Class of 2018: Out of a Challenge About Knowledge From a Young Girl Comes a Student Commencement Speech

Born in Singapore, raised there and in Australia and Atlanta, Deeksha Malhotra says she’s something of a globetrotter. But coming to Duke four years ago sent her on another journey that has changed her as much as her world travels.

Malhotra will call upon her Duke experiences when she gives the student commencement address during graduation ceremonies May 13 in Wallace Wade Stadium. A university committee selected her out of a large number of speeches submitted by undergraduates and graduate and professional students to represent the student body during the ceremony.

“The quality of speech submissions this year was incredible,” says Sterly Wilder, associate vice president for alumni affairs, who oversaw the selection. “The speeches were of terrific quality, and we had great representation from across the university student body. I think Deeksha stood out because she had a great message that also was fun and engaging. It will have broad appeal.”

Her talk will begin with an anecdote from earlier this semester when Malhotra delighted a class of local middle school girls with optical illusions during a neuroscience presentation. One girl, however, wanted her to explain how it happens -- something that still eludes scientists.

“Aren’t scientists supposed to be smart?” the girl, named Maria, asked, incredulously.

Below, Malhotra discusses her preparation for the talk and what her Duke experience has taught her about what she doesn’t know.

Q. Can you tell me more about that anecdote about optical illusions you start your talk with? How did it inspire the ideas you presented in the talk?

Deeksha Malhotra: In all honesty, I've been thinking about the student commencement speech since freshmen year, when I attended graduation, saw the student speaker, and knew that I would do all that I could to be on that podium myself four years later.

“I have spent so much of my four years here at Duke learning to appreciate how much we don't know.”
- Deeksha Malhotra 

I knew the speech had to be relatable and unique. When I stumbled upon that encounter with Maria and it hit me -- this realization that, in fact, I have spent so much of my four years here at Duke learning to appreciate how much we don't know. I'd been feeling it in other aspects of my life too -- my math class that was teaching me about the fact that we don't know of a good way to vote fairly in society, or even how to find the two prime factors of a number. My sociology professor explaining how all humanitarian organizations don't get it right, how even some of the most inhuman practices around the world need to be understood in their relevant contexts.

So that anecdote just tied all of these background thoughts together for me, and I'm so glad that Maria was as innocently blatant as she was because I needed to hear it from her to really validate the doubt I myself was feeling.

Q. You have a line about thinking you’re learning about computer science but instead you are also learning something about yourself and about the nature of learning.

Malhotra: The understanding was by no means overnight or in the form of an epiphany. It's been a gradual realization that the areas I thought I was going to master at the end of my Duke career are quite far from those that I've actually succeeded in doing so. For example, considering I came in a neuroscience major, I thought I'd master the field of neuroscience. Conversely, I'd always been a shy, timid girl prior to my time at Duke, nervous to step outside of my comfort zone. And yet, over and over again in these years past, I have found myself pushed by friends, mentors and a developing grit to try things, to explore.

“I have consciously put energy into developing skills and developing relationships, because learning about these is what Duke promised and does best.”  

Now, neuroscience is an area in which I now have more questions than I started off with. But this repeated juxtaposition has taught me that perhaps it was never about neuroscience. This is a liberal arts school and so I am being liberally educated in a manner that prepares me for any further endeavor I may choose to pursue. I have focused on that "being prepared" aspect of myself that I talk about in my speech -- I have consciously put energy into developing skills and developing relationships, because learning about these is what Duke promised and does best.

Q: How does it feel to represent the student body at commencement? How did your friends react?

Malhotra: I am thankful to the selection committee for seeing something special in my speech and for granting me this unforgettable opportunity. I hope I am able to represent the student body well -- that is the goal of this address and my duty as their speaker at commencement! I hope I can do them, my family, my friends and my mentors proud.

I haven't told very many people at all because I was told to keep this relatively confidential, but my closest friends were absolutely ecstatic when they heard. They have been a part of the process and so they certainly knew how much this meant to me. This honor for me is shared with everyone that was a part of helping me write this speech -- from high school AP Lit teachers to my boss, from my parents and brother to our very own writing center!