MCLA Students Challenged to Tackle World's Problems
 President Mary Grant with commencement speaker Hubert 'Hubie' Jones. The former Boston University dean had the crowd cheering when he said he tells people the MCLA on his baseball cap means 'excellence.' |
It all came about by accident, said the Dalton resident, when he "was hit head-on by the future — a 1966 green Mustang."
Herene was 47 at the time. After a year's recuperation — and with his old job in a parts store filled — he decided he should go back to school. He graduated in 2003 with a degree in history and a teaching certificate and returned to graduate on Saturday
with a master's in education.
Returning to school wasn't easy, said Herene, but he found a new career working at Hillcrest Educational Centers. MCLA had definitely been the right choice, ("This was my college right from the start," he said, riffing on MCLA's marketing slogan) and graduating was not only his victory, but that of his entire class.
He urged his classmates to meet the future — but more carefully than he did.
"Lead, follow or get out of the way," he exhorted them. "So look out world, the class of 2011 is well-prepared to meet you head-on."
Herene was one of 36 graduate students receiving a master's degree in education on Saturday, along with six who received certificates of advanced graduate studies and 303 who earned bachelor's degrees in a range of fields.
The awarding of diplomas in the Amsler Campus Center was accompanied by ear-splitting cheers as students stepped across the stage to receive their diplomas and congratulations from college President Mary Grant.
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Public service and the call for graduates to, as Grant put it, "charge into the world, tackle its problems and wrestle them to the ground," was the connecting thread among the speakers.
Class President Keifer Gammell said he believed that learning involved friends and community service, and that involvement can and will take you far in life.
"Going the extra mile never hurts anyone but rather helps everyone involved in the long run," he said, adding that the college and the friendships he'd forged will help him succeed. "I know that I can do whatever I want and no one can stop me."
Competition is more intense, but the opportunities to succeed are vast, said Louis Ricciardi, vice chairman of the state Board of Higher Education.
"Your success and happiness in life will be directly proportionate not just to your ability to change and adapt to the challenges you will encounter, but also because of your willingness to do so."
Jones, dean emeritus of the Boston University School of Social Work and longtime social justice advocate, said he wasn't sure what he could say to the class. There was a long list of challenges facing them — from the Arab revolutions of democracy, to the nation's wars and budget battles, to the inequitable balance between wealth and poverty.
"We need you; we desperately need you ... we need your intelligence, your vision, and your committment to make a better world," he said. "Most of all we need your moral compass."
This millenial generation, said Jones, is more worldly and more connected through technology to be able to see human potential rather than race, ethnicity, class or religion than the baby boomers and Greatest Generation before them, a fact made clear with election of President Obama.
He urged them to travel, to meet those unlike themselves, to take the "ideal society" of MCLA to where they live, work and pray.
"You are the generation that embraces community service as essential to a caring society; young people like you have taken social entrepreneurism to great heights," said Jones, noting the creation of organizations like City Year and Teach for America.
"All you need is impatience with the status quo and a willingness to make a difference."
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