Following is an excerpt from the commencement address given by Carl J. Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Chamgaign on May 17, 2009. View a video, or read the full address, at right.
"Hopefully, the choice you make will satisfy your heart because you have used your head.
Most of you will make your way in the private sector. You will be nurses, lawyers, architects,
scientists, designers, salespeople, and builders. Your head, if you are like most people, will
take you to business. And, as millions of people before you have done, you will take your
heart along with you. Think about the people working in companies founded by Illinois
graduates that make things that immeasurably improve our lives—PayPal, Netscape, Safari,
Delta Airlines, Black Entertainment Television, Oracle, and, of course, Mortal Combat.
These companies help make our world a better place to live, work, and play. Thousands of
employees of these companies pour their hearts into their work for our benefit. And, the
entrepreneurs who thought them up directly contributed, with their initial ideas, to the quality
of life we enjoy."