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» Simmons Celebrates Commencement 2007


John Prendergast, speaker Commencement 2007 John Prendergast, speaker for Commencement 2007

John Prendergast, one of the world's leading voices in bringing attention to genocide in Darfur and other warn-torn nations in Africa, exhorted graduates during the 102nd Simmons College commencement ceremony in Boston May 19 to follow the plea of the late Martin Luther King in 1968 and "don't sleep through the revolution."

"Don't sleep through this momentous defining period in our history," he said.

Prendergast, senior adviser of the International Crisis Group (ICG) and founder of the ENOUGH stop-genocide project, spoke before more than 1,400 newly-minted Simmons College graduates at the Bayside Exposition Center in Boston. The ICG is a non-profit organization that scouts out geopolitical conflicts and then issues reports that offer  intelligence, analysis, and policy recommendations.

Prendergast, formerly an adviser in the White House and U.S. Department of State, is known for speaking frequently and powerfully about inhumanity in Africa's war-torn nations.  He is author of eight books on Africa, much of the material for which was gathered during numerous trips, some illegal, across various borders. His latest book is Not on Our Watch, which he co-authored with "Hotel Rwanda" actor Don Cheadle; the book recently made the New York Times bestseller list.

Much of Prendergast's speech was warm and engaging, interrupted frequently by the graduates' laughter and applause as he told witty stories of his own early years as a young and impoverished idealist activist. But near the end, he issued what he called a "serious wake-up call:"

Darline Tunis, the student speaker for Commencement 2007 Darline Tunis, the student speaker for Commencement 2007

"People from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all across this great country, are saying 'no' to the direction our nation is headed.  They are saying, 'not on our watch.' They are organizing movements...to preserve our precious ecosystem, to stand up for human rights, to fulfill our global responsibility, to stand against genocide wherever it occurs, to promote racial equality and equal opportunity in our schools and in our workplace.

"We sorely need a Martin Luther King today to help us stay alert through this great revolution from below."

"The truth is," Prendergast said, "a great leader is not going to come along and clean up this mess by her or himself. It is up to us…If the world your children will inherit will not be engulfed in environmental destruction, by violence, by preventable disease, by racial and religious discrimination, by human rights abuses and other scourges of our age, it will be because you organized, you led."

He urged students to "dream big" and believe in themselves for their dreams to come true.

President Scrimshaw President Scrimshaw

"Not every time I've taken a chance has it paid off," he said. "In fact, if you look in the dictionary under 'outrageous', you can see my mug shot. But every time that I have taken a chance, ventured a risk, or chased a  dream, I've gotten wiser, I've gotten stronger, I've gotten richer in spirit."

The commencement ceremony was the first commencement presided over  by Simmons College President Susan C. Scrimshaw, Ph.D, who was named the seventh president of Simmons College in July 2006.  

All photos courtesy of Stephanie Mitchell