Anna Maria College grads urged to take positive action.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Michael Ballway

WORCESTER - An Anna Maria College diploma isn't enough, Amanda Kershaw told her fellow graduates yesterday. You've also got to be willing to clean up the gumbo.

Ms. Kershaw, a Granby resident who received her bachelor of arts degree in liberal studies, early childhood education and elementary education during the Saturday morning ceremony at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, recounted a story her high school English teacher had told her. A man's roommate made a pot of gumbo, then let it sit for days. It began to reek. Finally, the man realized that nobody else was going to clean the pot, and though he didn't create the mess, he took action to fix it.

"In this society, we will all be facing struggle, injustice and the flaws of this nation," Ms. Kershaw said. "We must decide, when faced with these elements, to either ignore them, standing idly by, or clean up the gumbo. It is likely that your individual actions did not cause any of the proverbial `gumbo' that we will eventually encounter - inequality, poverty, climate change, hunger. We did not make the mess. But we have to clean it up, regardless, for ourselves, for our generation, and for those who come after us. Because we, unlike many other people who are deprived of the opportunity, are educated, powerful and compassionate."

She said a book by education advocate Jonathan Kozol, about poverty and lack of opportunity in the South Bronx, inspired her to pursue a career in education. She challenged her classmates never to react to injustice with complacency or paralyzing frustration, but to work for even "the thrill of even partial victories."

College President Jack P. Calareso touched similar themes. He said that he, too, was inspired by Mr. Kozol's work, in the 1960s, to enter the teaching profession.

The college awarded two honorary doctorates, to Sister Joyce Anne Snyder of the Sisters of St. Anne - a 1965 graduate and member of the order that founded Anna Maria - and to retired Bishop Remi J. De Roo of Victoria, British Columbia. Sister Joyce was described as a "renaissance woman" talented in teaching, music, nursing, languages, spirituality and mission work. The Rev. De Roo was scheduled to deliver the commencement address, but fell at home earlier in the week and was hospitalized with a fractured hip and shoulder. Mr. Calareso presented the Dr. Bernadette Madore Award, for the highest GPA among full-time students, to bachelor of science in criminal justice graduate Adrienne A. Gadoua, a Lancaster resident, who achieved an average of 3.926 on a 4-point scale.

The Dr. Bishop Timothy J. Harrington Award, honoring "compassionate service in the promotion of peace and justice," was given to Sean A...