May 21 , 2006
Dezan, of Kendall Park, receives degree and speaks at Clark Commencement
Worcester, Mass. - Rebecca N. Dezan, of Kendall Park, NJ, graduated from Clark University on Sunday, May 21, with a Bachelor of Arts degree and delivered the Senior Class Address.
Dezan recalled many fond memories of college life and was reminded of a statistic she learned about through a professor in one of her Race and Ethnicity classes: "one percent of the world has a college education."
"I challenge all of us to remember our responsibility to the 99% who will not have received the same opportunities, guidance, and inspiration," she said. "This is our responsibility, as college graduates, as Clark graduates, and as members of a global community."
Dezan, who spent much of the last four years volunteering with Worcester's Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network and the Worcester Youth Center, encouraged her fellow graduates to share their knowledge, critical thinking and passion with others.
"No matter what we call home, we must accept the responsibility to be active, and engaged in our communities," she said.
"Our student lives have not been confined to campus. As residents of Worcester, we became active in local political campaigns, volunteered or worked in social service agencies, had a role in the new developments downtown and ate in restaurants that represent the diversity of the people who live here. … As we graduate, we realize that we are not just students: we are neighbors, baby sitters, tutors, and future teachers."
Doug Little, dean of the college, introduced Dezan and said that she "definitely left her mark on Clark, both inside and outside the classroom."
A history major with a minor in education, Dezan was elected to Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honor Society. She was involved with women's varsity soccer, CHOICES, the University Judicial Board and served as a ClarkTREK leader. She was a member of the Scarlet Key Society and the Gryphon and Pleiades Senior Honor Society. Dezan also helped organize a Clark delegation of 180 students who traveled to Washington, D.C. in April of 2004 to participate in The March for Women's Lives.
In the spring of 2005, she received funding from the Anton Fellowship Program and spent five weeks in Guatemala, working in the region of Quetzaltenango, organizing and running after-school youth soccer programs. Visit the Web for more information http://www.clarku.edu/activelearning/departments/antonfellows/dezan/dezanDiary.cfm
Dezan plans to remain in Worcester to advantage of Clark's Accelerated BA/Master's Degree Program and complete a master's degree in community development and planning.
The student is the daughter of Philip and Beverly Dezan of Kendall Park. She is a 2002 graduate of South Brunswick High School.
Internationally known economist Paul Krugman gave the commencement address and urged students to play a greater role in public affairs.
"Try to live for something more than yourself," he said.
Krugman received a Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) degree. The professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University is also widely known for his editorial columns in the New York Times.
Clark University President John Bassett implored the new graduates "to work for justice, to feed the hungry, to heal the sick, to educate the child—to believe in ideals but not to make the ideals themselves more meaningful to you than are those diverse and imperfect and at times lost human beings for whose lives the ideals have their only significance."
Evelyn M. Witkin, renowned geneticist and Barbara McClintock Professor Emerita at Rutgers University, received the Doctor of Science degree. Clark bestowed Doctor of Humane Letters degrees to Robert J. Hurst, former Clark Trustee and member of Clark's Class of 1966, and Clare Brett Smith, a professional photographer who ran a successful for-profit craft import business. Hurst is advisor to Crestview Partners, a private equity firm, and is retired vice chairman of Goldman Sachs.
In all, Clark awarded 518 bachelor's degrees, 463 master's degrees and 33 doctorates during its 101st commencement exercises.