Talk by Geeta Aiyer to the seniors of BB&N School graduating in 2015.

1. The
Immigrants'
Guide
to
the
Future
Remarks
by
Geeta
Aiyer
(mother
of
Jaya
Aiyer)
At
the
BB&N
School
Graduation
Exercises
June
5,
2015
INTRODUCTION BY JAYA AIYER ‘15
Hello, my name is Jaya Aiyer and I am here today to introduce my mother, Geeta Aiyer, the
Class of 2015 parent graduation speaker. My mom is the Chief Financial Advisor and President
of a socially-responsibly investment firm, Boston Common Asset Management, and President
and founder of Direct Action for Women Now, an NGO that works to prevent sexual abuse in
South Asia. Unlike most daughters, I’ve always seen my mom as really cool. She hiked parts of
the Himalayas in her 20’s, she comfortably speaks a handful of Indian languages and has learned
Japanese, Arabic, Farsi, and Spanish—all for fun, and she even started her own spice company in
the 90’s! My mom often down plays most, if not all her accomplishments—I had to Google a bio
about her to find out that she won the Joan Bavaria Award as well as the SRI Service Award for
her impact in socially-responsible investing. In truth, I never really understood how accomplished
my mom was until she was featured in the Boston Globe’s 2014 Top 100 Women-Led Businesses
in Massachusetts.
As students, we are told to follow our hearts but often feel restricted to what is expected of
us, my mom’s advice in the Globe article was to “learn skills; work where your passion lies. With
success comes responsibility. Give back to your community and to the causes that inspire you.”
My mom has always pushed me to pursue what I find interesting, but aside from preaching this—
my mom does it. No one asked her to invest in socially responsible companies or to start an NGO,
she just went for it. And for that, as well as many other things, I am thankful to have her by my
side and to introduce my mother, Geeta Aiyer, to the podium.
GEETA AIYER’S TALK
Thank you Ms Upham, thank you school community. Thank you Class of 2015.
I speak for us parents, thank you for coming into our lives; BBN graduates, for bringing joy,
and hope and some worries... into our lives!
Kamesh and I look at our two wonderful daughters who've made it through high school and
onwards, and think "wow, we must be great parents!"
The truth is, a large part of what our daughters and all of you, Class of 2015 have become,
you became mostly on your own. Your teachers and we parents provided experiences but you
have taken these and become unique accomplished individuals.
It's your special day, and I have the unexpected opportunity to give you some advice, and
claim for us parents, some of the credit for how awesome you are! By association, we must be
pretty awesome too?

2. Thank you Jaya, for that lovely introduction!
As an immigrant, my kids were an important way for me to become American – dancing with
a purple dinosaur, counting with Count on Sesame Street, making way for ducklings, sobbing
with Wilbur at Charlotte's sacrifice, learning about Sneetches and green eggs and ham! Learning
things I didn't experience growing up.
So when Ms Upham invited me to speak here, at your graduation, I felt surprised and
honored, and, as an immigrant, a little inadequate for the task.
But then I realized, that we all share the qualities of being an immigrant. Not just in the
literal sense, although many of us do share that, but also in the sense of having the resources to
adapt to a rapidly changing world, and, of living in the Hyphen!
Let me explain. In the literal sense, I have lived a hyphenated life for many years, as we
strive to be many things. In my case, it was Indian-American! I constantly felt I'm not a good
enough Indian or a good enough American. My "aha" moment was when I realized everyone was
living in some hyphen, not just ethnic, but also role related. Even I had a few other hyphenated
existences: sustainable investor, working mother, to name just two! Can you really be a good
investor if you think about environmental issues and labor rights? As for working moms and dads
– can you be good enough at work and be a good parent? One could live one's whole life feeling
inadequate. I've learned to embrace the hyphenated life, to be good on each dimension, but really
excel in combining them.
So, strange as it may seem, I want to ask each of us to hold on to those qualities that an
immigrant might need, and skills they may develop, to navigate unfamiliar territory.
This is particularly important, as the world of the future may include some rapid change and
stair-step jumps of the sort an immigrant faces in a new country.
Technology and Sustainability, will be big game-changing themes in your future.
One professor advises his students to choose professions that can't be made obsolete by
computers! I think you do that by being Human! Two things differentiate us as Humans: Open
Minds and Open Hearts. The world will need you to Re-imagine and Redesign many things for a
Sustainable future. Use your Open Minds, And our interconnected world needs your passion and
engaged action – your Open Hearts.
Faced with this changing world, in some sense, all of us become immigrants, an identity that
brings with it surprising strengths like resilience, and life-long learning, and knowing how to cope
with being an outsider.
Here then, is the Immigrant's Guide to the Future!
1. Make the most of living in the Hyphen.
When you acknowledge and nurture the hyphen, it gives you the ability to work with a
changing world but also unleashes your creativity.
Because it is fun to color outside the lines sometimes, to live in the interstices and
intersections, where things don't fall into neat boxes, and where your creativity can combine
things that previously were not, and ask why not? My own work led me to bringing

3. environmental and social factors into finance and investments, and back then, sustainability
and investing could not be combined. Successful companies mix things up all the
time. Apple for example, changed the smartphone into a personal consumer product, where
before, a Blackberry had been something companies supported for their employees. New,
hyphenated, growing fields like neuro-physiology and bio-informatics are all around us!
2. There are no right answers.
Don't worry too much about the perfect choice today – you can't always predict the turns in
your life, but you are resilient and resourceful.
In high school, I abandoned the sciences to study humanities, just to rebel against my Mom,
who wanted her daughter to be a doctor! Just when I was feeling proud of my rebellion, I
promptly got a failing grade in History, something I had never faced before. It was a
mortifying moment. When you make choices, you have to live with the consequences, so
choose how you rebel!
It also made me think about what mattered to me: much as I enjoyed rebellion, I also really
did enjoy getting good grades. It is very important to know what you want to work for, what
is important to you.
In any event, I redoubled my efforts, and went on to college.
In college, I ended up choosing Psychology as my major in college just because I was
impatient: the line for Economics was really long...!
But in life, the best laid plans can change: I ended up here, at Harvard Business School, and
went to work in finance, where I use Economics every day!
3. Learn to Connect and Remain Connected.
We humans want to connect, though at first we are not at all sure we can. And once we
connect, we can hear and understand and problem-solve together, using our complementary
skills to reinvent, re-examine, and engage for the common good.
Every time the feeling of being the "other" comes over you, remember the immigrant within
you! Learn all your life. Meet people where they are – with empathy, and emotional
intelligence, EQ in addition to IQ.
You are growing up in an age of very divergent outcomes and tremendous disruptions (the
mobility and opportunity we prize in our society is declining). But this is also an age when
media and society expects lots of sameness, homogenization that also creates many
outsiders. Push back on this. Can someone help you? Can you help someone? In big ways
and small.
In the '60s, caring New Englanders went to participate in voter registration efforts in the
South, believing the promise of our shared prosperity, for freedom and justice.
We are given this opportunity to nurture this wonderful land of promise, embracing its
possibilities, including all who are here, seeing our connected future.

4. Take ownership, and be engaged. The best designed systems fall apart with apathy and lack
of participation.
Climate change challenges us to manage a global carbon budget together, as one world. Our
interconnected planet expects, hopes, counts on you to make a difference. Make common cause
with those far away. You, Class of 2015, are already the most globally connected generation
there ever was!
Keep an Immigrant's optimism and sense of possibility with you.
We have asked a lot of you! You don't have to go all or nothing. Small steps can be a great
beginning.
And, you have support – as you may have suspected, we parents are in a collaborative
enterprise to raise you – we have your back! And look around you for those who share your
passions – they are your strength!
____
Today, as you leave behind what you know, so much that is comfortable and familiar, you are
like an Immigrant. Ahead, lie many choices. Your heart may be heavy with
sadness. Remember, there is no right answer, you have resilience. Let the future begin!