Graduates bid farewell to Santa Clara University
SANTA CLARA >> With bright smiles, a little champagne and unbridled hope, an estimated 1,300 Santa Clara University graduates took a step into the future Saturday, marking the university’s 167th commencement.
As they said goodbye to a Jesuit school widely known for its dedication to social justice and
service to others, Kirk Hanson — the university’s longtime moral compass — also bid farewell. Hanson, executive director of the world-renowned Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, retired this year after leading the university’s ethics center for 17 years.
Hanson took early retirement in 2001 from the faculty of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business to lead the ethics center.
“My best, and in some ways, my most courageous decision was to leave Stanford and its comforts to come to Santa Clara to grow the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics,” he said Saturday during the keynote address. “It turned out to be the second-most important choice in my life; after marrying my life partner, Kathryn. It brought a greater sense of fulfillment and happiness than I have ever had.”
When he took over as executive director, the center had just six staff members and only two focus areas: Ethics in K-12 education and bioethics. Under his leadership, the center has grown to become the largest universitybased ethics center in the world with expertise in numerous areas, from nonprofit ethics to internet, government and technology ethics, among other topics.
“I wanted to put the Mark-
kula center on the map,” he said. “I’ve think we’ve accomplished that.”
Hanson said several factors have helped the center thrive, including the university’s extensive support and the center’s location in Silicon Valley.
“This is ground zero for so many different ethical issues of this generation; from how we use computers to how we use the internet and artificial intelligence,” he said. “Those problems are emerging here and the solutions are being worked out here, which gives us a front row seat.”
In his address Saturday, Hanson told graduates they’re different from others in their position because they embody four key traits that were instilled in them during their time at Santa Clara: Compassion, purpose, preparedness and courage.
“Here’s the advantage of being more compassionate and empathetic,” he said. “If you are, you recognize how the lives of others are different from yours, and how others may think and feel differently. You can manage teams and organizations more effectively, you can tap into the feelings of consumers and audiences more effectively, and you can create ventures and public policies that address the real problems others have. When I have been more compassionate and attentive, I think I have been a better teacher, a better friend, a better manager.”
Graduate Erin Labay, 22, a communications major, said having ethics is about “doing what’s right and not worrying about other stuff that doesn’t matter.”
“It’s about following your moral compass and doing things that are right by you,” she said.
Labay, who graduated with honors, plans to visit family in Australia and Singapore before settling down to find a job in public relations.
Cristina Whitworth, 22, who majored in civil engineering, said ethics are an intricate part of the university’s teachings.
“Santa Clara does a great job about having the Jesuit values, which involve ethics, in every single class, whether it’s engineering or the core classes,” she said.
Whitworth — who like many of the graduating engineers wore the traditional white hardhat as her “cap” — will spend the summer traveling before returning to the Bay Area to work for a general contractor as a project engineer.
Hanson will remain with the center as a part-time fellow, but hopes to write more in his free time and travel with his wife, who also recently retired.
He concluded his message to 2018 graduates with a warning: “The traits you came with and were shaped by your Santa Clara education do not come with lifetime guarantees,” he said. “You will shape your own character and your own strengths every day of your life; you will weaken or strengthen your compassion, your purpose, your preparedness, your courage — by the decisions you make today, tomorrow and every day of your life.”