That was the message Emmy-nominated Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, recipient of the 2026 Peabody Trailblazer Award, shared with nearly 460 Fort Lewis College graduates and about 3,500 attendees at the 2026 Commencement ceremony held Saturday, May 2.
A member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and a Muscogee descendant, Harjo is widely recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to television and Indigenous representation. His credits include The Lowdown (2025), Rez Ball (2024), Reservation Dogs(2021–2023), and Mekko (2015).
In his keynote address, Harjo drew laughs from the crowd as he recalled struggling as a college student, especially with remedial algebra. There was a moment, he said, when it became clear he needed to drop the class.
“The teacher was like… you don’t have enough here, so you have to borrow a number from there. And I’m like, what are you talking about? You’re just making things up now. Like, borrow a number?,” he recalled. That stumble forced him to pivot to film and video studies, a change that altered the course of his life.
“Failure changed my path forever. I’m standing here now because I wasn’t a good algebra student,” said Harjo, who said because of that failure he switched to film and video studies. “Don’t be afraid to fail. We’re all going to fail, and we fail over and over and over, and you have to accept it, and you have to learn from it. It’s just very important as you move forward. Every day, I am failing forward and up. And you have to be open to that.” 
Katherine Paul, president of the Associated Students of Fort Lewis College, also encouraged graduates to fail forward and learn from their mistakes. Drawing on the Japanese art of kintsugi, which repairs broken pottery with gold and transforms cracks into something beautiful, she contrasted the value of hard-earned academic struggle with the ease of leaning on artificial intelligence.
“Being broken is beautiful, and we should wear our scars with pride. Rather than hiding our fractures, we emphasize them, because those broken pieces, the cracks in our pottery, are exactly what make us who we are,” she said. “We have more value in our lives today because of the knowledge we have gained from those experiences. We have to realize that our suffering, the hours of learning, the discipline, the dedication, is the human experience. There is value in experiencing academic struggle.”
Carrying the torch
David Blake, Ph.D., president of the Faculty Senate, called on graduates to honor the promise of a college degree and the power of education.
“Today, as you cross the stage and accept your degree from President (Heather) Shotton, you are just not receiving a degree. You are accepting a responsibility to carry this power, this knowledge, forward to others. To have the courage, to take action, and to use your degree to benefit others.”
Agreeing was President Heather Shotton, who reflected on watching the class grow.
"I watched as you arrived on this campus, much like me, full of hope and excitement, and maybe a little bit uncertain about what to expect for the next four years and what life would hold for you. I got to witness you discover your passions, to push yourselves out of your comfort zone, to experience failure and success. I got to watch you make lifelong relationships and to solidify who you are,” she said.
“As I’ve watched you all grow over the last four years, I’ve learned something about this graduating class. You don’t do anything halfway. You show up, you ask hard questions. And you care about this place, this community, and more important, you care about each other,” Shotton said.