Louis Caldera, a former secretary of the Army who also served as director of the White House Military Office, gave a heartfelt keynote address at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute tropaia ceremony on Friday.

Whether their goals were to better their communities or protect their countries, Caldera thanked the newest group of men and women who would be entering the arena of public service. He also applauded them for “undertaking a rigorous course of professional study with like-minded peers and faculty at one of the world’s great universities … that seeks to transform lives in our world through its commitment to excellence, to the search for truth and to social justice.”

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Business professor Ilkka Ronkainen receives the Academic Council Professor of the Year Student Choice Award during Friday afternoon's MSB tropaia ceremony.

The word “tropaia” is ancient Greek and refers to a monument constructed to celebrate a military victory. Today, trophies awarded for excellence may draw close comparisons to the ancient structures. Each year students, faculty and some alumni are recognized for their academic excellence and outstanding achievement during the tropaia ceremonies. Read Full Story.

As graduates integrate into a changing world, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark advised students to confront the future by heeding time-tested lessons.

His top advice: be aware of who you are and what you believe in.

“You’ve got to hang onto your principles,” said Clark, the featured speaker at MSFS’s award and diploma ceremony. “You can’t imagine how easy it is to compromise out there to get what you think you need. And, ultimately, when you do, you’ll have lost that which is more important to your achievement – which is yourself.”

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Looking back on the Walsh School of Foreign Service’s founding 90 years ago, Anthony Arend recounted how the world was in flux. Arend, director of the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program, reminded graduates at the MSFS tropaia and diploma ceremony that at the school’s founding in 1919 World War I had just ended, the League of Nations had been established and the United States was rising to a new position of global prominence.

In the midst of that changing world, SFS founder Father Edmund Walsh was convinced that the world needed a new academy that would prepare graduates for the new global realities, Arend said. Walsh stood on the stage of Gaston Hall, where this year’s MSFS graduates celebrated their tropaia ceremony, to outline the school’s vision.

“Father Walsh’s vision continues to be our mission,” Arend said. “To prepare students to enter an uncertain world, to prepare leaders who understand the complexities of this international system, to prepare leaders who can think creatively about solving problems and to prepare leaders who understand the deeper meaning of service.

“Father Walsh’s vision, our mission, is now your job. Welcome to this world.”

When Christian Gonzalez (G’09) decided to come to Georgetown for a master’s degree in biotechnology, he was nervous. Christian hails from Puerto Rico and thought the language barrier between Spanish and English — especially given the jargon in his field — would trip him up. That’s why he decided to attend school part time.

Two years later, Gonzalez sat in Dahlgren Square with his classmates on May 15, celebrating their achievements at a reception following the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ commencement ceremony. Under an expansive tent with a DJ pumping music into the air and celebratory wine flowing, Christian had a relieved look on his face.

“I’m happy I’m done,” he said. “It was hard at first, not speaking the language. I didn’t think I’d be able to make it through. But in this program, we’re a family. I got a lot of help from my program director and professors.”

Christian is staying in the Washington area and beginning a biotechnology position at a private firm.

William Gyude Moore (G’09), the student speaker at the tropaia and diploma ceremony for the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program, is at peace with his uncertain future.

Better than any of his fellow graduates, perhaps, Gyude knows that current circumstances mean little. The Liberian born Gyude took the audience back to his adolescence in West Africa, where he and his family were forced to flee fighting. His mother had just given birth to twins days before the family ran for safety – his frail newborn sister did not survive the family’s journey.

Later in a refugee camp in Côte d’Ivoire, Gyude had a case of dysentery so acute that his family accepted his death as inevitable.

“It doesn’t require much creativity or imagination to appreciate the vast chasm between the child who lay dying in a refugee camp and the man who is delivering this address today,” Gyude said. “Just because a person is in one place today, that doesn’t mean that’s where he’s going to end up. I want you to remember that.”

Things won’t always go as planned for MSFS graduates, Gyude told his classmates, but with disappointments comes transformations.

“It’s not a matter of if we’ll shape the future,” he said, “it’s a matter of when.”

This morning William Gormley, Georgetown Public Policy Institute interim dean, welcomed approximately 200 soon-to-be graduates, their parents, friends, faculty and distinguished guests to the Leavey Center Ballroom for the annual tropaia awards ceremony.

“We’re here to celebrate you — our students — your many accomplishments and your bright futures, but first let’s salute the parents, spouses and friends who helped make all this possible,” said Gormley to much applause.

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