Frances Kirven Morse ’68, senior picture

When Frances Kirven Morse ’68 arrived at Sweet Briar, the times they were a-changin’. That was fine with the young woman from Columbus, Ga., who was always singing along to Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez and Dylan.

“Something just felt right to me. [The lyrics] just resonated,” she says.

Changes, large and small, were taking place at Sweet Briar, too. Between Morse’s freshman and senior years, the requirement that “ALL blue-jean type pants must be COMPLETELY covered by a coat” disappeared from the handbook, and 3.2-percent beer was about to be allowed on campus. Students also welcomed the biggest change of all: desegregation of the College.

“Ours was the first class to break the will. It was a big deal,” Morse says, referring to the admission of her classmate Marshalyn “Penny” Yeargin in 1966, Sweet Briar’s first African-American student.

The action meant legally reinterpreting Indiana Fletcher Williams’ will. Despite the protracted and bitter court fight, Morse recalls that Yeargin simply arrived as a transfer student and settled in with little ado. She appreciated the lack of drama.

“I was always uncomfortable with segregation in the South and [Sweet Briar] was a good place for me to work through that,” she says.

Frances Morse and her Art of Yoga mentee at the San Francisco Bay-area premiere of “Yogawoman.” Her mentee appears in the documentary film.

She’d formed opinions contrary to those she heard around the dinner table and discovered at Sweet Briar an environment where she could “test” her theories. She wasn’t an activist then.

“Don’t think I was quite ready for that,” she says, adding that when segregation came up at home, “I pretty much remained silent.”

Staying silent would change, but first she had some living to do.

Morse kick-started a distinguished career at Sweet Briar, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and named the Emilie Watts McVea Scholar. She served as SGA president, played tennis and delighted in listing her tap club affiliation on her first resume.

“I was an Ass!” she says, noting that Aints ’n’ Asses was invariably a conversation starter.

She majored in math and beelined north after graduating magna cum laude. She and three roommates took an apartment in Cambridge, Mass., where she had a job as a programmer at MIT “when computers were as big as houses.” She remembers writing a $25 check to Sweet Briar that year.

Philanthropy was one lesson from home that stuck.

“First of all, it feels good,” she says of giving. “It was ingrained from dinner table conversations. If [Dad] had a connection to [an organization] and it had a mission he believed in strongly, he gave to it. And he believed you supported the school that supported you.”

Morse belongs to Sweet Briar’s Silver Rose Society for 25 years of giving. She says, half joking, that she likes being an annual Boxwood Circle donor because the tier is named for those impressive bushes. This year, to help the College reach its fundraising goals and support her Reunion class, she stepped her donation up to the Fountain Society.

Morse lived in the Boston area with her husband, John, a Vermonter, for more than 40 years. In the early 1980s, around the time the Apple II was taking off in secondary schools, she gave up writing code and became certified to teach. Seeing the potential of technology in education, she worked as a computer specialist in Brookline, Mass., for many years teaching seventh- and eighth-graders and developing curricula.

In the 1990s, Morse earned a master’s and doctorate in education at Harvard. She completed her dissertation on the gender gap in computer education and presented on the subject, having spent her teaching career making sure the girls in her classes appreciated what technology could offer them.

After teaching in several local college and university education programs, she left academia behind, but continued helping others use technology. As the director of computer education at Brookline Senior Center, she found her most enthusiastic and appreciative audience yet, Morse says.

Frances and John Morse with their grandchildren at the education center at Edgewood Park.

About 11 years ago, she and John moved to Redwood City, Calif., to be near their daughter. In 1993, as a student at Stanford, Tyler revealed to her parents that she is gay.

“We really struggled with the issue at first,” Morse recalls. “I discovered I wasn’t quite as liberal as I thought, but found PFLAG for support and education. I kind of turned into an accidental GLBT activist!”

Morse thinks of her activism as simply working for the underdog. It doesn’t begin or end with GLBT, or gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. She and John are active in the support group she spoke of, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, both in California and the Greater Boston PFLAG. In the 1970s, she backed the women’s movement, too.

“I grew up with three brothers and always realized — and resented — that they got to do so much more than I,” she says. “I made sure my daughter got a chance to do any activity she wanted.”

Morse worked briefly for the nonprofit Benetech after moving to Redwood City, but soon became a volunteer for The Art of Yoga Project. An intervention program for incarcerated teen girls in San Mateo County, it was just getting started in the early 2000s and needed a research director to seek grants, collect data and evaluate its effectiveness — all skills Morse acquired at Harvard.

Through yoga and creative art classes, the program teaches accountability, self-esteem, and tools to change behavior. Morse eventually assisted with yoga classes and developed a mentoring component, spending a year each with two mentees of her own.

“Most of the [girls] have multiple traumas in their lives,” Morse says. “[But] every one of them has a wonderful woman inside waiting to get out.”

Today, paid staff run The Art of Yoga Project and Morse and her husband focus on the Edgewood Park and Natural Preserve and its education center, which they worked and supported financially to build. She is a docent, educator, “resident skit writer” (all that Aints ’n’ Asses training, she says) and bluebird monitor. One of the preserve’s great advantages is providing activities they can share with their grandchildren.

Tyler and her partner married during the brief time it was legal in California and have two children, ages 9 and 6, and the Morses often spend time with them.

“We appreciate being able to enjoy them at a slower pace than when we were raising our daughter. We really love just stepping back and watching them grow and develop.”

When Morse reflects on her own story, she can a see a transformation from quiet observer to active participant. Her time in college was part of that change, she says. “Sweet Briar was a growth experience and one that I think shaped my character a lot.”

It’s another reason she gives back.

— Jennifer McManamay

A 2012 Young Writers Workshop participant finds a quiet nook to work in.

Sweet Briar College will welcome back the University of Virginia’s renowned Young Writers Workshop for its second year in residence on campus this summer. Session I, for rising ninth- through 12th-graders, will be held June 23-July 5, with Session II following July 7-26. The longer session is open to rising 10th-graders through entering college freshmen.

Each will bring approximately 85 to 95 participants, representing more than 20 U.S. states and four countries, for intensive studio workshops in one of five genres: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, songwriting, and scriptwriting for screen and stage.

Since its founding in1982 as a then-novel residential experience for teen writers, the YWW had called the UVa grounds home. That changed two years ago when widespread building renovations prompted founder and director Margo Figgins to evaluate her options.

In 2012, the program was held on Sweet Briar’s campus, joining a flourishing arts community that includes the College’s Blue Ridge Summer Institute for Young Artists (June 16-July 7), known as BLUR, Endstation Theatre Company’s Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival (May 31-July 21) and its Playwrights Initiative (July 8-31). Sweet Briar also neighbors the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a working retreat for visual artists, writers and composers who regularly interact with students and faculty both of the College and residential arts programs.

Songwriting is one of five genres workshop participants can choose from.

The Young Writers Workshop has always struck a balance between “solitude and community” so students have the opportunity to “live as a writer,” according to the website. Summer at Sweet Briar — 3,250 tranquil acres in the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills teeming with artists of every stripe — proved a natural fit. And it adds another dimension that was missing, Figgins says.

“Sweet Briar has made it possible for our teaching writers and program administrators to be in residence as well,” she said, noting most previously stayed in their Charlottesville homes. “The ease of sharing expertise, information and programming creates a fluidity in the day-to-day workings of the program and contributes to a larger sense of community when everyone is present. It’s like the hum of a beehive — though this year’s metaphor will have to involve cicadas.”

As they were able to do last year, the YWW program directors are planning opportunities for the writers to interact with BLUR and Endstation as peer artists who can learn from one another and be “informed, appreciative audiences for each other’s work,” Figgins says.

“We are also looking forward to the same kind of animated exchanges with VCCA artists-in-residence that occurred last year — guest writer readings, small group workshops, etc. The VCCA is an invaluable resource for both the College and YWW.”

A typical day for the young writers will include morning labs that are follow-ups to the daily intensive studio workshop taught by a professional, published writer in the genre. Independent writing time is built in, along with group meetings and cultural or social events for all participants. They also take elective mini-classes that include arts, recreation, and experimental reading and writing options. The labs and electives invite genre-bending experimentation that lets them explore the limits of the primary craft they are studying, Figgins says.

Students arrive prepared to explore a theme — this year it is “(R)evolution” — over the course of the session. The first writing challenge comes on day one and, from there, they begin building a session portfolio, which will include both polished pieces and works in progress that they’ll continue to share with other alumni after they leave.

Each participant will also be part of a publishing staff that serves the workshop community, such as the literary magazine, an anthology of each session’s writings, or a video documentary of session highlights. The Writers Café is the culminating event, where everyone performs an original work for the whole community.

BLUR’s philosophy is distinct from YWW, catering to young visual and performing artists, as well as writers. Its founding principle is blurring the boundaries between forms of art to imagine new ways of making it. But it, too, is rooted in the idea that artists thrive in the company of each other. So when the veteran YWW joined BLUR on campus last summer — a nascent program then in its second year — BLUR director Dave Griffith said he and his colleagues in the creative writing department, Endstation, and the College’s administration welcomed it with open arms.

“That communal aspect is important. We’re trying to create a hothouse for the making of new work,” Griffith says, noting the workshop helps foster that environment. “We’re looking forward to growing alongside them and finding more ways that we can collaborate and support one another.”

The point is not lost on YWW organizers.

“It should not go without saying how valued Sweet Briar’s commitment to the arts is to programs such as ours,” Figgins says. “The potential for partnership growth in advancing a visionary community is remarkable.”

— Jennifer McManamay

The roundtable is sponsored by the National Intelligence Council, which supports the director of national intelligence. According to its website, the council serves as a “bridge between the intelligence and policy communities, a source of deep substantive expertise on intelligence issues, and a facilitator of Intelligence Community collaboration and outreach.”

Bakich’s research for the book, slated for publication in March 2014, has particular relevance for policy makers today as they evaluate any U.S. response to the increasingly complex civil war in Syria.

“ ‘Success and Failure in Limited War’ demonstrates how the pattern of information flow in the national security bureaucracy directly affected the outcomes of significant foreign policy events of the past seven decades,” according to the University of Chicago Press.

The Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf and Iraq wars all began as limited engagements. Bakich explains the why the U.S. succeeded in the Persian Gulf War, but was unable to both defeat its opponent and avoid escalation in Korea; why Chinese intervention in Vietnam was avoided, but communist forces in South Vietnam weren’t defeated; and why the U.S. achieved a quick and decisive victory over Iraqi forces only to see it squandered with the eruption of the Sunni-based insurgency.

The importance of information collection, analysis and sharing to national security is well understood, but making good strategic decisions depends on how information is managed and used, Bakich argues. Information institutions must allow leaders to understand the complex strategic environments in which they act, so they can effectively coordinate the military and diplomatic elements of limited war strategies.

This is certainly true in Syria, where so much is already in play, Bakich says.

“Ultimately, any intervention policy would have to contend with many dynamics —political, i.e., internal actors that animate the conflict; diplomatic, i.e., regional states that have a stake in the process and outcome of the conflict; and military, i.e., rebel, government, terrorist and other organizations’ military activities.

“The focus of my book is on the ability of countries to secure their military objectives while avoiding undesired escalation. The problem in Syria is that any intervention by the U.S. now would occur in the midst of a conflict that appears to be on the cusp of regional escalation — which makes it difficult for any American intervention strategy, no matter how limited in its objectives, to succeed.”

Walker has practiced law in Birmingham, Ala., for 36 years. In that time, she has handled hundreds of cases and tried more than 85 to a verdict. While her practice now focuses on employment litigation defense, including whistle-blower actions defense, corporate and contractual litigation, Walker has handled a variety of cases in multiple jurisdictions.

She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th, 9th and 11th Circuits, and multiple district courts in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida and Alaska. Since 2004, Walker has been involved with e-discovery issues and policy concerns and written articles addressing some of these issues, as well as other matters arising from labor and employment litigation.

The Litigation Counsel of America is a trial lawyer honorary society composed of less than one-half of 1 percent of American lawyers. Fellowship in the LCA is highly selective and by invitation only. Fellows are selected based on excellence and accomplishment in litigation, both at the trial and appellate levels, and for superior ethical reputation. The LCA is aggressively diverse in its composition. Established as a trial and appellate lawyer honorary society reflecting the American bar in the 21st century, the LCA represents the best in law among its membership.

Fisher & Phillips LLP represents employers nationally in labor, employment, civil rights, employee benefits and immigration matters. Founded in 1943, it is one of the largest U.S. law firms to concentrate its practice exclusively upon representation of employers in labor and employment matters.

According to a press release, the GID program brings together accomplished senior mentors in academia and the arts with scholars, writers and artists who are establishing their careers. This year’s program focuses on the vocation of the writer, led by Gregory Wolfe, founding director of the M.F.A. program at Seattle Pacific University, and founding editor of Image journal.

Supported by Peter and Merle Mullin and the Angell Foundation, the program entails four weekends of dialogue over two years in retreat settings on the West Coast led by the senior mentor. Dialogues include thematic discussions, personal reflection on vocation, shared prayer and presentations from distinguished scholars or artists.

Each participant receives the title of Mullin Scholar at the IACS and a $4,000 award.

“The newest GID cohort meets a need for early-career writers by connecting their creative work with a sense of vocation rooted in the Catholic tradition,” Gary Adler, the institute’s research director, said in the press release. “This combination of intellectual rigor and spiritual reflection, with a senior mentor leading the way, is relatively rare in the academy and the world of creative writing.”

Adler said this year’s candidate pool was the largest since the program began in 2010.

“The scholars were chosen because of their proven experience in published writing, their desire to deepen their sense of vocation and the creative potential in their future writing,” he said.

One goal of GID is to inspire the next generation of scholars, artists and writers to work in creative scholarship or art that engages the intellectual and spiritual traditions of Catholicism. Another is to foster a lifelong vocation for public engagement that serves the common good. A third is to create an inter-generational community of scholars, artists and writers steeped in vocation and faith.

“GID seeks to create a multi-generational academic community in which participants advance the efforts of faith informing scholarship and art, and scholarship and art informing faith,” the release said.

For Griffith, the award comes at an opportune time.

“The fellowship will provide me with a group of smart and insightful readers for the book I am completing, ‘Pyramid Scheme: Making Art and Being Broke in America,’ ” he says, characterizing the work as a hybrid of memoir and critical essay.

“[It] explores the connections and tensions between poverty and creativity, and traces the changing role of the arts and the artist in American culture over the last twenty years.”

Griffith, who holds an M.F.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, began teaching creative writing at Sweet Briar in 2007. His first book, “A Good War is Hard to Find: The Art of Violence in America” (Soft Skull Press, 2006), is a meditation on media violence occasioned by the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

— Jennifer McManamay

Linda Fink, Duberg Professor of Ecology, explains the anatomy of a periodical cicada. Click for more photos.

Biologist Linda Fink, Duberg Professor of Ecology, will lead two walking tours and discuss the natural history of periodical cicadas for those who want to learn more about the winged insects that are visiting campus in such numbers this year.

The first group will meet at 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 31, in front of Guion Science Center. A second tour for alumnae attending Reunion will depart from the Boathouse at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 1. The walks may enter areas where ticks are present, but bug spray will be available.

The next few weeks are the last chance you’ll have to see (and hear) this particular brood for the next 17 years. Fink will take each group to a “chorus” site where male cicadas call in unison to attract females. This synchronized chorus is among the loudest sounds in nature.

Participants will be witness to the making of the next generation of this brood, including mating pairs and egg nests dug into tree twigs by the females. Check out photos from a previous tour here.

— Jennifer McManamay

SBA awards highlight the impact of outstanding entrepreneurs and small business owners from all 50 states and U.S. territories during National Small Business Week (June 17- 21). Champion awards recognize those who promote small business, support their interests and advocate for the cause of small business in the legislative process.

“Small business owners are the lifeblood of our economy,” Gambel said. “I’m especially honored to be recognized with this award and applaud all the women business owners, especially in Region VI. I look forward to many more years growing not only my own business, but also supporting other women businesses and initiatives.”

The Jefferson Parish Chamber of Commerce nominated Gambel.

“Betsie Gambel stands out in a crowd. Her business acumen and her passion for economic growth make her the perfect recipient for this honor,” said Jefferson Parish Chamber president Todd Murphy. “Jefferson Parish is lucky to have her working here.”

Gambel is a 2012 graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program and was honored as one of New Orleans CityBusiness’ 2012 Women of the Year. Additionally she has been recognized as a Young Leadership Council and a YWCA role model, St. Elizabeth’s volunteer activist and Cancer Crusaders honoree. She is a former president of the Junior League of New Orleans.

Gambel is the founder of Gambel Communications, a public relations agency in Metairie, La.

Class of 2013 Leadership Certificate students are Marie Elise-McGonigle (from left), Nicole Lee, A-Joo Kim, Whitney Waller, Lindsay Davis, Rachael Ashdown, Lauren Morgan, Natalie Dolan and Scarlett Reel. Not pictured are Christen Campbell, Julia Green, Victoria Litos and Samantha Schwartz.

On Saturday, Sweet Briar’s Leadership Certificate Program graduated its sixth class, ready to engage and influence the world community they will be part of.

Class of 2013 candidates receiving certificates were Rachael Ashdown, Christen Campbell, Lindsay Davis, Natalie Dolan, Julia Green, A-Joo Kim, Nicole Lee, Victoria Litos, Marie-Elise McGonigle, Lauren Morgan, Scarlett Reel, Samantha Schwartz and Whitney Waller.

Initiated in 2005, 66 students have completed the LCP curriculum, which is designed in three two-semester phases, leaving time for candidates to study abroad. The phases are progressive and combine theoretical and experiential learning. Students explore what leadership is, gain self-awareness, and develop concrete skills such as time management, organization and public speaking.

Emphasis is given to personal values, leadership styles, communication and ethical decision-making. Candidates also work with diverse groups, including external organizations, toward a common goal, and develop an awareness of contemporary and global issues.

“Throughout, there is a big focus on the experiential piece, because you can’t learn leadership by just talking about it,” says Joan Lucy, who has directed the program since 2006.

Unlike the College’s other courses of study that result in a certificate, this one is administered by and rooted in the co-curricular life office. The overarching idea is to help them understand how all of their activities outside the classroom — be it club participation, internships or work-study — complement what they learn in an academic setting by tying together the practical and the theoretical.

Candidates are required to identify 12 credit hours that are relevant to their leadership studies, “so they can draw connections to what they’re learning in the classroom and the things we’re doing,” Lucy says.

Getting involved on campus is a big reason many students sign up for the LCP. Sophomore Sarah Gray says just being in the program has opened doors.

“It’s amazing. I never thought that I would be approached by so many girls whom I respect so much to be on their committees and to be seen as a leader. I have been approached to join teams, apply for jobs, be [a] mentor, serve on committees and run for office,” she says.

Senior Lindsay Davis recognized the value of having leadership skills and the need to be able to assert herself in her chosen field of engineering. She used to shy away from leadership roles and any kind of public speaking.

“Now I feel that I can give a presentation at the drop of a hat,” she says.

The certificate also draws employers’ attention. At least two engineering firms asked Davis about it in interviews. But her biggest takeaway might be the change she has seen in herself — and what it implies for her future.

“I now know that the only thing keeping me from doing anything is trying,” Davis says. “I’ve learned that I would rather try and fail than never try at all. I believe that with my Sweet Briar education, along with my experience in the Leadership Certificate Program, I can do anything I aspire to.”

Learn more about the Leadership Certificate Program here.

— Jennifer McManamay

In addition to a sneak peak into the festival’s upcoming productions, the evening will include performances of beloved songs from Broadway hits such as “In the Heights,” “Jersey Boys,” “Gypsy,” “Follies” and many more.

Baum recently appeared in the international tour of “Cinderella” with Lea Salonga. This spring she directed “The Children’s Hour” at E.C. Glass High School.

Fitzgerald is a film director, playwright, screenwriter and actor whose work has been featured on HBO, at the Sundance Film Festival and on FX.

Millner was a New York-based actress and singer for 20 years. She is now the creative director at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville.

A portion of the concert’s proceeds will be designated to Endstation’s high school educational outreach. Tickets are $15 for adults and $7 for students. For more information, visit endstationtheatre.org or call (434) 826-0391.

Endstation Theatre Company produces the Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival each summer in Central Virginia. This year’s festival includes William Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” May 31 to July 7 and “Cymbeline” June 14 to July 21, as well as the musical “Violet” June 28 to July 14.

The threatening weather was nothing for the Class of 2013, as senior class president Lauren Morgan noted in her remarks at the podium.

Among the many lessons she and her classmates shared during their four years together, she said, “We learned that we can survive whatever Mother Nature throws our way including snowstorms, earthquakes, derechos and seventeen-year cicadas.”

Human rights activist and historian Allida Black delivered the keynote, “The Courage to Lead,” at Sweet Briar’s 104th commencement ceremony.

Morgan began by speaking about how much change they have experienced — changes in friends, faculty coming and going, changing political and religious views, even their feelings for the College from day to day, she said, drawing a chuckle from the crowd.

“One thing that change always brings is the opportunity to learn,” Morgan said. “My mother gave me one piece of advice before first leaving for college. She told me, ‘Never let school get in the way of your education.’ That’s one thing Sweet Briar has given us, an education. Not just a liberal arts education, but it has given us some lessons on life.”

2013 Presidential Medal winner Elizabeth Hansbrough followed Morgan at the podium, after an introduction by President Jo Ellen Parker. In a fitting prelude to the keynote address, Hansbrough encouraged her classmates to use their education not only to serve others, but to be true to their own values. She pointed to first lady Eleanor Roosevelt as an example.

“[Roosevelt] once said, ‘Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one. You cannot make any useful contribution in life unless you do this,’ ” Hansbrough said.

“ … Remember that you have the ability to think and make your own decisions, and much power lies within that ability. Don’t waste your power; you must use it to defend your beliefs and make change where you see necessary.”

To Hansbrough’s advice, human rights activist Allida Black would add don’t be afraid to make trouble. Black, a research professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University and executive editor of fdr4freedoms Digital Resource, gave the keynote address. She also is the founding editor and chair of the editorial advisory board for GWU’s Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, whose mission is to preserve, teach and apply Roosevelt’s writing and discussions of human rights and democratic parties.

Black set the tone for a rousing speech by asking the Class of 2013 to rise to their feet and scream at the top of their lungs. She wanted them to be heard.

Members of the Class of 2013 make their voices heard during commencement.

She acknowledged the role of parents and faculty in getting them ready to face the world, then turned to shake President Parker’s hand.

“Jo Ellen — Madame President, a title I hope to hear soon in a different arena — thank you for your work. Because if women don’t lead, we are in trouble,” Black said, with a gusto not often seen on such occasions.

Women lead every day in their professions and family life, she said, but that’s not enough. Women need to work hand-in-hand with men to set public policy, and build humane businesses and the kind of world community we aspire to.

Turning to the theme of change, she told her audience to embrace it, noting most people will have three distinct careers in their lifetimes. She never thought she’d go from running a rape crisis center to small-business owner to historian to working with human rights leaders around the world. Change requires risk-taking, but Black said they should draw courage from those who came before them, as she is inspired daily by Eleanor Roosevelt.

“She has taken me into the world to meet people that I never would have met and into arenas that I never imagined — like flying in a fifty-year-old Soviet aircraft whose radar was not really effective, landing in Roberts Airport in Monrovia [Liberia] at the end of the civil war, praying with every fiber of my being that in fact the landing gear would work,” she said. “You know, my sphincter muscles were working overtime.”

She found herself in that situation because other women who were her teachers and mentors encouraged her to take risks and that it’s OK to fail.

Nicole Lee is happy to have her diploma.

“What’s bad is not trying,” she said. “We need you to take these risks because you will be our doctors, our lawyers, our business leaders, our teachers, our community leaders, our international representatives, our artists, our performers, our reporters. Without you, we are toast.”

Black asked the graduates to think about the thing they really want to do and then what about the job scares them. “And then I want your joy to stamp out that anxiety, because it’s OK to doubt but it’s not OK to stop. … I cannot say enough that the world is in your hands.”

She said if she could impart just one thing, it is to know the power of the human spirit — because it shows us what a gift courage is and what a difference it makes. She left the graduates with a charge.

“The world can be thrilling and terrifying. No matter how many friends you have, you ultimately face it alone. You are stronger and smarter and braver than you think. Don’t be afraid. Fear will shrink your heart,” she said.

“Tackle injustice and selfishness with a boldness you didn’t know you had. It will swell your soul, bring remarkable people into your family, and show you how indescribably magical the human spirit can be.”

Following the presentation of the candidates’ diplomas and award announcements by President Parker and dean of the faculty Amy Jessen-Marshall, Alumnae Association president Mollie Nelson ’64 was invited to the podium. She implored the graduates — no longer alumnae-in-training but after today the “real McCoy” — to stay involved, support the College and, above all, visit often.

“Driving up the driveway is better than Prozac, I promise you,” she said.

Parker brought the occasion to a close with her own charge to her “classmates” of 2013 — they arrived at Sweet Briar in her inaugural year four years ago.

Observing that a liberal education might better be called a “liberating” education because it frees the human intellect, she charged them to use it to improve the others’ lives.

“Use your influence to uphold the freedoms of speech and worship for others — especially those with whom you disagree. Use your talents and skills, your professional and civic activities, to free others from want and fear. Let your work, and your example, demonstrate the liberating power of education not only for individuals, but also for communities and nations.”

— Jennifer McManamay