The Dulin Report

Good morning! I am Oleg Dulin, the Clarkson School Class of 1997.

You may know this poem by Robert Frost: 

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference"

The road that led us all here happens to be a very cold and snowy one. That was in the winter of course, and just yesterday on our way up here Anna and I saw a tractor spraying cow manure on the field along the same exact road.

We are all here today, in this room, in this town, because we all took the road less traveled. All of you here today have made a choice that most of your peers didn't even consider. Each one of you had dozens, some had hundreds, even thousands, of other students in your high schools. Yet, you are all here. 

You made a bold choice few others did. Your parents made a bold choice. I remember the agony my father went through trying to make this same decision your parents made. Hug your parents today because by letting you go and come here away from home they have given you a gift that will last a life time.

Not all of you were exactly at the top of the class, I know I wasn't. Not all of you were on their way to be their high school valedictorians. Yet there is something unique about all of you, something common among you, that cannot be measured by standardized tests. If you were just like your peers today you would be graduating from high school, rather than completing your first year of college.

It takes more than academic excellence to get into Clarkson School. It takes motivation, self-determination, maturity, and independence of thought. As an immigrant I found this a uniquely American experience. 

I was 15 in the summer of 1994 when my family packed our belongings in a few duffel bags, boarded a one way Finair flight from Kiev, Ukraine to New York and emigrated to the United States. On the airplane between Helsinki and New York a fellow passenger asked me: "What are your dreams for America ?" I said: "I want to work for IBM one day."

We moved into an immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn, and I went to high school where a substantial number of students didn't even speak English. "Speak to me in Pascal," my AP Computer Science teacher used to say to a classroom full of immigrant kids. Of course most of you don't even know what Pascal is, but I assure you it was a very effective language for communication among kids who had no other common language.

In the fall of 1995 I just started my junior year when we received a letter in the mail that changed my life forever. It was a letter from Clarkson telling me about this bridging year program. I went to my guidance counselor and she said Don't do it, you are not ready. She insisted that I should not miss an opportunity to go to senior year of high school.

I then went to my ESL English teacher, whom I was fond of. He gave me a copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance" essay, parts of which I memorized by heart. Emerson said:

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own. But the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with the perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

That evening I filled out and mailed the application to Clarkson School and eagerly awaited their response. In February of 1996 I got an acceptance letter and nothing else mattered from that moment on. I went to the restaurant where I bussed tables at nights and said to my manager "I quit, I am going to college."

I once had a math teacher who showed up to class on the first day of school year, and drew a small circle on the board. "Imagine a circle on an infinitely big plane. The area of this circle," he said, "is what you know today. The circumference is what you will learn this year." At the end of the school year he drew a much bigger circle and said "What is the area of this circle now ? That is what you learned. What is the circumference ? That is how much you have to learn still."

Clarkson School was the beginning of a journey for me that was both enlightening and humbling.

I was so eager to jump start my Clarkson School year that I came to the Summer Science Research Program in July before the school year started. I had a chance to meet about a dozen schoolies in a more private setting and make new friendships. It was an opportunity to meet professors and staff and think through my schedule for the fall and spring.

I was determined not to waste my time. I knew I wanted to build a career with computers, and so I declared my major in computer engineering the first month of my Clarkson School year. Dr. Susan Conry in the ECE department was my advisor. I knew this was what I was good at. I attended a seminar with Dr. Robert Meyer who said to me "You are good at this stuff. You just need to get someone to pay you for it." So, I scheduled classes that with the exception of a handful of required courses were all targeted towards that goal. 

I took Dr. Meyer's advice and got someone to pay me for my talents. In 1996 Clarkson was in the midst of wiring the campus for high speed Internet and was on its way to become one of the first college campuses to have broadband from every classroom and every dorm room. Clarkson was recruiting for what was called at the time SDCS -- Student Directed Computing Services. I signed up and joined the team, and I spent 10-20 hours a week working in the ERC and around the campus -- laying cables, fixing computers, scanners and printers, trouble shooting servers and workstations. 

SDCS was an amazing experience. I couldn't find any references to it while researching for this speech but I feel it deserves a mention. Imagine organizing a group of computer nerds to do a monumental task of wiring this campus for high speed internet in every room, every corner, every nook. We all got paid a work-study wage but by the end of that Clarkson School year I had a practical job experience to put on my resume and it did not involve flipping burgers in the cafeteria. That experience created a foundation that I built my entire career on.

One of Clarkson's strength is effectiveness of the educators here and their ability to leave a life-long impression on their students. Consider Dr. Peploski, that diabolical mad scientist who still teaches freshman chemistry. 

One day at the end of the lecture Dr. Peploski went up to the top of the lecture hall to talk to a student, leaving all of his gear on the desk at the front. Some of us were staying in that lecture hall for calculus class. The calc professor came in with his box of papers and handouts. Now imagine a slow-motion sequence: Dr. Peploski sees the calc professor reach for something on the desk and screams "Nooooooooo!" and starts literally flying down the steps; calc professor sets his box down on a packet of potassium nitrate and disturbs the powder. A loud pop and smoke later the calc professor is standing there holding on to the box, stunned, and Dr. Peploski is apologizing profusely.

In preparation for this speech, I wanted to see what Dr. Peploski was up to these days. I found a video of him mixing up some concoction in a clay pot which then burns a hole through the pot, drips onto the science center concrete floor, and burns a hole in there as well. "This," he says in the video, "is how they make incendiary bombs in the military and demolition explosives in the civil sector." I wonder if he is being watched by the FBI.

The winter of 1997, I asked one of the Clarkson School staff members how come the buildings are not connected to each other with tunnels and covered walkways. I was told there were studies showing that students may get cabin fever in the winter. The class of 1997 literally had to walk through two feet of snow, both ways, to get to classes. While we didn't have these gorgeous walk ways, we did have those plastic cafeteria trays which mysteriously went missing from the cafeterias. We used them to sled down the hill behind the dorms. 

I don't need to tell you how unpredictable weather here can be. One day in May during the finals week I came out of my dorm room wearing sandals, shorts and a t-shirt because it was in the 70s. I went to my finals. When I came out 3 hours later the sky was dark, the temperature dropped to below freezing and it was snowing. All of our winter gear was already packed for end of school year, and schoolies were ready to go home for the summer.

Just this past December I brought my family to Lake Placid for some skiing. We took a day and went to Potsdam to visit the campus and see if I could meet some of my professors. I saw these gorgeous hallways and walkways and lamented that when I was at Clarkson dinosaurs that roamed the hill campus were dying off, and emerging mammals were just coming out of the shadows. Tony Collins was still the dean of engineering. 

I was delighted, however, to see that you guys no longer get those plastic food trays to sled on.

The Clarkson School year made me realize that people and experiences were as important as academics. I realized that I was going to have many mentors in my life, and many people I could look up to. I made some close friends here who not only helped me become a better person, but also helped me with my career.

After the schoolie year I decided to stay at Clarkson. I was not tied to my high school and had no plans to get a high school diploma. I was happy here, and my closest Clarkson School friends were staying. I loved small class sizes here. I loved professors who left their office doors open, that I could walk by and brainstorm with -- not just my homework assignment but many other topics. 

Where else could I go have lunch with a professor and talk about science ? Where else could I go to a class with only half a dozen other students and have a heated debate about history or politics ?

This became my town, my college, my stomping grounds. I finally found myself here. This was the place where I could fulfill my dreams.

As it turned out, my experience working for the SDCS allowed me to double my paycheck during the summer of 1997 working in the CAMP building with Dr. James Kane on instructional software for mechanical engineering students. It was a remarkable experience that allowed me to continue building on my talents.

College is a place where one can influence not just their peers, but also future generations. In 1997 my friends and I founded Linux Users Group and we raised awareness of the open-source software technologies. We had the backing of many professors, and many students. We even had an opportunity to influence IBM's business direction with Linux and open-source software. After my friends and I graduated, students who remained and the faculty formed a group called "Clarkson Open Source Institute" which now has a bright and nicely equipped lab in the science center. 

COSI is now as much of a fixture of the Clarkson campus as, say, the cafeteria is. How many computer science graduates were influenced by COSI ? How many of them went on to the industry and carried their ideas with them ? 

Groups like this around the world not only influenced their peers but also an entire industry. An entire generation of computer science graduates went on to Amazon, Google, Facebook, RedHat, and succeeded at getting the biggest companies out there like IBM and Microsoft to do what they previously laughed at.

This is your time now! You too can help, influence change and repair the world. If there is something you are passionate about -- speak up! Organize your fellow students, get backing of the faculty, and spread the word. Ideas and experiences you get involved with now will be a foundation for your entire future, the future of this country, and the future of the world.

Quoting more of Emerson's Self-Reliance:

"With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day." 

Anything you dream of today, any decisions you make, and any plans you build -- everything is based on the information and knowledge you have up to this point in time. As your horizons expand your goals and plans will change too.

My time at Clarkson taught me that intelligent and mature adults know when to change their opinions and adjust their course. In the face of changing circumstances sticking to old childhood dreams and goals may not be wise. 

After my sophomore year I interned at IBM Global Services. While there I realized a few things. One is that the time I have in college I must use wisely. I must stop complaining about the amount of homework and tests. In the real world you don't have nearly as much time or flexibility to enjoy your spare time and pursue your interests. 

Not willing to give up on my dream of having an exciting career at IBM, I applied for an internship at IBM Research. At a company picnic I walked up to IBM's Senior VP of the research division and introduced myself. To my astonishment, he remembered me from one of the student presentations we did at Linux Users Group and he said "You are one of the Clarkson Linux guys, I remember you!"

The summer after my junior year I got an internship at IBM Research. That job was indeed my dream come true. So imagine my disappointment when having put all of my eggs into that basket I was told in 2000 that due to the declining economy IBM had a hiring freeze in the research division. I was devastated. 

But you know what ? Smart and successful people know when to break their consistency and adjust their plans. As upset as I was, I put myself back together. Whatever I learned at Clarkson and at IBM stayed with me after graduation. I went on to startups, customers, my own business and companies willing to pay for my ideas and talents. I found myself surrounded by people who shared my interests and employers willing to create an environment where I could be creative. Even though I didn't end up getting a job I dreamt of as a teenager on that Finair flight to JFK, I am proud of what I ended up doing since then.

These days I see computer science graduates try to get a job at Amazon, Google, Facebook and so on. Guess what ? They too have their standards, management, budgets, and cubicle farms. You may not be able to get a job there. But that does not mean that your dreams are not fulfilled; all you need to do is adjust them in the face of changing circumstances.

College education is what you make of it, and it is not just academics. The value of college education lies in an opportunity to network with like minded peers.

I know I quoted Emerson and Self-Reliance but don't let it all get into your head. Self-reliance is only validated by how you work with others. 

Look around yourself and pay attention to who you are surrounded with. This is a group of people who know how to make bold decisions. It is a group of people that passed highly selective processes to get here. The projects you work on together, the extracurricular activities you participate in, all create the stage for your future careers.

For the past 15 years since I got my Bachelor's I worked with a group of Clarkson classmates in one capacity or another. I got one of my first startup jobs because a Clarkson School classmate of mine referred me to the CEO. Subsequently, I've helped a handful of my classmates get jobs, and they helped me.

Not everyone is meant to be an executive or an entrepreneur. Some of us are craftsmen, like me for instance. Over time you will learn each other's strength and weaknesses and if you play your cards right and network with your classmates you all will move on to do great things - together.

The strong relationships you build with one another are as valuable as the grades you get. Neither one should be neglected. I wish you all good luck and great success, and thank you!