About 1,000 undergraduates and 600 graduate students received degrees at Wake Forest University's commencement exercises today. The school's Class of 2013 includes 11 recipients of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. Those students will be taking on post-graduate work ranging from researching regenerative medicine in Sweden to teaching Vietnamese children.
PBS journalist Gwen Ifill delivered the commencement address and urged the graduates to keep several promises.
"A promise to care about more than just yourself, but to also affect the lives of those around you," she told the new graduates. "A promise to use what you've learned here about the potential of rebuilt bridges and healing words to create new relationships where none existed before. Oh, and also don't forget to laugh along the way."
Ifill referenced her mentor, the late NBC commentator Tim Russert, in her speech. Russert was scheduled to speak to Wake Forest graduates in 2009 but passed away suddenly a year earlier.