Rep. inspires College grads

Despite what other school graduation ceremonies offered, only the College of Arts and Sciences' ceremony offered sex appeal. On Sunday, the College welcomed 1992 College graduate and Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. to speak at their evening ceremony. Ford, 31, was recently named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People magazine, and is in his second term in the House of Representatives. Ford delivered a speech that was humorous, but still had a serious message. "The challenge for you now is to actually do something with your education," Ford told the graduates, adding jokingly that students shouldn't waste an education that costs as much as Penn's. Ford reminded students that, even though they are graduating, they should still be involved with the world around them. "By all measurements, things are good. But it is our responsibility to make things even better," he said. "When things are going good, it's much more important how you respond than when things are going bad," Ford added. Despite his many accomplishments, Ford said being asked to speak at the College ceremony was "the biggest honor [he'd] ever had". Ford was also the keynote speaker at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. Ford joked that, during his first campaign, the only places he was ever asked to speak were at 36 kindergarten graduations, and he spoke at almost every single one. College senior David Scales preceded Ford as the College's student speaker. Scales added his reflections on college life to the ceremony. "The most important aspects of our learning have been outside the classroom," Scales said. Scales gave some colorful examples of this extracurricular education. "I learned that if I procrastinated enough, I could read a 250-page book in about an hour," he said. And "I learned how much concentrated gelatin it takes to clog a toilet," he added. As the graduates move out into the world, learning will not take place inside an office either. Life's most important lessons, Scales said, "will not be learned between the hours of nine and five" College Dean Richard Beeman took a moment to remind graduates that, despite the attention given to each freshman class at Penn, it is the senior class that deserved to be noticed. Beeman was referring to the administration's tendency to proclaim each entering class as more intelligent than any other class to ever enter Penn based on rising test scores. "The real cause for celebration is what you have become at Penn," Beeman said. "You are now a much more impressive bunch than you were when you were freshmen."

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