Like the 8 billion others they share the globe with, those who entered Marymount University as freshmen in the fall of 2019 had no idea the world around them in six short months would never be the same.
Yet those students, and the others who also comprise the Marymount Class of 2023, represent a resilient group uniquely prepared to meet an ever-changing world.
“Stop and reflect. Pick a quiet spot. Think about who you were when you first came here, and how different you are,” said the university’s provost, Hesham El-Rewini, at the May 19 commencement ceremony for the Marymount College of Business, Innovation, Leadership and Technology.
It was the first of three commencement ceremonies held by the university over a three-day sprint.
The 471 undergraduates, 347 graduate students and 128 doctoral candidates represent the highest number in Marymount’s history, dating back to its founding in 1950 as a junior women’s college by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (RSHM) order of Catholic nuns.
Not all those earning degrees, of course, arrived in August 2019. But whatever their course, the experience of dealing with COVID “made you stronger [and gave you] more knowledge, more life experience and more resilience,” university president Irma Becerra said.
During her remarks, Becerra acknowledged that the past year had not been without its controversy. The university’s leadership opted to jettison several degree programs that had limited participation, sparking anger from students and some alumni questioning the institution’s commitment to liberal arts and its Catholic traditions.
Becerra, however, said during commencement remarks that the changes were necessary for Marymount to enter “a new era of big, bold momentum” to prepare leaders of tomorrow.
The speaker for the college of business’s May 19 ceremony, Michael Powell, holds what may be a unique distinction, becoming the first second-generation speaker at a Marymount commencement.
Powell – a former chair of the Federation Communications Commission and currently head of a technology trade organization – is the son of the late Colin Powell, who spoke to Marymount students at 2006 commencement exercises.
“This is moving moment,” the younger Powell said. “I can feel the spirit of my father.”
Noting, as perhaps commencement speakers have from time immemorial, that graduates are entering a world filled with uncertainty, Powell urged graduates to approach their lives with humility, compassion, gratitude and grace. And to be flexible and open to change.
“Life is more random than you’ve been taught to expect,” Powell said. “Your future will be shaped by millions of unforeseen variables. Be prepared to seize the moment.”
Pointing to the advent of artificial intelligence and its ramifications, Powell acknowledged that, even with all his background in the technology field, he had “absolutely no idea” whether concerns being expressed are justified, but noted that civilization was entering an “exciting and possibly terrifying world.”
When Sister Jackie Murphy, a member of the RSHM religious order, first came to live on the Marymount campus 55 years ago, such technological concerns were the stuff of science fiction.
But, she said, students coming of age in the current era are, like their predecessors, the beneficiaries of an education underpinned by Catholic teachings of all educational institutions established over time by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary.
“You’re jumping into something you don’t realize,” she said in a message on the university’s Website. “By graduating from Marymount, you are also part of one world of Marymounts and the Sacred Heart of Mary schools.”
(Murphy, donning the costume of university mascot Bernie Da’Dog during her remarks, also offered uniquely practical advice: If one is ever offered the chance to become Bernie, be prepared to perspire inside the costume. “That thing is hot,” she noted.)
For years, Marymount commencement exercises were held at D.A.R. Constitution Hall, but with the onset of COVID, were moved outdoors to the Converse Family Field on the main campus in Arlington. In addition to the May 19 ceremony, commencement exercises were held May 20 for the College of Sciences and Humanities and May 21 for the College of Health and Education.
