Thursday the 17th was the welcome dinner and the guest speaker was Mr. Rod Gillum, vice president, Corporate Relations of General Motors Corporations. He mainly talked about economic empowerment, stressing the need for more black people to go for advance degrees in order to come up with a solution to economic problems. He cited a 99-00 statistics that of all the advanced degrees awarded only 4% went to the black race. He said that success plus preparation equals opportunity and left us with 4 MUST's we should follow to achieve success:

• Must master moves
• Must maintain focus
• Must master one's time
• Must maximize talent

"At the welcome dinner we also had the opportunity to hear from current Georgia Tech Graduate Students talk about their personal experiences. S.Gordon Moore was a former graduate of Georgia Tech and Director of the Office of Minority Educational Development. He spoke to all of the students about his experiences as a graduate student. Also, he gave us an analogy to help us better understand his experience. He said 'Attending Graduate School at Georgia Tech was like trying to drink water from a fire hydrant.' What he meant by this was that it was possible to achieve, but it takes extra work and more time. At the closing of his address, Mr. Moore left us with four musts for Graduate School; I must master my moods, I must maintain my focus, I must master my time, and I must maximize my talents. President Robert Haley gave closing remarks at the closing of the dinner."