Photo courtesy Ringling College: Commencement speaker Reggie Fils-Aimé with Dr. Larry Thompson.

May. Seasonal Floridians are returning to other states and the traffic is easing. In colder states, flowers and animals are reappearing after winter’s freeze. In the midst of region-specific spring activities, college campuses across the country are alive with motion and anticipation. Why? Because Commencement season is upon us.

For all of us touched by it—students, parents, educators—it is a bittersweet time marked by celebration and tradition, excitement and nostalgia. For students, it is the end of a phase of concentrated learning, about the chosen field of study, about turning potential into reality, and perhaps most importantly, about self. For parents, it is the end of tuition bills, but also the end of their child’s adolescence and dependence. For educators, it is another successful year completed and in the books, but also a letting-go of those minds and talents that we have spent the last many years helping to broaden, deepen, grow and blossom.

However, the very name—Commencement—tells us it is so much more: To commence is to start. Commencement, therefore, is also a beginning of something new. For graduating college seniors, it marks the start of the careers for which they have been preparing so diligently over the preceding four (or more) years. It is the launch of early adulthood and all of its wondrous opportunities, challenges, and responsibilities. It is a time of POSSIBILITY. And we at Ringling College of Art and Design make sure that our students are prepared to take full advantage of it.

Over the last six months, I have told you that Ringling College of Art and Design matters because we prepare our students for success in a future that will be enormously impacted by the explosion of Artificial Intelligence (AI). I have stated that we teach our students to blend right-brain skills, like creativity and holistic thinking, with left-brain skills, like analysis and literacy, to think in new, innovative ways that will be so critical for the leaders of tomorrow. I have asserted that industry is beginning to embrace creativity as an integral skill in its workers and leaders. We see that truth in the more than 100 companies that come to recruit and hire Ringling College students every year. It is evidenced by the many companies that seek out our students for design solutions to myriad problems through a partnership with our Collaboratory. And it is embodied by the careers of people like our 2019 Commencement speaker, Reggie Fils-Aimé, retired president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America.

When Fils-Aimé had his commencement—his ending that was a beginning from Cornell University—he had a Bachelor of Science in Applied Economics. This degree is not exactly what comes to mind when you think of creative disciplines; yet, his career took him to companies like VH1 and Nintendo, where he became known as an innovator who could also manage complex day-to-day operations. That combination of creativity and logic, of right-brain and left-brain skills, brought him to the pinnacle of success at one of the world’s gaming giants. In his biography for the Ringling College Commencement program, he cites creative and non-linear thinking as common elements to his biggest business and personal accomplishments.

When Ringling College graduates had their commencement on May 9, Reggie Fils-Aimé stood as an example of the importance of what we at Ringling College taught them—how to think and create—to achieving their own success. And they can be confident in the knowledge that, thanks to their Ringling College education, they are prepared to meet the challenges of the coming Creative Age head-on.

 Dr. Larry R. Thompson is president of Ringling College of Art and Design.

Photo courtesy Ringling College: Commencement speaker Reggie Fils-Aimé with Dr. Larry Thompson.