John Judge '89 Addresses the Class of 2022 at Commencement
The president and CEO of the Trustees of Reservations called upon graduates to protect our treasured outdoor spaces amid the ongoing climate crisis.
Thank you so much, President Denning, and congratulations to the Division I Class of 2022! I’m thrilled to celebrate this remarkable day with all of you on this stunning campus. This Commencement is testament to your perseverance, your good work. It’s also thanks to the wonderful support of your families, and the teaching and inspiration of the Stonehill faculty and staff. I’m sure I speak for all of you when I say how wonderful it feels to be celebrating in person, in this shared outdoor space.
You know, when Fr. John invited me to speak today, he reminded me that more than 30 years ago, we actually planned a protest to keep graduation outdoors. There had been a plan to permanently move it inside, which on a day like today, in retrospect, seems like a good idea. But because we loved this campus so much, this 380-acre leafy refuge, and this outdoor ceremony so much, we began organizing a demonstration. We were going to march the length of the campus up to Donahue Hall in protest.
And right before we were going to march, then Stonehill President Bartley MacPháidín called me. I was President of Student Government at the time. I had a red rotary phone issued by Stonehill College with my own extension – you know, just in case any world leader needed to reach me. But that morning Bartley called, and in his beautiful Irish lilt said: “John, call off the march. We will keep the graduation outdoors.”
So yes, I love this campus, as I know all of you do. And I can only imagine how much these grounds have meant to you during this past year, once you had the chance to return to campus. Because if this terrible pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we are not indoor creatures. We need people, we need community, and we need the outdoors.
And this time around, we’re going to need your generation’s leadership to preserve and protect our treasured outdoor spaces in the years and the decades to come. So in that spirit, I want to send you off with three simple ideas that I hope can guide you through this next stage of life, and inspire you to be champions of the natural world.
The first is pretty simple: find everyday ways to unplug from technology. I was realizing the other day that you are, without a doubt, the most plugged-in class that Stonehill has ever graduated. You grew up with smartphones and, of course, you’ve spent at least part of the last two years in remote classrooms. Your tech skills put us Gen Xers to shame. Which is wonderful, but a bit of a double-edged sword.
Not long ago I was in a store, and I struck up a conversation with the young man behind the counter. He was telling me about his virtual-reality headset, and how he’d just spent four hours in the Metaverse. He talked about the amazing digital world that he was experiencing — but that he felt completely disoriented and dizzy when he took the headset off and reentered the real world.
And we know why. Because technology is not part of our DNA.
What is part of our DNA? Every living creature on this glorious planet. From trees to Honeybees. And of course, everyone sitting around you. We’re completely reliant on each other. There’s a beautiful quote from Chief Seattle delivered way back in 1854 about the environment. He said, “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
But somehow, we’ve stopped seeing ourselves as part of that web. We may sit on top of the food chain, but it’s a terrible mistake to think that we aren’t part of the interdependent ecology that supports life on Earth.
Left to Right: Provost DeBrenna Agbényiga, President John Denning, C.S.C., John Judge '89 and Alumni Council Vice President Zachary Ennis ’08
So I implore you to regularly unplug and reconnect with your natural relatives. Sign up for a riverway cleanup. Hike a mountain. Plant a container garden. Climb a tree when no one’s looking. At the end of the day, we’re the ones who must commit to taking care of our natural treasures. This is the time for us to a “next ecology”— a call on all of us to recognize our interdependence with nature and our obligation and responsibility to steward the natural world. And by the way, your generation’s digital expertise is going to be crucial to this effort—I’m not disparaging it at all. I just want you all to be natural natives as well as digital ones.
The second is to find a way to integrate ecological values into your career, whatever you decide to do. We all know at this point, climate change is not just a crisis, but an emergency. Simply put, we are burning up the planet. And if we do nothing, we will have a group of Stonehill students fighting to move the graduation indoors because of extreme weather events. It may happen sooner than we know.
So change must happen now. We also know that not everyone in this crowd will pursue a career in environmental law, or geoscience, or clean car engineering. But when you choose your next job, or your next career, find an employer who prioritizes the natural world. If you want to be a portfolio advisor, choose a firm that focuses on impact investing. If you’re a graphic designer, use your creative gifts to get folks to steward the outdoors. If you’re entering biotech, go with one of the many companies doing amazing things to reduce toxic pollutants or in finding clean alternatives to petroleum-based products. Or if you’re a writer, advocate for green space for everybody or spur on our elected officials for the cause of nature. Whatever you do for the natural world, think of it as opening up an individual retirement account, or IRA, for the Earth. Whatever your monthly contributions, large or small, they will pay real dividends over time—for you and the planet. I promise you, it’ll be the most rewarding IRA you’ll ever open.
Finally, and I can’t emphasize this enough, use nature to nurture your mental health. I don’t need to tell you that we’re in the middle of a mental health crisis. You’ve lived it. You are living it. It really has been the pandemic on top of the pandemic.
Luckily, nature is the cheapest therapy out there. There’s actually hard science behind this. There’s literally a bacteria found in soil that acts as a antidepressant when humans inhale it while gardening or being outdoors. Another study just came out that said living in an area with more greenspaces reduces your depression. At The Trustees, we saw our membership skyrocket during the pandemic because people were so desperate for that outdoor dopamine hit.
So prescribe yourself some outdoor time. It doesn’t have to be a hike on Mount Monadnock or running a 10k. If you walk during your lunch break, you’ll get the same benefits. Time in nature fosters our self-determination, our resolve, our confidence. And taking care of yourself is also one of the best things you can do for the people and the causes in your life. There’s a reason why, in a flying emergency, they tell you to put on your own oxygen mask first: It’s because you have to take care of yourself before you take care of others.
So unplug from technology and get outdoors, incorporate the stewardship of nature in your career, and prioritize mental health, including getting time spent outside. Love and compassion for our planet, for our humanity, and for yourself are necessities.
Stonehill has given you the space to lead with love and compassion. And you have the goods to lead. It fills me with hope that you are the generation to move us forward, enact meaningful change and lead with courage.
Congratulations for everything you’ve accomplished, especially up against some of the most difficult circumstances any of us have ever faced. I hope your next chapters are filled with success, meaningful connections, and great times spent outdoors.
Good luck, and God speed.