More than 480 students receiving midyear degrees, including master’s and doctoral candidates, were recognized Dec. 16 in Barton Hall at Cornell’s annual event for December graduates.
President Martha E. Pollack said she prepared for her commencement address by perusing a website maintained by National Public Radio, with 350 commencement speeches dating to 1774. “What I found was interesting,” she said. “Surprisingly to me, many of them did not mention current events at all.”
Those that did, however, “were filled with statements like this: ‘The world we have made out of the inheritance of our grandfathers is a pretty sad botch. It is full of gross injustices.’ So said journalist William Allen White, speaking at Northwestern in 1936. Or: ‘This country has profound and pressing social problems on its agenda,’” she said, quoting U.S. Sen. Edward Brooke in 1969 at Wellesley College.
“It’s certainly hard, on a day like this, not to think about the world into which you’re graduating and about the issues you’ll face,” Pollack said. “How will you avoid becoming overwhelmed with the challenges of our society, instead positioning yourself to make a difference and have a positive impact? Today, I have just one suggestion for you. Start with compassion. Start with understanding. Start with kindness and with love.”
Pollack continued: “The biggest, most difficult problems we face today seem to stem from divisiveness in our communities and in the broader society. They stem from an apparent inability to reach across difference, to listen, and to really understand, communicate and compromise. I hope that during your time at Cornell, you’ve seized the opportunity to interact with others who are truly different from you, who bring to the table different life experiences, different perspectives, different skills and different weaknesses.”
In conclusion, she told the graduates, “I wish you a future of success, of happiness, of making a difference, and of doing so with love.”
Amy Pape Neish earned her degree in English from the College of Arts and Sciences – “a 10-year project,” she said, after taking classes over that time as a Cornell employee.
“I always intended to finish my degree because I was looking forward to advancing my career; I wanted to be responsible for something more involved and hands on,” she said. “I will be getting involved in some of the causes that mean something to me. One of them is the environment.”
She started classes in 2007 and won a prize for expository writing in 2008 from the Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines for her first-person essay on lupus, “Werewolf in Sheep’s Clothing.”
“When I started college in 1978 at Skidmore, I was an art major,” she said. “After arriving at Cornell I took a couple of English classes to see how I would do. I thought that English would help me more than an art degree – if I wanted to talk about climate change, I wanted my voice to be as clear as possible.”
Before she retired in June 2016, Neish held positions in various units, including the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity. As a student she also served as a teaching assistant in the Cornell Prison Education Program.
“That was a moving experience,” she said.“The students were engaged and they inspired me to keep taking classes. Now that I have completed my degree, I am looking forward to focusing my energy on things that I care about.”
Neish attended the ceremony with her son, Giulio Zampogna ’12. “He used to come to the office and sit and do his homework,” she said. “We’d go to lunch every Friday, and we’d discuss our coursework with each other.”
Robert Barker/University Photography
