Journalist to give W&J commencement speech
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author George Anders will give the keynote speech at Washington & Jefferson College’s 2018 commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday in the James David Ross Family Recreation Center. Internationally-renowned peace builder Mary Montague will speak at the college’s baccalaureate service Friday.
Anders is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of five business books, including the New York Times bestseller “Perfect Enough,” and his latest, “You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a Useless Liberal Arts Degree.”
He began his career at The Wall Street Journal, where he was part of the founding team of The Wall Street Journal Europe. In the mid-1990s, he chronicled America’s struggles over health care, sharing a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1997.
Currently, Anders is an editor-at-large for LinkedIn, where he writes about college-to-career topics and the future of work. He also has served as a contributing writer at Forbes magazine, a founding member of the board of editors at Bloomberg View, and the Silicon Valley bureau chief of Fast Company magazine.
In 1978, Mr. Anders earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University. A champion of the liberal arts, his W&J commencement speech, “Becoming Your Own Mentor,” will encourage new graduates to draw on the strengths they acquired during their time at W&J, and recognize that even with limited experience, they are more powerful than they realize.
Montague, who has worked extensively with W&J’s Conflict & Resolution Studies program, will give a baccalaureate speech titled “Love and Belonging.”
A native of Northern Ireland, Montague has spent decades promoting peace at home and abroad. She specializes in bringing opposing parties together and encouraging them to take part in inter-community peace talks.
Mary Montague
She acted as a mediator in the Northern Ireland conflict and made a significant contribution to reconciling the communities, and has mediated in other areas of crisis throughout the world, including: Kosovo, the Balkans, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, the Middle East, Asia and Northern Africa. Montague co-founded the nonprofit organization TIDES Training & Consultancy to give ex-combatant groups and security leaders a chance to recover from the trauma they endured during the Northern Ireland conflict by letting them discuss and share their experiences.
Due to a location change, this year’s commencement ceremony is a ticketed event. The ceremony will be live-streamed via W&J College’s website; a URL will be provided closer to the event date.