HARTFORD — The 585 graduates of Trinity College’s Class of 2016 were reminded by class speaker Hamdi Hamza Abdi that each of them holds a special place in the college’s history.
“You are forever part of this,” said Abdi, who received her bachelor’s in biology Sunday afternoon.
Abdi’s speech, which received a standing ovation from the crowd, reflected on the individual struggles the graduates faced during their four years at Trinity.
“Who gets to be Trinity? Do the depressed students who can’t get out of bed to get to class, count? Do the victims of sexual assault? Or the black men who know better than to walk around without a Trinity ID? Or to my black girls who remind ourselves daily that we rule?” Abdi asked her peers. “It matters that we stayed and it matters that we will always stay Trinity.”
Abdi told her peers not to be afraid of uncertainty or to worry if they didn’t have firm plans after graduation. She likened their commencement to walking into a room and forgetting why you’re there.
“We look around, we walk back out and eventually we remember why we came,” Abdi said.
She encouraged her peers to continue surmounting struggles in the world and to confront the challenges with the same “hard work and sheer resilience” they used during the undergraduate years.
Commencement speaker William Marimow, a 1969 Trinity College alumnus and editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer who received an honorary doctorate, offered three pieces of advice to the graduates — find a mentor, contribute to the public good and learn to listen.
“Make sure you contribute to the public good. It’ll enhance the world we live in, it’ll enhance your own,” Marimow said.
He encouraged students to find mentors and role models who challenged them to do better and push harder.
“Make sure to find a mentor, the more demanding, the tougher the task master — the better for you,” he said.
Board of trustees Chairwoman Cornelia Thornburgh told graduates that the broad liberal arts education they received at Trinity would be an invaluable asset in years to come.
“The college provides a liberal arts foundation that provides a starting point. Your liberal arts education is not simply training for a job, it is a flexible, renewable resource,” Thornburgh said.
Thornburgh drew attention to several faculty and students who represented the best in liberal arts education, including valedictorian Jami R. Cogswell.
“You epitomize the very best in what we hope for in our students,” she said.
Cogswell and her twin sister, Darcy, hail from Glastonbury and were valedictorian and salutatorian of their class. Jami will work with disadvantaged youth this summer at the Wilderness School in East Hartland, and Darcy will work on a ship through Schooner SoundWaters in Stamford.
Thornburgh, like Abdi, reminded students that Trinity always belongs to them, even after they turn their tassels.
“Trinity is always a home for you,” Thornburgh said. “It will welcome you back beneath the elms again and again.”
