By Michael R. Malone, Robert C. Jones, Jr., and Janette Neuwahl Tannen
University of Miami

In commencement exercises at the University of Miami Dec. 11, two speakers shared their life experiences, telling graduates to seek inspiration from wherever it presents and to not fear reinventing themselves to find success in their future.

In his address, J.R. Martinez, motivational speaker, bestselling author, and advocate for veterans and burn survivors, shared how he turned his personal story of tragedy into one of survival, strength, and success.

Martinez celebrated the 547 University of Miami undergraduates in attendance from the School of Architecture; College of Arts and Sciences (including Division of Continuing and International Education); Miami Herbert Business School; School of Communication; School of Education and Human Development; College of Engineering; Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science; Frost School of Music; and School of Nursing and Health Studies.

“Be of service. Go out into the world, go out into your communities, and allow yourself to be open to the idea that other people can potentially give you a gift and teach you something. You’re not always in a position to be doing the teaching,” Martinez said from the stage at the Watsco Center on the Coral Gables campus.  

In the afternoon graduate degree ceremony, Vincent Omachonu, the interim dean in the College of Engineering, recounted his life’s journey from his homeland of Nigeria to the University of Miami nearly 50 years ago, telling students that the choices they make in life will ultimately shape their future.

“You are here today because you finished, and that in itself is a deliberate choice you have made,” said Omachonu, congratulating the 471 graduate students on their achievement of earning newly minted degrees from the University.

Earlier in the day, Martinez urged undergraduates to “find something you can be passionate about. Everything that I’ve done comes from a place of service. I love to serve, and I want to give back. That’s what it’s all about.”

Martinez recounted his childhood and teenage struggles: being raised by his immigrant mother; feeling out of place; lacking voice and confidence; not belonging; and often getting into trouble.

At 19, he joined the U.S. Army and found his calling for service to something bigger than himself. Yet six months after joining, he was deployed to combat duty in Iraq, where he suffered a horrific accident when the Humvee jeep he was riding in ran over a roadside bomb.

The tragedy, which resulted in two years of rehabilitation and more than 30 surgeries for the burns, stripped him of two identities—his appearance and his hopes for a career in the military.

Martinez explained how he spiraled into depression until he realized that by sharing his story he could be of service to others. He began to live in the day-to-day and to face—and appreciate—the realities of his new life.

“I started practicing gratitude. Every morning when I woke up, at night before sleep, I found something to be grateful for. That simple recalibration and refocus of the brain allowed me to show up,” Martinez said. “I have found ways to continuously reinvent myself.”

Martinez has gone on to considerable success as a speaker, author, and in the entertainment space—he was a champion on “Dancing With the Stars” and has appeared on a number of television shows.

Martinez referenced the experience of Capt. Charlie Plumb, a fighter pilot shot down over Vietnam and held for more than six years in captivity as a prisoner of war. One of Plumb’s most powerful lessons learned is that “adversity is a terrible thing to waste,” Martinez noted.

“This individual had no idea what the outcome of his life would be. We tend to measure a lot of our accomplishments as wins and losses or successes and failures,” Martinez said.  “Everyone talks about the failure word, but I don’t perceive things as failures if you’re learning something from it. If you don’t learn something from it, then it’s a failure.”

Martinez warned students that adversity is going to present itself. In those moments, he urged them not to feel overwhelmed but instead to remember how they persevered through the long nights and challenging times during their studies at the University.

“That is the key, my friends, to ultimately living a life that you can be proud of: continue to find ways to keep showing up. As long as you keep showing up, life will bless you,” Martinez told the graduates.

“Go out in the world and leave your mark. Be open, be receptive, be curious, and be willing to reinvent yourself,” Martinez said. “I hope one day that our paths will cross again, and you can share with me the great things that you are doing in your life at that point. Just keep showing up.”

Joe Echevarria, University president, opened the ceremony, congratulating students and celebrating their parents and all those who helped on their journey to graduation.

“Decisions get made by people who show up. You reinvented yourself. You came here as teenagers and blossomed into young adults. You made this campus, our campus, feel alive,” Echevarria said.

“We honor what you’ve done, and we look forward to what is next—you are ready,” he added. “Uncertainty is a fact. Change, however, is a reality of every day. So being ready for change is all about rising to that next occasion, not knowing what it may be, but knowing who you are and why you do what you do.”

As the afternoon ceremony proceeded, Omachonu, a double Cane alumnus who is renowned for his expertise in health care system quality and performance improvement, shared with the students some of the difficult choices he had to make in his own life. He described one particularly challenging time in 1976, when, after learning he had received a scholarship to study industrial engineering abroad, he suddenly found himself faced with the difficult choice of deciding to which country—the U.K., Canada or the United States—he would move to begin his higher education.

Back then, the internet and ChatGPT didn’t exist, and his parents had not been afforded a higher education. So, with no one to help guide him, Omachonu feared he would make the wrong choice. 

Sometimes, though, inspiration comes from the most unlikely of places, he told the hundreds of graduates.

“I had a friend whose uncle drove a Ford Mustang,” he recalled. “This uncle would drive around the neighborhood in this beautiful Ford Mustang, and this uncle had studied in America. And I thought, ‘There was my decision right there—a red Ford Mustang, and he had studied in America.’ This was precisely all I needed to know to make my decision.” 

That image alone, however, was not enough, he continued. “But there are times in life when the image itself, and the symbolism of it, can ultimately propel you in a direction that you may never have thought about. You could be that symbolic gesture,” he told students. “You could present that image that ultimately unclutters that which cofounds a very young and inexperienced person with untutored mind.” 

But with more than 100 academic institutions in the U.S. that offered industrial engineering degrees at that time, what school would Omachonu choose? 

Once again, he was at a crossroads, with no one to guide him. “I had never experienced an earthquake. I had never seen snow. What became clear was I needed to use the weather as a guide,” Omachonu said of what he termed as the “decision algorithm” he employed to guide him. “I realized Miami as a city had this beautiful tropical climate and that the people here are nice. I chose the University of Miami. You may not like my math, but I hope you understand what the results can produce.” 

He told graduates that throughout such experiences, he learned that “life is about choices and decisions. But what I didn’t know was the ferocity with which these decisions would come at me.” 

Omachonu would earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Miami and a second master’s degree from Columbia University, eventually going on to complete his Ph.D. at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering. But the institution of his undergraduate years has always been his home, he told graduates. The longtime College of Engineering faculty member, who also serves as chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering, has helped educate generations of students while also writing seminal texts in the field of health care quality management. 

From studying at the University as a student to now leading the College of Engineering as interim dean, Omachonu called his success story an improbable one.

He reminded students of the importance of gratitude, urging them to “never forget the way you feel right now—the gratitude you feel and the appreciation you have for your teachers and your parents. Do not ever let these recede from memory.”