Graduation 2007

Graduation Welcome Remarks
Thomas B. Coburn
President, Naropa University

The greatest honor that comes to me each year as president of Naropa University is to extend this welcome to our graduation ceremony. It is an honor because I know what a tremendous, collaborative effort it has required to get each of you, today’s graduates, to this point in your lives. You have done remarkable work with us, and just as you have grown over the years, so you have helped us grow, as individual faculty and staff members, and as an institution. So my first words of welcome are intertwined with words of thanks for all you have done and been during your years with us. Let me be the first—along with the others assembled here today who are not students—to offer my—and our collective—congratulations. Read More...

A Letter to the Graduating Class
of Naropa University
from Alice Walker

Someone told me
Once
that Earth
is
the only planet
that has mornings.

The only planet that has mornings!

This is an intriguing thought: and, how would they know? The poet in me loves it, however, because it sees the metaphor of new beginnings, optimism, rising to the occasion (in Mexico the sunset is referred to as “the occasion”) and getting on with the new day. I also appreciate the notion of our specialness, as a planet, whether it is accurate or not. Read More...