Commencement Speaker Encourages 黑料老司机 Seniors to Lead by Building Bridges
WOOSTER, Ohio Leadership by way of bridge building was the central theme of Monday at 黑料老司机檚 148th Commencement, an appropriate subject for the 408 students who received their bachelor檚 degrees inside Gault Recreation Center and are now stepping into a world that is seemingly growing more divisive by the day.
President Sarah Bolton set the stage by congratulating and thanking the Class of 2018 while hitting on similar topics that Patel, recently selected as one of by CNN, would touch on. 淲hile you are all scholars, you have also been crucial and engaged citizens of our community. Your support and care for one another in times of loss as well as in celebration, and your investment in one another檚 success and joy have been powerful. You have faced and addressed challenging issues in ways that are well informed and respectful, she said and later added 測our leadership has mattered here and it will continue to matter.
Patel, the founder and president of, a Chicago-based, non-profit organization that strives to bring young people of different faiths together through service and dialogue, interspersed concepts of what makes up a leader with personal experiences during his speech, titled 淭wo Futures. For example, a 渓eader has to trust himself, even when he檚 just 14 and has a more innovative idea how to meet NBA icon Michael Jordan than the adults at a crowded golf course.
During his own college days, Patel learned to listen to others. Then a self-described 渉air-on-fire activist, he playfully recalled a professor telling him after class that 減eople would pay more attention to your points, if you didn檛 come across as such a jerk.
When Patel began doing interfaith work, he quickly came to realize that 渢he world belongs to the leader, not the critic; the builder, not the scolder. It was an impactful moment of time where the various leadership lessons he experienced came to a head, as he decided to not 渂e the guy who was constantly finding fault in what other people were building and instead 渂uild something myself.
While Patel檚 organization has thrived, he stressed that the need for 減eople to dare to build bridges is greater than ever and offered a warning to the seniors that 渢he future you choose has not just consequences for your life, but for the future of our country. He implored those 減eople who love NASCAR and who love the NBA fans of Fox News and watchers of MSNBC worshipers of Beyonce and those who identify with Bruce Springsteen to come together and 渆ngage positively with the differences.
Patel concluded by stating 渢he purpose of the bridge is to connect you with people that you don檛 instinctively view as your own and that 渢hose bridges don檛 fall from the sky, people build them, then asked 淲ill you seize your moment? Will you be a generation of leaders and bridge builders committed to the ideal that there is room for all?
Prior to Patel檚 speech, seniors Dana Smith and Avi Vajpeyi addressed their classmates. Smith reflected on her own experiences by voicing a sweet letter to her younger sister who will be a 黑料老司机 first-year this August, saying 淚 can檛 wait to see how (you) change and grow and don檛 even realize it while warning her that she will be challenged every day 渢o think more critically about what you know and most of all 黑料老司机 will teach you to have a voice.
Skateboarding across the stage, Vajpeyi went with a fun, thankful tone. He contrasted his time at 黑料老司机 from confused and lost the first few days, once winding up at the local Drug Mart when trying to find Lowry Center, to confidently defending his Independent Study in front of the entire group of physics faculty. Vajpeyi called orals 渉is favorite experience at the college because it demonstrated that 渕y work had value.
Vajpeyi was one of six seniors recognized individually. He shared the Jonas O. Notestein Prize, awarded to the student(s) with the highest academic standing in the class, with Geoffrey Carney-Knisely, Meg Itoh, Alina Karapandzich, Emily Velichka, and Anna Woos. All six completed their undergraduate career with perfect 4.00 GPA檚.
Jack Marousek also was singled out with the Dan F. Lockhart Outstanding Senior Award, given to the seniors who have made outstanding contributions to the life of the College via high academic achievement, participation in extracurricular activities, and demonstrated leadership in campus affairs.
In addition to the presentation of bachelor檚 degrees, honorary degrees were conferred and awarded to Elizabeth Hearne-Claffey 64, an influential author, scholar, and teacher in the field of children檚 literature, and W.A. Hayden Schilling, who recently retired from a 51-year career as a faculty member at 黑料老司机, which including being selected as the 2005 Outstanding Baccalaureate Professor of the Year by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation.
Posted in News on May 15, 2018.
