In his address at Southeast Missouri State University’s winter commencement ceremony Saturday, Southeast professor Willie Redmond said life after college can be seen much like another course.

It may be longer and more unpredictable than the classes the 781 graduates had completed during their time at Southeast, but the skills they learned along the way are directly transferable, he said.

“The next big class of your life is ready to start,” he said, and commencement was “syllabus day.”

While outlining his views on how best to approach the next steps in life, the economics professor told students not to become too concerned with making money.

“There’s certainly nothing wrong with making money,” he said, but added the graduates would need to figure out metrics by which to rate their accomplishments besides dollars and cents.

“You’ll grade yourselves on criteria that’s just as important,” he said.

Whether that other value comes from societal contribution, personal contribution, travel or something else, maximizing one’s output often comes from balancing achievements at work and leisure, he said.

For graduate Tremane McCullough, the achievement the day signified was reward enough.

“It feels great,” he said. “To beat the odds. Most people don’t graduate, especially with the type of background I had.”

He meant growing up in West Palm Beach, Florida, where many of the peers he had growing up don’t have the degree he does.

Students walk on stage during Southeast Missouri State University winter commencement Saturday at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.Andrew J. Whitaker

He said the thing he looks forward to most is heading back to Florida and building a life.

“My career, my job,” he said, though he couldn’t say what that might be yet. “And just starting a family. A real life.”

This “new course” of life and career, Redmond told graduates, likely will entail 40 or 50 years of hard work.

“Maybe that’s a good thing though,” he said, as it may offer an opportunity to gravitate toward an occupation one may enjoy more deeply.

But it takes work, he said.

“I do not have ‘Dr. Redmond’ on my birth certificate,” he said.

But graduates such as Helen Maschmeyer are used to hard work. Maschmeyer’s red tassel signified her graduating grade-point average: 4.0.

Of the hundreds of students in her graduating class, Maschmeyer could count the students who’d kept a perfect GPA, including herself, on her fingers.

“It feels ... I’m a little overwhelmed,” she said, beaming.

“Proud,” her mother, Cindy, said. “Relieved.”

“Very happy,” her father, Carl, said.

Maschmeyer studied education and said she’s looking forward to finding a job in science or language, having earned certificates in both areas.

She said maybe, somewhere down the road, she’d be open to coming back and teaching at her alma mater.

But the afternoon was for celebration and family.

Redmond closed by reminding students while academic achievement is laudable, character is equally, if not more so.

“There is extra credit in this next course you’re going to take.”

Positive interactions with the people around you are the ways to get the extra points from life, he said.

Citing Maya Angelou, he reminded students of the kinship they share with their neighbors in keeping with Southeast’s most recent homecoming theme, “We Are One.”

“We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike,” he said.

When all the diplomas were handed out, Southeast president Carlos Vargas-Aburto used another Southeast slogan in parting.

“We can’t wait,” he told them, “to see what you do.”

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627

Pertinent address:

Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, Mo.