Baccalacureate celebrates Penn's diversity

While most graduation ceremonies last weekend celebrated Penn students' accomplishments and successes, Sunday's Baccalaureate Service instead celebrated their diverse backgrounds and varied religions. The event -- which featured readings from various sacred texts, performances by two Penn a capella groups and speeches by University administrators and local religious leaders -- took place before a crowd of approximately 1,000 people in the First District Plaza on Sunday afternoon. After University Chaplain William Gipson delivered the opening sentences, graduating Engineering senior Hassan Chowdhry read the opening verse of the Muslim Koran in both English and Arabic. Graduating College senior Meghen Kobli then read the Prayer of Thanksgiving to the audience, while graduating College senior and former president of the Hillel student board Ami Butler led the audience in a responsive reading, taken from the Old Testament book of Proverbs. University President Judith Rodin, who later addressed the audience, encouraged the graduates to believe in themselves, to have "hope in the unseen" and to give of themselves to others. It is these "life lessons," according to Rodin, that are often as significant as academic lessons learned in classrooms and laboratories. "We celebrate the knowledge, wisdom and understanding that higher education reaps and sows," Rodin said. Following Rodin, Gerald Wolpe -- the event's featured speaker and the senior rabbi of Har Sinai Congregation in Philadelphia since 1969 -- took the podium, delivering a speech that combined serious warnings and advice with playful jokes and clever anecdotes. Wolpe -- who is also director of the Louis Finkelstein Institute -- told the crowd that he sees many people today who, in their quest for "self-identification," often fail to consider their heritage and their ancestors and focus solely on themselves instead. He cautioned the graduates in attendance against ignoring the "meaningful voices of the past" and advised them to remember their past as they progress forward in the future. Far too often, Wolpe said, "nostalgia falls prey to reality. The past becomes selected because the present does not have time." Wolpe also peppered his speech with several moments of levity. He began his speech with a joke that the Israelis, unable to find any remnants of an ancient civilization in their homeland, concluded that their ancestors must have used cellular phones. Interspersed throughout the program were performances by Penn a capella groups Counterparts and the Glee Club, as well as brief readings and remarks from other Penn students. Last year, University Trustee Andrea Mitchell, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, spoke at the ceremony.