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University of Southern Maine graduates march into the Cumberland County Civic Center at Saturday’s graduation. One graduate, Maxwell Chikuta, who came here from the Congo in 2003, said: “I never would have thought I would be a graduate from a university.”

PORTLAND — Columnist Ellen Goodman's commencement speech had a special resonance for Maxwell Chikuta, who graduated Saturday from the University of Southern Maine with a bachelor's degree in technology management.

Goodman spoke, in part, of the profoundly changing times, saying that all of the graduates were leaving the university while still taking "a course in Uncertainty 101."

Chikuta could actually teach that course, growing up as an orphan in the Congo, coming to America in the 2003 and on his way to graduate school six years later.

Of course the uncertainty Goodman spoke of is turning out unhappily for many, but Chikuta has taken the challenges he's faced and – proving that cliches exist for a reason – turned them into opportunities.

Chikuta, orphaned at a young age, is now 38 and has four children of his own. His mother died of natural causes and his father was a victim of civil war that has been waged, off and on, for decades in the Congo.

He was raised in a small village by his grandfather and came to the U.S. with no formal education. He took English as a second language classes, earned his high school equivalency diploma in 2004 and then went on to Southern Maine Community College after finally passing an entrance exam on the fourth try.

Chikuta earned an associate degree and worked at Maine Medical Center while working toward the bachelor's he was awarded Saturday. This fall, he starts working toward a master's degree at USM's Muskie School of Public Policy and Management.

"If I look back, I never would have thought I would be a graduate from a university," Chikuta said. "There is opportunity in America."

Chikuta said his goal is to help the community that gave him those opportunities.

"People inspired me and helped me to be where I am today, so I'm trying to see what I can do with my life to give back to the community," he said.

That was, in large part, what Goodman, whose column is syndicated in more than 300 newspapers, told the nearly 900 graduates gathered at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

She urged them to see life as both a straight line which took them to where they are and also as a winding path of serendipity that led to a place they never imagined they would be.

She also urged that they look upon their graduation as both an individual achievement and the result of years of support and guidance from others – and noted that the latter view can serve them and the country well during these uncertain times.

"I am not one of those people who sees the silver lining in every catastrophe and the current economic climate that you will commence to is pretty tarnished," she said. "I know the anxiety that many of you carry out into it, but I also know that if there is a silver lining, it's that we have regained the national sense that we are in it together."

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com