At Sarah Lawrence’s first commencement, Ruth Wilmot Anderson ’29 crossed the dais as the sole graduate. “Exercises of Closing Week” preceded the ceremony, nonetheless, including final vespers, a Campus Players production and concert, and “Play Day” with games, sports, and interpretive and tap dancing. Despite being a class of one, Anderson was both supported and celebrated by the full campus community.
Fittingly, a similar motif emerged at the College’s 90th undergraduate commencement in May. Keynote speaker Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, an international social justice philanthropy, dispelled the myth of the self-made man: “The story of the … minimum-wage worker who pulls himself up by his bootstraps … is pure fiction.”
Growing up as the son of a single mother in rural Texas, Walker said his options would have been limited had he not been enrolled in the first Head Start class in 1965. This early opportunity set the foundation for later triumphs, such as managing Rebuild New Orleans, a post-Hurricane Katrina initiative led by The Rockefeller Foundation.
Addressing master’s degree candidates, Kyes Stevens MA ’99, MFA ’00, the founder and director of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, underscored the same sentiment. “We do not get anywhere all on our own,” Stevens said. “That whole bootstrap logic is broken.”
Both Stevens and Walker emphasized the importance of giving back in order to build a more just society, particularly calling on those who enjoy the privilege of a Sarah Lawrence degree. Walker quoted the acclaimed novelist Alice Walker ’65 (no relation) when he reminded graduates that activism is “rent for living on this planet.”
“Please, offer out your hand to the world,” Stevens challenged in closing remarks. “It will take work and time and money and energy and heart and head. And you will not regret it.”
Written by Suzanne Guillette MFA ’05
Photo by Chris Taggart