Boston University has helped me find something I had not even known I've been
looking for: my voice. Let us carry our proud, strong voices into the next season
of our lives. Congratulations to my class, the Class of 2019 for graduating.
We did it! Thank you.
In all, your films have grossed over seven billion dollars, you co-founded a
production company, you even have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lauren Shuler Donner Boston University is proud to count you among our alumni and to
confer upon you the degree Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa.
In a time of division and heated discourse it is easy to forget that the media can
actually bring us together, then you remind us. You're executive producer and
host from CityLine, an award-winning weekly TV magazine that addresses the
concerns and the issues facing people of color in the Boston area. Karen Holmes Ward,
we confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa.
In a lifetime of service, you've helped countless people through the darkness of
tribulation to the light of hope. Perhaps your most notable position was as
president and CEO of the aptly named Project HOPE, an international health
education and humanitarian assistance foundation that provides care for the
world's most vulnerable population. John P Howe III, Boston University is
proud to call you one of his own, both as an alumnus of BU and longtime member of
the Board of Trustees, and we are honored today to confer upon you the degree
Doctor of Science honoris causa.
You were the first woman to lead the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute,
the first woman to lead the United States Geological Survey, and the
National Academy of Sciences as well. Marcia McNutt, Boston University proudly
confers upon you the degree Doctor of Science honoris causa.
For 1,000 years, humankind has valued the sort of critical thinking that is sparked and
nurtured by a university education. This sort of preparation has never gone out
of style. From today on, your life will forever be divided into two periods.
There's BC and AD, where BC is before College and AD is after your degree. Your
choices will have profound and lasting impacts on others near and far and the
world that your children and your grandchildren are going to inherit.
I call upon you to make those decisions based on the truth. When you see junk
science, call it out. When you don't trust the sources, call them out.
The truth does still matter. I'm counting on you 2019 graduates. Trust well. Thank you.
Upon the recommendation of the faculty, and by the authority of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts given to the Trustees of Boston University, and entrusted by them to me,
I hereby confer the degrees you have earned together
with all the appropriate honors privileges and responsibilities in
token of which you are granted diplomas. My congratulations to all of you.