Christopher John Mattsen '11, Program for Experienced Learners Graduate

President Eastman, members of faculty, board of trustees, distinguished guests, fellow classmates; ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Program for Experienced Learners, I am honored to welcome you to the 2011 Eckerd College Commencement.

Today is our crowning moment, a dedication to an amazing journey, from the darkness of ignorance, to Life, Learning, Vocation and a never ending Quest for more light of knowledge. Along the way - professors and students became a community. Today we graduate from that community and enter another, the Eckerd Alumni.

Today students and alumni share in this ceremonial tradition. Our undergraduate odyssey has reached its end, like those before us - we have been transitioned. We have risen from the Eckerd experience to a clearer vision, one that is filled with more hope and imagination.

Gloria Steinem said, "Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning." My dream then is that we never loose the excitement of today! We keep it alive in our dreams and dream of impossible things! Then and only then, will our future truly be shaped by our desires. I wish you all the happiness and success, as you travel along your life's next quest. Thank you.