Tonight I spoke in front of the 170+ students and their families who represent the future of McGeorge. My hope was that I made it clear to them that their SBA is here to help integrate them into the McGeorge community. I also wanted folks to understand that believing in your ability to take control of your future is the key to success. Life will never be perfect, but you can always improve your station if you put in the effort and never stop having faith. After the swearing in ceremony I got to spend a couple hours with the new Section A, B, Evening, and LLM classes to get to learn their stories, and to say the least this will be an exciting year.
Speech notes:
Good evening everyone!
Welcome to McGeorge!
My name is Ernesto Falcon and I am your Student Bar Association President.
Today is the first chapter of your law school story.
Law school is hard work. But from that work you will gain power. The power to help people, the power to protect people, to change society. Law school will also change you. You will become stronger, smarter, and capable of analyzing complex issues in ways you never thought possible. You will impress your friends and family with your skills (you might even annoy them).
Speaking of family. The people in this room are now your law school family. You will face the same challenges together. The students already on campus are also part of your law school family and I want you to consider the SBA Board here to be part of your family.
I can’t emphasize enough that we are now in this together. You are a McGeorge student now and that binds your future to mine and to the students already here. We will have experienced the same trials, argued with the same professors, undergone midterms and finals, and eventually all of us will take the bar.
So now that we are all brothers and sisters, I want point out that our professors are also part of your family. You may not believe me now…and you will believe me less once you start classes, but these folks care about your future.
I speak from personal experience. You see, during my first year my wife and I had just moved back to California and she was working in Oakland. I choose McGeorge in Sacramento because I wanted to continue working in public service after having done so in DC. That meant I had a 60 mile commute to school and 60 mile commute back home. My wife had a hour+ commute every day to and from work. By the end of my Spring semester, we were desperate to avoid repeating that again and she began looking for employment here in Sacramento over the summer.
I told one of my professors about my plight and without my asking, without even a hint from me, that professor began reaching out to contacts across the city to flag employment opportunities for my wife. That professor did that for a professional they never met. We improved our situation over the summer and my wife now works downtown near the Capital while I can ride my bike to school.
I won’t reveal what professor took these extraordinary efforts for me. But I will say this professor worked me the hardest. I also believe any of the professors on this campus would have done the same. Again, we’re family now. So don’t think of me as the SBA President, think of me as your older brother. You know, the one you like.
One last thing I want to talk about before I close, and that is the fear of failure.
Do not let grades define you.
Fact is, half of you will be on the top half of the class and half of you will be on the bottom half of the class. That is just how the math will work out.
I have the unique perspective of having been on both sides of the academic equation. At the end of my first year here I was on the top half of my class. In college I was on academic probation for my first year. The truth of the matter is my confidence and successes came at a later time.
But once I understood that I had control of my life, that I could grow from failure, that I was not the reader of my life story, but its author, that things changed.
So during these next three years to four years here, use the challenges you will encounter here as a means to help you become stronger.
Failure is only failure if you do not use it as an opportunity.
Let your professionalism, your passions, and your pursuit of your goals…let that be what defines you.
Believe in yourself as much as I believe in you.
You are now writing the first sentences of your law school story and I am excited to be part of it.
Thank you.
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