Commencement 2007

Author and activist Linda Stout addressed graduates, their families, and the College community during Commencement ceremonies on May 13, in Allegheny's 192nd year. The College awarded Stout a degree of doctor of humane letters, honoris causa. A 13th-generation Quaker from a tenant farming family in North Carolina who did not have the opportunity to attend college, Stout began her leadership in the field of social change by founding a grassroots organization in 1985 called the Piedmont Peace Project. She has since served as executive director of the Peace Development Fund and in 2000 founded Spirit in Action. "I've learned that one person can make a difference," Stout told graduates. "I've learned that three people can change a whole community. And, I know that 363 people, the number of graduates here today, can change the world. You have the power to create a different future." Eddie Taylor '87 gave a welcome on behalf of the board of trustees, encouraging students to pursue happiness through service to others. "I ask that in twenty years when you are here in this spot, making an address to a group like this," Taylor said, "that you have found a way—your way—to be of service to your fellow man and woman, in a way that has afforded your success an opportunity to become significant—and that you truly know happiness."