2003 Grads Get Good Advice
Wendy Chamberlin (BS70), speaker for the 145th annual Commencement, urged graduates to "serve something bigger than yourself," adding, "Turn your passion into a way to help people-your family, your friends, your community, your country, the world."
A career member of the U.S. Foreign Service who served as the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Chamberlin now heads the Bureau for Asia and the Near East as an assistant administrator in the U.S. Agency for International Development. She received an honorary doctor of laws degree.
At the SESP Convocation the following day, June 21, in Cahn Auditorium, Stephanie Pace Marshall, president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, advised graduates to "Live from the inside out, be stewards of your gifts and passions and dream big dreams."
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P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, professor of human development and social policy, presents Eleanor E. Maccoby, a preeminient development psychologist and the Barbara Kimball Browning Professor of Psychology, Emerita, at Stanford University, for an honorary doctor of science degree. Photo by Tanya Tucka. |
Alumni Board Leadership Award
Elsa Wang received the 2003 Alumni Board Leadership Award at Convocation in June. Members of the alumni board committee are Wendy Locascio (chair), Ruth Beller, Victor Dye, Joseph Harmsen, Maria Meza, Julianne Nery, Carolyn Nordstrom, Elaine Oh, Lisa Vahey, Maria Vlahos and Dawn Weston.
Class of 07 Stats
Applicants: 203
Admitted: 59
Accepted: 33 or 59%, the second highest yield of Northwestern schools
Applicants: 203
Admitted: 59
Accepted: 33 or 59%, the second highest yield of Northwestern schools
Happy Birthday, Lindley
Professor Emeritus Lindley W. Stiles, a lifelong educator, recently celebrated his 90th birthday. The New Mexico native and self-proclaimed "cowboy in the classroom" joined the Northwestern University faculty in 1968 with appointments in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education as the first Interdisciplinary Professor of Education. "My continuing premise," he says, "is that the professions advance themselves through three key activities: teaching, research and practice. And of the three, teaching receives the least attention."
Author of The Best Should Teach, Stiles devoted his life's work to the belief that "teaching is the preeminent profession because it nourishes all others and the total of human endeavors." Throughout his career he worked to refute negative perceptions of teaching. "If a better world is your aim, all must agree: the best should teach," he wrote. "I had to follow my conscience and challenge the ignorance and traditions that inhibited progress toward making teaching a respected profession."
Before coming to Northwestern, Stiles served as dean of schools of education at the University of Virginia and University of Wisconsin. He also helped generate support for several key pieces of education legislation, including the National Science Act of 1958 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which he helped write.
At Northwestern, he considered one of his greatest contributions to be establishing the Center for the Teaching Professions, which challenged professors to focus on the quality of their teaching as well as research. "He is a model of democratic and administrative behavior," then-provost Raymond Mack told the Daily Northwestern upon Stiles' retirement in 1979. "But I'll remember him most because of his undying devotion to students."
Today Stiles makes his home in Boulder, Colorado, not far from his alma mater, the University of Colorado. continues to promote the ideals behind The Best Should Teach - even if his chosen profession wasn't exactly what his father had in mind.
" My God no, no, son, anything but a teacher!" the elder Mr. Stiles said when his son informed him of his career plans. But Stiles was on a mission-and he still is. "I felt called to teach," he commented when he retired. "There's nothing I would rather do."