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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 10/1/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
December 21, 2003 UWGB grads urged to help community Spread knowledge to repay debt, speaker says By Andy Nelesen Removing his plush ceremonial mortarboard, Shepard donned a red and
white Santa hat, much to the delight of the 400 soon-to-be graduates assembled
in the Weidner Center.
But not to let yuletide derail pomp and circumstance, Shepard tossed
the furry Santa bonnet into the crowd, put his mortarboard back on his
head.
"They say I have to wear this one for the pictures," he said.
In his opening remarks, Shepard said the class has been given "tools
that are uniquely UW-Green Bay."
"But tools are just that: tools ... they must be wielded with passionate
commitment."
Commencement speaker Ellen Kort, Wisconsin's poet laureate, called on
graduates to use what they've learned to benefit their community.
"The knowledge you have acquired ... must not remain locked in your
brain," Kort said in her keynote address. "You stand on the shoulders
that have come before you and what you have received must also be passed
on.
"Call it payback for what you has been given to you. Call it gratitude."
Kort related an experience teaching poetry to women in prison. As the
members of one group completed their prose, one woman volunteered to read
her poem aloud. The woman insisted on standing, looking every other woman
in the eye as she proudly read her own words.
Kort said she learned from that woman that you must stand proud, even
if you are in a miserable situation.
After sharing with high school students a poem penned about her sister's
battle with cancer, Kort had a young man question a line in the text about
ants marching in a line, carrying a saltine cracker.
It was only after Kort read the poem again that the student saw the
meaning behind the line: that people must sometimes carry a heavy burden.
He called it the "truth line."
"What are you willing to stand for?" Kort asked the graduates. "What
is the truth line of your life?"
"There are laser-like moments in your life that will be seen, felt,
heard, touched, tasted, smelled, celebrated, endured and remembered. Who
better than you can take the commonplace and make it noteworthy, can take
the ordinary and make it extraordinary and put it in reach of the world?"
Kelly Weyers of Appleton beamed after crossing the stage to shake hands
with Shepard. A cheer erupted when her name was called.
"I'm just so happy to walk across for my parents and my family," Weyers
said, rose in hand. "They took a lot of pride in this."
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