Newswise — Amartya Sen, sometimes known as “the Mother Teresa of Economics” and “the conscience of the profession,” will be the principal speaker for the 103rd Saint Michael’s College commencement ceremonies on Thursday, May 13, 2010, in the Ross Sports Center on the suburban Burlington, Vermont, campus. Some 505 students will receive bachelor’s degrees and 52 will receive master’s degrees at the ceremonies.
Winner of the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on welfare economics, Amartya Sen is Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University and was until recently the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was the first Indian academic to head an Oxbridge college. His works have profoundly changed the way we understand major aspects of economics, philosophy and the social sciences. He is in fact a transformative thinker of the 21st century. Professor Sen’s work has addressed famine, human development theory, welfare economics, the underlying mechanisms of poverty, gender inequality, political liberalism and more.
Graduates will wear environmentally friendly “green” commencement gownsSaint Michael’s graduates at the ceremonies will wear environmentally friendly gowns made from recycled plastic water bottles, which they will be able to return for reuse or recycling. Their “green” regalia, made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled water bottles, will be the traditional black in actual color.
Honorary Degree RecipientsProfessor Amartya Sen will receive an honorary Saint Michael's College doctoral degree.
Robert Hoehl, a 1963 graduate of Saint Michael's College, will receive an honorary Saint Michael's College doctoral degree. Robert Hoehl joined with a partner in 1969 and formed a start-up company in the early days of computing, called Burlington Data Processing. They transformed the company into IDX Systems Corporation, which became a leading international provider of software to the health care industry.
Cynthia Hoehl and her husband Robert Hoehl have been deemed amongst the most generous citizens of Vermont. Cynthia Hoehl will receive an honorary doctoral degree from Saint Michael’s College. The Hoehl’s generosity to Saint Michael’s College is most visible in the Hoehl Welcome Center, the admission building of the college. But the Hoehl’s allegiances to Saint Michael’s go well beyond that building. They each earned degrees here, their daughter did too. Robert Hoehl served several terms on the college’s board of trustees. And their generosity to this and to numerous other organizations throughout Vermont is profound.
What’s next for a few SMC graduates:Katelyn Billings, a chemistry major from St. Albans, Vt., daughter of Jonathon and Marilyn Billings, both of whom are Saint Michael’s graduates, will be heading to Yale University to pursue a doctorate in organic chemistry.
Ryan LaRochelle, a history and political science double major, son of Peter and Joanne LaRochelle of Pittsfield, Mass., is heading to Brandeis University in the fall to pursue a doctorate in political science.
Dominic Perroni, a chemistry major from Manchester, N.H., son of Vincent and Linda Perroni, is heading to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to pursue a doctorate in organic chemistry.
Three Saint Michael's students head to Selma, Ala., to work in the Edmundite Southern Missions serving the African-American population under the guidance of Edmundite priests, the order of priests that founded Saint Michael's College.
Danielle Clemente, a psychology major from Clifton Park, N.Y., will be teaching math and science at the St. Edmund’s Learning Center in Selma. Ms. Clemente brings international experience having studied dance, drumming and culture in Ghana, and having done service work in Jamaica. She has also done service work in Vermont at Dismas House, Winooski Youth Connection, and as an intern for the Department of Child and Family Services. Meghan Jaird, a sociology/anthropology major from St. Albans, Vt., will work in the Edmundite Missions Development Office doing donor research and development as well as producing stories for the Edmundite Newsletter. Ms. Jaird has served in a leadership position on the MOVE (volunteer service) Core Team and Social Justice League and is the founder of SMC NESEI (New Sudan Education Initiative), a volunteer program to establish schools in Southern Sudan. She received the AmeriCorps Education Award and the Madeleine Kunin Public Service Award. Victoria Hynes, a journalism and mass communication major from Kennebunk, Maine, will work in the Edmundite Missions Development Office doing photography and web/digital management. Ms. Hynes was a reporter for the campus publications, Echo and Defender, and was a volunteer for the Little Brother/Little Sister program. In 2009, Victoria was awarded first place in the Saint Michael’s Global Eyes Photo Contest. She developed her own website which illustrates world class equestrian/horse training.
Amartya Sen bioIn addition to the Nobel prize, Professor Sen was also awarded The United Nations Life Time Achievement Award, the Bharath Ratna the highest civilian award in India, the Eisenhower Medal and numerous other awards of the highest stature.. His Nobel award was based on his contributions in social choice, the understanding of societal welfare, inequality and poverty, and the origins of famine and hunger. Dr. Sen was born in 1933 in Santiniketan, India, a community founded by India’s Nobel Laureate (1913) in Literature and favorite poet, Rabindranath Tagore. Dr. Sen’s educational attitudes were formed at an early age in Tagore’s progressive school, which fostered analytical curiosity and pluralism, rooted in India’s cultural heritage, along with the rich influences of western and non-western cultures.
Dr. Sen focuses unflinchingly on both foundational philosophical questions and practical humane concerns. He combines theory and empirical work embedded in the concerns of humanity, the experiential, social, historical and political worlds.
With a Ph.D in economics from Trinity College Cambridge, Dr. Sen has held professorships at Oxford University, London School of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institutie of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley, amongst several other leading world institutions. Author of virtually hundreds of articles and books, his Development as Freedom, Inequality Re-examined and The Idea of Justice, hold international acclaim. Dr. Sen has published over 500 journal articles in the leading academic journals of economics, philosophy and political theory. Learn What Matters at Saint Michael’s College, The Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college, www.smcvt.edu. Saint Michael’s provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead successful, purposeful lives that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael’s is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation’s Best 371 Colleges. It is one of 270 colleges and universities nationwide, and one of only 20 Catholic colleges, with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Saint Michael’s has 1,900 undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 100 international students. Saint Michael’s students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings. Saint Michael’s is located just outside Burlington, Vermont, one of
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