Astrid Montuclard, a 2017 graduate of the University of Iowa, was a finalist in the selection process for Commencement speaker at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Commencement ceremony held on December 16.
Montuclard, from Arue, Tahiti, in French Polynesia, came to the UI on an athletic scholarship to run cross country and track. She quickly became aware of how many opportunities there were at the UI for extracurricular enrichment, and left the team after four seasons to pursue other interests. Her schedule filled up, and her accomplishments revealed her as a top scholar and UI community member, culminating in her graduation with High Distinction and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's most prestigious collegiate honors society.
She earned her bachelor of arts degree in Chinese Languages and Literature, having also completed the pre-med track. While at Iowa, she studied abroad for a year in the Department of Social Medicine at Zheijiang University in Hangzhou, China.
Montuclard has earned many honors as a CLAS student, including receiving the UI International Scholar Award, the UI Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award, and the Rhodes Dunlap Scholarship for students in the University Honors program. She served as a Senator in UI Student Government, and was recognized as UISG Senator of the Year in 2016. Among other activities, she also was Founding President of the student organization Mindful @ Iowa; the founder of a community-wide mental Health Advocacy Committee; and Campaign Director for True @ TheU, a campus-wide mental health awareness campaign. She volunteered at the UI's Rape Victim Advocacy Program, as well as with other organizations.
Independently and with faculty mentors, she has conducted scientific and sociological research into mindfulness—the psychological process of bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment—and obesity, among other topics. As an undergraduate, she notched two peer-reviewed published articles, in Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior and Psychoneuroendicronology (under review).
Montuclard's speech is below:
“Pause. Breathe. Choose. Live.”
Dear Mr. President, University of Iowa Faculty and Staff, Fellow Graduates, family,
friends, and guests,
Thank you for gathering this morning to celebrate the academic accomplishments of
our class and the successful support we received over the past years.
For now, I would like to invite you to pause and ground yourselves in this moment.
If you wish, please take one or two deeper and more intentional breaths, right now.
[Pause] How does the air feel, flowing through your body? [Pause]. Which feelings
are coloring your experience in this instant? Joy? Worry? [Pause] If you are feeling
awkwardness, congratulations, you are human.
But more seriously… why are pausing and breathing important? My previous
over-achieving Student-Athlete-self would have answered, “…because deep
breathing calms your nervous system down, allowing you to perform more lucidly
and therefore more successfully at almost everything.” That is true,
scientifically-speaking. Four years later, my older self is adding: “…because mindful
breathing connects you to the here and now. And while ceasing to breathe could mean
losing your life, pausing to breathe could mean making your entire existence more
vivid, purposeful, and authentic.” Viktor Frankl, a WWII concentration camps
survivor, explains it well: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that
space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our
freedom.”
Breathing intentionally is the first step to giving ourselves enough space to
mindfully assess the options lying ahead. When we rush and let our emotions and
judgments lead the way, we are never free. And we miss on the only time we ever
truly have: now. No breath and no day is ever granted. Breathing is a privilege.
Pausing is freedom. Let us be grateful and deepen one additional breath, right now.
From now on, please remember that you have space to choose when you pause.
Invite and embrace emotions like guests and teachers. Gentle or violent, none of them
will retreat without first pointing the way. Just observe non-judgmentally, learn, and
use happiness as a compass towards meaning.
Additionally, while pausing, examine your judgments and others’, especially when
you feel “never good enough,” a common epidemic nowadays. Just breathe and
challenge, discuss, grin, and grow. Also remember: every being you meet may be
blazing a trail trickier than you can even imagine. So, breathe and be compassionate.
As future leaders, our families, cities, states, countries, and even the world may one
day thank us for being truly present for them.
Fellow graduates, today, I, a European citizen by blood, a Pacific Islander by heart,
and an American student by contract, thank you, already. While here, not only did
you attend classes (as often as you could), you also volunteered, worked, ran student
organizations, supported Hawkeye sports, and colored downtown with splashes of
laughter, embraces, and memories. For months, each of you contributed to the
flourishing of one of the most beautiful UNESCO Cities of Literature in the world.
And for months, each of you helped building at the University of Iowa a second home
for students like me, who cannot often reunite with family.
Fellow graduates, faculty, and staff, with you, through you, thanks to you, the Pacific
Island I call home, Tahiti, found a sister in the Midwestern golden plains. It is my
deepest wish that, one day, we meet again here, in Iowa City, bleeding Black and
Gold on the stairs of the Old Capitol.
As we are all taking the first breath of the rest of our lives, it is my true honor to
thank you one last time in my most cherished languages, English, French, and
Tahitian:
"Thank you, Class of 2017."
"Merci, Iowa City."
"Maururu’ roa, University of Iowa."
—Astrid Linn Montuclard (2017 BA)