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>> The Alumni Achievement Award is presented to an individual
who graduated from the college in the last 10 years,
and has demonstrated the importance
of a Penn College education
through note-worthy professional accomplishments
or dedicated volunteer service.
This year's Alumni Achievement Award Recipient is Matthew
Gross, member of the Class of 2006.
Matt earned an Associate of Applied Science Degree
in Plastics and Polymer Technology in 2006
and he continued his education earning a Bachelor's
and Master's Degree from the Pennsylvania State University.
Today he is the youngest member of the Materials
and Process Engineering Group at Ball Aerospace
and Technology Corporation, a subsidiary
of the packaging company known
for its familiar Ball canning jars.
Ball Aerospace has contributed to hundreds
of NASA projects including the Hubbell Space Telescope,
deep impact in the Mars Rover Lander.
The company also supports the missions
of such national agencies as the Department of Defense
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
While he was a Penn College Student, Matt was a member
of the Campus Crusade for Christ, and the Society
of Plastics Engineer Student Chapter.
He was a Plastics Program Ambassador introducing the
plastics industry to high school students and he worked
with the college's plastics manufacturing center,
which is known today
as the Plastics Innovation and Resource Center.
He founded the Outdoor Adventure Club and competed
in the Quad College Business Plan Challenge.
Matt continues -- plans to use his professional experience
to serve the world community by establishing a plastics company
to provide products and employment opportunities
in Rwanda, one of the poorest nations in the world.
He has visited Rwanda twice and in an effort
to establish a company
that would manufacture drinking bottles and PVC pipe to be used
for water transportation.
These two products will help combat water shortages
and the need to travel great distances
to secure safe drinking water in that country.
Matt and his wife live in Boulder,
Colorado where they enjoy the outdoor life
and coffee they home-roast and brew, single origin beans
from around the world.
It is my honor to introduce to you the recipient
of the 2012 Alumni Achievement Award, Matthew Gross.
[ Applause ]
>> Thank you.
Thank you.
I want to make it clear that I'm not the one deserving
of the award tonight.
I'm extremely humbled and honored to receive it but,
it's really those that facilitated me to get
to this point, my wife, my family, those of you
on the stage and others out there.
I'm extremely grateful for that, so this is for you.
And before I leave the stage,
I want to leave you with two truths.
You're going to forget who I am
and that I ever got this award but, I just ask you to reflect
on these two truths and see how they might apply to your life.
The first is, when you get to the top, there's nothing there.
When you get to the top, there's nothing there.
Dion Sanders, after winning the Super Bowl,
has said this in an interview.
"After winning my Super Bowl, I sat in the hotel room
after ordering my first Lamborghini and realized
at that point, all my attained or entertained goals
in my life had now been reached.
And I was emptier than ever."
Robbie Zacharias, an American apologist
of our time was interviewing a very well-known author
and the author was asked this simple question,
"What is it that you know now
that you wish you would have known then?"
And he answered quickly and said,
"What it is that I know now
that I wish I would have known then is that when I get
to the top, there's nothing there."
And I'm not saying that the dream and the desire to do well
and succeed is bad, but when you make something
that is good ultimate, it ultimately becomes destructive.
So remember that.
And the second truth follows that and it's
that don't use these skills that you've learned for yourself.
And that follows that first truth very closely.
Find someone in your community, here, far away,
globally that can use your skills and build a relationship
with them and seek to use your skills to answer
that problem that they're lacking.
So I just challenge you with that tonight.
So there's two truths.
Once again, when you get to the top, there's nothing there.
And second, don't waste these skills on yourself;
use them to better this world.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]