Good morning, Mount

ABC News anchor hopes to give college students commencement speech to remember

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — Ron Claiborne, a news anchor for ABC News’ weekend edition of “Good Morning America,” hopes to send a parting message to this year’s graduates of Mount Wachusett Community College that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. “I don’t even remember who spoke at my graduation,” said Mr. Claiborne in an interview conducted by e-mail. “I don’t want these graduates to say that years from now, so I want to tell the something that they will remember and maybe even use later on in life.” Mr. Claiborne will deliver the 2008 commencement address at Mount Wachusett at 6 p.m. May 15 in the college’s Fitness & Wellness Center, and although he said that the commencement speech has not yet been written, he has prepared specific guidelines for the address. At the top of his list is maintaining the student’s attention, and leaving a lasting impression. “You want to tell the students something interesting, something beneficial, something that they will retain for at least a little while. You don’t want to be too heavy and you better not bore them,” said Mr. Claiborne. “I would like to offer them some guiding concepts and hopefully provoke them to think about where they are and where they are going. I don’t mean in some heavy or cosmic sense. They’re young. It shouldn’t be heavy. I want to be able to help them consider and appreciate this moment in their lives. They are at one of life’s truly important crossroads. The oldest cliché in the book is that graduation is called a commencement because it’s a beginning and not an end. But it’s true.” The speech, according to Mr. Claiborne, will fall under the rubric of civic engagement. “I will talk about giving back to the community, and the importance of global awareness,” said Mr. Claiborne. “Much more so than when I finished college, they are entering a global culture, a global economy, a shrinking interdependent world that needs engaged, active citizens with a global consciousneess.” Regarding the Mount’s commitment to energy conservation and sustainability, Mr. Claiborne said that the cutting-edge research being done at the college in the fields of energy conservation and sustainability are going to determine the direction that our planet and our country take in the near future. “The earth is in crisis,” Mr. Claiborne said. “With a few exceptions, we were very late realizing that our actions and carelessness have endangered the physical planet. Eight years ago, there were still people — officials, even some scientists— saying it was still inconclusive whether the earth is warming from greenhouse gases. Now we are in a race to avert self-destruction and if it is not yet too late, it is very likely going to be a close call. He then referenced the community college’s “green” programs and initiatives which have and continue to make news in the area. “When colleges like Mount Wachusett make efforts toward conservation and sustainability that is a huge step in the right direction. Will what they are doing on one campus save the planet by itself? Of course not. What will save the planet is every person, every city, every college, every business, everyone doing with they can do individually. It will take a million or 10 million or a 100 million entities, like Mount Wachusett, doing what they can to make a difference.” Although he is still in the middle of a very successful career, Mr. Claiborne reflected on the unique opportunities he has had during his time as a journalist. “Being a journalist, which I consider a privilege, has also put me in the unique position to travel and country and world and witness some of the events, large and small, that collectively are a piece of history,” said Mr. Claiborne. “I’ve covered floods and blackouts and hurricanes and space shuttle launches and trials and fires and quirky little stories that tell something about what makes us human beings.” Mr. Claiborne, a native of San Francisco, earned a master’s degree in journalism from the Columbia University School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yale University. He joined ABC News in 1986 as a general assignment correspondent based in Boston, reporting for “World News Tonight,” “Nightline,” and “Good Morning America.” He was part of the ABC News team that won an Emmy Award in 2000 for their coverage of the seizure of Elian Gonzalez in Miami. In 2003, Mr. Claiborne was embedded on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War, and also covered the first Persian Gulf War in 1990-91. He is currently covering the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 4/18/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 93)