Mount Holyoke College

"The challenge now of women’s education and specifically women’s higher education is to lead a new conversation about gender, to take on the creative challenge of redesigning the house and building a new framework. Thus we will come to the end of the old play, having gained the tools to write one that is new.

And so I say to you---spirited women of the class of 2008: engage with the pressing issues of your time, recognize the chaos that surrounds you, see where force is used and freedom suppressed, and also listen for the honest voice within yourself, listen to your body and pay attention to your feelings – they will alert you to false relationship and false authority; connect your mind with your heart, take the risk of doing the work you want to do, risk love and value friendship, savor joy and the pleasures of life, and in the midst of it all, preserve your sense of humor and sleep at night."