Pioneering educator Freeman Hrabowski III delivers commencement speech

Giving the keynote address at Wheaton College's 172nd Commencement held on May 19, 2007, pioneering educator Freeman Hrabowski III told the 370 members of the Class of 2007 that education can equalize opportunities, and he urged them to "realize their potential as leaders."

"Growing up in Birmingham, going to jail with Dr. King, I understood the importance of believing in something," said Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and a leading advocate for increasing the number of high-achieving minorities in science and engineering. ''We believed that in America, even if there was injustice, that first we didn't have time to be victims, that we needed to be empowered...We believed we could make a difference. And I'm asking you to think about how you will make a difference as leaders. It never occurred to me that one day I might be standing here as president of a university speaking to a group looking like this. When I was in elementary school I had never seen a white child. That's how different the world is today.''

''Last week, something happened and I said I wish my mother could have seen me. I sat at the table with the Queen of England,'' he continued. ''The one thought I had was how proud I was to be an American, because while we are fascinated by royalty, the world looks at us and understands that through education we can come from all kinds of backgrounds and rise to the top. This is the significance of America, that we want to work to help all children to get the education they need so one day they can be sitting in a Wheaton College all around the world and move to another level.''

[The transcript of Wheaton's commencement address and high resolution photos are posted at http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/CR/cr2007/commencement/.]

Born in 1950 in segregated Birmingham, Ala., Hrabowski graduated from Hampton Institute at age 19 with the highest honors in mathematics. He went on to receive a M.A. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in higher education administration and statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by age 24.

President of UMBC since 1992, Hrabowski is also the founder of that university's Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which combines intensive study with hands-on research opportunities and mentoring, and produces the nation's largest number of minority students who go on to graduate school in the sciences. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. Hrabowski is the co-author of two books, Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women and Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males.

He serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and universities and school systems nationally. He sits on several corporate and civic boards, including those of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Urban Institute.
His recent awards and honors include election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Philosophical Society; receiving the prestigious McGraw Prize in Education, the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, and the Columbia University Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service; and being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

A child-leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Hrabowski was featured in Spike Lee's 1997 documentary, Four Little Girls, based on the racially motivated bombing in 1963 of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

In a speech that was both humorous and moving, Hrabowski also encouraged the graduating class to think about how they have been transformed by their liberal arts education at Wheaton, to realize that the education doesn't end here, and that it is important that they decide how they will be leaders in this world and make a difference.

''You've had a chance to pursue ideas of all types, to learn to write well, to think clearly, to ask the big questions...You've had a chance to think about justice and injustice and to think about how you want to be leaders,'' said Hrabowski.

''You must continue to learn and grow and ask the hard questions and sometimes take the stance that is not popular because it is the right thing to do. This is what it means to be liberally educated, to pursue, to explore, to express, to question and to continue to learn.''

In closing, he told the graduates: ''You've got everything you need to be the leader you must aspire to be. I challenge you to watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character...Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.''

Among the more than 400 alumnae/i who participated in Reunion Weekend was Emma Inman Lloyd of Westwood, Mass., who celebrated her 80th reunion.

The honorary degree recipients include: Deborah Bial, president and founder of the Posse Foundation, which helps students from diverse backgrounds get into elite colleges; Bob Herbert, op-ed columnist for The New York Times; and Kathleen O'Donnell, a Massachusetts civil attorney and member of the Class of 1977.

Wheaton students and graduates won 21 prestigious national scholarship awards this academic year, including a total of nine Fulbrights. Derron Wallace '07 of the Bronx, N.Y., won a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which acknowledges him as one of 50 college seniors nationwide with unusual promise as leaders and global citizens. He will study the historical roots and current practice of the Pentecostal faith among worshippers in Trinidad & Tobago, Ghana, Ethiopia, the United Kingdom and Guatemala. Wallace also won a $10,000 grant to build small school libraries and provide school uniforms for children in Jamaica and Tanzania through the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace initiative. Caitlin O'Connor '08 and Ashley Mott '08 also won a $10,000 Projects for Peace grant that they will use to strengthen an after-school program in three Tanzanian villages. Five members of the Class of 2007 won Fulbright scholarships this year: Laura Burr of South Glastonbury, Conn., will teach English in Taiwan; Shanita Gopie of Westbury, N.Y., will teach English in Hong Kong; Sarata Toriola of the Bronx, N.Y., will teach English and conduct research on Korean women writers in South Korea; Laura Tschop of McKnightstown, Pa., will teach English to South Korean school children and study the country's public school system; and Ashley Young of Westford, Mass., will research the impact of invasive species in Canada.

Rose Maizner '06 of Holladay, Utah, won a Fulbright to study how culture influences the immigration and adjustment of Muslim women in Argentina. Stefan Sirucek '06 of Wellfleet, Mass., Courtney McPhail '05 of New York, N.Y., and Janet Turkovich '05 of Westford, Mass., all won Fulbrights to teach English in Germany.

Stanley Ellicott '07 of Avon, Maine won a Fulbright-Hays scholarship for a semester studying business economics in Denmark's International Study Program; and Michael Freese '08 of Newport, Maine, won a Fulbright-Hays scholarship for a semester studying the Russian language in St. Petersburg, Russia. Valerie Tobia '07 of Falmouth won a Gilman Scholarship, which funds a semester of study at Rhodes University in South Africa.

Courtney Allen '07 of Quincy, Mass., Wendy Beh-Forrest '07 of Doylestown, Penns., and Laura Corkery '07 of Marshfield, Mass., each won a 2007 French Government Teaching Assistantship.

Myles Matteson '06 of Epson, N.H., was one of about 40 college students nationwide to win a Marshall Scholarship, which finances young Americans of high ability who want to study for a degree in the United Kingdom. Ashlan Musante '08 won a Goldwater Scholarship, which encourages college students to pursue careers in science, mathematics and engineering. Ashley Smith '08 of Madison, Maine, won a Beinecke Scholarship to continue studying the effects of oppression on Native American identity in the Northeast.

Wheaton students have won more than 50 prestigious academic awards since 2001, including three Rhodes Scholarships.

Wheaton is a highly selective college of the liberal arts and sciences with a student body of 1,500. It is a member of the Twelve College Exchange, which also includes Amherst, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Trinity, Wellesley and Wesleyan.