普卢梅里对2011届毕业生说：敢于冒险，一切皆有可能
周日下午，威廉玛丽学院（William & 玛丽’s） 2011届毕业生从毕业典礼演讲者那里得到了一条不同寻常的建议：“去交通堵塞的地方玩耍吧。“没错，除非你在路上玩，否则什么事也不会发生。”不要害怕在交通堵塞时玩耍，”66岁的约瑟夫·j·普卢梅里说。“做事情。承担一些风险，无论是个人风险还是你认为实现梦想所必需的风险。”5月15日，韦莱集团董事长兼首席执行官普卢梅里在学院的毕业典礼上向挤满了人的威廉玛丽大厅发表了充满活力的演讲，当天有1944名本科生和研究生从学院获得了学位。普卢梅里在活动期间获得了公共服务荣誉博士学位。另外两人也在典礼上获得了荣誉学位。儿童保护基金会主席玛丽安·赖特·埃德尔曼获得荣誉公共服务博士学位，C-SPAN总裁布莱恩·兰姆获得荣誉人文文学博士学位。“我们都聚集在一起欢庆，”总统泰勒·雷维里在活动开始时说。“那么，让我们继续为2011届毕业生庆祝吧。”普卢梅里说他在学院期间看起来就像方齐和《油脂》中的约翰·特拉沃尔塔的结合体，他告诉毕业生，他是“你可以梦想的活生生的证明”。“我是世界上最伟大的梦想家之一，”他说。“你不能说我做不到；你不能说我做不到。第一，我不是那种人，第二，我是威廉玛丽学院的毕业生。“{{youtube:中等:左| xg7r3gQCJMM}}
While “playing in traffic”, Plumeri said, graduates should keep four big ideas – or “road signs” – in mind: vision, passion, integrity and a belief in the endless possibilities.
“You have to believe that because you are a graduate of the College of William and 玛丽 that anything – anything -- is possible,” he said.
Rarely standing at the podium during his half-hour speech, which was often interrupted by applause, Plumeri walked the stage and engaged the crowd, asking them to give standing ovations to the graduates’ parents and the William & 玛丽 faculty. Plumeri peppered his remarks with stories from his own life and family as well as stories about some of the graduates – including Nat Baako, Brian Focarino and Michelle Munikwa -- that illustrated his four “road signs.”
Many people know the words, but they don’t “know the music,” said Plumeri.
“In the years at William & 玛丽, you’ve learned words, I just told you where the music comes from. It comes from your heart. That’s what you’ve learned here, you’ve learned heart. You know the words, and you know the music. And by knowing the words and the music, anything is possible,” he said. Plumeri then had the graduates repeat “Anything is possible” several times.
Some people in life are “ready, set” people, and others are “ready, set, go,” people, Plumeri said in the conclusion of his speech.
“All the years you’ve been here, you’ve been hearing what? Go, Tribe! Now you know why you’ve been yelling ‘Go, Tribe!’ for all the years you’ve been here because you are the go people. You are the people that will make a difference. Go out and make something happen. Play in traffic. Go, Tribe!”
Awards and honors
Kalyani Hemant Phansalkar ’11 served as the student Commencement speaker during the ceremony, saying that luck comes in different forms: the kind that happens to you and the kind that you make happen. Finding what you are passionate about so you can make your own luck can be hard, she said, but William & 玛丽 has helped the graduates get ready for that challenge.
“Our experiences at the College have taught us how to search,” she said. “The people we have met and the time we spent together has allowed us to be inspired. Wherever our passion is – these years (at the College) have shown us we have the capacity to find it.”
Several students and faculty members received awards during the ceremony.
Ronald Wilcox ’11, who graduated with a degree in physics with a minor in mathematics, received the Lord Botetourt Medal. Established in 1772 “for the honor and encouragement of literary merit,” the medal is presented to a graduating senior who has “attained the greatest distinction in scholarship.”
Samanthe Tiver ‘11, who graduated with a degree in economics with a minor in mathematics, was presented with the James Frederic Carr Memorial Cup. The cup is presented annually to the graduating senior "who best combines the qualities of character, scholarship and leadership."
Edward Maris-Wolf, who received his Ph.D. in history on Sunday, was the recipient of this year’s Thatcher Prize for Excellence. The prize is presented annually to a graduate or professional student of outstanding scholarship, service and character.
The Thomas Ashley Graves Jr. Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching was presented to two professors: Phil Kearns, associate professor of computer science, and Larry Ring, chancellor professor and Executive MBA Alumni Professor at the Mason School of Business.
The Algernon Sydney Sullivan awards, which are presented to two members of the graduating class and one person who has “a close working relationship” with the College, were presented to Lauren Edmonds ‘11, John Pothen ’11 and Pamela Garrette, who worked at the College’s Career Center for 30 years before retiring this academic year.
Mike Blum, this year’s Charles Joseph Duke, Jr., and Virginia Welton Duke Award recipient, was also recognized during the Commencement ceremony. The Duke Award is presented annually to staff member who exhibits exemplary service and dedication to William & 玛丽.
Constellation of pluses
When Reveley took the podium the end the ceremony, he joked that he felt a bit like “the corpse at an Irish wake.”
“They need you there to have the party, but they don’t expect you to say much,” he said.
Reveley said that though admitted students see the phrase, “There’s only William & 玛丽 – and now it’s yours” in their admittance materials, the sentiment also speaks directly to William & 玛丽’s graduates.
“It’s you who have spent enormous amounts of energy climbing William & 玛丽’s steep academic mountain, and it’s you who now stand at its summit, ready for the journey ahead,” he said. “And it’s you who a few minutes ago were anointed with a William & 玛丽 degree when I intoned the magic words making you alumni and alumnae. In my view, your William & 玛丽 degree will nurture you richly for the rest of your lives, until you shuffle off your mortal coils.”
William & 玛丽 has provided the graduates opportunities to forge life-long friendships, Reveley said. It has also provided them with a high-caliber education from a distinguished university, which will give them an advantage as they move forward.
“People who know higher education in America understand the high caliber of our faculty and students and the superb education inherent in a William & 玛丽 degree,” Reveley said. “As many of you have already discovered, graduate and professional schools love to recruit William & 玛丽 alumni and alumnae. Employers who have hired William & 玛丽 graduates speak lyrically about them and return wanting more. It helps, and it feels good, to have a degree that commands attention and respect.”
With a good education, life-long friendships and “a powerful credential tooted in the College’s renown,” the graduates leave William & 玛丽 with “quite a constellation of pluses for the road ahead.”
“Truly, there is only one William & 玛丽 – and now it’s yours!”
