Mark Shriver ’86, Vice President of Save the Children, to Deliver Commencement Address at Holy Cross

Mark Shriver ’86, vice president and managing director of Save the Children, will receive an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross and address this year’s graduates during the College’s Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 28 at 10:30 a.m. on the campus.

Shriver manages U.S. programs for the international organization Save the Children.  In the U.S., Save the Children works in rural communities in Appalachia, the Southeast, the Mississippi River Delta, the Gulf Coast, the Southwest and California's Central Valley, providing early childhood development, literacy, physical activity, and nutrition programming as well as emergency relief.

A history major at Holy Cross, Shriver has devoted his career to social and public service.  Soon after graduation, he became a member of the Maryland Juvenile Justice Advisory Council, and also served on the Board of Directors of the Public Justice Center, the Maryland Governor’s Task Force on Alternative Sanctions to Incarceration, and the Maryland Governor's Commission on Service.  In 1994, he was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, the lower house of the Maryland state legislature, representing Montgomery County, Maryland, District 15, and was reelected in 1998.  In addition to serving as a delegate, he worked on the Task Force on the Maryland Prepaid-Tuition Savings Program in 1996, and on the Task Force to Study the Governance, Coordination, and Funding of the University System of Maryland. He was a founder and executive Director of The Choice Program, an at-risk youth intervention project of the Shriver Center at University of Maryland. He then served on the Advisory Board on After-School Opportunity Programs from 1999 to 2003.

Shriver is married to Jeanne Ripp Shriver ’87.  He is the son of the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver, former Holy Cross trustee and honorary degree recipient in 1979 and of R. Sargent Shriver, who received an honorary degree in 1986.  His sister Maria Shriver received an honorary degree in 1998.

Julianna Stuart, from Storrs, Conn., will give the 2010 valedictory address.  A religious studies major with a concentration in peace and conflict studies, Stuart is a member of Alpha Sigma Nu, the Jesuit Honor Society, and Theta Alpha Kappa, the Religious Studies Honor Society.  She is active in the chaplains’ office, has led numerous students on immersion trips and retreats, and is a member of Pax Christi, the on-campus National Catholic Peace Organization.

This year, Stuart helped organize the Student Programs for Urban Development (SPUD) Election Initiative and worked in the Donelan Office as a Community Based Learning Scholar.  She is interested in community organizing and civic engagement. Upon graduation, she hopes to work in public policy or higher education.

Stuart wants her speech to reflect not herself but the experiences of the class of 2010, which she is confident “will continue to leave the world a little bit more colorful than they found it.”

The College will also bestow three other honorary degrees to the following individuals at Commencement:

Rev. William A. Barry, S.J., spiritual director and author, Campion Renewal Center Fr. Barry, a distinguished and influential commentator and guide on Ignatian spirituality, is currently co-director of the nine-month Jesuit Tertianship Program and directs retreats at Campion Renewal Center in Weston, Mass.  A native of Worcester who attended Holy Cross, Fr. Barry entered the Society of Jesus in 1950 and was ordained in 1962. He earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan in 1968. He has taught at the University of Michigan, Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and Boston College. He is the author or co-author of 15 books, including The Practice of Spiritual Direction, God and You, Finding God in All Things, Spiritual Direction and the Encounter with God, Who Do You Say I Am?, With An Everlasting Love, and Contemplatives in Action.

Rev. Sally Bingham, Episcopal priest and Canon for the Environment in the Diocese of California Active in the environmental community for 25 years, Rev. Bingham is founder and president of The Regeneration Project, which is focused on its Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) campaign, a religious response to global warming involving a national network of over 10,000 congregations.  She has brought widespread recognition to the link between faith and the environment and has mobilized thousands of religious people to put their faith into action through energy stewardship and advocacy.  Rev. Bingham serves on the National Board of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Environmental Working Group, and the U.S. Climate Action Network, as well as the national advisory board for the Union of Concerned Scientists and the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Sidney Callahan, author and distinguished scholar, The Hastings Center Callahan is an author, lecturer, college professor, and psychologist.  She has written many articles, books, and columns devoted to religious, psychological, and ethical questions; and has lectured and led workshops at colleges and institutions across the United States.   In 2002-03, she held the Paul J. McKeever Chair of Moral Theology, St. John's University, Queens, N.Y., and she was a professor of psychology at Mercy College from 1980-97. She received her B.A. in English from Bryn Mawr College, her M.A. in psychology from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in social and personality psychology from the City University of New York. Related Information:

Commencement website

April 6, 2010|nm