Gwen Ifill Encourages Graduates' Optimism
May 18, 2009
Best-selling author and PBS journalist Gwen Ifill encouraged members of the Class of 2009 to be optimistic even as they question the things they encounter in life with a healthy dose of skepticism.
“Being a journalist has taught me the difference between skepticism and cynicism and how (it is) a virtue to have a little bit of both,” Ifill said to an audience of more than 800 graduates from Georgetown College and their families on Saturday afternoon. “You need to prepare to question yourself, to question those around you, and maybe even question those who you aspire to be.”
Ifill asked the class of 2009 to consider the “true expansive meaning” of diversity.
“Are we talking about diversity of skin color and ethnicity or diversity of opinion and thought,” asked the moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week.” “If you do that your education does not end here or in graduate school or in the world of work. Because if all you take away today from this lawn is a college degree. You really haven’t been paying attention.” (Read full text of Ifill's remarks here.)
The best-selling author of “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama” (Doubleday, 2009) commended the College graduates on their accomplishments, thus far — as did Georgetown President John J. DeGioia.
“By virtue of your talents and gifts, the force of your characters and the quality of your minds, you are asked to push at the boundaries, to live out at the frontiers — at the frontier of a new humanity in our world,” said DeGioia.
