The 2013 honorands with President Spencer. From left, Vivian Pinn, speaker Gary Hirshberg, Elaine Hansen, William Cronon and Spencer. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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,  that started a new chapter in the lives of 436 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ seniors. He also received an honorary degree, along with environmental historian William Cronon, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Emerita Elaine Tuttle Hansen and Dr. Vivian Pinn, inaugural director of the Office of Research on Women’s 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/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Holmberg offered a love letter to the college that celebrated, among other cherished aspects of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ experience, the passing of knowledge and lore from one class to the next, and from the college to the world. “You see, it’s a beautiful cycle we’ve got here,” he said. “The goodness of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ president, she “helped us to dream well and take action on our good ideas,” Spencer said.

Another ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Recipient of a Doctor of Science degree, Pinn “has worked her entire life to open medicine’s portal to women and people of color,” said Baker, who quoted Pinn’s remark that, “I don’t think you’re truly a good doctor or a good researcher if you don’t reach back to help others coming along.â€�

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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ 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 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 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.”

To expand dialogue among ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College students about Palestinian-Israeli relationships, the Multifaith Chaplaincy announces a two-week series of events, “Art and Alterity: Beyond the Other as Enemy in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Several of these events, held from Jan. 27 to Feb. 10 in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Chapel, College Street, are open to the public free of charge.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ junior Anna Levy of Portland visited Israel twice in 2007. The second trip focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Levy returned home wanting to discuss what she had learned.

“At ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, we’re taught to be critical thinkers,” says Levy, who hopes that these important intellectual skills can be applied to problems in the Middle East. But she found that the subject on her campus was either largely ignored or created conflict when discussed.

Levy approached Multifaith Chaplain William Blaine-Wallace, who has facilitated several on-campus conversations on the subject of Israeli-Palestinian relations, to suggest bringing the art exhibition “The X-Ray Project” to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. In consultation with Assistant Chaplain Emily Wright-Timko, Blaine-Wallace expanded upon Levy’s idea by offering a series of arts-related events that would encourage members of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and L-A communities to reconsider definitions of humanity and solutions for peace.

The series begins with an opening reception for at 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27, where artist Diane Covert introduces her work graphically depicting the effects of terrorism on a civilian population. Her highly acclaimed and critically reviewed art installation features X-rays and CT scans from the two largest hospitals in Jerusalem. The images were taken of victims of terrorism, including Jews, Muslims, Christians and Hindus, who sustained such injuries as a watch “blasted” into the neck or a hex nut embedded in the chest. “The X-Ray Project” will be on display in the Chapel through Sunday, Feb. 10.

In the second “Art and Alterity” event, the perform the music of Beethoven, Ravel and Schubert at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 4.

The Apple Hill Chamber Players are unique in music. They have earned international praise for vital, elegant and eloquent performances and recordings of the chamber music literature, from established masterpieces to new works by leading composers.

Founded in 1973, the Apple Hill Chamber Players are the performing artists and faculty for the internationally celebrated Apple Hill Festival in East Sullivan, N.H., where they are joined by professional, student and amateur participants of all ages from all over the United States and the world.

The Apple Hill Playing for Peace Project is dedicated to using Apple Hill concerts, residencies and scholarships to further the causes of world peace and understanding at Apple Hill and worldwide. Annually since 1988, the Apple Hill Chamber Players have toured both nationally and in the Middle East and Europe, performing, conducting master classes and awarding Playing for Peace scholarships that bring musicians of diverse backgrounds and conflicting cultures to Apple Hill.

The dramatic story of the group’s 1992 tour of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Syria was documented by Emmy award-winning Peter Rosen in the namesake PBS film “Playing for Peace,” seen by more than 4 million viewers.

The “Art and Alterity” series continues with a memorial service for civilian victims of terrorism and war at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6.

The series concludes with an art experience provided by . at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7. Many Palestinian and Israeli youth have difficulty imagining a future that includes peace and coexistence with their neighbors; it is even harder for them to recognize their potential to create positive change in their environment and future.

The Salem, Mass.-based Artsbridge utilizes collaborative art projects to foster creative vision, empathy and skills in communication, teamwork, project management, leadership and conflict resolution. Through this process, Artsbridge aims to empower Israeli and Palestinian youth to cope with conflict and trauma, trust and understanding, peace and coexistence, desires and fears.

At ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Deborah Nathan and Yousef Al Aljarma, founders of Artsbridge Inc., will facilitate an art experience for students, staff and faculty and members of the public.

For more information about the “Art and Alterity” series, call the Multifaith Chaplaincy at 207-786-8272. Co-sponsors of the series are the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, the Office of the President, the Department of Sociology, Students for Justice in Palestine, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Hillel, Temple Shalom Synagogue-Center and the Maine Council of Churches.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College opens its 153rd academic year with a convocation ceremony featuring John R. Cole, Thomas Hedley Reynolds Professor of History, at 4:10 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5, on the historic Quad near Campus Avenue.

Cole, of New Gloucester, has served on the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty for 40 years and since 1992 has held the Reynolds professorship, named after a past president of the college. Cole’s talk is titled Dress Right, Stand Right, Play Right, Ride Right, Write Right . . .

Also speaking at the ceremony are Elaine Tuttle Hansen, president of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½; William Jack, a senior who is president of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Student Government; and the Rev. William Blaine-Wallace, multifaith chaplain. For more information, please call 207-786-6255.

The subject of his convocation address “is parent-child exhortation at the point of children leaving the parental home on the threshold of independent lives as young adults,” explains Cole, himself a father of four. “I pay particular attention to one parent-child set, the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa and her daughter, Marie Antoinette, sent off to France to marry the future Louis XVI.”

With a focus on the history of democratic ideas, Cole teaches courses about ancient Greece, France in the 17th and 18th centuries, and 18th-century English feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.

Cole’s publications include a 1995 biography of 17th-century French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. Pascal: The Man and His Two Loves (New York University Press) examines Pascal’s scientific and religious insights in a way that reintegrates the seemingly disparate aspects of his life into a clear, coherent portrait.

Cole also wrote The Olympian Dream and Youthful Rebellion of Rene Descartes (University of Illinois Press, 1992), which analyzes a famous series of dreams the mathematician experienced. The resulting work is a systematic interpretation of their effect on Descartes’ later career.

Cole, who holds a Ph.D. from Harvard and a bachelor of arts degree from Haverford, is a staunch advocate for small, liberal-arts colleges and the close student-faculty connections they make possible.

“I learned much more and more happily at little Haverford than at great Harvard, and I have gone on to learn much more and more happily while teaching at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½,” he says.

Convocation day at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Sept. 5 also marks the start of classes. Although the final numbers are subject to change, some 1,660 students are expected on campus this fall and 193 will be attending ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½-sponsored programs off campus. New to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ are 445 first-year students and 15 transfer students, drawn from a record 4,650 applications.

Seventeen percent of the new arrivals are U.S. students from underrepresented minority groups, 6 percent are international students and 4 percent are citizens of both the United States and another country. First-generation-to-college students make up 10 percent of the entering class.

New students have residences in 39 states and 30 foreign countries, from Bangladesh to Zimbabwe. Half of the members of the entering class reside outside of New England. Nine percent of the new arrivals, and 10 percent of all actively enrolled ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students, are from Maine.

The service takes place at 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10, in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Chapel, 275 College St. It is open to the public at no cost. For more information, call 207-786-8272.

Performers include three student vocal groups, the Crosstones, Merimanders and Northfield; jazz guitarist John Smedley, a member of the physics faculty; and violinist Hilary Ginsburg, a sophomore from St. Louis, Mo. Organist for the service is Andrew Shenton, James R. Houghton Scholar of Sacred Music at Boston University and an internationally acclaimed musician.