On Saturday, May 17th, 2008 Burlington College celebrated its 27th Baccalaureate Commencement Ceremony with the unique artistic character and style that has come to represent Burlington College. Sambatucada, an afro-Brazilian drum band of over twenty members, led the processional of students, faculty, staff and Trustees into the First Universalist Unitarian Society’s meetinghouse at Pearl Street, Burlington. Friends and families were there to support and celebrate the recipients of the 6 certificates, 3 Associate of Arts Degrees and 37 Bachelor of Arts Degrees. Two student speakers represented their fellow classmates. Meadow S. Osmun, an Independent Degree Graduate, spoke about the search to find and be yourself as part of the journey toward self actuation. She said "And maybe I didn't exactly 'find myself'.... I am not sure I know, exactly, what it means to find myself but I did find the process and the environment that worked for me." The Campus Student Speaker, Barry Wyman, spoke about the importance of seeing the sum of all the parts; the personal struggles, joy, academic experiences, soul journey, and many other defining forces that contribute to the might of each and everyone's potential. He compared this totality into an elephant, and each part is but pieces of the same beast. He said, "We, in realizing the world that is larger than college, we will continue to see the elephant... We in our deeper self awareness will have new responsibilities as adults." Wyman majored in Human Services. The Graduation Speaker was George Burrill, founder of ARD, Inc. He served as the firm's Chief Executive Officer since its inception in 1977 through 2007. Under his guidance, ARD has established a well-developed international portfolio of legal and institutional reform projects. His overseas focus was the design, monitoring and evaluation of the firm's legislative and institutional reform activities, including governance, rule of law, parliamentary reform and democratic enhancement projects. With a Ph.D. in political science and a solid grounding in government, Dr. Burrill has 35 years of experience in institutional development and management. Dr. Burrill also served as Chairman of the Washington, D.C. – based Business Alliance for International Economic Development, of which he was the founding member. The Alliance's mission was to inform the American public, elected officials and the wider business community on matters concerning foreign aid. And last, but certainly not least, Dr. Burrill was Burlington College’s first Academic Dean. In his speech, Dr. Burrill recounted Dr. Lacase's early vision that included a critical element for him: Endeavoring to make Burlington College students chose Sandy Baird as Faculty member of the year. Baird is the Director of International Studies and Civic Engagement. In addition to teaching, she also oversees the Paralegal Program and offers a free legal clinic to the community every Saturday at the College.
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all learning directly relevant to the world and community around the learner, and in seeing that students become involved in the community as a way of making it real. He spoke about the involvement of Burlington College students and some ground breaking research on Energy, food, man and environment relationships. One of the studies done for the U.S. Department of Energy was on the use of corn for ethanol fuel. Dr. Burril pointed out that Burlington College alerted the Federal Government about 30 years ago that ethanol from corn idea was a bad idea. Dr. Burrill stressed that a small college like Burlington College, can do wonderful, groundbreaking and meaningful things and often see how the endeavor fits into a larger picture. In closing, Dr. Burrill said that "Recent attitudinal surveys often report that young people today, unlike past generations, do not have the idea of, nor commitment to, civic responsibility and service to the community. This lack has become a major concern to many thinking people in our country. All of you know that this is not the case at Burlington College, in a sense, you should feel proud, that in graduating from a college that places great emphasis on civic engagement, you are not part of this majority. In true Vermont Tradition you are a thinking minority when compared to other parts of the county."