Editor’s Note: In this inspiring speech from the 2026 UC Berkeley Engineering PhD Commencement, mechanical engineering graduate Megan Teng reflects on the resilience required to navigate historically turbulent years filled with strikes, pandemics, and technological disruption. Combining quick-witted humor with deep emotional gratitude, she captures the profound weight of earning a doctorate and emphasizes that an engineer’s true power lies in building with empathy and heart. By sharing the moving story of her 96-year-old grandmother watching from Taiwan, Teng delivers a powerful tribute to the family sacrifices behind every graduate’s success.
TRANSCRIPT:
Opening Remarks
MEGAN TENG: “Four score and seven years ago, our father…” Wrong speech.
Welcome, distinguished professors, fellow researchers, friends and family. Thank you for paying for the gas to come here.
For those who are still wondering, i.e. Mom, PhD can mean many different things. It can mean that we are partially healthy dreamers with permanent head damage who are probably heavily in debt. And now please hire. Desperate.
Our Cohort’s Journey
Jokes aside, the past few years have been historic. Our cohort has been through the pandemic, the largest academic strike, and the rise in the shockwaves of AI, ChatGPT. And we are also navigating a shifting landscape where our values are constantly challenged. The world has changed a lot, and so have we.
I still remember the first email I got in my Berkeley account, the one email that signified my grand entrance into this great hall of research. Berkeley warned me: crime alert.
At that time, I was fresh, dividant, clueless, and broke. And now, I’m mature, wise, confident, still broke, but way more knowledgeable.
Engineering as a Profound Profession
And it is also more than just knowledge that we learn here. It’s the understanding that engineering is an ancient profound profession that shapes civilizations. From the first stone tools to the steam engines to the AI we have today, we as engineers have had the power to build and define an era.
And that power comes with a cost or responsibility. Behind every system we build, there are real human lives. And our decisions carry weight, every one of them, including the one we made to come here to study.
A Grandmother’s Words
When I decided to come to Berkeley, I was overjoyed, I was so excited, filled with ambition, and I got a phone call from my grandmother, and she asked me, “Are you really going to the US? For how long?”
And I said, “Yes, for five years. I’m going to be a doctor when I come back. So excited. Berkeley is such a great school.”
But to my surprise, she fell silent. When she finally spoke up, I realized she was crying. And she said to me, “But I don’t want you to go because I don’t know if I can wait five years to see you come back as a doctor.”
And in that moment, listening to those words coming from a 96-year-old grandmother, I felt all my excitement shatter. She’s a tough lady who survived civil wars, great wars, but that was the only time I ever saw her show weakness. And that was because five years of my life could mean a lifetime to her.
The Weight of a PhD
And I had to ask myself, what is the weight of a PhD? It’s a mentorship of the best scholars in the world. It’s numerous lonely sleepless nights in the lab. It’s also the stories of our loved ones who support us, the sacrifice of those people who let us go so that we can grow. Your friends, your parents, whose hair grows grayer every time you see them.
And it’s hard. It’s hard because we are human. We are flawed and driven by more than just what’s logical, but it’s also our capacity to feel that makes us better engineers because we care.
We are not a product of optimization. Indeed we are imperfect and occasionally quite weird, but each of us is so unique and full of character, and that’s what makes the world so colorful.
Measuring Success
That also means our success cannot be easily measured by some general metrics. You look around and you see someone who’s working towards curing cancer in their free time. You might feel like you’re light years away from them, but that’s okay.
In this world, there are people who graduate with 10 Nobel Prize-worthy publications. And there are also people who graduate as a student speaker at the commencement. And both are equally Berkeley.
So this is a day to be proud. And my grandmother feels the same. And in case you’re wondering, she is alive and well, and still beats everyone at mahjong.
A Tribute to Grandma
I go back to visit her often. She doesn’t care about PSOE micromachined ultrasonic transducers. That’s my dissertation. But she has been my most important secret co-author. Because when I built sensors, I built all the sensors picturing her living in a world with that technology.
She grew up in a turbulent time when she wasn’t even allowed to finish elementary school, and today she gets to see her granddaughter become a PhD.
And to my grandmother, I know you’re watching back home. Thank you. Thank you for being my inspiration. Thank you, Grandma.
A Moment for Those Watching From Afar
And with this opportunity, I would also like to invite all of you to wave to those who can’t be here today, your grandparents, your parents, and all your friends. Wave to the camera so that they can see you. Thank you all for leading the way.
Closing Words
Look at us now, we made it. When we walk out of this hall, we might be on a path to become a professor, a CEO, or even the President of the United States. Let’s hope we get some representation there.
And regardless of where we are from and where we are going, we will always have one thing in common.