Catholic Relief Services Speeches and Testimony

Ken Hackett's College of Notre Dame Commencement Address: Doing for Others, Transforming the World

May, 2009

President Seurkamp, members of the Board of Trustees, distinguished faculty, supportive parents and friends, and members of the Class of 2009.

What a privilege it is to stand before you today, as you celebrate this hopeful and joyous occasion. It is a particular pleasure for me to speak to the graduates of College of Notre Dame of Maryland, an institution that makes such an important contribution to the intellectual and cultural life in our city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland and the United States.

I've done quite a few commencements around the country and until today, I've always had to get on a plane to get there. I spoke a couple of weeks ago at the University of Great Falls in Great Falls, Mont., and it took me 10 hours to get there. That's about how long it takes me to get to Nigeria! Here, I'm a quick light rail ride away from home.

For you parents and family members who have come here today from some distance and may not be familiar with Baltimore, you are in what our former mayor and current governor Martin O'Malley liked to call "The Greatest City in America." Or as another Baltimore mayor, Kurt Schmoke, called us, "The City That Reads." In fact, Baltimore probably has more nicknames than any other city I can think of. There's Charm City. There's the Monumental City. A walk around town will show you why we got that one - you name it, we've got a monument for it. There's the City of Firsts. Among our long list of firsts, we have the country's first Catholic cathedral and seminary, the first American professional sports organization—the Maryland Jockey Club—the first electric refrigerator; the first Ouija board. And of course, College of Notre Dame of Maryland is the first Catholic women's college in the United States to award a four-year baccalaureate degree.

And then there's Mobtown, a label which we first earned when rioters took to the streets during the War of 1812, and it was reinforced in the early days of the Civil War after some ruffians attacked Union troops as they marched through the city along Pratt Street, down just a few blocks from here.

And a mere block or two from here, a young man named George Herman Ruth learned something about the game of baseball, and then changed our national pastime forever with his magnificent home runs blasts.

Now it's time for you graduates to step to the plate and make your mark. This is your day, and it's a great one. It's a great day for Baltimore and a great day for College of Notre Dame.

Today is something of a final exam for College of Notre Dame. For the last four years, your faculty and administrators have been encouraging and inspiring these fine students. And today, we release them to the world. And what is the standard by which you'll be graded? Allow me to quote from your mission statement:

Educating women to transform the world.

That sounds like a tall order. Well, we all are pretty optimistic. In fact, I'm very optimistic when I read thoughts like this, from a member of this class:

I am learning to live a simple life, where even the smallest things are greatly appreciated because resources are so scarce.

That was written by Angelica Bustamante, who was one of the first students to enroll in a Service Abroad course that took her to a very poor community in Lima, Peru. It's clear to me that Angelica not only had the courage to go to a place far from home. She also had the openness of mind and heart to be touched and transformed by the people she encountered and the reality of poverty that confronted her. I am confident that in the coming years, Angelica Bustamante will be a woman who in some way will transform the world.

But what does it mean, to transform the world? Who really has the power to do such a thing?

To my mind, transforming the world doesn't necessarily call for heroic deeds. Rather, it calls for living intentionally, each day, resolving ourselves to do something for others.

You have many fine examples in those who have preceded you at College of Notre Dame.

From the Class of 1940, there's Elizabeth Hoisington, one of first two women appointed to the rank of brigadier general in U.S. Army.

From the Class of 1962, Carole Artigiani went on to found Global Kids Inc., an organization that educates and inspires urban youth to become successful students as well as global and community leaders.

Someone who didn't graduate from College of Notre Dame but was here for two years in the 1960s and was profoundly influenced by her experience here is Dr. Susan Love. She left to join the convent and then became a physician who co-founded the National Breast Cancer Coalition. It's a grassroots advocacy group that lobbies at the national, state and local levels for public policies that impact breast cancer research, diagnosis and treatment. She also became its director, a position she still continues to hold.

And more recently, from the Class of 2003, La Vida Cooper is an electronics engineer for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who was recognized as a Modern-Day Technology Leader by the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference.

And we can add one more to this list: My own colleague Kim Baker of Catholic Relief Services is graduating today with the Class of 2009. We expect great things from Kim! She is going on for her MBA at Loyola.

All of these College of Notre Dame alumnae, and many more too numerous to mention, have made their mark, have worked to transform our world by applying what they have learned here on behalf of the welfare of others. In so doing, they have lifted us all.

In my travels, I have also seen many strong women who are doing for others and transforming the world. Some are prominent in the media such as President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines.

But more impressive are the ones who don't make the press.

I have met many young women, some of them really just girls, who have been forced to become the head of household for their brothers and sisters, and sometimes cousins, after their parents have died from AIDS. And they are taking this responsibility in a context of extreme poverty that disproportionately affects women. In fact, it is widely estimated that women make up the majority of the world's poor, and seven out of 10 of the world's hungry are women and girls. Catholic Relief Services assists hundreds of thousands of these brave young women, and young men, too, who are holding their families together as best they can in the face of terrible tragedy and poverty.

In India, I have seen women form into what are called "self-help groups." They originally had the purpose of getting them involved in microfinance, so they could get small loans to start businesses to support their families. But the act of organizing and empowering one another has had other profound effects. Thousands of these women have become community leaders, and many have run for public office and have won their races, becoming some of the first women to hold elected positions in their communities.

In the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, where women's literacy is as low as 2 percent, girls have started going to school in spite of resistance from some village leaders. In many of the villages where CRS works, the girls attending our schools are the first in their communities to ever be educated.

These are all examples of heroic women who through their bravery, tenacity and strength of spirit are transforming their world.

Transformation is something that College of Notre Dame shares in common with my organization, Catholic Relief Services. Your mission statement is "educating women to transform the world." Our vision statement is "Solidarity will transform the world." We are the official international relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic community. From our perch at the old Stewart's Department Store Building just a few blocks north of here, we annually reach out to touch the lives of more than 100 million people in more than 100 countries around the world.

So why do we talk about solidarity transforming the world - instead of, say, economic development? Why not just jump on the globalization bandwagon? Because over the years, we've learned that whatever great project we're involved in, whether providing clean water, or treatment for HIV and AIDS, or distributing bed nets to prevent malaria, it ultimately is all about the people. They are people just like us, with hopes, dreams and fears. They are our brothers and sisters in our one human family. Their good is our good. The difference between us is they just happened to be born into some of life's most dire and deplorable circumstances. As Pope Benedict wrote in this year's message for the World Day of Peace: "Globalization on its own is incapable of building peace, and in many cases, it actually creates divisions and conflicts. If anything it points to a need: to be oriented towards a goal of profound solidarity that seeks the good of each and all."

Our mission is all about making human connections. It's about how much we share in common with a farmer in Zambia or a fisherman in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, or a woman living along the Mexican border who gets a small loan to start a tortilla-making business in her home. It's about realizing that we really are one human family. It's almost part of our DNA that we should care for one another. It's imperative that we should be aware of how our actions affect people beyond our borders. We must continually ask ourselves tough and probing questions. What are the global implications of the things we buy? Of the investments we make? Of the candidates or policies we support? Of the professions we choose? How large is our carbon footprint? Because we are all connected and this globalized world has made those connections more apparent. This was made most evident in the recent swine flu scare and how quickly it spread to the corners of the world, helped with the ubiquity of air travel.

Acknowledging how interconnected we are, as one human family, and acting on that connection—doing for others—creates a bond of solidarity that has the power to transform the world.

So transforming the world lies at the heart of our two institutions: Catholic Relief Services and Notre Dame. And now, this charge falls to you. It is time for you to put on the mantle of world transformers. You have lived for four years among extraordinary women, the School Sisters of Notre Dame and the administrators of this outstanding college. You have been well trained by your professors. You have lived by the values of your honor code, values that will stay with you forever no matter where you go or what you do.

The real world awaits you. And it is a very different world from the one your parents faced. I doubt they carried laptops to class to take notes, and they had to survive their college years without Facebook and Twitter. I wonder how they did it!

It is a very different world you face than College of Notre Dame grads of a decade ago. That was before 9/11, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. How much our world has changed since that fateful day!

You face a very different world than last year's graduates. Enormous challenges lie before you as this economy weathers its worst crisis since the Great Depression. But take heart! Times of great challenge also present great opportunity.

A time of turmoil and uncertainty is a wonderful time for entrepreneurs. You have many tools available to you that were never dreamed of when I graduated in 1968. You're digitally savvy and that will take you a long way. This digital age has led to a democratization of information.

Someone blogging in her pajamas can have a profound influence on public opinion. If you can't find a job or can't afford grad school, go see the world! The Peace Corps, AmeriCorps and the Jesuit Volunteer Corps are always looking for good, idealistic people. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana after college, and it changed my life, showing me a career path in international relief and development I had never considered before. I hope for graduation gifts, many of you will receive a passport. Let the globe be your next classroom. Your next lab. Your next home.

Difficult times lead to the emergence of extraordinary people. Your character and your mettle are going to be tested. Welcome the obstacles. Embrace the trials. Relish the hurdles. You are up to the challenge! You have been tempered and tested at College of Notre Dame, and you will transform the world.

I'd like to conclude with three short quotes from a woman who transformed many lives and many hearts around the world, a woman who I had the privilege to meet, a woman who once visited your campus in the 1970s: Blessed Mother Teresa.

She said:

It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is

put into them that matters.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

And

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.

Good luck. Godspeed. Go make your mark and let the world know you're from Notre Dame!