BC celebrates 131st Commencement Exercises

For the thousands who filled Alumni Stadium - families and friends, faculty, administrators, and most of all, graduates of Boston College - today was a day of firsts: the first day of sun in several days, the first day of school-free summertime, and the first day of life as BC alumni.

"Today is called commencement, or the beginning," said Jack Connors, the keynote speaker at the 131st Commencement Exercises. "It's a little unfair, isn't it? You have worked all of these years to get this far, and everyone is welcoming you to the starting line. But it's true."

The University conferred 3,325 degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels, adding even more accomplished alumni to the ranks of the 150,000 living BC graduates. The class of 2007 included students from

49 different countries, a testament to the campus' increasing diversity and internationality.

University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., welcomed visitors and students alike following an invocation given by Rev. William Neenan, S.J. "I want to thank you, today's graduates, for all that you have contributed in your years at 'the Heights,'" said Leahy. "You have brought your inquiring minds, enthusiasm, energy, and impressive talents to campus and gave so much to the intellectual, social, and religious vitality of Boston College."

In addition to the honorary degree presented to Connors, BC also awarded Brian Mulroney; Lesley Visser, BC '75; Rev. George Coyne, S.J.; and Isaura Mendes with honorary doctorates.

Mulroney, a former Canadian prime minister, played a leading role in bolstering Canada's economy through the introduction of NAFTA in addition to advocating for environmental and human rights causes.

A sports broadcast journalist with CBS, Visser has covered the NFL for 33 years and was the first woman to be awarded the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award within the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

As the director of the Vatican Observatory, Coyne has pursued research initiatives in astronomy and the philosophy of science. He is credited with developing novel techniques in astronomical research and has a comet named after him.

Mendes, a native of the Cape Verde Islands, has endured several family tragedies that have led her to be an advocate of peace and rehabilitation. She has directed and organized several anti-violence and anti-substance abuse programs and events.

Connors, as former chairman of the board of trustees and BC '63, said giving the commencement address was "like coming home" to him. "I first came to Boston College some 48 years ago, having been taught by my parents and family about respect, honesty, faith, hard work, and loyalty," he said. "Then the Jesuits taught me how to think, why it was important to think, and why it was especially important to think about others."

After graduating from BC, Connors pursued several positions and interests, working as a Campbell's Soup salesman until pursuing a promising career at an advertising firm. A mere five years after graduation, at the age of 25, Connors left that job to found his own advertising agency with three partners ("modestly named after ourselves," he said): "Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos."

What began as a company earning only $37,000 a year has become an agency that now ranks among the top 20 in the country. Despite its success, Connors maintains that the energy and perseverance of the company's first leaders - not their ability to plan ahead - made Hill, Holliday what it is today.

"Last week Hill, Holliday celebrated its 39th anniversary; together with hundreds of other people, we built a great company, but we never had a plan," he said. "We had energy. We had imagination. We had a willingness to work hard, but we never had a plan. And although we were rejected many, many times, we never took our eyes off the prize."

They saw rejection not as a failure but as a way to grow and learn how to make things work, he said. "For many, rejection is a frequent companion on the road to success," said Connors. "The great lesson from this - the lesson that I have carried my entire career - is that there is no problem with being wrong every once in a while. It's the ability to respond to adversity that defines us."

Connors urged students to persevere in the face of adversity, citing his many own personal experiences with rejection. "I won - and I won more than I lost because I kept getting up to bat," he said.

He also called on students to use their experiences at BC - in the classroom, on the sports field, in the research lab, and in community service - to improve the state of humanity and the lives of others. "You have been given many gifts. You have been given the gift of life, the gift of health, the gift of love and the gift of a great education. The question for you is: Over the course of your lives, what gifts will you give?

"Today, you have earned the right to walk through the gates of opportunity, supported enthusiastically by friends and family who have always believed in you. You worked hard; you won and you have made more people proud than could fill this stadium," he said. "Because you are prepared."

Reminding the new BC graduates that he was once in their position, Connors offered five pieces of advice. "First, and this is a quote from Albert Einstein, 'Your imagination is much more important than your knowledge.'