Award winning journalist Helen Aguirre Ferré urged the 413 seniors graduating from Saint Anselm College Saturday to not to fear adversity, and offered examples of courage from young people in Venezuela and Cuba today.
Aguirre Ferré, opinion page editor of Diario Las Americas in Miami and moderator of a public affairs program on South Florida Public Television, offered her address during Saint Anselm’s 115th commencement exercises.
“Adversity is as much a component of life as joy and sadness,” she said. “It is how we face
adversity that makes all the difference.” (See commencement photos.)
College President Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., called upon graduates to commit themselves to a lifelong search for the truth, to never be timid in pursuit of the good and never fear sacrificing for the good of another. He quoted the words of Pope Benedict XVI during his April visit to the United States, when he said that an education in faith “nurtures the soul of a nation.”
“If you marginalize God and the truth, you cannot fulfill your obligation to nurture the soul of the nation,” Father Jonathan said.
Also during the ceremonies, Father Jonathan presented Benjamin Prieur, suma cum laude nursing graduate, with the Student Award for Service and Citizenship. Prieur used his nursing skills last summer to provide medical care in jungle villages in Uganda, where intends to return this year with his parents.
Nursing Professor Kathleen Perrin won the faculty award of the Saint Anselm College Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
Aguirre Ferré, who is also chair of the board of trustees of Miami Dade Community College, the nation’s largest institution of higher education, quoted writer Joseph M. Marshall III in emphasizing that people continually face choices. “You did not ask to be born, but you are here. You have weaknesses and strengths. You have both because in life there is two of everything,” she said, quoting Keep Going.
Aguirre Ferré, whose journalist father came to the United States in exile from the rule of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua and founded Diario Las Americaas, offered the example of two young people who have chosen to take on their governments.
Jon Goicoechea, a 23-year-old law student in Venezuela, led tens of thousands in peaceful protests in his country when President Hugo Chavez tried to change the constitution to amass greater powers indefinitely. He was just awarded the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty by the Cato Institute.
Cuban journalist Yoani Sanchez, 32, used her blog to point out defects in Raul “Castro’s meaningless reforms,” Aguirre Ferré said. She found her blog shut down and the Internet cafés where she worked ransacked. The government denied her an exit visa to travel to accept the prestigious Ortega y Gasset award for journalism from one of Spain’s leading newspapers, El País. She was recognized by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world.
“I trust you will never turn away from life, but always look toward the truth, understanding that truth will always set you free,” she said.
Aguirre Ferré was awarded an honorary doctorate, as were retiring English Professor Denise Askin, Walter Gallo ’58, former director of alumni and vice president for development and endowment at the college, and Brother Rene Roy, F.M.S., president of Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Mass., and missionary.