With the many challenges facing the Class of 2019, U.S. Senator Jack Reed reminded Roger Williams University graduates that they will be the ones called on to solve society’s problems and make the world a better place.

“We need your energy and passion. We need intellectual firepower and new ways of looking at long-standing problems. And we need people who are unflinchingly kind, compassionate, truthful, and understanding,” Sen. Reed told graduates on Saturday. “Always remember that talent and technology alone will never succeed, if character and courage fails.”

Sen. Reed, a national leader on important issues from affordable healthcare to consumer protection, delivered the keynote address at the RWU Commencement ceremony, as Roger Williams celebrated its commencement weekend on May 17 and 18, conferring 943 bachelor’s degrees, 157 master’s degrees, and 130 law degrees.

“As graduates of Roger Williams University, you are well equipped to help us build the world we need now. A world where we bring knowledge and skills together to address our lifelong challenges. A world where diversity is strength. A world that fosters citizenship and lifelong learning,” Sen. Reed said.

Timothy Baxter, a 1983 graduate of Roger Williams and president and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America, offered the graduates three pieces of advice.

“Embrace change, get comfortable being uncomfortable,” said Baxter, who serves as chairman of the RWU Board of Trustees, “and stay hungry but be humble.”

The Class of 2019 became the second graduating class commissioned as Civic Scholars – students who believe in the positive impact of community-engaged work, applying their knowledge and skills toward working on real issues with community partners, from engineering potable water systems in Latin America to creating redevelopment plans for main street neighborhoods and teaching math and science in local elementary schools.

As they move on to graduate school or start professional careers, RWU Interim President Andrew Workman urged graduates to continue to serve as Civic Scholars to address “the daunting issues that we face and problems you will be confronted to solve as you go forth into the world.”

“We hope that you understand that the incredible privilege of an education is not just for your benefit alone. Giving back to the world, using your knowledge and using that privilege to benefit the world is at the heart of Roger Williams,” Interim President Workman said. “My charge to you is to be Civic Scholars for the rest of your lives. Use your knowledge for good, to make the good society. By doing so you will have met the highest expectations of the RWU community, and it will help you and it will help the world.
Student speaker Phoebe Thaler shared how she found community at Roger Williams and how the campus culture celebrating diversity and inclusion helped her establish and affirm her identity.

“Partway through my first year here at RWU, I started my transition into the woman I am today. Although I’ve known I am transgender practically since birth, being at RWU gave me the space, knowledge, and courage to come out,” said Thaler, who was the first student to utilize RWU’s preferred-name and gender policies to change her legal name and gender on campus.

“I’ve had numerous friends who helped me every step of the way, and I will forever be grateful to them. I also had tremendous support from mentors across campus, as well as allied faculty and staff who made the transition easier, along with the new knowledge I gained from my gender and sexuality studies. The community at RWU has been invaluable in supporting me throughout my four years here as a student, but more importantly, as a person.”

Thaler not only found herself at RWU, she also found her voice and learned to become a leader, serving as assistant director of the social justice peer-mentoring program P.E.A.C.E, vice president of the Sexuality and Gender Alliance, and a student representative for developing the university’s Equity Action Plan. She joined her classmates in advocating for social change on and off campus, including staging a campus “black out” event supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, calling for cultural competency training and the creation of what became the Queer and Trans Resource and Advocacy Center at the university.

“Throughout our time here at RWU there has been tremendous change in the world, on our campus and in our own lives,” Thaler said. “As graduates, we have much to be proud of. Many of us put ourselves out there, occupied public spaces, and fought for what we needed to not just survive, but to thrive as students here.”

One of their greatest allies, Thaler said, couldn’t be with them to celebrate their big day: the late President Donald Farish, who worked closely with many students to enact change on campus and who served as a fearless leader in advocating nationally for the rights of transgender and refugee students.

“Although he is no longer with us, I know he would want every graduate to carry, as we head out into the world, not simply our diploma, but the spirit of creativity, care, and allyship that has been an essential part of our experience at RWU,” she said. “Good luck, my fellow graduates, in all your future endeavors. I hope we can all become a force for good in a world desperately in need of goodness.”

RWU also conferred honorary doctorates to civil rights leader Clifford R. Montiero, who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and served as President of the NAACP Providence branch for a decade, and to Marcia Morris, Vice Chair of the RWU Board of Trustees who served in executive management and chief legal officer roles during her career.

One day earlier, 130 students graduated from Roger Williams University School of Law, where Professor Lee Epstein – a leading scholar on judicial decision-making – delivered the keynote address, urged the graduates to use their newly minted legal skills to “help bring society and people together.”

Referencing Shakespeare’s well-known line, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” from Henry VI, Part 2, Epstein told graduates that its contextual meaning is widely misunderstood.

“The characters in Shakespeare’s play who proposed eliminating all the lawyers wanted to provoke widespread civil unrest in the hope of destroying the ancient rights of the English,” Epstein said. “They wanted to promote chaos and disorder, but they knew that the lawyers would stand in their way, because they understood that lawyers unite not divide. The lawyers were a threat precisely because of their great power to bring people together.”

During the ceremony, the law school presented an honorary degree to former Rhode Island Department of Corrections Director A.T. Wall II and Rhode Island trial lawyer Peter A. DiBiase.

Also that day, 157 graduate students received their master’s degrees during the Graduate Commencement, where the keynote address was presented by Rebekah Snyder, who received a master’s degree in forensic psychology from RWU in 2016 and who served as the victim advocate for the Michigan attorney general’s office in the sexual abuse case involving USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

Setting out to do work that changes lives can be daunting, time-consuming and stressful, she told graduates, so be sure to develop a support system of family and friends, like the ones she made at RWU and leans on personally and professionally

“Don’t ever underestimate your impact and ability to change the world and culture around you,” she said. “You are here to make a difference – hold onto that desire to make a difference and the rest of your life, the rest of your work, will follow.”

In her address as student commencement speaker, Amelia Tayeh – who received a Master of Architecture with an Urban and Regional Planning Certificate – urged graduates to enter their professions knowing that “anything is possible.” For her graduate thesis, Tayeh, who calls both the United States and Lebanon home, redesigned tents for refugee camps to create more humane environments for the millions seeking shelter from war-torn countries, while using her architectural vision to raise awareness for the toll the refugee crisis is taking on displaced families. In December, she constructed a visual representation of her concept in the center of the Bristol campus, where people could enter the tents, painted with the word “refuge” in multiple languages, and listen to a documentary about Syrian refugees.

“Our world is what we create and our limits are not built upon the constructs that we think define us,” she said. “Challenge the world that has been created around us and envision a better one. Challenge the minds that think they have thought for us, and question them. Challenge yourself to see past what you know and venture into the world yet discovered.”