Haverford Spring/Summer 2011 : Page 2COMMENCEMENT 2011 T hough the wet weather moved the ceremony inside (for only the second time in almost 30 years), it couldn’t dampen the excitement in the Field House, where 299 members of the Class of 2011 became the latest addition to the College’s alumni community. “How will you make your mark?” President Stephen Emerson ’74 asked the assembled almost-graduates in his opening remarks. “It will be different for each one of you …You are supremely prepared to find success, meaning and joy.” This year, honorary degrees were awarded to three individuals who, in their diverse work, all embody Haverford’s core value of social justice. Former NBA All-Star center and humanitarian Dikembe Mutombo received a Doctor of Humane Letters for his philanthropy, includ-ing his work with the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation, which is devoted to improving the health, education and quality of life for the people of his native Democratic Republic of Congo. Mutombo ( far right , being intro-duced by journalist Juan Williams ’76 , the proud father of a 2011 graduate) gave a speech in which he urged the graduates to be leaders and to take action against disease and poverty. “What we make in our daily life is a living,” he told them, “but what we give is a life.” 2 HaverfordMagazine PHOTOS: JIM ROESE Commencement 2011Though the wet weather moved the ceremony inside (for only the second time in almost 30 years), it couldn’t dampen the excitement in the Field House, where 299 members of the Class of 2011 became the latest addition to the College’s alumni community. “How will you make your mark?” President Stephen Emerson ’74 asked the assembled almost-graduates in his opening remarks. “It will be different for each one of you …You are supremely prepared to find success, meaning and joy.”<br /> <br /> This year, honorary degrees were awarded to three individuals who, in their diverse work, all embody Haverford’s core value of social justice. Former NBA All-Star center and humanitarian Dikembe Mutombo received a Doctor of Humane Letters for his philanthropy, including his work with the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation, which is devoted to improving the health, education and quality of life for the people of his native Democratic Republic of Congo. Mutombo (far right, being introduced by journalist Juan Williams ’76, the proud father of a 2011 graduate) gave a speech in which he urged the graduates to be leaders and to take action against disease and poverty. “What we make in our daily life is a living,” he told them, “but what we give is a life.”<br /> <br /> Children’s rights advocateRobert G. Schwartz ’71 (above, right), the co-founder and executive director of Juvenile Law Center, wore the academic regalia of the late College President Stephen Cary ’37 to accept his Doctor of Laws honorary degree. Schwartz appealed to the Class of 2011 to use what they learned in their Haverford classrooms to help close “the opportunity gap” for others. “You are women and men who will do things,” he said. “Do them with purpose and do them well.”<br /> <br /> Judy Wicks (left), the founder of Philadelphia’s White Dog Cafe and co-founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, was honored with a Doctor of Humane Letters for her work in the local food and sustainable business movements. As she recalled her own graduation in 1969, and how it was colored by the specter of the war in Vietnam, Wicks noted that the stakes are even higher for 2011’s graduates. “Our generation’s goal was to save lives, mostly our own,” she said. “Yours is to save life on earth as we know it.”<br /> <br /> Publication List Using a screen reader? Click Here |
