A prominent attorney who is now part of President Barack Obama's administration told Knox College graduates they are inheriting a nation that's changing.
Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Tina Tchen, was the speaker at the college's commencement Saturday. The ceremony, at the T. Fleming Fieldhouse, was moved inside for only the third time in the past 30 years because of rainy weather.
Knox College awarded 343 diplomas to graduates from 25 different states and 18 different countries. Tchen, an attorney in Chicago and a women's activist when she was selected to serve in her current role, received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Knox.
Tchen told the graduates they are now in a position to change, and change is not easy - it's hard on a personal level as she found out when she left her job after three decades in Chicago - a city she loves, for a new challenge that's been very rewarding.
"Change takes you out of your comfort zone, but that's the essence of change," Tchen said. "If you aren't challenged, if you aren't nervous, if you aren't even scared, then you're not changing enough. And if you aren't changing, you aren't growing. W.E.B. DuBois said you must be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become."
Tchen also quoted Ben Franklin, who said "when you're finished changing, you're finished." She says change is harder on a broader level too, citing the first 16 months of the new administration in Washington D.C. and passage of health care reform, and continuing to move forward on the other major issues on the agenda.
Tchen says, in fact, the entire country is being challenged out of its comfort zone and into a vision of the future - of what America and the world should be in the 21st Century. She says the change the country is undergoing is nothing less than building the foundation, not just for the future of the new graduates, but for the future of their children and grandchildren.
Tchen cautioned that change takes time and patience, the latter being the key, because good things - important things - take time. She says as hard as change is and as long as it may take, it's important and it's worth it.
Tchen says the graduates need to be engaged in change because it's how they will make their voices heard, how they will share in the change that's happening and how they'll have the satisfaction of living as involved, informed, active, responsible and rewarded citizens. Tchen told them their years at Knox College have prepared them, better than most, to be leaders and activists in this change.
Also receiving honorary degrees from Knox were Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens and Kwame Dawes – a poet, author, producer, performer and playwright.
Tina Tchen, Director of the White House Office of Public Engangement, gives the commencement address at Saturday's Knox College Commencement inside T. Fleming Fieldhouse
Knox College president Roger Taylor addresses the Class of 2010. Taylor is retiring at the end of the next academic year after 10 years leading the college
Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens receives an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Knox College during Saturday's commencement ceremony held inside the T. Fleming Fieldhouse
Maurice McDavid, delivered this year's student address at the college's commencement. The DeKalb native was a four-year letter winner in football and a founding member and president of Gentelmen of Quality, Knox College's newest fraternity.
(WGIL News Story and Photos by Mike Perry) |
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