USC Honorary Degree Nominee: Molly Miller

As the commencement season approaches, this week’s blog will focus on one of the most inspirational parts of the ceremony, the honorary. The honorand is the individual who gives the commencement speech to the graduating class. According to James Freedman (pictured left), “In bestowing an honorary degree, a university makes an explicit statement to its students and the world about the qualities of character and attainment it admires most.” Each year the University of Southern California awards the degree to such “individuals who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary achievements in scholarship, the professions, or other creative activities; [to] individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the welfare and development of USC or the community of which they are a part.”

As a Public Relations major at USC, I would have the pleasure of nominating the CEO of Engage PR, Molly Miller, with a doctorial degree in laws. With twenty years of public relations experience, Miller received a BA in English from the University of Tennessee and BS degrees in computer science and mathematics from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. She has also performed graduate work in symbolic and heuristic computation at Stanford University. Her company is an award-winning public relationa gency for tchnology comapnies that strives to "increase visibility, influence sales and positively impact the bottom line." Engage PR’s account executive Armi Elma says community service is what defines the company. Employees of the company have volunteered at “homeless shelters, participated in a national MS walk, mentored children [and] cleaned up beaches.” Miller’s passion for maintaining a successful company and reaching out to the community is a principal example of what undergraduate students should look up to.

In my perspective, Miller posses the qualities inscribed on the statue of Tommy Trojan: faithful, scholarly, skillful, courageous, and ambitious. She strives to “give young people and new recruits to her business, a wider view of the world at large.” “My staff has a lot of young people, and I want them to see a broader view of society,” said Miller. I believe her drive to push younger generations to give back to their communities to be quite fascinating. According to USC’s Honorary Degree guidelines, nominees must be “highly regarded for achievements on their respective fields of endeavor.” As CEO of her award-winning public relations company and being a positive role model to young adults, Miller has definitely shown the world that she is worthy of such an award. A professor of mine once mentioned that even though women make up most of the PR industry, it is men who acquire top management and executive positions. To me, Miller is the exception to this paradigm.

Earlier this year, she was honored by the East Bay Business Times as one of its 2007 Women of Distinction. This special award recognizes and “celebrates 25 women who have broken barriers, served as members to other women and left a mark on East Bay Business.” “The wide variety of careers represented by the women that were recognized was impressive and very encouraging. I’m honored to be included among such interesting and successful women,” said Miller. In 2006, she was also honored as a Women of Distinction by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Miller’s company is on the right track to have been recognized twice as one of the “Best Places to Work in the Bay Area.” Her message to my generation would be to work hard, to continue to strive for one’s dreams and to consider ways of improving the community of which we live in. USC’s future graduating class would be privileged to the commencement speech of such a driven and compassionate women.