist's three gs to success." What are those three G's, you ask?

The first G is giving. Giving is at the heart of this great profession of ours. Giving the gift of our presence, compassion and mindfulness to the communities we have and will have the privilege of serving is one of our most important tasks. And looking for ways to give beyond our therapeutic relationships is also our responsibility. Lending our credibility as professional psychologists to public policy discussions, advocacy efforts, and other social improvement activities is an opportunity we might not get paid for, but that can be very rewarding nonetheless. As some of us might recall reading in Jill's foundations class in our first year, it was Matthew Dumont who wrote, "The less consequence there is to a life, the more it is squandered." We must be consequential as psychologists – we must find ways to give.

The second G is for growing. Although it may be particularly tempting, after these four (or more) long years to feel content with the knowledge and skills we have acquired, the truth is we are really only starting out in this field. And in actually, we know very little, compared to our peers, some of whom have been in the field for decades. It is our obligation as professional psychologists to continue to evolve along with the field. My best supervisors in training were those who were eager to hear about what I was learning about, and in so doing, advancing their own knowledge base. With time, some of us may find ourselves in private practice, where opportunities to learn and grow will not be as plentiful and easy as they once were. Undoubtedly, we will always have the opportunity to learn in each therapeutic engagement that we enter into. However, it is up to each one of us, individually and collectively, to make sure that we continue to grow, learn and mature, perhaps beyond what will be required of us with CEUs and our licensing boards.

The final G, for lack of a better word, is Gym. You know, as in gymnasium or health club. What the heck does working out have to do with psychology? Well, I would've preferred an S, for self-care, but then you would've had Two G's and an S to remember and that's not quite as catchy. I know that some of my classmates might chuckle at the thought of me talking about self-care, because I wasn't always so mindful about it in the past four years. But perhaps it's fitting that self-care was stressed so adeptly at our orientation way back when, and here we are talking about it again. For me, I closely associate the gym with self-care, because I know that when I am going there consistently, I'm taking better care of myself. For you, self-care might mean family time, vacations, reading, the movies, taking in a Sox game, you get the picture. The point is "burn out" is a real vulnerability in our field. If we want to make an impact, as well as have successful careers as psychologists for years to come, than we must find ways to attend to our minds, bodies and souls healthily.

So, there you have it MSPP class of 2008. The new psychologists three g's for success. Piece of cake. I hope it is as easy as those three g's, although I suspect that in the years to come, we each might find additional g's to add to out lists. I'd like to thank my classmates, again, for giving me this opportunity today and I'd like to thank each and every one of you for sharing this special day with us. I’ll see you in the office, at conferences and in the Gym!  Best wishes to us all and thank you. 

Updated 6/13/08