Lesley University’s undergraduate Commencement is where celebration and perseverance come together. This year, they had to persevere through downpours.
“It’s raining out there, but the sun is shining on you graduates,” said Lesley Board of Trustees Chair Hans Strauch, with a grin, perhaps hearing a few good-natured groans at the quip. “That’s one of my classics.”
Though a fusillade of rain hammered the covered Leader Bank Pavilion, and family and friends arrived thoroughly soaked. Yet, the mood beneath the canopy was a mixture of mirth, relief and a sense of accomplishment among undergraduate students and graduates of our Threshold Programs for neurodiverse learners.
Lesley President Janet L. Steinmayer and Commencement speaker Erik Weihenmayer – an adventurer and 1993 Lesley alumnus (M.Ed., Middle School Education) who was the first blind hiker to summit Mount Everest – urged, the new graduates should ascend real and metaphorical summits, and persist.
“The work you do, that all of you do, is essential as we all climb up this hill,” President Steinmayer said. “I can tell you that here at Lesley we are all inspired every day by you- who want to make our world better. You know the Lesley motto: ‘I would have perished had I not persisted.’ I hope your time at Lesley has made that a truth you will carry with you.”
“It’s professors who taught me how to be and how to serve,” Weihenmayer said.