President Laura Skandera Trombley
It is my great pleasure and honor to issue my charge to the class of 2010.
Seniors, this is an aspect of our work together that is most special, and I have reflected on just how much is at stake at this stage of our conversation.
The Pitzer culture is devoted to creating lifelong dialogue, and together we have reached this critical moment in our relationship―your graduation.
I have complete confidence in you, members of the class of 2010, and I’ve taken your charge from Walt Whitman’s “And This You Shall Do” from his poetry collection, Leaves of Grass.
This is what you shall do:
Love the earth and sun and the animals,
Devote your income and labors to others,
Hate tyrants,
Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown,
Reexamine all you have been told,
At school at church or in any book,
Dismiss whatever insults your own soul,
And your very flesh shall be a great poem,
And have the richest fluency not only in its words,
But in the silent lines of its lips and face,
And between the lashes of your eyes,
And in every motion and joint of your body.
Together we, the members of the Pitzer community who will remain here, and you, our graduates who will carry our tradition and values into the wider world – together we look ahead to giving life to our motto: Provida Futuri – Mindful of the Future.
We are proud to have been part of your early career, knowing how one life lived in the present has a profound effect on the life we will all share in the future. I welcome you to the Pitzer community of educated women and men. Be kind to yourselves and others, return to us as alumni, and always, always love your Alma Mater, Pitzer College. Dear friends, I present to you the Class of two thousand and ten.
