Williams Students Urged to Seek Adventurous LivesBy Tammy Daniels
iBerkshires Staff
02:27AM / Monday, September 14, 2009
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College Council co-Presidents Michael S. Tcheyan and Elizabeth B. Brickley sing 'America.' Brickley was awarded the Grosvenor Cup. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The class of 2010 was encouraged on Saturday to climb mountains — if not literally, at least figuratively — when they leave the Purple Valley next spring.
"I really believe a life lived best is a life focused on adventure," Colorado Sen. Mark E. Udall told seniors and faculty gathered in Chapin Hall for the annual convocation.
Udall, who also spent several terms representing Colorado in the U.S. House, was one of six Williams graduates awarded Bicentennial Medals on Saturday. The medals were established for the college's 200th anniversary to recognize outstanding alumni.
The mountainering Democrat spoke of his own fond memories of the Williams, from which he graduated in 1972, and how it was here he came to the love the mountains, a love that would send the son of former presidental candidate Sen. Mo Udall of Arizona to the rocky heights of Colorado.
A few years back, he'd brought his son, Jed, to the campus. His Rocky Mountain-raised son dismissed the Berkshire ranges as just hills. "I said to him, spend a winter here and you'll understand these are mountains," Udall told the laughing students.
At the foot of the Berkshire mountains, Udall found his altitude — a taste of the heights he might conquer; and his attitude — the direction in which to proceed. It would send him back west to spend 20 years with Outward Bound, half of those as executive director, then to follow his father's footsteps into politics. He entered the U.S. Senate last year as two of the men he considers role models vied for the White House.
Along the way, he found himself in difficult, frustrating and enlightening situations: Stuck on Mount McKinley with no food in 20-below temperatures ("the only way off the mountain was over the top"); three months preparing for a climb in Tibet but failing to reach the summit until a second attempt three years later; living in a Muslim nation and learning that its inhabitants had similar goals to pursue their dreams, raise their families, live in peace.
Bicentennial Medalists Mika Brzezinski, left, Judge Karen Ashby, Gary Fisketjon, John F. Raynolds III and Sen. Mark E. Udall. |
Williams, he said, prepared him for his adventurous life, adding that adventure comes in many forms and really means taking a risk on an uncertain outcome.
"Enlisting in the military or Teach for America or the Peace Corps is an adventure," he said. "When you're in an adventurous undertaking, you feel your heart quicken, you feel the self-doubt, you feel a sense of excitement — that's when you really feel alive."
Lead a rich life, Udall said, and don't be satisfied with just the traditional climb up Mount Greylock. Climb it on a moonlit night or on a winter day.
"When you climb down, you'll have the the right amount of attitude for this altitude."
The undergraduate members of Phi Betta Kappa were introduced and the Grosvenor Cup was presented to Elizabeth B. Brickley for her outstanding dedication to the Williams community. Brickley, a biology major, is a College Council co-president, a junior adviser and peer tutor, member of the crew and cross country teams, and several clubs and committees, including the presidential search committee
Seniors applaud Phi Beta Kappa inductees. |
She and her co-President Michael S. Tcheyan extolled greatness of the class of 2010 as the best class ever and urged their classmates to make the most of their senior year.
The Bicentennial Medals were conferred on Udall, Denver Juvenile Court Judge Karen Ashby, class of 1979; MSNBC "Morning Joe's" Mika Brzezinski, class of 1989; Gary Fisketjon, class of 1976, editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf, and John F. Raynolds III, class of 1951, past leader of Outward Bound USA and a Navy frogman.
Interim President William G. Wagner said the presence of the medalists on the stage were a reminder that what they were doing at Williams now would shape and contribute to their future.
"We are bound together in a shared transgenerational experience of perpetual discovery, self-discovery and becoming," he said. "We are all outward bound together." |
