Commencement 2004

Senior Luncheon Remarks of Dr. Carlota Ocampo, Senior Class Advisor
May 21, 2004

President McGuire, Vice-President Preston, Deans, Faculty, Students, Guests and, as I shall always remember you, the Fabulous Red Class of 2004:

The last time I stood before you was at the Cap & Gown assembly at the beginning of your senior year. Then, this day, this weekend, still seemed so far away.

I said then that I remember when you first came here, and how excited you were about the years ahead, and how you longed to have what the seniors had -- that sense of carriage, of confidence. And I have watched you develop into those seniors, those individuals: thinking, analytical, synthetic, observant, careful, socially conscious, having a strong sense of self, upright. You came here at different years, at different periods of life development, from various backgrounds, but you have melded into a common force, a mighty force: educated, self-confident women and men.

Take a moment to look around you. You'll notice that not all the faces that were here when you got here are still here. To be sure, some will be in your shoes next year, and the year after (and we will honor them greatly when they are) but some will not. Not everyone, for one reason or another, is able to achieve what you have achieved. Because, as I have said to some of you, achieving a college degree is NOT easy: if it were, everyone would have one!

Now take another look at the faces around you. These are the women -- and men -- with whom you've spent these final months -- your senior moments - at Trinity. It is likely that you will remain connected to some of these people for the rest of your lives. You will always remain connected -- in some way or another -- to us, your professors. Some of my closest friends to this day are people I went to college with, or took classes from. A most memorable event of this senior year was the visit of Congress-woman Nancy Pelosi, Trinity's distinguished alum, who said that the friends she made at Trinity became her friends for life. This capacity to form friendships will likely be as important to your future lives as the knowledge you've gained.

I made another comment on the occasion of Cap & Gown -- that I believe the academic life to be the best life there is. So good, in fact, that some of us -- teachers & professors -- never leave school! And I believe -- in fact, I am convinced -- that some of you will one day stand in our shoes, and be the next generation of professors. But, of course, the academic life cannot be everyone's path. The exciting challenge before you is to find your own path and your own life fulfillment. So, as is tradition, here is my final thought to you.

A video I show in one of my classes, Despair (1995, Conn. Public Tel.), depicts a client recovering from depression. He tells us that in his life, he was taught how to make a living, but not how to live. Now, in his senior years, through psychotherapy, he was finally learning how to live. What can we learn from this man's experience?

I wish for you to take away from Trinity not only a future career and the information you need to make a living, but knowledge that can transform how you live. I offer two suggestions.

One, you have learned here many skills that translate beyond the world of work: you have learned methods of inquiry. You've learned ways to look at the world, ways to read texts, ways to critically analyze information, ways to create meaningful interaction with others. Continue to practice these skills. Become an autodidact -- a self-educated person. Never forget how to pick up a text -- not beach reading, but a text -- just for curiosity. Analyze and question the information about the world provided to you from the various media. You may not remain in the "academic life", but let the academic life remain with you and continue to enrich your thoughts and actions.

Second, as I'm sure has been drummed into your head in various classes, Maslow's concept of self-actualization posits that the self-actualized person is most concerned with fundamental questions of equality and social justice. I noted in my May term class this week that if every individual who had felt the sting of oppression -- and who among us has not -- were to work to change mechanisms of oppression (rather than turn that oppression inward against ourselves and our own communities), the world would be transformed.

Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said it most eloquently when speaking of one insidious form of oppression, racism: that the "true evil of racism is that it makes a child of God doubt that he or she is a child of God." Whenever we work against racism, sexism, classism, ethnocentrism -- inequality in all its forms -- we restore within each of us that knowledge of being a child of god. This is the greatest work we can do.

So again, I remind you: as educated, confident, empowered women and men, you are indeed a mighty force. Go out there, live your lives, restore the children of god, and transform the world.

Thank you.