Presidents are not supposed to have favorite classes. But how can I not feel a special connection with the Class of 2011? You have spent your last semester as students here during the time that I spent my first semester as president. My family and I will forever be grateful for the way in which you have welcomed us into your lives and your world here at Brandeis. But the special connection between us goes beyond that.

Lately, we all have been thinking about transitions-about standing in the present at a threshold, contemplating what we have achieved in the past and imagining what we hope to build in the future. Change can be disconcerting, but change is also exciting. Change is about opportunity, about potential, about growth and, above all, about beginnings. After all, the graduation ceremony is not called "conclusion" or even "transition"- it is called "commencement."

For this year's graduates, this is a time to contemplate what you have achieved so far in your lives and all that has brought you to this point. But it is also a time to begin to contemplate your lives ahead. One member of the Class of 2011 recently asked me if it was realistic to be optimistic at a time when the world seems to be in so much turmoil: economically, socially, politically and environmentally.

It is a fascinating question: Is it realistic to be optimistic? The world has changed dramatically over the past 4 years. There is also a heightened level of uncertainty and concern as we face an economy and a world that has been greatly shaken over the course of your time here at Brandeis. Without question, times such as these breed anxiety.

And yet, I believe that you have every reason to be optimistic as you face the future. Why? I would point to two sets of reasons.

First, your training here at Brandeis prepares you for the challenges of a world that we literally cannot imagine.

You have been trained to analyze carefully.

You have been trained to solve problems.

You have been trained to communicate effectively.

You have been trained to turn information into knowledge.

All of these skills will serve you well not only as you graduate, but also decades from now, when the workplace has changed in ways that are unimaginable to us today. It was roughly 2,500 years ago that the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that "nothing endures but change." This has never been truer than it is today. It is precisely the training that flows from the liberal arts education that you have received that will provide the skills to adapt and adjust to this ever-changing environment. Mental agility and creativity will be in highest demand.

But when I think of the training you received at Brandeis, I define it as not only what took place in the classroom, but also in the laboratories and libraries, studios and stages, playing fields and courts, dining halls and dormitories. Here you learned two vitally important lessons: emotional intelligence (which is sometimes called EQ, as opposed to IQ) and risk taking.

Your training has taken place in a vast array of social settings at Brandeis, from one-on-one conversations to an astonishing range of student organizations. The willingness to engage in real relationships and build real communities is, in many ways, the hallmark of a Brandeis education. Brandeis fosters your abilities to understand your own motivations as well as those of others. This is the essence of emotional intelligence recognized by psychologists today as most closely predictive of success.

As for risk taking, is there any greater risk to take in this society than the sheer risk of being yourself, and of trying approaches to life without certainty of success or outcome? Our graduates have learned that well at Brandeis. I have every confidence that this graduating class will achieve amazing and unique things in this world as its members go off to law school, medical school, graduate school, new jobs, to start their own companies and in a full range of adventures that lie ahead.

My second reason for saying that it is realistic for you to be optimistic is that as you leave this place, you are most decidedly not alone. It is absolutely striking to me how many Brandeisians tell me that their closest friends continue to be their Brandeis classmates. There is much you take from your time here, but, most of all, what you take is each other. You are an undergraduate student for 4 years-you are alumni for the rest of your lives.

You will always belong to this place, to its values and what it stands for. I hope that in the months and years ahead, you will always feel that Brandeis is a place to which you can return, either in your mind or, even literally, here to campus-to find a beacon of clarity in an all-too-uncertain world.

Editor's Note: The writer is president of the University.