Penn Baccalaureate |
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May 24, 2016, Volume 62, No. 35 |
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Penn President Amy Gutmann’s Baccalaureate Remarks given in Irvine Auditorium on Sunday, May 15, 2016.
Related: Navigating Exciting Possibilities, given by David Brooks, author, political and cultural commentator, New York Times columnist.
Baccalaureate Welcome
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Amy Gutmann |
Parents and families, friends and colleagues, welcome to Penn’s Baccalaureate Ceremony!
My warmest congratulations to the great Class of 2016. We gather to honor you here today. But we do so in a somewhat more thoughtful and reflective manner. If Commencement is a big bang of a celebration shared with the world, this afternoon’s event, the Baccalaureate, is an opportunity to hear from a leading public intellectual—such as our honored speaker, David Brooks—shared only among ourselves, and with family. This is our time together, underscoring the value of the friendships we have formed, the importance of family and the sharing and caring Penn community that will continue to be a cherished part of your lives for years to come.
The Baccalaureate is the perfect occasion to reflect on the power of mind and the value of clear thinking that is our common heritage as university graduates. It stems from the medieval ceremony—which is said to date back to 1432 at Oxford University—that served to demonstrate the intellectual prowess of the new graduates by giving each an opportunity to deliver a sermon…in Latin.
Fortunately for all of us non-Latin speakers, our traditions have evolved. We now no longer commit to the idea that suffering on the part of the audience refines the spirit. Instead, we believe that rigorous thinking and pellucid expression of those thoughts can indeed uplift the soul. We are very fortunate and grateful to have today a guest speaker known for the originality of his ideas and insights, who will provide excellent opportunity for a quieter and more intimate opportunity to reflect.
You—the remarkable Class of 2016—have learned and grown and advanced in so many ways in the past four years. You are the class who saw Facebook go public, Uber become ubiquitous and who witnessed—for better or worse—the surge of the selfie stick.
Were we to turn those now-ubiquitous cameras on the moments I think define this senior class, here are some of the images most likely to be captured:
A picture of not one, but two Rhodes Scholars—Yours is the first Penn Senior Class in nearly a century to boast two in the same year.
A snapshot of Ivy League Champions—Your years here brought home more than a dozen championship titles, including historic victories in football and women’s basketball.
Photos of three new winners of the President’s Engagement Prizes, who over the next year will work to improve farming in India, expand the distribution of health information through public libraries and ease the transition into regular life for women released from incarceration.
Your class photos would also show two winning teams for the inaugural President’s Innovation Prize: one team that will be creating new avenues of therapy for Parkinson’s patients, and a second that has pioneered a new technology to remotely monitor individuals’ core body temperatures over time.
And you can bet there’d be pictures of record-breaking hackathons, Penn Quakers engaging for good in our community and around the world, Spring Flings and Hey Day, that time Penn Masala was featured in Pitch Perfect 2 and even a visit from the Pope.
You are a potent force for good that we are about to send into the world. This gathering is an opportunity to give thoughtful attention to all you are capable of achieving. It’s also our opportunity to share our thanks for everything you mean to us.
Members of the Class of 2016: an ending is in sight, but so, too, is a thrilling beginning. Know that wherever you go, whatever good you do, you’ll always have a home and a family here at Penn.
So, on behalf of everybody at the University of Pennsylvania, I applaud you for what you have achieved.
I salute you for the good that you will do.
Congratulations and enjoy.
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