Albany State University graduates told to look for opportunities in setbacks

ALBANY — More than 350 graduates walked across the dais to pick up their diplomas during Albany State University’s Fall Commencement Exercise Saturday morning.

The commencement speaker was Bobby Watkins, an Albany native and Albany State University alumnus, who earned his bachelor of science degree in mathematics from ASU in 1986 and now works with NASA.

Earlier this year, NASA named Watkins director of the Michoud facility, which is managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Watkins oversees the workforce at Michoud, which is now building the Orion crew spacecraft and the core stage for the Space Launch System (SLS). The advanced launch vehicle is for a new era of exploration beyond Earth’s orbit — deep space missions, including Mars.

In its largest configuration, the 384-foot-tall SLS will be the most powerful launch vehicle in history.

Watkins spurned the usual “pursue your dreams with passion speech,” instead focusing on turning a perceived failure into an opportunity.

“I could talk to you about success tonight, but I want to talk to you about what to do when things go wrong,” Watkins said. “After I graduated, my parents bought me a car and I applied for a job at a bank.

“I was qualified for the job, the bank manager liked me and I thought I had it. Later, he called me and said he was not going to offer me the job. I was surprised and asked why. He said, ‘Because you can do so much more.’”

That left an impression on Watkins. And it turned out the manager was right.

“A couple of weeks later, I got a job with NASA,” Watkins said. “I was an acting manager when a better job came open. Once again I did not get the job. I was discouraged, because I was also qualified for that job.

“But soon after that. I was offered two different jobs at NASA in Washington, D.C. My wife said, ‘Let’s branch out and do something totally different,’ and we moved to DC.”

Once again, a perceived setback turned into an opportunity.

“As I grew older and looked back, what I thought were setbacks were actually setups that took me to the next level,” Watkins said. “The point is, you can’t give up. You can’t give in. Now, I am helping build a rocket that will travel to Mars.”