Whether it was a gentle nudge to help prepare them for the future or perhaps a slightly firmer push, Naperville Central High School seniors got it Friday during their annual Alumni Recognition Program.

The graduating class followed a 17-year tradition of honoring the service, excellence, persistence and character of those who walked the halls before them by honoring four top alumni. This year's honorees included a cancer-surviving philanthropist, an emergency physician who also happens be a U.S. Army veteran who treated wounded soldiers on the front lines in Iraq, a jazz musician and marketing vice president of a Fortune 500 company.

Dr. Sudip Bose, a 1992 graduate, is now an attending emergency medicine physician in Texas, an associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, an international lecturer and advocate for war veterans, and founder and CEO of multiple leading medical education companies. He's also a motivational speaker.

While Bose has achieved many successes, including earning a bronze star for his 15-month deployment in Iraq, he told the seniors they didn't come without first enduring some epic failures, including a 26 percent on his first AP U.S. History quiz in Katy Linder's class. He spoke to the students as if he were looking back in time.

"In the distant foggy haze, I'm seeing the image of a skinny Indian kid who started high school weighing 67 pounds without a care in the world," Bose said, talking about the successes he earned in junior high track and field and in the classroom up until he enrolled in that history class. "Someone slap Sudip Bose of 1992 and wake him up. Give him this very important message: 'Failure is how you evolve.'"

Courtney Clark, a 1997 graduate, cancer survivor and founder of philanthropic organization Austin Involved, stressed the need for students to have big dreams but also a Plan A and Plan B.

Clark told the students she was Broadway-bound the day she graduated from Central in 1997, but after learning dancing wasn't her strong suit, she picked up television production. In the midst of it all, she learned she had cancer; the cancer she believes saved her life.

"I reached my five-year cancer-free anniversary. That's a big deal for cancer survivors. That's about when your survival rate goes up and the chance of the cancer returning goes down," she said. "I now have these whole body scans to prove I'm cancer-free and then my phone rings again."

The scans showed a life-threatening brain aneurysm that required immediate emergency surgery.

"I've had to change plans several times on my path to following my dreams and many of you will have to do the same," Clark said. "You have to dream big but there is a lot of power in being able to get a new plan along the way. Have a dream and adapt. Be both."

See the original post here:
Naperville Central honors four top alumni