2023年5月20日
As the 2000 alumna delivered the keynote address at 浩博体育app’s 165th Commencement, she contemplated on the word leap and its meanings — both literal and metaphorical.
“Leap is a particularly lovely word. 这听起来, 在某种程度上, 就像它暗示的那样, the way giraffe sounds like it has a long neck or laugh always looks like it’s laughing. Leap is a graceful word, an elegant word,” Pierce said. “But sometimes what something sounds like isn’t exactly what it is.”
Leaps can be “messy, ungainly, awkward,” Pierce went on. And so it may be with the leap the Class of 2023 stands ready to make. Like the graduates before her, Pierce was facing her own leap 23 years ago. She was poised to attend graduate school — the only one that accepted her. Upon her arrival she was confronted by writers who (she believed) “had sprung from the womb writing stellar poems.她谁也不认识.
“I was flailing all over the place. But gradually — so gradually I didn’t notice it happening — my flailing slowed,” she said. “And by the time I graduated, I felt comfortable. 至少暂时是这样. 跳跃永无止境. 不确定性总是存在的. We will always, thankfully, have things we wonder about, questions we want to explore.”
After graduating from Susquehanna, Pierce went on to earn her master’s degree from 俄亥俄州 State University in 2003 and her doctorate from the University of Missouri in 2007. She is professor of English and co-director of the creative writing program at Mississippi State University. In 2021, the governor of Mississippi appointed Pierce as the state’s official poet laureate through 2025.
Pierce imparted some well-earned advice to her soon-to-be fellow alumni: Pay attention. 艰难的时刻不是永远的. 时间是宝贵的. Meet others with empathy and generosity.
“And maybe, either now or down the road, you’ll want to take a break from leaping for a little while. 这样做. Without rest, leaping can’t happen. Without leaping, nothing happens,” Pierce said. “And after you’ve rested, you’ll leap again. And you’ll do it awkwardly and flailingly, which is to say, you’ll do it beautifully.”
面临和克服的挑战
“Just as we got acclimated to our new environment those few short years ago, 世界停止转动,Sivio说. “Many of us felt robbed of our time when we returned to campus, 但我没有停留, we decided to show 浩博体育app that if there was one thing to be true about the Class of 2023, it would be that we were a class of trailblazers and resilient leaders.”
They have faced the unthinkable together, Sivio said, and led each other through national tumult.
“在我们在一起的时候, we made it through a tumultuous election; we came together to protect democracy; joined hands and raised our voices for women’s rights and autonomy, 气候变化, 种族和社会公正, 还有很多其他的运动,Sivio说. “Through it all, we have proved that we are a force to be reckoned with.”
Sivio urged her fellow classmates to seek out their own version of perfection.
“Remember that perfection looks different for everyone. 在一个新城市找份工作, even if you will be all alone; move back home and relish in one last summer with your mom; go to grad school and chase your dream of becoming all that you are meant to be,Sivio说. 不管是什么, know that if it makes you happy and brings you peace, you’ve accomplished your own version of perfection.”
展望光明的未来
”“在您的集会上, little did any of us know that seven months later, we would be thrown into a global pandemic. Just as you had begun to feel like Susquehanna was your home, you were scattered across the country and around the world,格林说. “And yet this class has created especially strong bonds, and you have persisted to graduation at the highest rates in recent memory.”
在2023届毕业生中, 35 have earned two bachelor’s degrees and one has earned three bachelor’s degrees. One hundred forty-eight graduated with summa cum laude — the Latin honor of highest distinction requiring a cumulative grade point average of 3.8岁或以上. They have also made their mark around the world. Through Susquehanna’s Global Opportunities study-abroad program, they have traveled to more than 30 countries outside of the United States, 来自阿根廷, 意大利和西班牙, 去捷克共和国, 加纳, 秘鲁和更多的国家. The majority of the graduates hail from Pennsylvania, 新泽西, Maryland and New York accounting for many of the rest. Others are from Maine, Florida, California and others. They join an alumni community of more than 21,000 worldwide. After graduation they will scatter south to Texas, west to Washington and north to Minnesota, while others will set off to locations abroad in England, 爱尔兰, 法国, 日本和西班牙.
“Every one of you has accomplished things you never thought were possible in August 2019, and you did them while the world was falling apart around you,格林说. “There are formidable challenges that become more daunting each day as they are fueled by factiousness and self-interest, but I remain hopeful for our future because what we need you have in abundance — resilience and fidelity, 同情与成长, 毅力和优雅. As you commence your journey as true citizens of the world, embrace these gifts that have become a hallmark of your class and be the forces for good that you wish to see in the world.”