Special speakers for a special weekend

A look at the senior orators, Medical School convocation guests, Baccalaureate and Ogden lecturers

Senior orators Maithili Parekh and Edward Smith

Maithili Parekh of Bombay, India, and Edward Smith, of Washington, D.C., are this year’s senior orators.

A committee of faculty and students chose the pair from 89 applicants. Parekh and Smith will address classmates, honorary degree recipients and their own parents on May 27 at 10:15 a.m. in the Meeting House of the First Baptist Church in America.

(Because the Meeting House is large enough to hold only the graduates and a few guests, the orations will be simulcast to The College Green, where parents, friends and guests of the University will gather. Closed captioning will be provided. In case of rain, the simulcast will be offered in the Salomon Center for Teaching, located on The College Green.)

Parekh will talk about her experience as an international student at Brown and the confluence of differences at the University. An international relations concentrator, Parekh has been involved in many aspects of Brown’s international student community. She was a founder and coordinator of the International Mentoring Program, a peer-support program for about 150 incoming international freshmen each year at Brown. During the last two years, Parekh also served as an undergraduate representative on the Advisory Committee on University Planning. She also was president of the Brown International Organization, which plans activities for the diverse group of Brown’s more than 600 international students. She served as an academic chair for the South Asian Students Organization and a Meiklejohn adviser to the academic concerns of first-year students. Parekh will work at Morgan Stanley for a year after graduation.

Smith’s oration will focus on the theme of finding new homes. A political science concentrator, Smith worked in the nation’s capital during each summer break from the University. Most recently, he worked as a Royce Fellow to determine how to improve the relationship between independent mentoring programs for high school students and the public school system. That research laid the groundwork for his senior thesis “Breaking Barriers: The Roles of Tutors/Mentors in District of Columbia Public Schools.” During his two other summer breaks, Smith worked in the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity reading discrimination claims, and in the Office of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr on the Whitewater Investigation. Throughout his years at Brown, Smith competed in the 400-meter event as a member of the University’s track team. Smith plans to begin Harvard Law School in the fall.

Medical School speakers include Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, will present an address titled “It’s Time to Leave No Child Behind” during the Medical School Commencement on May 27 in the First Unitarian Church of Providence, at Benefit and Benevolent streets. The two-hour convocation will begin at 8:45 a.m.

Medical graduates will also hear addresses from James McIlwain, M.D., the Fox Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, and Robert Wolf, a member of the graduating class.

Edelman has devoted her professional career to advocating for disadvantaged Americans. Under her leadership the Children’s Defense Fund became a leading voice for the nation’s children and families.

McIlwain will deliver the faculty address. His talk is titled “Words that Bind.” Known among students as an extraordinary educator, McIlwain has been selected five times by students to receive a Faculty Award for Teaching. Two years ago, he received the Medical School Senior Citation, which is the highest award presented by the medical student body during the Medical School Commencement.

Wolf’s talk is titled “Where We Are Now.” He received his undergraduate education with honors at the University of Florida in psychology and Jewish studies, and a master’s degree in education psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Wolf completed his premedical requirements as part of the Bryn Mawr College post-baccalaureate premedical program and entered the Brown Medical School in 1998. In June he will begin a residency in family medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y.

Justice Ginsburg will deliver baccalaurate address

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will address graduating seniors at Brown’s baccalaureate service on May 26 at 1:30 p.m. in the Meeting House of the First Baptist Church in America.

Ginsburg has a rich history of working within the legal system to ensure that women have the same choices and opportunities as men. This will be the second time Ginsburg has addressed the Brown community. In November 1999 she delivered the annual Noah Krieger ’93 Memorial Lecture, “The Supreme Court: A Place for Women.”

Because seating in the Meeting House is sufficient only to hold the graduating class, the service will be simulcast to The College Green, where parents and friends are invited to view the service on a large video screen.

For the service, the Lion Dance will lead the procession into the Meeting House. A Chinese New Year tradition that was incorporated into the service in 1993, the Lion banishes evil spirits and brings good luck to the places where he dances. The baccalaureate service will then open with the Muslim call to prayer. It will include a Hindu blessing, a Baha’i reading, a Christian reading, a Jewish text and a text from the Zen Buddhist tradition. Also during the service, a memorial quilt that students have created to honor the six Brown alumni and other friends of the Brown community who were killed on Sept. 11 will be presented and dedicated. The video screening on The College Green will also include closed captioning.

Ogata will deliver Ogden Lecture

On Sunday, May 26, at 4 p.m., former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata will give a Stephen A. Ogden Jr. Memorial Lecture on International Affairs – titled “From Human Security to State Security” – in Starr Auditorium of MacMillan Hall. Drawing from her U.N. experience working on behalf of millions of people forced from their homes in the midst of violence, Ogata will discuss how a new regime of human security may ultimately strengthen state security