The 2013 honorands with President Spencer. From left, Vivian Pinn, speaker Gary Hirshberg, Elaine Hansen, William Cronon and Spencer. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

In business, the environment and government, “the bottom line is that many of the so-called experts have been wrong and now need to be second-guessed,” the co-founder and chairman of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm told the 乐播传媒 College Class of 2013.

“And that’s actually your job.”

Gary Hirshberg was the featured speaker at the May 26 ceremony, held in Merrill Gymnasium,聽 that started a new chapter in the lives of 436 乐播传媒 seniors. He also received an honorary degree, along with environmental historian William Cronon, 乐播传媒 President Emerita Elaine Tuttle Hansen and Dr. Vivian Pinn, inaugural director of the Office of Research on Women鈥檚 Health at the National Institutes of Health.

Class of 2013 by the numbers.

Professor of Sociology Sawyer Sylvester (left) and retiring Dean of the Faculty Pam Baker ’69 just prior to Commencement. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

The event was a milestone for at least three people besides the graduates and their families. It was Clayton Spencer’s first graduation as sitting president of the college. But it was the final commencement for Pamela Baker ’69, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, and Multifaith Chaplain Bill Blaine-Wallace, both of whom are retiring from 乐播传媒.

The Sunday morning ceremony also presented a milestone in giving to the college. As reported to the gathering by Senior Gift chairs Nancy Weidner and Hank Geng, the Class of 2013 hit a new 乐播传媒 record for participation in the senior class gift, as 400 seniors, or 92 percent of the class, donated nearly $18,000.

If the weather fell short of ideal, warm feelings abounded within Merrill. Spencer’s welcoming remarks spread the good feelings around, drawing warm applause with a request that the graduates show some love for the people who supported them in all ways through their 乐播传媒 years — families and professors, for sure, but also members of the Lewiston-Auburn community, and the college staff “whose work on campus makes our lives possible, and whose work made this ceremony possible” (a reference to the need to move the ceremony indoors).

In still another milestone, a graduating senior spoke at Commencement for the first time in at least half a century. Tommy Holmberg, a history major and 乐播传媒 actor-director from Winnetka, Ill., was selected by a Commencement committee from a field of three finalists nominated by classmates.

An exuberant Zaihra Ahmed ’13 shows off a product of four years’ hard work at 乐播传媒. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Holmberg offered a love letter to the college that celebrated, among other cherished aspects of the 乐播传媒 experience, the passing of knowledge and lore from one class to the next, and from the college to the world. “You see, it鈥檚 a beautiful cycle we’ve got here,” he said. “The goodness of 乐播传媒 is passed on out of admiration and gratitude for what was, and excitement and pride for what will be.”

After today, he said, “We will be intelligent, because of the ardor and devotion of the good people of this institution. We will be passionate, because 乐播传媒 allowed us to follow our passions and realize our dreams. We will be fun, because we’ve had fun here.

“We will be loving, because the 乐播传媒 community showed us so much love.”

Baker and Spencer presented the honorary degree recipients. Cronon, father of Jeremy Cronon ’13 and recipient of a Doctor of Letters degree, is an environmental historian whose “rigorous scholarship, imaginative arguments and elegant prose,” Baker said, “break new ground in our understanding of nature, wilderness and the American West.”

President of 乐播传媒 from 2002 to 2011 and now executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Hansen also received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. As 乐播传媒 president, she “helped us to dream well and take action on our good ideas,” Spencer said.

Another 乐播传媒 parent, the father of Ethan Hirshberg ’13 was honored with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Gary Hirshberg’s achievement with Stonyfield, Baker said, is “considered one of the great stories in the realm of sustainable and organic agribusiness.”

Stonyfield Farm Chairman Gary Hirshberg is shown during his Commencement speech. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Recipient of a Doctor of Science degree, Pinn “has worked her entire life to open medicine鈥檚 portal to women and people of color,” said Baker, who quoted Pinn’s remark that, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you鈥檙e truly a good doctor or a good researcher if you don鈥檛 reach back to help others coming along.鈥�

Drawing lessons for the graduates from his experiences getting Stonyfield off the ground, Hirshberg’s address was funny, folksy and plainspoken. But if the tone was light (speaking of milestones, this may have been the first-ever mention of camel dung in a 乐播传媒 Commencement address), the thrust of his message was anything but.

The world’s in trouble — social, medical, economic, environmental. “It is clear that we have brought the same short-sighted, greed-driven [sense of] entitlement that we’ve used to guide our economy,” he said, “to how we manage our planet and even our health.”

He said, “Simply put, the meltdown of traditional ground rules and a tough, albeit improving, jobs picture mean you have to think differently. There is a saying that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. And now the only person who can invent your future is you.”

Basia Braboy ’13 and a family member walk toward Alumni Gymnasium for a post-Commencement luncheon. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Hirshberg held out four pieces of advice, illustrated with tales from the precarious early days of Stonyfield Farm — now a business topping $350 million in annual sales.

• • “Think on your own,” he said. “Much of the so-called conventional wisdom is instead a fabricated aura of inevitability bought and paid for by massive lobbying and campaign finance donations [by] special interests.””Challenging their conventional wisdom is key. Asking loudly and repeatedly, ‘Why not pursue an alternative?’ is your job.”
  • “You can only succeed if you love what you are doing. So do what you love.”
  • “Believe in yourself and be determined, even when others doubt you. Fear of failure gets you nowhere. … Winston Churchill summed up my career beautifully when he said, ‘Success is the ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.’ “
  • Finally, show up. “Never underestimate the value of performing service and doing good,” said Hirshberg, who previously had praised 乐播传媒’ efforts in community engagement and the senior class Pledge of Social Responsibility.

“The good news is that by attending to our social and environmental problems, there are endless opportunities. If you are creative, determined and opportunistic in putting your amazing 乐播传媒 experience to work, you and the world will benefit. Those who question conventional thinking will be in the best positions to seize the next wave of jobs and economic opportunities.”

He added, “I do know Gandhi was right when he said that anyone who feels they are too small to make a difference has never been in bed with a mosquito.”

In his closing benediction, Blaine-Wallace urged the graduates to shun complacency and stay in touch with the inner voices that urge something better. Quoting John Donohue’s Benedictus: A Book of Blessings, he said:

“May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire / That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.

“May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease / To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.”

The 2013 Commencement address, as delivered by Gary Hirshberg, L.H.D., co-founder and chairman of the organic yogurt producer Stonyfield Farm.

President Spencer, trustees, faculty, staff, members of the 乐播传媒 community, parents and family of graduates, and of course graduates, you have juggled so much to make this day possible, and I honor you.

I, of course, have a special affinity with the parents today, being one myself. So before I focus on our graduates, let me say something to you fellow parents, for this is obviously no less a day for you.

Mixed in with your justified pride are a wide range of emotions: disbelief that the little creature you have swaddled is now a college grad; shock at how fast this phase sped by; and terror that they might in fact move back in with you.

Graduates, I have two things to say to you. First, since I know many of you had a very, very, very very, very long night, hang in there. This won’t be long. And second, I offer, honestly, my deepest, deepest congratulations.

Commencement speaker Gary Hirshberg told the graduates that “challenging the conventional wisdom can be scary. But everything that鈥檚 ever been important has happened because someone asked the powerful two words: Why not?” Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen.

To be clear, my paternal pride is for not just our son, but a whole bunch of young men and women who I have had the privilege to host, watch and enjoy over these far-too-fast four years. So I did some homework to get to know you all better.

It turns out that you have been highly productive. Or at least you had been highly productive right up until about a month ago. But I’ll try not to go there and let my envy show.

But seriously, I am especially proud to honor you today. Your Pledge of Social Responsibility is truly and utterly one of the most hopeful and inspiring statements I have ever read from any graduating class. And I hope everybody here has had a chance to read it. It is truly inspiring.

Your class and your college mates have confirmed what many of us expected from this incredible place. You have balanced your amazing academic achievements with an equally extraordinary output of community service and involvement.

Community involvement is clearly at the heart of the 乐播传媒 identity and mission rather than relegated to the margins of the college.

This year, 乐播传媒 students gave 13,000 hours to volunteer projects, both locally and farther afield. And over a third of you were engaged in learning out in the community. Taken together, you and your schoolmates have invested close to 60,000 hours of service and learning outside of campus and in your communities.

Community involvement is clearly at the heart of the 乐播传媒 identity and mission rather than relegated to the margins of the college. I truly believe this is what makes 乐播传媒 special.

Commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient Gary Hirshberg and his graduate son, Ethan ’13, pose for a photograph after the ceremony. Photograph by Jose Leiva.

As I hope to make clear in my few minutes with you, I have no doubt that this level of community engagement and real world applied learning will be as critical a contributor to your futures as any academic achievement.

To be blunt, you face far tougher social, societal and economic challenges than what we parents faced at your ages.

Especially troubling is that fact that many of our most heralded financial institutions and leaders have been culpable in fueling the nation’s economic instability with short-term, greed-driven thinking. Here in the U.S., we got into a fiscal mess that will take years to repair by borrowing money we didn’t have to buy stuff we didn’t need or couldn’t afford. We voluntarily put on blinders and willfully ignored the consequences of our short-term thinking.

The bottom line is that many of the so-called experts have been wrong and now need to be second-guessed. And that is actually your job. We now know we can’t export away our manufacturing capacity. We can’t expect to have a growing economy while enriching the wealthy but squeezing down the middle class.

In short, 20-century rules don鈥檛 work anymore. We need new rules now.

We can鈥檛 build a strong nation without investing in infrastructure. We can鈥檛 just assume that good education happens by itself without serious investment in our teachers. And I surely don鈥檛 understand how we can subsidize troubled banks, businesses and farms, but load our next generation of college-educated leaders with crushing debt that will take a generation or more to pay back.

In short, 20-century rules don鈥檛 work anymore. We need new rules now. And not being able to rely on experts and conventional wisdom surely spells special challenges, but also opportunities for you.

It is clear that we have brought the same short-sighted, greed-driven entitlement we used to guide our economy to how we manage our planet and even our health.

Of course the ecologic challenges also have huge economic impacts on you and on all of us. For instance, scientists now widely agree that hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and the unprecedented powerful tornadoes we’re seeing are climate events resulting from putting too much heat and energy into the atmosphere.

The Center for American Progress estimates that climate-related disasters just last year cost our nation $188 billion in foregone prosperity as we diverted investment from future-oriented progress to repairing damage and staying afloat. And just last week, 500 of the world’s leading water scientists, after a four-day conference, came out with a statement that in two generations, a majority of our world’s population will actually be struggling to find clean water, and they charge that this handicap is self-inflicted and entirely avoidable.

Our failure to factor long-term consequences into our thinking also shows up in our health system. Thanks to a several-decade love affair with cheap, carbohydrate-rich but nutritionally deficient foods (not here at 乐播传媒!) and an overall reduction in activity, two-thirds of Americans are either obese or overweight.

The average 10-year-old boy today weighs 13 pounds more than in 1960. Treating obesity costs the U.S. over $80 billion a year. And with one out of three kids born after 2000 likely to be a diabetic, we are spending another $174 billion on this sister of the obesity epidemic.

And these examples of our failure to think systemically about consequences go on and on and on.

The President’s Cancer Panel reports that 41 percent of Americans alive today will be diagnosed with some kind of cancer, and they point to day-to-day chemical exposures as the cause. This will cost our society, and you, trillions of dollars.

A baby born in Lewiston or St. Louis this morning will have over 250 toxins in her cord blood, traced to pesticides, stain removers, wood preservatives, heavy metals, industrial lubricants and flame retardants.

Now aren’t you glad that 乐播传媒 invited such a depressing guy to come talk to you today?

Honestly, my personal story shows that considering and preventing consequences like we have talked about in fact offers opportunities. Time and again we see situations like the recent and horrible tragedy in Boston that brings out our best. And you have had your own share of tragedy here at 乐播传媒. And it has brought out your best. So let me turn from this depressing stuff to talk about bringing out your best.

But this is now your path. There is no program.

Simply put, the meltdown of traditional ground rules and a tough, albeit improving, job picture means you have to think differently.

Today you are stepping through your looking glass. Your lives up until now have largely been programmed to follow a pretty logical and, in your case here at 乐播传媒, as we heard in this remarkable address earlier, a blessed path. But this is now your path. There is no program. Someone said that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. And now the only person who can invent your future is you.

In reflecting on your situations and on my 30-year business career, I recognize that you are beginning your journeys exactly as I began our business: Broke, scared about the future and in deep debt.

So, in thinking about how I can be helpful to you, I want to offer four lessons that I have learned since sitting in your seats:

First, think on your own. Don’t trust so-called experts or their dogma. Challenging the conventional wisdom can be scary. But everything that’s ever been important has happened because someone asked the powerful two words: Why not?

At Stonyfield, countless “experts” told us, for example, that we would fail unless we bought commercial advertising, but in the early days we couldn’t afford that. So instead we invented our own alternatives.

One morning in the 1980s on a Boston morning talk show two guys named Joe and Andy mentioned us on air. Joe was this athletic, healthy guy had been lecturing Andy, who was most definitely not into healthy eating, that he ought to try eating Stonyfield instead.

Andy replied that he would rather eat camel manure than yogurt. Now most reasonable companies would have tried to duck down and stay under the radar screen until the manure reference had been forgotten, but we asked why not use this an opportunity to strut our stuff.

So one wintry morning, my wife Meg and I drove over to Benson’s Animal Farm where they had camels. We filled a large yogurt container with frozen camel “nuggets” for Andy and yogurt for Joe and drove to their studios.

Of course by the time we got to Boston, the manure had thawed and the odors leaking out of the cup were especially noxious. Now for you graduates, think of Sunday mornings at the White house here at 乐播传媒 and you’ll get the picture. Anyhow, we won our first on-air endorsement as Andy, faced with a difficult menu choice, did agree that Stonyfield tasted better than camel shit.

When another chain agreed to start selling our yogurts in the 1980s, their first question was what we were going to do for advertising to help excite consumer interest. Again, we had no money, but we had our 19 cows. So we decided why not put our cows up for adoption.

Consumers could send in five yogurt lids and receive a photo of “their” cow, a certificate naming them the co-owner of “their” cow and then twice per year “their” cow would send them letters about life on the farm. Today, our carbon-conscious cows actually email four times per year, thus avoiding paper. Some of them Tweet, many of them blog, and hundreds and hundreds of people have adopted cows.

At a national and societal scale, much of the so-called conventional wisdom is instead a fabricated aura of inevitability bought and paid for by massive lobbying and campaign finance donations as special interests use their pocketbooks to fill the airwaves with experts and arguments that support their point of view.

Given the failure of so many expert proponents of economic and ecologic gospel, we must question authority as never before.

Climate change is still being disputed by a handful of zealots, but when you follow the money, you find coal or oil interests cloaking their cases with arguments for jobs or some other short-term gain that postpones the inevitable: We really do have to stop burning carbon.

Given the failure of so many expert proponents of economic and ecologic gospel, we must question authority as never before. As was mentioned, I am heavily involved in trying to get genetically engineered foods labeled so you and I can know if we are eating them. Sixty-six nations around the world give their citizens the rights to label including really progressive countries like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Syria. And yet, we don’t have it here in the U.S

Their gospel of the chemical companies who own these patented crops is that we need these new life forms to feed the world, create crops that endure in drought conditions or with poor soils, and help improve productivity.

Now one day, GE foods may in fact deliver such real value. And I think we have to keep working towards those ends. But despite decades of putting forth these arguments, there is not yet any independent evidence that these crops have delivered any of these benefits.

Despite assurances to Congress and regulators over the last two decades that crops engineered to be herbicide-resistant would lead to less chemical usage, as you read in The Wall Street Journal earlier in the week, science now shows that the three major GE crops in the U.S. have increased overall herbicide use by more than a half billion pounds since 1996 compared to what it likely would have been in the absence of GE crops.

The U.S. Geological Survey now measures this herbicide, glyphosate, in the air in all Midwestern communities throughout the summer. It wasn’t there 10 years ago. We’re breathing it. It’s in our water.

So, GE crops have been primarily engineered not for any increased nutritional or consumer benefit, but to make it easier to spray insecticides and herbicides on growing crops, leaving the genetically transformed crops unharmed but killing the weeds. (Now, I tried to explain this on the Bill Maher Show this winter, but if you have ever seen his show, you will understand when I tell you my big mistake was mentioning “weed” in his presence. Anyhow, I got him back on track. I think.)

GE technology is a real moneymaker for the industry, which charges much more for these seeds, and then sells more herbicides to the same farmers.

So it should not surprise any of us, least of all an educated 乐播传媒 grad, that the very same chemical companies who own these crops are spending tens of millions of dollars to fund lobbying efforts to stop them from being labeled. Lily Tomlin says, 鈥淣o matter how cynical I get, it is hard to keep up.鈥� I agree with her.

Challenging their conventional wisdom is key. Asking loudly and repeatedly “Why not pursue an alternative?” is your job.

So whether it is the gun lobby, oil, gas, fracking interests, or the chemical companies, it is essential that you speak up for what you believe and not just what the advertisers and lobbyists tell you. Challenging their conventional wisdom is key. Asking loudly and repeatedly “Why not pursue an alternative?” is your job.

The key takeaway here is that you did not just gain knowledge here at 乐播传媒 鈥� you learned how to reason and how to think, and the world needs you to be doing that more than ever.

Second, follow your heart and live your life. Steve Jobs, in an amazing commencement address, said, “Life is short. Don’t waste it living someone else’s dreams and ambitions.” Simply put, he was saying, you can only succeed if you love what you are doing. So do what you love.

During my last years in college in the mid-70s, I was fortunate to participate in some cutting-edge research on predicting the rate and causes of climate change. My adviser wanted me to go on to grad school to continue the research and even offered to go to bat for financial support, which he felt certain I could get.

And like a lot of you, the bills had mounted, and I felt pressure to make money, but I wanted to learn practical skills about solutions, not just studying the problems, so I instead went to a renegade ecological institute and bartered my college-taught skills as a writer and editor for learning how to build windmills, use tools and grow food. I worked as a bartender, tennis instructor and sous-chef to make ends meet, and I lived in friends’ basements to save rent money. I scrounged and got by.

But this experience changed my life. I learned how to feed 10 people three meals per day, 365 days a year, on a tenth-of-an-acre intensive organic garden. I learned how to build solar greenhouses in which food could be grown efficiently year round using no fossil fuels and no toxic agrichemicals.

I wound up being pretty good at fundraising, mostly because I was so passionate about the work we were doing, but Reagan budget cuts in the early 1980s left us with no grant support. So we started Stonyfield with seven cows and a $35,000 loan from that ultimate venture capitalist group, the Sisters of Mercy, a group of Catholic nuns. Not bad for a couple of Jewish guys.

In summary, from this critical period in my 20s, I learned:

First, there was no way to plan this scenario. It happened from following my heart.

Second, changing gears was the best and smartest thing I could have done.

And third, reflecting on my education, as you reflect on yours, it was not what I learned and studied that was important. It was learning how to learn, learning that I could learn anything I put my heart into and that knowing how to write and speak to make my case were most crucial.

Third, believe in yourself and be determined even when others doubt you. Fear of failure gets you nowhere.

Winston Churchill summed up my career beautifully when he said that “success is the ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.“

We knew nothing about business when we started but we knew a lot about the importance of growing and eating organic foods. But talking about this stuff was pretty lonely. There weren’t too many folks listening.

If you scratch the surface of any big success you are looking at, you will find a labyrinth of errors, pain and struggle underneath.

Actually we had a wonderful company. We just had no supply and no demand. But we stuck with it and this year our annual sales will be $350 million, and we’ve generated over $2.5 billion of revenues.

But don’t ever be fooled into thinking that any business or person was successful from the start. If you scratch the surface of any big success you are looking at, you will find a labyrinth of errors, pain and struggle underneath.

For us, it took nine years until we made a profit and it was only my partner’s amazing yogurts and our determination that got us through. Lily Tomlin, again, says, “Reality is the leading cause of stress for those who are in touch with it.” Sometimes, you just have to ignore reality. And we did that in spades. You know, like Puddle Jumping on Newman Day. That kind of thing.

We did that repeatedly all through our careers.

In 1984, we had been trying to get our yogurts into Bread & Circus (now part of Whole Foods) in Cambridge for about a year to no avail. They already had a half a dozen organic or natural yogurts made by some nice hippie in New Hampshire who lived in their tee pee with their wet goat, and they repeatedly told us that they did not need another one.

So one July afternoon, about 20 of my Boston-area friends, actually my old Ultimate Frisbee team, came to the farm to celebrate my 30th birthday, and when I blew out the candles, I thanked them for coming, but told them that if they really wanted to give me a great birthday gift, they should go to Bread & Circus and ask for our yogurt. That was a Sunday. On Wednesday, the buyer from Bread & Circus buyer called and told us that “demand for Stonyfield has gone through the roof and would I please make a delivery at once?” So we delivered that afternoon. We became their number-one selling yogurt, and we have been for 30 years since.

An even more extreme leap of faith literally saved the company back in 1988.

We had outgrown our little yogurt works and had begun processing at a friend’s dairy, but five months into that venture, he went belly up, bankrupt. So suddenly faced with no production and with a business doubling every three to four months, we brought everything back to the farm where, due to our inefficiency there, we began to burn about $25,000 of cash every week. It was a nightmare.

I began borrowing money from everybody I could. I even had to ask my wife to contribute the $40,000 her dad had left her in her inheritance. Thank you, Sweetie.

On many nights, thinking my wife was asleep, I would tiptoe to the next-door office to call my mother-in-law to see if she could lend us another $5,000 for payroll. And on many occasions, I would hear the click-click of call waiting as Meg was on the other line saying, “Mom, don’t do this.” Thank you, Sweetie.

After a few months, we came to a deal with a large Vermont dairy to become our processor, allowing us to focus on sales and marketing and effectively save us. Finally on the big day, as we prepared to drive north to close the long-negotiated and -awaited deal, Meg asked me if there was anything that could prevent this deal from happening and to our getting our money back. Absolutely not, I told her confidently, and rode off to battle and certain victory.

Well, to make a long story short, by the time we got to Vermont, our future partners had decided to re-trade the entire deal and essentially to steal our company. We got up from the table, said some things I cannot say here, and walked out into what had of course now had become a rare April blizzard. As we drove back, the only lunatics on the roads with several feet of snow piling up, Samuel and I began out of desperation to start designing our own yogurt factory, cutting costs everywhere we possibly could.

When I got home that night, my sleepy wife asked if the deal was done, and I said, 鈥淣o, we aren’t going to do that deal, but we have a much better idea now.鈥�

After I slept alone that night, I got up early the next morning and I was at the SBA office in Concord when they opened, and I told them that for $592,000, we could build our own yogurt factory and that I had investors willing to provide 25 percent of the funds (not quite true) and a bank willing to do the rest (also not quite true) if the SBA would provide an 85 percent loan guarantee.

The SBA officer huddled with his superiors for 30 minutes, then came out and blessed the deal, so off I went to see the Bank of New England, to whom I presented the same earnest, if slightly exaggerated, story. You’ve heard of stone soup. I was making it.

After they blessed the deal, we convened our investors in Boston the next night and told them that we had the bank lined up, we had the SBA lined up, all we needed was a $150,000 from them. We got our commitments that night, began construction a month later, opened nine months after that, and became profitable within about six months of that opening.

My simple summary is when the chips are down, you must believe in yourself. Because in the end, that’s all you’ve got.

Four, finally, show up. Never underestimate the value of performing service and doing “good.”

Clearly by your pledge of social responsibility, you understand that.

The question we asked ourselves when we started the company in 1983 was, “Is it possible to create a business that could help be part of the solutions to our planet’s ecological challenges while also making money?” The answer today is an emphatic yes.

Today, our milk purchases support 1,400 organic dairy farmers who currently earn twice what they would receive for non-organic milk. For instance, here in Maine in 1996 there was one certified organic dairy farm. Today, thanks largely to our purchases, and by the way to yours here at 乐播传媒, there are 68. Twenty-two percent of Maine’s farms are now organic.

Stonyfield buys more than 300 million pounds of organic ingredients annually, which support several hundred thousand chemical-free acres of farmland, encouraging biodiversity by bringing back hundreds of animal species to healthy, pollution-free streams and fields of carbon-rich topsoils.

Our solid waste reductions have kept more than 20 million pounds of waste from landfills and incinerators. And our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint have saved us over $30 million just since 2006 alone.

By using lighter-weight plastic resins for our cups, we haves avoided production of many thousands of tons of plastics that never have to be used, let alone recycled, both of which take energy. But that’s not really success. Success will be when you finish eating the yogurt, you eat the cup. I am now part of a company that is doing just that, and this fall Stonyfield will be testing the first edible packaging that’s ever been done.

Another bit of conventional wisdom we challenged is the idea of that mythological place called “away” where we send our waste. I’ve yet to figure out where that is.

When we had to build a waste treatment plant at Stonyfield, we learned that the traditional waste processing method would have led to production of a truckload of sludge every single week. When we asked the local authorities in Londonderry where we to send it, they said it’s very easy. You send it to Vermont. That was there definition of “away.”

In short, there is no place called “away,” and we need new solutions to stop deluding ourselves.

I’m picturing Ben & Jerry’s in Vermont sending it back to New Hampshire, and thinking maybe we could do sludge swaps on the Connecticut River. Anyhow, I didn’t want to have any of that, so we built an innovative biogas digester that produces a clean burning gas that we use to replace purchased propane and also produces miniscule amounts of sludge. So now we don’t have to make midnight runs to Vermont. We’ve turned a major cost into a source of profits. In short, there is no place called “away,” and we need new solutions to stop deluding ourselves.

Indeed, what we discovered from doing good is a new business formula that’s now being mimicked by the largest companies on Earth. And we’ve also learned that doing good helps to build loyalty. I’ll explain it very simply.

A few years ago, I was standing in Florida holding a competitor’s cup at the supermarket reading an ingredient. An older woman came up to me, tapped me on the elbow and said, “Young man, someone your age should be eating the Stonyfield instead of that stuff.”

This is a true story. So I said, “Thank you, Mom.” No, it wasn’t my mom. (Who is here.)

When I asked her why, she told me that this company gives away 10 percent of its profits to environmental causes, offsets its carbon emissions, supports family farmers, etc. I interrupted her to ask, how she knew all of that?

She told me that her husband had recently died from colon cancer and that she and “the girls” from her local bridge foursome had all had lost their spouses, and all decided that they want to stick around to see their grandchildren graduate from 乐播传媒 or wherever they were graduating, so they go to the websites of companies to learn which brands to support, and Stonyfield had clearly passed the test.

So I hired her on the spot. That’s isn’t true, but I did give her a lot of coupons.

In that one incident I learned all one needs to know about business. When you make it better and you do good, you get loyalty. And with loyalty comes the most powerful purchase influence in commerce 鈥� word of mouth.

So let me conclude by summarizing.

As you go forward, live your lives, trust your choices. Don’t be afraid to change gears a couple of times. And for goodness鈥� sake, don’t fear failure, for it’s actually the only way we learn to succeed.

Do remember that even when you make the right choices, life often hits you with a brick. Manure happens, is what we say. The successful person is not the one who got the best GPA, or made the most money. It is the person who gets back up after being knocked down, often repeatedly.

The good news is that by attending to our social and environmental problems, there are endless opportunities. If you are creative, determined and opportunistic in putting your amazing 乐播传媒 experience to work, you and the world will benefit. Those of you who question conventional thinking will be in the best positions to seize the next wave of jobs and economic opportunities.

There will be more jobs in renewable energy, energy efficiency, light-weighting or avoidance of plastics, preventative health care, organic agriculture, green textiles, polymers, transportation and cleansers than in continuing with the polluting, resource-consumptive, 20th-century ways.

The good news for you is that you don’t have to choose between doing good and doing well. Indeed in my experience, the best ecological practices have actually turned out to be the most profitable.

So, whatever you do, be a force for positive change 鈥� in terms of what you do and what you buy. The world needs those of us who’ve had the blessings of an education such as you have to attend to its needs. It doesn’t matter where you set down a stake; it only matters that you contribute. As consumers, we wield enormous power to choose the polluting, consumptive and failed ways of the past or the renewable and sustainable ways of the future.

Please don鈥檛 forget the power of those two words: why not.

When we purchase anything, we’re voting for the kind of communities, society and planet we want. And believe me, corporate American spends billions to tally those votes. If with your consumer dollars you vote to support energy-efficient vehicles, products and appliances, less packaging, smaller footprints, organic food and renewable energy, those are what corporations will sell.

Please don鈥檛 forget the power of those two words: why not.

Why not push our politicians to support campaign finance caps so that we can get back to citizens having as loud a voice as corporations?

Why not subsidize only foods that are actually healthy, so we don鈥檛 have to make people obese and sick then have to pay again for health care? Preventative health care is far less expensive than treating us after we’re sick.

Why not convert from taxing income to taxing consumption or carbon?

Why not be charitable first and judgmental later?

I believe that we stand at the edge of the next wave of economic progress, the sustainability revolution in which we use green chemistry which leaves behind no toxic residue, cradle-to-cradle technology which generates no waste, renewable energy with no carbon footprint, industrial ecology with waste from one process being the food for another, healthy eating to prevent disease: These will be the norms. And I believe this will fuel enormous job opportunities and growth opportunities for you.

So whether as producers in the new economy or as consumers, as you graduate into the “real world,” this now becomes your moral obligation, but also it is your opportunity.

I don’t know what the future holds, and neither do you. But I do know who holds the future. And you are right in front of me.

And I do know that Gandhi was right when he said that anyone who feels that they are too small to make a difference has never been in bed with a mosquito. (I think it’s the state bird here, isn’t it?)

So, 乐播传媒 graduates: Go forward, do good work. I know you will. Be sure to smell the flowers and eat plenty of organic yogurt along the way.

But for today, Class of 2013, as you bid adieu to Orloff, Jimbos at the Goose, Range Pond, campus golf and Commons crushes, celebrate your successes. You’ve earned it. I honor and I congratulate you and your families.

Following in their parents鈥� footsteps may have led them to 乐播传媒, but children of alumni blaze their own trails on campus 鈥� and their families couldn鈥檛 be more proud.

Unsurprisingly, Sarah Wason ’13 of Barrington, N.H, the daughter of Donald ’79 and Nancy Wellman Wason ’81, admits she 鈥済rew up wearing 乐播传媒 clothes鈥� and at one point worried that 鈥渂y going to 乐播传媒, it wouldn鈥檛 be special for me.鈥�

She quickly found her own voice, however 鈥� and became a voice of 乐播传媒 鈥� as a DJ and general manager of the campus radio station, WRBC-FM.

Of the 436 graduates this year, 22 have at least one parent who went to 乐播传媒. Seventy-four graduates have 乐播传媒 siblings or other relatives.

The Wasons returned to 乐播传媒 to celebrate younger daughter Sarah’s graduation. From left are Donald Wason ’79 with daughters Sarah ’13 and Rebecca Wason St. Cyr ’09 (holding her son, a future 乐播传媒 Class of 2034), and wife Nancy ’81. Photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

This year鈥檚 legacy families come from as far away as Malaysia and as close as Freeport.

Some alumni parents have underscored their connection to 乐播传媒 as volunteers.

Robert Cramer 鈥�79, and William Carey ’82, co-chairs of the Mount David Society and 乐播传媒 Fund, respectively, each have sons in the Class of 2013, as do trustees Stephen Fuller 鈥�82 and John Gillespie 鈥�80. (Cramer and Carey will also have senior children graduating next year.)

Rob Cramer insists that his son Bo is his own Bobcat, through and through. 鈥淟ike me,鈥� he says, Bo 鈥渨as an English major, but there the comparisons stop.鈥�

Legacy families pose for a group photo on Saturday, May 25, 2013. Of the 436 graduates in the Class of 2013, 74 have a parent or other relative who graduated from 乐播传媒. Photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Donald says, 鈥淪arah always prided herself on being different from the rest of her family,鈥� but he suspects that may have been 鈥渕ore wishful thinking than reality.鈥�

Watching their second daughter graduate from 乐播传媒 has shaped Donald and Nancy鈥檚 own relationship with the college 鈥� beyond just discovering WRBC-FM.

鈥淣umerous times while walking across campus, we have felt like we were students again,鈥� says Donald. 鈥淲e always thought 乐播传媒 parents were 鈥榦ld鈥�, but we don鈥檛 feel old at 乐播传媒.鈥�

With the exception of Hakimah Abdul-Fattah, Ashley Brunk, Cameron Sheldon and Destinee Warner, shown below, here are the 2013 Fulbright grant recipients, photographed during a May reception at the home of 乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer. From left: Catherine Tuttle, Libby Egan, Tara Prasad, Marisa Mohrer, Spencer, Valerie Jarvis, Hansen Johnson, Nora Hanagan, Taryn O’Connell. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

2013 Fulbright grant recipient Hakimah Abdul-Fattah. Photograph by Michael Bradley/乐播传媒 College.

Known as a top producer of students receiving prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Grants, 乐播传媒 this year graduated 11 such students — a record number for the college.

Supporting an academic year of research and teaching in more than 155 countries outside the United States, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of State and sends some 1,800 U.S. citizens abroad annually.

2013 Fulbright recipient Cameron Sheldon.

The 2013 乐播传媒 recipients comprise one student awarded a study/research grant, for a biology project in Norway; 10 who have received English Teaching Assistantships for work in nations from France to Malaysia. The assistantships support students who both pursue their own research and work to improve local students’ English and knowledge of the United States.

2013 Fulbright grant recipient Destinee Warner ’13. Photograph by Michael Bradley/乐播传媒 College.

A 12th student received a Fulbright Austria U.S. Teaching Assistantship.

Ashley Brunk ’13 received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Malaysia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Meet 乐播传媒’ 2013 Fulbright recipients:

• Hakimah Abdul-Fattah of Holland, Pa. An anthropology major and French minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in France.
• Ashley Brunk of Phoenix, Ariz. An English major and education minor, Brunk received a Fulbright English Teacher Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Emily “Libby” Egan of Harvard, Mass. A sociology major and education minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Bulgaria.
• Nora Hanagan of Singapore. A politics major and education minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Turkey.
• Valerie Jarvis of Granville, Mass. A major in biological chemistry with a minor in Spanish, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Hansen Johnson of Stowe, Vt. A biology major and music minor, he received a research grant for work in Norway.
• Marisa Mohrer of Guilford, Conn. A psychology major and minor in German, she received a Fulbright Austria U.S. Teaching Assistantship.
• Taryn O’Connell of Georgetown, Mass. A major in environmental studies and minor in history, O’Connell was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Tara Prasad of Lincoln, R.I. A major in biological chemistry and minor in education, Prasad received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in South Korea.
• Cameron Sheldon of Canton, Conn. A politics major and Spanish minor, Sheldon received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Armenia.
• Catherine Tuttle of Pittsford, N.Y. A double major in Spanish and English, Tuttle was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Spain.
• Destinee Warner of Providence, R.I. Warner received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in the Republic of Georgia.

Davis Project for Peace recipients Spencer Collet ’13 and James LePage ’13. Photograph by Michael Bradley/乐播传媒 College.

Initiatives to foster Israeli-Palestinian dialogue through the Web and nurture collaborative conversations in a recently liberalized Myanmar have garnered Davis Projects for Peace awards for three 乐播传媒 students.

The $10,000 awards support international projects that college students undertake to “bring new thinking to the prospects of peace in the world,” in the words of philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis. .

Two seniors, Spencer Collet of Leawood, Kan., and James LePage of Cumberland, Maine, received the award for “Tweets for Peace,” their project using the Internet to enhance communication between Israeli and Palestinian youth. The pair will work with former participants in the Seeds of Peace conflict resolution program that takes place every summer in Otisfield, Maine.

2013 Davis Project for Peace recipient Aung Myint ’14. Photograph by Michael Bradley/乐播传媒 College.

Aung Myint, a junior from Yangon, Myanmar, received his award for “Minorities, Monasteries, and Conversations,” a reading-discussion program to help build the capacity for critical judgment and constructive dialogue among ethnic minorities in his native country. Using Burmese translations of English texts from the Maryland-based , Myint will coordinate gatherings in Buddhist monasteries in Yangon.

Learn more about the 乐播传媒 students’ Projects for Peace:

• Tweets for Peace
• Minorities, Monasteries, and Conversations

Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Julia Foxworth ’13 of New York City, at right, spent much of April 5 “bombing” a bench on Alumni Walk — yarn bombing, that is.

Aka 鈥済uerrilla knitting鈥� and 鈥済randma graffiti,鈥� yarn bombing is a genre of street art designed to raise awareness of the community environment, and inspire conversation and collaboration. Seeking to bring color and warmth to a concrete bench during a time of year that’s drab, chilly and stressful (finals are next week), Foxworth crocheted the piece with the help of 15 collaborators.

Later in the afternoon, other students were expected to celebrate the piece with ukulele playing, cupcakes, poetry, guerrilla knitting and other creative expressions. “The more color, the more collaborators, the better,” said Foxworth, shown above with classmate and fellow crocheter John Sowles. “The piece reflects the diversity of 乐播传媒.”

The piece was welcomed with simultaneous cries of “That’s so cool!” from passers-by. With the guidance of associate professor Pamela Johnson, art and visual culture major Foxworth undertook this project as an independent study complementary to her art history thesis. After 乐播传媒, Foxworth is off to a master’s program in arts administration at Columbia.

Clay Baldo ’13 explains a Chinese political poster during the Mount David Summit. Photograph by Michael Bradley/乐播传媒 College College.

It’s common knowledge here in the U.S. that the Chinese government’s involvement in arts and entertainment is, shall we say, much more hands-on than Americans are used to.

Presented during the Mount David Summit by their adviser, Assistant Professor of Chinese Xing Fan, three seniors described thesis projects that illustrated intriguing examples of such state involvement.

Clay Baldo of Santa Fe, N.M., talked about mid-20th century propaganda posters and the communist Chinese government’s shifting intentions for them. Baldo’s focus was the contrast between agitative and integrative propaganda — in musical terms, “Power to the People” vs. “Get Together.”

Of equal concern in mid-century China was the time-honored propaganda technique of holding up scapegoats, such as the Gang of Four, as a way of putting a face on politically odorous tendencies. The “Smash the Gang of Four” campaign in the 1970s, said Baldo, “is my favorite, because I hate the Gang of Four.”

Moving from Mao’s rise to dominance through the Cultural Revolution and beyond, Baldo’s poster gallery segued from scenarios of sanctioned worker violence against class enemies to pictures of harmonious collaboration in attractive landscapes. (Writers in attendance at the presentation were especially gratified by depictions of the pen as a weapon just as efficacious as a spear or shovel.) He noted that while the Chinese government still uses something like propaganda posters, nowadays they are more likely to caution against littering.

Eleanor Anaclerio of Winnetka, Ill., a double major in art and Chinese, talked about the high-profile dissident artist Ai Weiwei. Anaclerio’s own artwork seemed to have some oblique bearing on her presentation: She is also a photographer whose camera obscura images explore notions of public and private space as they seem to bring 乐播传媒 campus scenes into student bedrooms.

Anaclerio argued that in a more liberal social-political context, Ai Weiwei could be doing what he does now and yet would not be seen as a dissident. Instead, the political climate in China has made him a dissident, she said, “but he hasn’t shied away from it at all.”

What impressed her particularly about this intrepid conceptual artist, she said, is his ability to create a community around him wherever he is, whether it was New York in the go-go 1980s or on the Internet today — where Ai Weiwei has pitched his big tent because the Chinese authorities won’t let him leave the country.

Anaclerio pointed to Ai’s 2010-11 Sunflower Seeds exhibition at the Tate Modern, comprising 100 million handmade porcelain “seeds” spread on the gallery floor. “Those seeds individually can’t do much,” she said. “But when there are so many of them together, even when you walk on them, you hardly displace any.”

Maura Maloney of Ellicott City, Md., chose the toughest row to hoe, subjecting herself to hours of dating shows from Chinese television, sans subtitles, to learn about female roles in Chinese society. Maloney studied episodes of the reality shows If You Are the One and Take Me Out, both based on a British show.

The shows are elaborate affairs in which male contestants use videos to make their case to a platoon of women, who can accept or reject the prospects by showing indicator lights. The shows, she said, “reflect the collective anxieties of Chinese singles” — a fraught arena in particular for women, who under Mao Zedong gained a kind of nominal gender equality that, Maloney explained, was more about making political points than advancing women’s real interests.

乐播传媒 economics professor Maggie Maurer-Fazio, a China specialist, asked Maloney about state censorship on the shows, in view of another Chinese program that drew official ire because viewer voting, 脿 la聽American Idol, was deemed too participatory. Censorship exists, Maloney replied, but is less political than moral, responding to women portraying themselves as sexual beings and expressing untoward interest in money.

Agency, Maloney found, is the key to contentment. The women she observed didn’t want to have traditional qualities of character like gentleness and domesticity imposed on them — but were willing to assume those qualities if it was their choice. “I hear the same thing from my students,” said a member of the audience, a professor of women’s studies from Clark University.

Another listener asked if Maloney’s project had inspired her to watch American dating shows. No, said Maloney, who spent much of February watching 16 hours of the Chinese shows. “I think that would kill me.”

Travis Jones ’13 is spending a high-flying summer in Manhattan as an instructor at the Trapeze School of New York conducting field research for two senior theses at once in art and visual culture and in theater. Read on for how all this hangs together.

Flanked by Senior Lecturer in Theater Kati Vecsey and theatrical technical director Michael Reidy, Travis Jones ’13 discusses his work as a set designer during the Mount David Summit in April. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

Name: Travis Jones ’13

Hometown: Ithaca, New York

Research advisers: Erica Rand, Whitehouse Professor

Martin Andrucki, Dana Professor of Theater

Research funding: Ellen Seeling Design Fellowship, established in memory of designer, playwright and director Ellen Seeling, a professor in the 乐播传媒 theater department.

1. As a double major, you’re preparing for two theses. Could you describe each topic?

For art and visual culture with Erica Rand, I’m looking at the intersection of art and the development of public spaces through a case study of the New York City High Line. Originally a railway for the transportation of meats, agricultural goods and mail, the High Line is a 1.5-mile-long elevated park that runs along Manhattan’s West Wide. With the help of local art galleries, museums, designers and neighbors, the High Line opened in 2009 as New York’s first “park in the sky.”

For theater, I’m analyzing the ways in which the physical architecture of a venue influences the performance, focusing on circus-style shows. I’d like to know how circus performance has developed in America, looking at not only how spaces evolve to accommodate changing acts but also how the space shapes the audience experience.

2. What’s the connection between the two projects?

Both projects look at architectural spaces and how people interact with those spaces. Ultimately both are about how the elements of design impact the audience experience.

3. How did you become a flying trapeze instructor?

I took my first class at the Trapeze School of New York three years ago and got hooked immediately. When I figured out that I was going to conduct research in NYC this summer, I quickly got in contact with TSNY to set up a summer work schedule.

4. You have seen several circus performances while in NYC. Which is your favorite?

All the performances have their merits. From the spectacle of Cirque du Soleil’s Zarkana聽to the intimate and wild Empire聽by Spiegelworld, I have enjoyed so many shows. However, Traces聽at the Union Square Theater is my favorite. The blend of dance and circus made for a thoroughly entertaining evening.

5. What has been the most valuable part of studying in New York this summer?

The chance to live in an environment with which I had no previous experience, and analyze various locations within that environment, has helped me to grow as an individual. I’ve learned as much about how I interact with my immediate space 鈥� for example, how I behave in my apartment 鈥� as I have about how other people engage with the spaces I’m studying.

Pless is the new NCAA Division III indoor champion in the shot put. Waldman placed sixth at the national meet in that event. Murtagh was sixth in the 35-pound weight throw.

Solloway notes that “their story could end” with their athletic achievement, but the three throwers “have a back story that begins in sorrow.” That involves the late Joe Woodhead, the legendary 乐播传媒 throwing coach who died in October from a heart attack at age 76.

“He cared about the athlete,” said Pless. “If you respected him, you got the respect back. I could feel him [at the national meet in Columbus, Ohio]. When I stood in the circle, he was the wind beneath my feet.”