In His Own Words: Convocation speaker Darash Desai ’08

Good evening! and thank you all so much for having me today. It’s really a delight and an honor to be here; and I’d like to give a special thanks to Dr. Libby and all of those that worked so thoughtfully, and diligently to put this program together.

But I’m going to try to jump right in. I’m sure you all are wondering: who’s this guy? And what’s he have to say? Well, in spite of these BU robes, I’m a Stetson grad. I sat right where you are, a little over a decade ago, looking up at the stage, and thinking to myself – when is this thing over? But, cutting through all my smiles and peeling back all the layers of self-preservation, I remember feeling uncertain, feeling anxious. I don’t really know anyone here. What’s my experience going be like? What am I in for? Did I make the right choice?

To kill the suspense, it all worked out. As my mother-in-law loves to say, “You know, it just all works,” and she’s right although she never says anything about it being easy. With the help of some truly amazing professors, I graduated, found myself at Boston University, and picked up this twice-in-a-life-time robe along with an extra three letters behind my name just a few short years later. Now obviously, that’s a really condensed version of the story, which brings me to what I have to say.

Stetson has played an incredible role in where I’ve ended up today: a senior researcher in global health innovation at one of the leading engineering institutions in the country. When I first started as a student here, Stetson wasn’t really where I thought I’d end up. As a first-generation immigrant and someone that primarily focused on math and science in high school, the concept of an education grounded in liberal learning was totally foreign to me. I had applied to all technical schools, and I sat on waiting lists that never moved, so I actually spent my first year trying desperately to reapply, to actually leave Stetson. Lucky for me, that never panned out – and that was a real turning point for me. It forced me to open my mind, be fully present and really engage with the opportunities that were right at my feet.

Sometimes letting go of the plans we have for ourselves can open us up to some really cool change. In my four years here, I’m not sure I could have had a richer experience. And once I was ready for it, it all came down to just a handful of actions that really made my time here. As each of you gets ready to embark on your own four years here, with all your thoughts and all your plans, I thought I’d share just a few of my learnings with you and in the process, hopefully give a small glimpse of some of things you’ll find here if you look for it.

#1. Explore. College is an incredible place for self-discovery and an opportunity to add amazing depth to who you are as a person. Like I said, when I first arrived at Stetson, I was your run-of-the-mill, math-and-science geek. I can point to a lot of reasons that changed, but the crux of it came down to one thing: Stetson. Cultivates. Character. And they have the right community of educators, staff and even students to really achieve that.

I took my first martial arts class at Stetson, Aikido with Dr. Pack in Chaudoin Hall. I joined Students Taking Action Now: Darfur and found myself at the doors of U.S. Representatives in D.C. to get legislation passed. I walked onto Stetson crew, sharing both the intensity of collegiate competition as well as my more, and less, memorable nights here, with a whole new network of friends. It turned out Stetson had too much to offer to stay locked up in the science building, and thankfully, I fell into the right crowd and had the right direction early enough to take full advantage of what Stetson had to offer. So, get out there! Explore. Try something you’ve never done before. Who knows? You might like it.

#2. Inspire and engage with each other. I just talked about exploring, but sometimes you just don’t know what you’re missing. During my time here, one of the single greatest sources of inspiration were my own peers. In the spring of my sophomore year I was invited by a stranger by the name of Matt Morton to spend three days at the Florida Student Leadership Forum in Tallahassee. I had no idea what I was in for, but two things came out of that weekend: 1) some of the best friends I have today, and 2) a whole new perspective on leadership that was grounded in relationships and community. That one experience set a whole new set of gears in motion. I became involved in the fledgling Bonner program, and as a result, became more actively engaged in community service.

In the summer after my junior year, I ended up taking a service trip to a youth development program that Matt had started in Guatemala and had one of weirdest experiences of my life. I didn’t speak a lick of Spanish, so I spent a week communicating in gestures to the local staff. It was an incredibly gratifying experience, and yet extremely frustrating. So, I came back to my senior year, took a year of Spanish, graduated, and at the suggestion of yet another friend, Patrick Bradley, moved to Argentina and became fluent while working there over six months as a web developer. All that started from one person – a peer – and snowballed into some of the best experiences and relationships of my life. So, engage each other. Reach out to one another. You never know where you might end up!

#3. Challenge yourself, and everything around you. Stetson humbly offers some of the best teachers and resources you’ll find, and fortunately, they helped push me out of my comfort zone. Courses like Foundations of Knowledge, Self and Society, Justice and Ethics, were kind of alien to me, but they reinforced one of the most important things I took away from Stetson: critical thinking. I learned to challenge the things I took for granted, dissect my own beliefs and in the process, get to better know myself, what I wanted and what I stood for. That ended up having a pretty profound impact on my trajectory.

Suddenly, I was looking at biomedical engineering programs. I wanted to use science to work toward tangible and ongoing challenges in health. Today, I’m working on one of the first truly new innovations in drug quality testing to occur in over 20 years, trying to bring access to good-quality medicines — something we take for granted here in the United States — to millions around the world in low- and middle-income countries that often get fake or substandard medicine. Our work was spotlighted by Scientific American as one of top 10, world-changing ideas of the time, and we’re now getting ready to make the leap out of the lab and into the field where we can hope to start seeing real impact.

None of that would have been possible if I hadn’t been challenged to think about more than just atoms and enzymes. Problems in the world never exist in a vacuum and thinking critically beyond the science – about the political, economic and even social factors that contribute to a problem – can be the difference between success and failure. So, open yourself up. Take a walk outside of your own skin and really leverage the liberal learning offered to you here to build new perspectives and add new dimensions to who you are and how you think.

I used to see Dr. Nylen play with his band downtown at Café DaVinci. Outside of the math department, Dr. Pulapaka is an executive chef and runs his own restaurant, Cress, right down the street. Dr. Glenn Pack, my Aikido instructor who worked at the counseling center, was one of the highest-ranking black belts in the U.S. And Dr. Lick in the Physics Department used to make the some of the most delicious homemade ice cream I can remember. It’s incredible how much talent is packed into such a small campus, and even more incredible what talents each of you now bring here. Use them. Get out there and share your experiences and stories with each another. Build something new, and try to embrace the culture of service that’s one of the pillars of this institution.

Our late Chaplain Michael Fronk, someone that I really looked up to, encouraged us to not just have the grades and the intellect, but also the RIGHT STUFF, a commitment to community service and serving those around us.

So, loosen up a bit on the plans, and be sure to broaden your experience here. Explore! Inspire. Challenge. And, most importantly, have fun and let your curiosity guide you. Stetson is an incredible home and one that’s now open to you. So, make this place your Stetson. Just settle in and get comfortable, and that feeling of anxiousness – the one I felt during my convocation – will turn into a truly incredible experience here.

I wish you all the very best. Good luck and go Hatters!

-Darash Desai, Stetson Class of 2008 (biochemistry and physics), is a senior research scientist at Boston University, where he earned his Ph.D.