Jeffrey Kipnis addresses the parents of the graduating students. He recalls the moving commencement speech by Thom Mayne the previous year, in which he praised SCI-Arc as especially necessary in difficult times, in that it cultivates curiosity, courage and an aggressive engagement with the real. To that thought Kipnis would add a reminder about the power of architecture to shape our feelings and behavior. He identifies the best use of the power of architecture in projects that employ counter-intuitive strategies, such as the concert halls of Scharoun in Berlin, or Gehry in Los Angeles, or the sunshade of the pavilion they are assembled in. He argues that in their thesis projects, the graduates have researched serious situations, assessed the evidence, created responses, and innovated techniques for communicating them to all kinds of audiences. Kipnis concludes by acknowledging the serious challenges facing the graduates, but, in the words of the Commander in Mission Impossible, "Difficulty, for these kids, will be a walk in the park."