I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Northwestern University’s commencement at the United Center downtown Chicago yesterday morning as well as Kellogg’s graduation at the Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston later in the afternoon. It really is special to see all of these young people getting ready for the next adventures in their lives.

The Northwestern University commencement included the granting of honorary degrees to four outstanding alumni in very diverse fields: Entertainment, sports, journalism and science.

David Barstow

David Barstow is the first reporter in American history to win four Pulitzer Prizes, which he earned over the course of 20 years at The New York Times. He also is the Reva and David Logan Distinguished Chair in Investigative Journalism at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Katrina Adams

Katrina Adams is president of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the first African American to lead the United States Tennis Association (USTA). She is the first two-term chairman and president (2015-2018) and the first former player to hold that honor.

Kathryn Hahn

Kathryn Hahn is an actress on stage and screen. She was nominated for a 2024 Screen Actors Guild Award in the category of “Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series” and was nominated for a 2023 Primetime Emmy Award.

David Reitze

David Reitze is a leader in the development of ultrasensitive gravitational-wave detectors and astronomy. He has served since 2011 as executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, where a team of scientists opened a new window on the universe with the first observation of gravitational waves.

I had a chance to chat with each of them briefly…..a great experience.

The Kellogg graduation Sunday afternoon included many of the students in the full time, evening and weekend programs that were in my classes!!! It was great to share the celebration with them and take a lot of pictures!!!

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