Norwich graduates told to honor school's values, use courage to change the world
Toolbox
By Mel Huff Times Argus Staff - Published: May 12, 2008
NORTHFIELD – Students wearing mortar boards and maroon-and gold-lined hoods filed into Shapiro Field House side by side with cadets in dress uniform Sunday morning, applauded by family and friends who had come to witness their rite of passage.
Throughout Norwich University's commencement ceremony, students were reminded what they stand for and what kind of world they would be entering when they walked out of the cavernous fieldhouse into the sun-drenched day.
"You will be carrying the reputation of a 189-year-old school with you," President Richard Schneider told them. "The faculty and staff who have pledged our lives here in support of our mission now entrust our reputation to you."
Schneider gave the graduates, who were both civilian and military cadets, two gifts – that is, two quotes. The first, from President Harry Truman, "fits with where the country is today," he said. "Men make history, not the other way around … Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change and make things for the better."
"Now is your time to go out and seize the opportunity to make things better," he said.
Schneider's second gift was a quote from Thomas Jefferson: '"One man with courage is a majority.'
"If we had had one man with courage," Schneider said, "we would not have had Enron. We would not have Abu Ghraib or any other failure of leadership that the country has seen in your lifetimes. Just one person with courage to say, 'Stop! This isn't right. We would not have done this at Norwich!' could make all the difference in the world."
The choice of retired Gen. John Philip Abizaid as graduation speaker reflected the global focus of the military school that offers degrees in diplomacy and international studies.
Abizaid, who received an honorary doctorate from Norwich during the commencement ceremony, is the former Commander of the U.S. Central Command. In that role he exercised responsibility for military operations in a 25-country region that stretches from the Horn of Africa to Central Asia and includes Iraq and Afghanistan. Earlier in his career, he commanded troops in Kurdistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. The soldier, whose grandfather is Lebanese, also holds a master's degree in Middle Eastern studies from Harvard and speaks fluent Arabic.
Abizaid noted that many predict difficult times ahead; they point to the fact that "we are at war, the environment is under assault, our energy supplies are extremely expensive and our economic prosperity appears endangered."
Norwich University "has given you a chance to develop competence, and it has given you the incredible opportunity to help share the future, not only of our nation, but also of a rapidly globalizing planet so much in need of your skills," Abizaid told the graduates.
He noted that while many at home and abroad question the country's methods of solving the problems of the 21st century, none believes that those problems can be solved without American leadership.
"Your challenge," he said, "will be to serve well, to lead others to repair the damage not of your making, to live the values of your university and your nation and to make a difference in a world so much in need of people who can make a difference."
More than a dozen master's degree recipients and some 400 undergraduates climbed the stairs to the speaker's dais and received their diplomas under an enormous American flag..
Akhan Almagambetov and Jonathan Seward received degrees in computer engineering.
Mohammed Ismail Hossain and Brad Fisher received degrees in computer security and information assurance.
Chao-Chun Chen and Cyle Davenport received degrees in biochemistry.
Chiebuka Amu-Nnadi and James Tuttle Chandler III received degrees in English.
Aleksey Aleksandrovich Androsov and his sister, Angelina Aleksandrovna Androsova, received degrees in biology.
Rinor Komoni's older brother, Krenar, who graduated from Norwich in 2006, came from Boston to celebrate Rinor's graduation along with their parents, who had flown from Europe to attend the ceremony.
Rinor calls himself Norwich's first Kosovar graduate. (Krenar graduated before the Balkan country had gained its independence.)
Krenar made his way through a minefield of obstacles to reach the United States where he could get the kind of education he desired. His saga involved getting into an American exchange program, traveling over crumbling roads in his war-torn country to apply for a visa, losing his high school acceptance in Oklahoma when his travel arrangements were derailed by the attack on the Twin Towers, finding a host family in Northfield through a former Northfield resident who had worked in Kosovo and finally being accepted at Northfield High School.
Krenar finished his exchange program and then found a host family for Rinor.
"He set up everything. I pretty much followed his footsteps," Rinor said. Rinor graduated from Northfield High School, got a bachelor's degree in architecture at Norwich and just got his Master's degree. "It's been six years, and it's finally over," he said.
Krenar, who has a bachelor's degree in computer engineering and math from Norwich, will receive a master's degree from Tufts next week.
The brothers could have a comfortable life in the United States, but they plan to return home. "We've been educated by an American system, and that's what we wanted. We can take it back to our new country, Kosovo," Rinor said.
"Our goal is to give back," Krenar explained.
The university's international student adviser, Jenifer Atwood Hasenfus, was involved with both brothers from the beginning of the Norwich careers. "Both Krenar and Rinor are excellent students, so both earned different merit and achievement grants from Norwich," she explained.
"Norwich has had international students since 1827," she noted. "Alden Partridge, the founder, was very involved in bringing the first class of 11 international students over."
In addition to about 50 international students, Norwich now has as many as 75 new citizens and permanent residents, she said. Their presence reflects the university's mission statement – "Norwich is American in character and global in perspective," she said. She observed that one of Schneider's initiatives is "internationalizion of the campus," which is a continuation of the founder's pedagogy.
After the last student received his diploma, the assembly sang a verse of "Norwich Forever," the graduates moved their tassels from the left to the right side of their mortarboards and turned their rings around to show their new status.
They were asked to stand for two cannon salutes, the first for their parents and the second for them.
A muffled boom sounded from outside. Long moments of silence followed.
"Boom!" shouted Schneider, and hundreds of white caps flew into the air.
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