Tilghman to 2011 PU Graduates: "Aim High, Be Bold"

Princeton University's Class of 2011 emerged through the FitzRandolph Gate today, the culmination of days of reunions, class day events, and memorable speakers.

The assembled graduates and their families rose to their feet this morning when baseball great Hank Aaron was awarded an honorary degree, along with education reformer  Geoffrey Canada, educator and medical innovator  Susan Desmond-Hellman, science historian Charles Gillispie, dancer Judith Jamison,  and legal expert Robert Rawson Jr.

Standing in front of the ivy-covered walls of Nassau Hall, 2011 Valedictorian John Pardon spoke to his fellow graduates of his epiphany:  that "hard work is more satisfying than smarts".  Pardon, a math major, said one of the most rewarding parts of his Princeton education was learning Chinese.  "Look for the challenge rather than the comfortable", he advised.  "Curiosity makes us seek out those challenges".

One of those challenges, according to University President Shirley Tilghman, is the need to pay attention to education inequality, a threat that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan refers to as "the civil rights issue of our time".  Citing the successes of the Teach for America program founded by Princeton alum Windy Kopp, Tilghman urged this year's graduates to "Aim high.  Be bold".

Yesterday, Princeton students got some advice from Class Day speaker Brooke Shields.  The '87 graduate spoke of the importance of "surrounding yourself with good, truthful people".

And in a baccalaureate address the previous day, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg exhorted graduates to consider the path of public service.

About the Author

Donna Liu

Founder, AllPrinceton

Donna Liu is a digital journalist who has lived in Princeton with her family since 2002.  She founded AllPrinceton in 2010 as an online hub for community news and information.  At Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, she built UChannel - an online archive of public affairs lectures in academia.  Before that she established and managed CNN International's Asia Production Center in Hong Kong.