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In ‘Last Lecture,’ Dr. Laney Strange pushes students to remember those who shaped them

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On Monday, April 27th, Cesareo Contreras reported for the Northeastern Global News on Dr. Laney Strange’s speech to this year’s graduating class in Curry Student Center for “The Last Lecture” event, an annual tradition where a nominated professor provides personal insights and parting words to the graduating class. Contreras reports that Strange received over 500 votes from students to be this year’s Last Lecture speaker. Dr. Strange is both the Director of Broadening Participation and the Director for Teaching Faculty at Northeastern’s Computer Science department, as well as a WGSS executive committee member.

While addressing the students who nominated her, she specified that she wouldn’t be modelling a successful career path or dropping any regal, life-altering bits of advice. She humbly admitted that her own career trajectory had its share of ups and downs, recounting her career achievement at Amazon Web Services as well as a failed tech start-up. Rather, she told the graduating class to “reach out to the people in their lives who helped shape them and make their college experience a success.”

“Whoever that person is, email them,” said Dr. Strange. “Because I promise whoever that person is, even if you haven’t talked to them in a while, even if it’s the person next to you, I promise you they are so proud of you.”

Read the full article here.

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