Rachel S. Hutter, an electrical engineer by training and now Disney Studios’ Head of Operations, recently inspired the 2024 graduating class of Michigan State University’s College of Engineering.
Commencement ceremonies are an academic rite of passage that mark the end of student life—life under the protection of professors and parents—and the official start of “adulting.” At this time, new graduates become professionals, experts in a main field of study, who can now enlighten the next generation. At the recent MSU graduation ceremony, in a sea of Spartan green gowns and caps, all you could see were smiles and luminous faces full of hope for the future.
The 2024 graduating class started their journey during COVID-19, trying to navigate registration to classes, group work, and college life from their home bedrooms, behind computer monitors. Many probably lost family members and underwent a severe economic crisis, with high levels of inflation and prices that remain elevated today. Additionally, throughout these four years, these graduates have experienced global armed conflicts, hate crimes, and gun violence.
For graduation day at least, that was all behind them, and although not forgotten, these terrible problems took a back seat to the graduates’ achievements, a testament to human resilience. As they looked to the future, they heard motivating words from Ms. Hutter, who received the MSU 2024 Claud R. Erickson Distinguished Alumni Award and who told the class that this was a moment to be both excited and terrified about.
Ms. Hutter’s time at MSU included not only majoring in electrical engineering, but also concentrating in theater. She has served in several roles for organizations and companies including Veterans Affairs, General Motors, General Mills, and Rockwell Automation. She is a member of the Society of Women in Engineering and talks regularly about the importance of women in STEM.
With an impressive résumé and incredible charisma, Ms. Hutter perfectly portrays the famous quote attributed to Mark Twain and sometimes to Confucius: “Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” In her own words to the 2024 class, Ms. Hutter fervently stated that it is more important to love your chosen career and to seek a job that you can execute passionately than it is to publish papers or submit patent applications. Loving your work, she said, is paramount to your happiness. “I love the engineer mindset that tolerates opinion but values facts,” Ms. Hutter said with a glowing smile, adding that “the problems most worth solving live at the intersection of goodwill and scientific knowledge.”
Ms. Hutter is a STEM role model whom we need more than ever. Despite our great technological advances, science still coexists with the most extreme denialism, coming, for example, from those who politicize COVID-19 and dismiss it as a simple flu virus and from flat-earthers convinced (and trying to convince others) that Earth is not round. That’s why finding inspirational heroes to look up to for their courage and achievements is key to encouraging young people to keep striving and to make finding the truth their life’s mission. As Ms. Hutter stated, “We yearn, all of us, for the great quest.” It was impossible for her listeners not to feel excited and eager to become a hero when she also referenced “Luke harnessing the force to protect the resistance” and “the Avengers, chasing the Infinity Stones across time and space to save humanity.”
Regardless of how little or big the fights are, almost every single person on this planet strives daily to be better and to keep improving, whether the struggle is to wake up in the morning after just one ring of the alarm, to study for that very hard exam, to pursue a degree, or to design safe roller coasters for the most famous amusement park. Since some aspects of life are unpredictable, it becomes even more crucial to be wise and strategic when making our decisions and choosing our battles, when deciding on certain academic paths, careers, and life circumstances. These crucial decisions, after all, will dictate how we spend our time, and time is a precious commodity. As the elusive Time Stone from the Marvel Universe reminds us, time is a power to be wielded with purpose.
In the last portions of her commencement address, Ms. Hutter reminded the newly minted graduates of MSU’s College of Engineering to embrace the lessons learned from disappointment, mistakes, and discouragement since they are part of the journey and make life even richer: “I wish you lots of problems. I want problems to present themselves to you, and I want you to seek them out. Go be, forever, the heroes you have trained to be,” she said at the end of her speech. Let her words inspire us to become ordinary heroes, scientists, and professionals whose quest is to make the world a better place, one Infinity Stone at a time.
Mariana Garcia-Ascolani is originally from Paraguay. She graduated as an agricultural engineer from the Universidad Nacional de Asuncion in Paraguay. She earned both her master’s and PhD degrees in animal sciences at the University of Florida. Dr. GarciaAscolani is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Oklahoma State University. She specializes in mitigation of enteric methane emissions from beef cattle and in the development and application of nutritional and management strategies to improve sustainable beef production.
This article was originally published in AWIS Magazine. Join AWIS to access the full issue of AWIS Magazine and more member benefits.