Fox TV exec to Cal U. grads: Break the rules
Fox TV executive Terence Carter speaks Friday at commencement for graduate programs at California University of Pennsylvania.
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
Graduates arrive Saturday at the Convocation Center for the 188th commencement at California University of Pennsylvania.
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
There was a sea of clever and colorful decorations Saturday on mortarboards at the 188th commencement at California University of Pennsylvania.
CALIFORNIA – A Fox-TV executive told California University of Pennsylvania graduates Saturday that all great stories feature heroes audiences will fall in love with, despite their flaws.
“No one wants a perfect hero,” Terence Carter said Saturday as speaker at Cal U.’s 188th commencement.
The heroes need to “dig deep into their core being” and use their skills to drive forward on the adventure, said Carter, the great-great-grandson of the first African-American to graduate from the school.
Elizabeth Jenny Adams Carter in 1881 earned a teaching degree from California not long after her hometown newspaper questioned whether or not blacks could be educated after Emancipation.
“She was a woman of simple beginnings,” Carter said, after telling the graduating class that Cal U. is “near and dear” to his family.
Jenny Carter was born free to free parents in Monongahela at a time the vast majority of blacks were slaves, said Carter, a Harvard University graduate and vice president of drama and comedy development at Fox in Hollywood.
“She grew up in a family that valued education,” he said.
She became a schoolteacher at age 17 when black children attended segregated schools, and she was aware that keeping African-Americans “ignorant and illiterate” would keep them in figurative shackles, Carter said.
At age 27, Jennie Carter defied conventional thought by graduating from college.
“She was probably the first black female graduate of any state college,” Carter said.
She was able to overcome insurmountable obstacles with her ability to imagine a better sense of self and community, he said.
Carter said he is not a storyteller in his career, which launched hits such as “This is Us,” “Empire,” “Modern Family” and “Glee.”
He said he listens to storytellers during about 500 pitches a year.
He said those who graduated Saturday are at the prologue to their own stories.
“You’re all staring at a blank sheet of paper,” he said. “So go out and break the rules.”
He also blended comedy into his speech while recognizing the moms in the audience on the day before Mother’s Day.
“As of tomorrow, all of the graduates are moving back home. So watch out.”