{"id":162199,"date":"2024-04-24T09:58:51","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T13:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=162199"},"modified":"2024-04-24T16:05:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T20:05:37","slug":"mary-louise-kelly-npr-journalist-all-things-considered-2024-bates-college-commencement-address","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2024\/04\/24\/mary-louise-kelly-npr-journalist-all-things-considered-2024-bates-college-commencement-address\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Louise Kelly, journalist and co-host of NPR flagship program \u2018All Things Considered,\u2019 to deliver 2024 Bates Commencement Address, joined by honorands Richard Blanco and Clayton Spencer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mary Louise Kelly, a journalist and co-host of NPR\u2019s <em>All Things Considered<\/em> and author of<em> It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs<\/em>, will deliver the Bates College Commencement address on Sunday, May 26, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A journalist who has never wavered in her chosen duty to inform the public about the forces at work in our society and their impact on our lives, Kelly will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree and  be joined by two other honorary degree recipients:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Richard Blanco, an award-winning author and poet who explores ideas of identity, love, and home, will receive a Doctor of Letters degree.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clayton Spencer, a transformative leader in U.S. higher education who oversaw far-reaching strategic improvements at Bates as the college&#8217;s eighth president, will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The 158th Bates Commencement will be the first for President Garry W. Jenkins, who took office as the college&#8217;s ninth president on July 1, 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I am proud and honored to welcome individuals who are so incredibly deserving of the college&#8217;s highest recognition,&#8221; said Jenkins. &#8220;From the strength of Bates today to how we interpret, comprehend, and understand ourselves and our world, they have made significant and wide-ranging contributions to our lives and society.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beginning at 10 a.m. and concluding shortly after noon, Commencement takes place on the Coram Library Terrace on the Historic Quad. The event will be streamed live on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/batescollege\/\">Bates Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/batescollege\/?hl=en\">Bates Instagram<\/a> pages <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/commencement\/commencement-2023\/watch-live-2023\/\">as well as on the Bates website.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Richard Blanco<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>An award-winning author and poet whose close attention to the ordinary illuminates extraordinary truths, Richard Blanco explores ideas of identity, love, and home. In 2013, he was selected as the fifth inaugural poet by President Obama, the youngest as well as the first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve in that role. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_blanco_pressimage1-1-scaled-copy-2-720x900.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-162201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_blanco_pressimage1-1-scaled-copy-2-720x900.webp 720w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_blanco_pressimage1-1-scaled-copy-2-240x300.webp 240w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_blanco_pressimage1-1-scaled-copy-2-502x628.jpg 502w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_blanco_pressimage1-1-scaled-copy-2-1229x1536.webp 1229w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_blanco_pressimage1-1-scaled-copy-2.webp 1535w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Richard Blanco, an award-winning author and poet who explores ideas of identity, love, and home, will receive a Doctor of Letters degree at the Bates College Commencement on Sunday, May 26, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Born in Madrid, Spain, to Cuban-exile parents and raised in Miami in a working-class family, Blanco, who has called Maine his home in recent years, uses his poetry to negotiate universal themes of identity, place and belonging. His most recent collection of new and selected works, <em>Homeland of My Body<\/em>, evokes \u201chome\u201d as not just a specific, tangible place but also internal, within one\u2019s entire being. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in civil engineering from Florida International University in 1991 and working as an engineer, Blanco turned his insights and expression toward poetry, returning to his alma mater and earning a master\u2019s in creative writing from FIU in 1997. He has also authored the memoirs <em>For All of Us<\/em>; <em>One Today: An Inaugural Poet\u2019s Journey<\/em>; and <em>The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blanco\u2019s numerous awards and honorary degrees include the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize, the PEN American Beyond Margins Award, the Patterson Prize, and a Lambda Literary Award for memoir. A Woodrow Wilson Fellow who is now an associate professor at FIU, Blanco was The Academy of American Poets\u2019 first education ambassador and the first poet laureate for Miami-Dade County. The citation for his National Humanities Medal, awarded in 2023, noted, \u201cPersonal experience anchors the poetry and prose of Richard Blanco, but he also somehow includes us all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mary Louise Kelly<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>As a journalist, Mary Louise Kelly has sought authenticity over artifice, conducting incisive interviews, sharing deeply researched reports, and never wavering in her chosen duty to inform the public about the forces at work in our society and their impact on our lives.\u00a0Well-known as a host of NPR\u2019s <em>All Things Considered<\/em> since 2018, she has long moved fluidly between the worlds of broadcast and print journalism, providing the highest degree of service to both readers and listeners in her more than three decades as a journalist.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_Mary_louise_Kelly_mmorgan_220906-720x900.webp\" alt=\"Mary Louise Kelly, photographed for NPR, 6 September 2022, in Washington DC. Photo by Mike Morgan for NPR.\" class=\"wp-image-162204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_Mary_louise_Kelly_mmorgan_220906-720x900.webp 720w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_Mary_louise_Kelly_mmorgan_220906-240x300.webp 240w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_Mary_louise_Kelly_mmorgan_220906-503x628.jpg 503w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_Mary_louise_Kelly_mmorgan_220906-1229x1536.webp 1229w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_Mary_louise_Kelly_mmorgan_220906-160x200.webp 160w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10_Mary_louise_Kelly_mmorgan_220906.webp 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mary Louise Kelly, a journalist and co-host of NPR\u2019s <em>All Things Considered<\/em> and author of<em> It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs<\/em>, will deliver the Bates College Commencement address on Sunday, May 26, 2024, and receive an honorary degree.  (Mike Morgan for NPR).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Early in her career, she reported for the BBC World Service and was a CNN producer. She joined NPR in 2001 as a senior editor and, in 2004, became its first intelligence reporter. Her truth seeking has taken her to North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Israel, Iran, and beyond, and her byline has appeared in <em>The New York Times<\/em>, <em>The Washington Post<\/em>, <em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, and <em>Newsweek,<\/em> and she is a contributing writer at <em>The Atlantic<\/em>. She led the NPR team that was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2021 for reporting from Iran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kelly is also the author of two novels, <em>Anonymous Sources<\/em> and <em>The Bullet<\/em>, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages worldwide. Her memoir of parenting amidst her older son\u2019s last year at home before college, <em>It. Goes. So. Fast<\/em>., was an instant <em>New York Times<\/em> bestseller. Kelly earned her bachelor\u2019s degree from Harvard University in government and French language and literature, and a master\u2019s in European studies at the University of Cambridge in England. She created and taught a graduate course on national security and journalism at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Clayton Spencer<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>A transformative leader in U.S. higher education for more than three decades and a powerful voice in service of the liberal arts, Clayton Spencer served as president of Bates from 2012 to 2023. As president, she oversaw far-reaching strategic improvements that elevated the college\u2019s strength and reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10copy-170516_Spencer_0304-copy-3-720x900.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-162202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10copy-170516_Spencer_0304-copy-3-720x900.webp 720w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10copy-170516_Spencer_0304-copy-3-240x300.webp 240w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10copy-170516_Spencer_0304-copy-3-502x628.jpg 502w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10copy-170516_Spencer_0304-copy-3-1229x1536.webp 1229w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/04\/8x10copy-170516_Spencer_0304-copy-3.webp 1535w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Clayton Spencer, a leading figure in the higher education landscape of the past three decades and Bates\u2019 eighth president, will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the Bates College Commencement on Sunday, May 26, 2024. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Centering equity and inclusion as animating Bates values, the college made significant advances under her leadership in its academic program, the student experience, and fundraising. Bates created a Program in Digital and Computational Studies; built a state-of-the-art STEM facility; expanded the faculty; launched major transformations in curriculum and teaching; and completed its largest fundraising campaign ever, while doubling the college\u2019s endowment. Spencer also spearheaded the creation of Bates\u2019 nationally recognized Purposeful Work program, which mobilizes core strengths of the liberal arts to prepare students for lives of meaning and purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before Bates, she served on Harvard University\u2019s senior leadership team for 15 years, overseeing strategic initiatives on behalf of four successive presidents. In the early 1990s, she worked for the late U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy as chief education counsel, directing the Senate&#8217;s legislative agenda in education. As Bates president, she served on the boards of the American Council on Education and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, among others. Spencer currently serves on the boards of the Davis Educational Foundation and the Portland Museum of Art, and previously served as a Trustee of Williams College and Phillips Exeter Academy. She earned a B.A. from Williams College, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa; a J.D. from Yale Law School; and master\u2019s degrees from Oxford and Harvard universities.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Set for May 26, 2024, the 158th Bates College Commencement takes place on the Coram Library Terrace on the Historic Quad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":162210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11009],"tags":[10831,12348],"class_list":["post-162199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-the-college","tag-commencement","tag-commencement-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162199"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162253,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162199\/revisions\/162253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}