David Broder, Pulitzer Prize winning author and a national political correspondent for the Washington Post, today delivered Santa Clara University's commencement address to the graduating class of 2007.
Broder asked the graduates to reach out to each other. "Find a cause that unites your enthusiasm and energy," he said. "Life will be fully richer if you find a way to bind yourself to community and causes that are larger than yourself."
In a speech that looked back to his own graduation 56 years ago and his subsequent stint in the Army during the Korean War, Broder reminisced about a generation that lived through World War II and the baby boomer generation that followed. He asked students and graduates today to find a way to trust one another and rise above the divisiveness, he said, was a hallmark of political leadership today.
Broder was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in May 1973 for distinguished commentary. He has been named Best Newspaper Political Reporter by Washington Journalism Review. Broder has authored several books and is a regular commentator on XM Public Radio's "The Bob Edwards Show," and makes regular appearances on NBC's "Meet the Press" and "Washington Week in Review." Before joining the Post in 1966, Broder covered national politics for The New York Times, The Washington Star, and Congressional Quarterly. He has covered every national campaign and convention since 1960, traveling up to 100,000 miles a year to interview voters and report on the candidates. Broder was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.
More than 12,000 family and friends of SCU cheered nearly 1,000 undergraduates as they walked across an outdoor stage at Buck Shaw Stadium today, celebrating the 156th commencement of California's oldest institution of higher learning.
The master of ceremonies was Provost Lucia Gilbert. Michael McCarthy, S.J., assistant professor of religious studies, said the invocation. Honorary degrees were awarded to Lorry Lokey, Joanne Harrington, and the Sobrato family for their philanthropic contribution to the University and the larger Silicon Valley community.
About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California's Silicon Valley, offers its 8,377 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master's universities, California's oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu