New Grads Urged to Make Commitments
Commencement speaker David Brooks demonstrated his talent as a humorist while offering the class of 2015 advice about commitment, love and taking chances in their careers May 9 at Westmont. Brooks’ opening, witty monologue shone a ray of sunshine on an otherwise overcast day. Several thousand family and friends of the remained bundled up through much of the ceremony, which celebrated the graduation of 310 students.
Brooks said graduates faced two paths: a soul-crushing job as a cog in a corporate machine or a lifetime in the basement of their parents’ home. He noted that colleges generally ask people with some career success to advise graduates of the folly of career success. “We leave you a mountain of debt and then we give you career-killing advice so you can’t pay it off,” he said.
When he got serious, he encouraged the class of 2015 to widen their horizon of risk and consider taking an unconventional first job such as teaching English in a small village in Korea.
Mostly, he emphasized the importance of commitment. “A person of character makes commitments,” he said. He noted that society tells people to be open-minded and free and provides incentives against committing. “But the purpose of an open mind is to close on something,” he said. “Don’t fear commitment.”
He said the best way to find happiness and fulfillment is to commit to five things in life: a vocation, a marriage, a philosophy of life, a community, and a faith. “Commitment sounds like a hard and unpleasant word,” he said. “A better word is ‘love’; commitment is falling in love with something.”
Love accomplishes five things in our lives, he said. It humbles us and opens hard ground in our lives, bringing both greater suffering and greater joy. It decenters us and fuses us to another.
Brooks told the story of Dorothy Day, who began her adult life with wayward living. But when she was wrongfully arrested, she took a good look at herself and didn’t like what she saw. She learned humility. When she gave birth to her daughter, she took such joy in the child and felt such love that she began to look for someone to thank, and she found God. As she sought to live for God, she started serving the poor in her community, living among them and sharing their suffering and privations. She discovered that a life lived for others culminates in peaceful, blessed gratitude.
The ceremony honored 51 Golden Warriors, members of the Class of 1965 celebrating 50 years since they graduated from Westmont. Rolf Geyling, founder of the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission received the Westmont Medal.
The Dean’s Award went to track star Elysia Hodges Mitchell and tennis standout Joshua Barnard.
Rob Limkeman won the Dave Dolan Award for his campus leadership and contributions to the social and spiritual needs of the community.
Elizabeth Simoneit and Matt Brown won the Kenneth Monroe Award for their superior academic achievement.
The Scholarship Award went to Nicole Blois, Sophia Meulenberg, Heidi Walberg and Benjamin West, who each earned perfect 4.0 GPAs.
Paul Delaney, professor of English for 43 years at Westmont, earned the Outstanding Teacher of the Year award in the humanities. Heather Keaney, associate professor of history, earned the award for natural and behavioral sciences, and Andrea Gurney, psychology professor, won for social sciences. Edd Noell, Westmont professor of economics and business, won Faculty Researcher of the Year.