Look homeward

CNN anchor exhorts graduates to remain grounded in their roots as they grow and spread

Wake Forest's graduates should remember their home base when they go out into the world, honoring the values of family and community as they pursue careers.

That's the message Judy Woodruff, prime anchor and senior correspondent for Cable News Network, delivered at Commencement exercises on May 15.

Woodruff told the 1,249 undergraduate, graduate school, and professional school graduates that most of them would change jobs six or seven times during their careers and that many of them may work for a company headquartered outside the United States.

"The world you are entering is more far-reaching than anything your parents and I ever imagined," she said. "No matter how far you go, how high you reach, never forget your home base: your roots, values, traditions, community and family."

Woodruff was one of six distinguished individuals who received honorary degrees at Commencement. Others were:

• Frank L. Horton, director emeritus of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem;
• Jacob Lawrence, painter;
• Roy J. Smith ('53), executive director and treasurer of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina;
• J. Paul Sticht, retired chairman and CEO of RJR Nabisco, Inc.;
• Sidney Verba, director of the Harvard University libraries.

Published in Wake Forest Magazine.

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