COMMENCEMENT
Celebrating the Human Spirit
"This degree opens up doors and opportunities. Make wise choices!” said Danielle Bero, recipient of the Pepper Prize, to the Class of 2007 at the 172nd Commencement. “We often think of success through monetary value and celebrity status. Rarely do we think of success in terms of happiness, following passions, and making a positive difference. We also tend to define diversity in terms of colors, different races on the cover of a brochure or a web site. As the future leaders of this nation, we must not fall victim to these false definitions or we will promote stratification, ruthlessness, and conformity.”
President Daniel Weiss conferred 556 degrees upon 538 graduating seniors, including Haotian Wu, who was first to receive his diplomas (B.S. degrees in physics and math), having posted the highest GPA. Matthew Potter and Carli Siger presented the class gift, which is providing stipends that are helping enable students to serve unpaid internships this summer.
“Your generation has come of age in an era fraught with conflict and unprecedented challenges, [and] at risk is your belief that tomorrow can be better than today and that making it so is worth the effort,” Weiss said. “Given the current state of the world, it would be entirely natural, and even understandable, to give in to cynicism and individual pragmatism. . . . I would suggest that our greatest challenge is to transcend despair and defeatism to allow the human spirit to triumph [and] I encourage you to take up this challenge, to go out into the world with energy and passion, and allow your own human spirit to burn within you.”
Weiss awarded honorary doctorates to historian Michael Beschloss, who gave the Commencement address; the Rev. Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University and Pusey Minister in Harvard’s Memorial Church, who delivered the Baccalaureate sermon; Michael H. Moskow ’59, president and CEO of the
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Easton-based documentary filmmaker Lou Reda; and artist and author Faith Ringgold.
John W. Landis ’39 received the Lafayette Medal for Distinguished Service.
Click here to experience slideshows, video highlights and audiocasts of Commencement Day.
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