As family and friends gathered in the Temple of the Trees at Oxford on May 10 for the College’s 2003 Commencement, Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker encouraged the graduates to pursue a meaningful–not material–version of the American dream.

“Don’t worry about how much money you’re going to make,” said Tucker. “That is far from the most important thing. You will spend half your waking hours at work. Make sure it’s something you enjoy, that enriches your life and contributes to your community. Then, you will be rich.”

During this time in which “men and women of high station and low have given their lives to defend America and its infinite possibilities,” Tucker said, it is incumbent upon all of us to “protect, preserve, and defend the freedoms this great nation offers.”

Dean Dana Greene ’71G awarded Tucker the Dean’s Medal for her “tenacity of purpose” in giving voice to the marginalized and calling attention to entrenched social problems.

The formal ceremony, which began with the traditional bagpipe processional, recognized 208 graduates who received their Associate of Arts degrees.

“By joining us at Oxford you have become a new person who has inherited a legacy of heart and mind which goes back to 1836,” said Greene. “You are part of the Oxford lineage. We send you forth full of pride and with great expectations for your future.”

Ryan Burns Roche, a college chorale section leader and soloist, student government vice president, and Leadership Oxford peer leader, who has given “scores of campus tours while walking backwards,” was given the Eady Sophomore Service Award by Associate Dean of Campus Life Joseph C. Moon Jr.

The Emory Williams Award for Distinguished Teaching was presented to M. Eloise Brown Carter, professor of biology, for her creative selection and presentation of classroom material to consistently “reduce the gap . . . between what is taught and what students learn.”

And, in order to “recognize the recipient here on his home campus,” Interim Provost Howard O. Hunter gave an early reading of a sonnet honoring Charles Howard Candler Professor of English Lucas A. Carpenter (left), who was presented with the 2003 University Scholar/Teacher Award at Emory’s Commencement on Monday morning.–M.J.L.