Alum discusses keys to building a successful life

Alum discusses keys to building successful life

BY DAVID MEDINA
Special to the Rice News

Self-worth,
a good education and access to quality technology are the
three building blocks that will create success in life and
help all segments of society move forward, said Hector Ruiz ’72, president and chief operating officer of Advanced
Micro Devices (AMD).

“But the
power of self-worth is the single most important building
block,” Ruiz told a crowd of about 200 in Duncan Hall.
He spoke Nov. 8 in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Ruiz, who received
his doctorate in electrical engineering from Rice, said
that self-worth stems from having strong family values.
He grew up poor in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras,
but from a very early age his loving parents instilled in
him a sense of self-worth.

His mother,
he said, worked at night so that he could attend a private
school, and she made sure that he always wore a clean shirt
to school. That very simple act, he said, drew the admiration
of his peers.

His father inculcated
him with the idea that in order for society to progress,
each generation had to be better than the previous one. “Self-worth gives you the right to be respected. Without
that right, it’s very difficult to make one generation
better than the other,” Ruiz explained.

Education, the
second most important building block for success, is seriously
lacking in Texas, Ruiz said. By the year 2025, Hispanics
will be in the majority, but if the educational status of
Hispanics doesn’t improve, Texas will be a second-class
state, he explained.

In 1999, Ruiz
was appointed by the governor to the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board, which has a 25-year plan to rectify
the educational problem. “Frankly, when I look at five-year-olds
in the first grade, I don’t have the courage to tell
them that they are doomed because our programs won’t
be able to help them until 2025,” he said.

“We need
to say ‘no mas’ to this long-term solution. We
have the resources and means to do it now,” he said.

Access to quality
technology is one way to accelerate the process of providing
education to the poor, Ruiz said. “Technology can close
the gap between the haves and the have-nots.”

The talk was
sponsored by the offices of the president and provost and
by the Hispanic Association for Cultural Enrichment at Rice,
the Association of Latin Engineers and Scientists and the
Mexican and Latin-American Student Association at Rice.

In his introduction,
President Malcolm Gillis called Ruiz “the type of alumnus
we are trying to produce at Rice. He has taken a strong
professional leadership role while also giving back to the
community.”

— David
Medina is a senior editor for the Sallyport and the minority
affairs director.