If you know someone born in the United States before 1965, author Isabel Alexis Wilkerson explained to the 乐播传媒 Class of 2014, “you know someone who was not born in a democracy.

“Think about that,” said Wilkerson, Commencement speaker and author of an acclaimed history of the Great Migration of black Americans out of the South during the 20th century.

“Because until that time, millions of American citizens were prohibited from voting,” she said. And today, she pointed out, those hard-won gains in social and political justice from half a century ago are again in peril.

“No matter what course your life takes, there is but one thing that you absolutely must do before you leave this planet,” Wilkerson told the 448 soon-to-be graduates. “You must leave this world a better place than it would have been if you had not existed.”

乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer beams during Commencement 2014. Behind her is geology professor and faculty marshal John Creasy. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Featured speaker at 乐播传媒’ 148th Commencement, held on the Historic Quad on May 25, The Warmth of Other Suns author Wilkerson was also one of four honorary degree recipients. Joining her and college President A. Clayton Spencer on the Coram Library stage were:

鈥⒙犅� 聽John Seely Brown, former director of Xerox’s legendary Palo Alto Research Center and a visionary thinker in the field of information technology;

鈥⒙犅� 聽Glenn Close, an actress renowned for her ability to bring characters to vivid life and an activist in the fields of mental health and wildlife conservation;

鈥⒙犅� 聽David Shaw P’00, philanthropist and a global entrepreneur whose enterprises have included Maine’s $1-billion-plus IDEXX Laboratories.

For the second year, one of the graduating seniors offered Commencement remarks. His 乐播传媒 experience wasn’t typical, explained Collin McCullough of Plattsburgh, N.Y.: He took his junior year off from school and so graduated with the Class of 2014 instead of his “natural” classmates.

Two qualities prevailing at 乐播传媒 made it easier for him to fit in than it might otherwise have been: intelligence and kindness. “Hard work and quick minds make us respectable individuals, but it is our willingness to engage and challenge each other with openness, with acceptance, that makes us remarkable,” McCullough said.

Senior class speaker Collin McCullough. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

And he found acceptance in ample measure.

“This institution has enhanced my ability to think critically and to hold fast to my opinions. It has taught me confidence and communication,” an emotional McCullough concluded, barely able to get the words out.

“But from the students in the class of 2014, I have learned the value of something I prize above all else. And that is the power of a simple hello or a selfless extension of kindness.”

For Wilkerson’s part, she offered an anecdote to illustrate the ability of one individual to effect change. She was having lunch with a colleague one day who surprised her by revealing that he came from a long line of child abusers.

The man told Wilkerson about the day he held his newborn baby to his chest and, confronting the darkness that had shattered his family, made a vow. 鈥淚t ends right here,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t ends right here with me.鈥�

Cecilia Pina ’14 of Boston poses with Katia, Cecilia and Vadilson Pina during a family photo session at Commencement 2014. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Wilkerson told her 乐播传媒 audience, “It takes courage to confront what has gone before you and more courage still to end an injustice and set a new course.

“That is the choice before you and your generation. It may not be all that you do, but I hope that it will be part of what you do on your journey.”

“We are now on the eve of a watershed moment” in the national struggle toward equal rights for all Americans, Wilkerson said. This year marks the 49th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

“Yet in the time since you have been in college, in four short years, many of these advances have been dismantled,” she pointed out — from efforts to curtail voting rights for minority and disadvantaged people to the coarsening of public discourse to “worsening disparities between blacks and whites in every sphere of life.”

The things that divide us today have deep and persistent roots in history. But 乐播传媒, Wilkerson reminded the seniors, was “founded out of a desire to end these divisions, founded in the darkest hours before the Civil War by abolitionists who dreamed a world different than the one they had been born to.”

A much-deserved hug for Josh Ajamu ’14 of Breinigsville, Pa. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

And she shared the words of two African Americans who had the benefit of a 乐播传媒 education at a time when college was an impossible dream for countless Americans of color. The Rev. Benjamin E. Mays ’20, mentor to Martin Luther King, pointed out the resiliency conferred by a personal sense of mission.

And Wilkerson credited one of the college’s earliest black graduates, Thomas James Bollin of the Class of 1879, with what she described as a “beautiful definition of equality”: In an edition of The 乐播传媒 Student, Bollin wrote that 鈥淸s]ocial equality is the brotherhood of man in every condition.鈥�

If good feelings come with the territory at graduation, Commencement 2014 was downright fun. When President Spencer, in her welcome, said, “Seniors, this ceremony is pretty much all about you,” someone yelled right back: “Yes it is!”

Colleen Fitzgerald ’14 and Bridgette Chandhoke ’14 were among several dancers who managed to hug Marcy Plavin, founder of the dance program and dispenser of diplomas, on their way across the stage. There was more cheering from friends and family, but fewer boat horns.

Hats off to the Class of 2014! (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The switching-up of Commencement traditions begun last year continued for the Class of 2014 sendoff. Some were sartorial. For ease of identification, staffers wore shiny sashes — garnet, of course.

Faculty marshals John Creasy, a geology professor, and Marcy Plavin sported 乐播传媒 ballcaps announcing their disciplines (perhaps the camel of modernity poking its nose into the tent of medieval academic tradition).

Piper Rob Simmons and the Portland Brass figured prominently in the processional, as always, but there were innovations on the music front too. A Commencement Choir sang the Beatles’ “In My Life,” directed by Lecturer in Music John Corrie and sporting Ryen Martinez ’17 and Kelsey Berry ’16 as soloists. (This came complete with a vocal adaptation of producer George Martin’s speed-altered, Baroque-styled piano solo from the Fab Four’s Rubber Soul.)

And hailing from Down East, the Atlantic Clarion Steel Band followed the benediction by the Rev. Raymond Clothier, acting associate multifaith chaplain. The band sent the throng off to their lobster lunch with a series of bouncing two-beats — just the music to close one of life’s chapters and open another. With the sun finally shining after a chilly gray morning, it was better than a Hollywood ending.

Soon-to-be alumni line up on Alumni Walk just prior to Commencement 2012. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

乐播传媒 will confer honorary degrees on four leaders from the arts, business, journalism and technology during the college鈥檚聽148th Commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 25.

Isabel Alexis Wilkerson, author of the acclaimed The Warmth of Other Suns, will deliver the Commencement address and receive an honorary degree.

During Commencement, which begins at 10 a.m. on the Historic Quad and will be livestreamed at聽bates.edu/live, the college will also confer honorary degrees on:

• John Seely Brown, pioneering computer scientist who foresaw how technology would change how we communicate, relate and learn in the digital age;
• Glenn Close, renowned actress and advocate for eradicating the stigma and misunderstanding faced by those living with mental illness, for ending violence against women and for wildlife conservation;
• David Evans Shaw P’00, leading business and social entrepreneur, supporter of the arts and champion of public service, environmental stewardship and sustainability.

乐播传媒 President Clayton Spencer will confer the honorary degrees.

鈥淭hese four remarkable individuals embody in their lives and work the values we strive to instill in our students,” Spencer said. “With astonishing talent, creativity and drive, they have pushed the boundaries in their own fields and have opened new worlds for all of us.鈥�

Commencement concludes the undergraduate careers of the 450 members of the 乐播传媒 Class of 2014, representing 31 U.S. states and 34 countries.

More about the 2014 honorands

John Seely Brown, Doctor of Science

John Seely Brown

For more than 30 years, John Seely Brown has been knee-deep in the creation of technologies that have fundamentally changed how we learn, relate, converse and conduct business. For two decades, he was Xerox Corp.鈥檚 chief scientist and the director of its famed Palo Alto Research Center, where technologies such as the personal computer and Ethernet were born. These days, Brown sometimes refers to himself as the 鈥淐hief of Confusion,鈥� a title that connotes how he helps organizations create tools that will reinvent how they operate and create meaning.

John Seely Brown is an eminent scholar of how technology shapes our ability to communicate and learn.

Equal parts scientist, strategist and artist, Brown taps the skills of all three disciplines to contemplate how we search for, recognize and embrace new resources and new ways of learning. Brown and others call this 鈥淭he Big Shift.鈥� He notes that the life cycle of a skill learned today is about five years聽鈥� indicating that most of our learning now takes place well after we leave the classroom聽鈥� and that we must rethink what it means to be both a teacher and a learner in this environment.

He is a visiting scholar and adviser to the provost at the University of Southern California, and is the independent co-chairman of Deloitte鈥檚 Center for the Edge. Brown is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, and he serves on the boards of directors for Amazon and Corning Inc., among others.

He has published more than 100 papers as well as several books, including the acclaimed The Social Life of Information (Harvard Business School Publishing, 2000) and most recently, A New Culture of Learning

Brown graduated from Brown University in 1962 with a degree in mathematics and physics. He received his doctorate in computer and communication sciences from the University of Michigan in 1970. He is an avid traveler and motorcyclist.

Glenn Close, Doctor of Fine Arts

Glenn Close

One of the great actresses of our time, Glenn Close 鈥渘ever steps wrong, never breaks reality,鈥� the late film critic Roger Ebert said of her Academy Award-nominated performance as the title character in Albert Nobbs. Close also produced the film and wrote the lyrics for its award-winning theme song.

She has described her capacity to portray incredible yet believable characters by saying, 鈥淚’ve always felt that in order to truly commit to a character and do her justice, to find her truth, I must love her no matter what the behavior. I have to find some common point of humanity.”

Glenn Close is a renowned actress and producer who also champions causes that improve lives and preserve the environment.

Close is a powerful and eloquent supporter of wildlife conservation through , and ending violence against women and girls through . Her most personal cause is , an organization she co-founded to eradicate the stigma and misunderstanding faced by those living with mental illness. In March, she spoke on Capitol Hill in favor of the Excellence in Mental Health Act, which was recently signed into law by President Obama.

A theater and anthropology major who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from The College of William & Mary, Close believes strongly in the value of a liberal arts education, saying that 鈥渋t ignites lifelong curiosity.鈥�

Close earned Academy Award nominations for her roles in Dangerous Liaisons, Fatal Attraction, The Natural, The Big Chill and The World According to Garp. She won consecutive Emmys and a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of 鈥淧atty Hewes鈥� in the acclaimed legal thriller Damages. She won a Golden Globe for her performance in The Lion in Winter, as well as a Peabody and 鈥淏est Actress鈥� Emmy as an executive producer and star of Serving in Silence: the Margarethe Cammermeyer Story. Close also executive-produced and starred opposite Christopher Walken in the Sarah, Plain and Tall trilogy.

Close earned one of her three Tony awards in 1995 for the role of Norma Desmond in the musical production of Sunset Boulevard. She returns to Broadway this fall to star in Edward Albee鈥檚 A Delicate Balance. Close has completed roles in four new feature films 鈥� Low Down, 5 to 7, Anesthesia and Marvel鈥檚 Guardians of the Galaxy 鈥� and will begin shooting a fifth, The Great Gilly Hopkins, this month.

David Evans Shaw, Doctor of Humane Letters

David Shaw

David Shaw recognized long ago that a well-run business could also make the world a better place. Shaw embraced the ideals of busines social responsibility decades before it became fashionable for companies to engage in substantive community involvement and giving.

In a career that has spanned public service, business, academia and investment management, Shaw has enriched the lives of thousands of people in Maine and far beyond. After serving in Maine state government and building a strategy consulting practice, he founded IDEXX Laboratories in 1983. IDEXX is a world leader in providing innovative science-based products and services for veterinary, food and water testing.

Today, IDEXX revenues exceed $1 billion, and it employs more than 5,000 people worldwide 鈥� success that earned recognition in the Life Science Hall of Fame. Shaw was founding CEO and chair of Ikaria Pharmaceuticals and has helped create and run more than a dozen companies spanning medical devices, pharmaceuticals, renewable fuels and direct marketing.

David Shaw is a prominent business and social entrepreneur, champion of arts and science, and advocate for sustainable environmental practices.

Shaw has been a frequent speaker on social and business entrepreneurship in the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. He has served as chair of The Jackson Laboratory, a renowned genetics research institute. Jackson鈥檚 annual revenues have increased more than tenfold, to well over $200 million during Shaw鈥檚 board term. Shaw is founding chair of the Sargasso Sea Alliance, which has achieved historic breakthroughs in ocean conservation 鈥� and was honored with the 鈥淚nternational Seakeeper鈥� award last year. He and his wife received the Leslie Cheek award at the College of William and Mary, and were the inaugural recipients of the Maine Creative Industries Award, presented by the Maine Center for Creativity. The center noted that Shaw fosters the continuing growth and success of Maine-based enterprises and cultural endeavors. Following a brain injury via viral encephalitis in 2011, he has embraced the art and therapy of filmmaking and produced more than 20 short films.

Shaw has recently served on the faculty of Harvard鈥檚 John F. Kennedy School of Government, focusing on corporate governance, business social responsibility and public leadership. He has also served on the advisory board of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School, and is treasurer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world鈥檚 largest general science society. Shaw currently serves as a director of the National Parks Foundation.

Shaw’s son, Benjamin, graduated from 乐播传媒 in 2000 with majors in political science, environmental studies and biology, and is now CEO of Vets First Choice, the nation鈥檚 leading online veterinary partner-pharmacy and marketing service provider.

Isabel Alexis Wilkerson, Doctor of Letters

Isabel Wilkerson

Four years ago, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson brought to light one of the biggest underreported stories in American history: the Great Migration, the mass exodus of African Americans out of the South that transformed the politics, economy and culture of the United States during the last century.

Wilkerson traced this astonishing history in her celebrated 2010 book, The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House). During the Migration, she reported, some 6 million African Americans fled the oppressive Jim Crow South in a courageous search for opportunity in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. When the Migration began, in 1915, 90 percent of blacks lived in the South. By the time it ended, in 1970, nearly half lived elsewhere.

Isabel Wilkerson’s narrative epic The Warmth of Other Suns聽chronicles the courageous migration聽of African聽Americans out of the Jim Crow South during the 20th century.

鈥淚鈥檓 a daughter of the Great Migration,鈥� Wilkerson told radio host Tavis Smiley in 2010, explaining that most African Americans in the North and West are children of that phenomenon as well, including a pantheon of influential Americans ranging from Motown founder Berry Gordy to astronaut Mae Jemison to first lady Michelle Obama.

The Warmth of Other Suns, Wilkerson鈥檚 first book, received an array of awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and the Stephen Ambrose Oral History Prize. It appeared on more than 30 Best of the Year lists, including The New York Times鈥� 10 Best Books of the Year.

President Obama chose Warmth for his 2011 summer reading. In 2013, the city of Chicago adopted the book for its Common Read, organizing myriad events throughout the city exploring the universal theme of migration.

The first African American woman in American journalism to win a Pulitzer and the first African American to win for individual reporting, Wilkerson received the honor in 1994 for her feature writing while Chicago bureau chief of The New York Times.

Wilkerson has served as the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, as Cox Professor of Journalism at Emory University and as professor of journalism and director of narrative nonfiction at Boston University. Born in 1961 in Washington, D.C., she graduated from Howard University, where she majored in journalism and served as editor in chief of the student newspaper, The Hilltop.