MARLBORO — Two leaders in global citizenship and service will address the graduating class at Marlboro College on Sunday, May 15.
Robert Gard, Jr., chair of the board at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, and Nadinne Cruz, an advocate and practitioner of service learning and experiential education in colleges and universities, will each speak at the first combined commencement for Marlboro College undergraduates and graduates at Persons Auditorium at 10 a.m.
“We are so honored to include these two inspiring examples of service, stewardship, and social innovation in our commencement ceremony,” Marlboro College President Kevin Quigley said in a news release. “The class of 2016 is lucky to be addressed by these visionaries, and will be well-informed by their commendable stories. I know how much Bob and Nadinne are looking forward to meeting our students.”
Originally from the Philippines, Cruz's formal education includes studies at the University of the Philippines, University of San Francisco, Marquette University, University of Minnesota, and most recently the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Her informal education includes more than 25 years of work in the Philippines and the U.S. focused on community organizing and speaking, writing, and living experiential education. She is co-author of “Service-Learning: A Movement's Pioneers Reflect on its Origins, Practice and Future.”
As executive director of the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs in St. Paul, Minn., Cruz led a consortium of 18 colleges and universities to develop community-based learning programs. She spent nearly 10 years as associate director and director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, where she founded and directed the Public Service Scholars program.
Gard is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general who served in Korea and Vietnam, as well as a military assistant to two secretaries of defense and past president of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. A graduate of West Point, along the way he received an MPA and a Ph.D. in political economy and government from Harvard University, and was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Since retiring from the army, Gard has held academic and administrative leadership posts at American University in Paris, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and the Monterey Institute of International Studies. An outspoken critic of the Iraq War and an advocate for nuclear arms control measures and the international ban on land mines, Gard is a consultant on international security and education for nonprofit organizations.
“Given how well they represent these values common to both our graduate and undergraduate programs, Marlboro College is pleased to welcome these two pioneers in civic engagement to our first joint commencement,” Quigley said.
The graduate campus in Brattleboro has celebrated its own commencement in August since its founding 19 years ago, and Quigley said this year's combined commencement marks a continued effort to more effectively unite the two campuses.
“We are eager to celebrate and build on our complementary strengths as a unified college, and to join with Bob and Nadinne in the recognition of all of our students' achievements,” he said.