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Grads called on to help save environment

Nobel Peace prize laureate Wangari Maathai, an internationally renowned environmentalist and peace activist from Kenya, acknowledged the college´s tradition of giving each graduate a white pine sapling.

May 21, 2006

Nobel Peace prize laureate Wangari Maathai, an internationally renowned environmentalist and peace activist from Kenya, acknowledged the college´s unique tradition of giving each graduate a white pine sapling during her speech at the 88th Commencement ceremony.

"That is absolutely fantastic," she said. "...What individuals are doing to save the environment, that is important … not what governments do or don´t do."

As the founder of the grassroots Green Belt Movement, Maathai is responsible for more than 30 million trees having been planted across Kenya. Awarded an honorary doctorate by the college, she focused on three things during her speech: sustainable management of resources, good governance and peace.

Using Darfur as an example, she explained how conflicts around the world are always conflicts over resources and the equitable distribution of those resources.

"We do not need to wait until we have killed each other, until we have destroyed each other, until we have destroyed our countries," she said. "We need to work and develop cultures of peace. And cultures of peace require that we learn to listen to each other. We need to give each other space." And as difficult as world conflicts seem to be, she called for graduates, like the 477 Connecticut College graduates sitting before her, to tackle them head on.

"It´s not possible to run away from these problems. Sooner or later they become your problems…." "So graduates," she ended her speech with. "Go out there and do the best you can. That´s all you can do. Do the best you can."

The college also awarded the Connecticut College Medal to Cynthia Fuller Davis, a 1966 graduate who helped the college create a gender and women´s studies program. The Fuller-Maathai Professorship, an endowed chair, is currently held by Mab Segrest, professor of gender and women´s studies. The Connecticut College Medal was created in 1969 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first graduating class. It is the highest honor the College can confer on those whose accomplishments and service have enhanced its reputation and nourished its growth.

The prestigious Oakes and Louise Ames Prize was awarded to David Kahn for his senior thesis film, "The Bombay Project." The film follows an American college student who travels to Bombay to help a graduate student in the making of a Bollywood movie. Fran Hoffmann, dean of the faculty, said the film "displays an impressive self-awareness, an admirable mastery of its materials, and perhaps most winningly, a genuine passion for India and its culture." The prize, named for a previous president of the college and his wife, is given to a graduating senior who has completed this year´s most outstanding honors study.

The equally prestigious Anna Lord Strauss Medal was awarded to Eleanor Dominguez, an executive board member of Habitat for Humanity´s Connecticut College chapter and a member of the Southeastern Connecticut Habitat board. In her college career, she has been a "no-miss" volunteer in the Big Brother/Big Sister program, participated annually in the Penguin Plunge, which raises more than $2,000 annually for Special Olympics and was the housefellow for Abbey House in 2005-06. The medal, named for a former member of the college´s board of trustees, is presented to a graduating senior who has done outstanding work in public or community service. Senior class speaker Kristin Griffin spoke of gratitude. "I have come to realize that my past four years here have been defined by moments that challenge me to recognize how thankful I am to have chosen this place," she said. "First off, it´s gorgeous." She poetically rattled off some attributes: "trees … [that] bloom into bright pink fireworks … a secret toadstool behind Lyman Allyn [Art Museum] … tiny black turtles sun themselves on the rocks alongside the pond in the arbo." "Conn seems to be about bringing smart people together and trusting each of us to make our own way. For this, and for all the other reasons that make Connecticut College the place that each of us chose, year after year, we are grateful."

Senior class president Robert Brooks, who wore a gown that has been handed down in his family since 1910, spoke about being unsure of the future and learning to accept "Plan B."

"If Plan B was no big deal for our grandparents on the even of one of the scariest, most uncertain times in our history," he said, referring to World War II, "it is certainly not a problem for all of us in the wealthiest, most powerful country on earth. So, there is no need to panic over a graduate school rejection, a poor job interview or an unexpected turn of fortunes. All these things will happen to us at one time or another. But Plan B is always out there, and there´s no shame in taking it."

Connecticut College President Norman Fainstein spoke about the world in 1966, the year he graduated from college, and compared it to 2006. Economically, he said, "there has been a rising tide, but it certainly has not moved all the boats up; it has lifted mainly the yachts," the cause of which is "a product of a changing balance of power within the private sector and of governmental policy in Washington." "The question … should be whether a nation that grows ever richer and ever more unequal … can maintain a stable, democratic political system as it is divided into a country of the rich and a country of everybody else."

Beginning and ending his speech with Beatles songs, Fainstein quoted the 1966 hit, "We Can Work It Out," and said, "I do not insist that you all see four decades of history my way or draw the same lessons as I do. But, please, don´t wait for things to fall apart before you take a hard look a the world and act to make it a better place - better according to each of your lights, better according to the values each of you holds dear."

Visit the Commencement 2006 site for texts of the days´ remarks.

For more information contact: Amy Sullivan (860) 439-2526; amy.sullivan@conncoll.edu