Eyenga Bokamba is Opening the Door

“I felt like I had a lot of things to say not to just my colleagues in Arts in Education (AIE), but all my fellow teachers,” says Eyenga Bokamba, Ed.M.'07. “I really wanted to illustrate how to move forward in your own career while being mindful of how other people are impacted by your career.”’

As this year’s selected student speaker, Bokamba will have the chance to tell an audience that includes not only her fellow HGSE students, but also their families and friends, and HGSE faculty members her thoughts. Each year HGSE students are invited to enter the Student Speaker Competition, the winner of which is selected by a committee of faculty and staff  to speak at the convocation. Speeches are judged on intelligence, wit, and significance to the audience.

When an e-mail inviting students for HGSE convocation student speaker popped up in Bokamba’s inbox, she hesitated. “It was a private thought and I wondered if I could pull it off,” she says.

Then, AIE colleague and friend Barbara Palley, Ed.M’07, sent her an e-mail encouraging her to apply. “When I read the call for submissions, I thought immediately of you,” Palley wrote. “Your speech, in just daily interactions, is eloquent, thoughtful, and inspiring.”

The push from Palley is just what Bokamba needed to get started. After “sobbing and sobbing” as she wrote her speech, Bokamba says she was focused on the power of teaching and educators to impact people’s decisions, outlooks, and every aspect of life.

A teacher for 10 years, Bokamba reflects throughout her speech, entitled “Opening the Door,” on one of her former student’s desires to speak at high school graduation and how as a teacher she had the power to open the door for a student.

“What is at issue here is that every day in America, public and private school teachers, administrators in the arts and education, and workers in both corporate and nonprofit settings make decisions as to whether or not to open a door for someone,” she writes in her speech. “Every minute we decide how to affect someone’s fate. I am here today to suggest to you that by opening the door for someone, we can change the assumed and natural order of the world.”

When Bokamba takes the podium today at HGSE’s convocation, she is eager to share her thoughts with fellow educators.  “I have to make sure I cry a lot before the speech so I can actually get through [presenting the speech] without crying,” she says. “It’s going to be a real big day…my words are going to be around much longer than I’ll be and I kept thinking that while writing this speech. I really hope I get a chance to say everything I want to say in my lifetime.”