 What a sweet, sweet day this is. It is sweet for us, for the president of Roger Williams University and the School of Law, Dr. Donald Farrish, for university trustees, for law school directors, for our honorary degree recipients, and for the faculty, the staff, and the alumni of this law school. But it is especially sweet, so very sweet for you, the members of the class of 2018, your families, and your friends. Welcome. Please remain standing as, oh, I'm sorry. Please stand. And now please remain standing as members of the Roger Williams University Chorus sing the national anthem. Oh, say, what's so proud, whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous five-parts we were so gallant. Please be seated. Today is that future you dreamed about and worked for. And surely some of you are thinking, how in the world did I do this? How the hell did we do this? Well, one thing you did was work, long and hard. You prepared for and participated in class after class. You wrote and rewrote and rewrote memos and briefs and contracts and settlement agreements and research papers. You represented clients in our clinics and our clinical externships. You participated in countless co- and extracurricular activities. And you provided service, free legal services to the less fortunate, those who find themselves poor, or infirm, or voiceless, or oppressed. Every member of this class provided at least 50 hours of pro bono service, and almost half provided over 100 hours. And that service was consequential. Let me give you just one example. Through our pro bono collaborative, one of our graduating students was paired with a volunteer attorney at the law firm of Lock Lord. Their client was an undocumented Guatemalan woman who married a United States citizen after she arrived in the United States. Her husband is now disabled, and he relies on her for financial, physical, and emotional support. She was eligible for lawful permanent residence because she is married to a US citizen. But because she entered the country improperly, federal law requires that she return to Guatemala for 10 years and apply for processing in the US consulate there. Her husband wasn't able to travel with her, and she was faced with the choice of leaving him or staying in the United States without documentation and subject to deportation. Our student and the Lock Lord lawyer were able to help by applying on her behalf for a provisional hardship waiver, showing that her US citizen husband would suffer an extreme hardship if she was not permitted to stay in the United States. And one month ago, they received notice from the US Citizenship and Immigration Service that the waiver had been granted. Their client is now one step closer to lawful permanent residence, and she and her husband remain together. Law matters. Now members of the class of 2018, you were not the only ones working. You were taught, cajoled, threatened, guided, and supported during your time here by our talented and dedicated faculty and staff. This is a perfect opportunity to remember and reflect on a time when a faculty or staff member opened up your world or helped you see the light or was there when you needed support. I'm fortunate because I get to see and hear about this happening all around the law school. I invite the faculty and staff to stand and be acknowledged for all they have done for the class of 2018. Each year, the graduating class recognizes three members of this group whose contributions stood out. The staff member of the year is Brittany Raposa. That's an applause line as it turns out. Associate Director of Bar Support, which makes this even more remarkable, frankly. Brittany has been here for less than a year, which also makes this quite an accomplishment. But she has shown this class unequivocally and in so many ways that their success on the bar examination is her number one priority. Brittany, congratulations, and thank you. The class also selected for special recognition, one of the leading lawyers and judges who make up our adjunct faculty, perhaps the most dramatically underpaid cohort of employees at the law school. The adjunct professor of the year is Tara Allen. Tara is an assistant federal defender here in the district of Rhode Island. She teaches criminal procedure and trial advocacy. She has hosted our student attorneys at the federal defender's office. Students have been raving about her teaching and her guidance for years, and we listened. On July 1st, we will officially welcome Associate Professor Tara Allen as the newest member of our tenure track faculty. Tara, please rise. Last but certainly not least, the class-named Professor Tanya Monastir, the full-time faculty member of the year. Professor Monastir teaches and writes about everyone's favorite subjects, contract, sales, civil procedure, conflicts of law, complex litigation. She's both a successful teacher and a scholar, and her research has had a demonstrable impact on the development of the law of personal jurisdiction in Canada, where she is from. Tanya, congratulations. Please rise. During the last two years, the university and the law school have been saying a long goodbye and thank you to two cornerstones of this institution. The first is Tony Santoro, the founding dean of the law school, president emeritus of the university, and professor of law for 25 years. And the second is Bruce Kogan, our founding associate dean, the architect of our clinical and clinical externship programs, former interim dean, director of the mediation clinic, and like Tony, a professor of law for 25 years. Tony could not be here today, but I want, on behalf of the law school faculty and staff, to say to him and to Bruce, we thank you. We will miss you. And we're worried about what will happen now that the grownups are gone. We will do our best to build on the great foundation that you have laid for us. So now I'd like to turn our attention for a moment to those outside the law school who work to get the graduates to this day, their families and their friends. Parents and grandparents of members of the class of 2018, please rise and accept congratulations and thanks from your children and grandchildren. Siblings, please rise. Extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends. I would ask all spouses, partners, and children of the members of the class of 2018. And speaking of children, I am thrilled to inform you that your classmate, Samantha Armstrong, could not be with us today because she gave birth this morning to a healthy baby boy named August so that he, I guess, won't be heckled with knowing that he ruined his mother's graduation. And I think we should take a moment to remember all those dear to us who did not make it to this day and whose absence weighs on many of you. This law school is most fortunate that Dr. Donald Farish is the president of the university and the school of law. After years of teaching and research as an academic biologist, Dr. Farish turned to administration and he has proven here and elsewhere to be both a steady hand and a true innovator. He has also been a terrific supporter of the law school. Dr. Farish has a law degree in addition to his PhD in biology and he knows what you went through to reach this day. It's now my honor to turn the program over to President Donald Farish. Thank you, Dean Yolanski. Honorary re-recipients, members of the Roger Williams University Board of Trustees and the law school board of directors, other distinguished guests, faculty and staff at the Roger Williams University School of Law, alumni, friends, and families of the graduates, and especially the graduates themselves. Good afternoon and welcome to your day, commencement for the class of 2018. This is an exciting day for you the graduates because you are finally finished with your formal coursework and training and are ready to move to the next stage of your lives. I well remember that day just three years ago when you took the oath of professional ethics administered by a justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court at the beginning of your first year of law school. As I know you are aware, Rhode Island was for many years one of the few states without its own law school. And there was no consensus at all that our state even needed a law school. This university took a step that other Rhode Island universities were unwilling to take and established the state's first and only law school. Those who once doubted the need for a Rhode Island law school have all but universally agreed that they were mistaken. In the 25-year history of our law school, we have repeatedly witnessed just how profound its impact has been on the workings and culture of the state of Rhode Island. In addition to obvious improvements in the quality of legal practice and the much greater availability of legal services to the public, there is also no question that our law school has played a significant role in raising the public's expectation of the ethical performance of elected officials. With the move of our clinics and much of our third year curriculum to our Providence campus two years ago, we have dramatically expanded our capacity to connect our law school even more closely to the bench, the bar, and especially to the public at large. During the time you were law students, all of you had the opportunity to engage in clinics and externships. And all of you became versed in public interest law as a critical component of your legal education. This is a distinctive feature of legal education at Roger Williams School of Law. And we are proud of our focus on public interest law just as we are proud of all of you for so enthusiastically engaging in that aspect of the study of law. And now it is time for me and my role as president to charge the graduates. You are entering an honorable profession. As a nation that follows the rule of law, we need some of each generation's sharpest minds to become lawyers, thereby ensuring that the rights of society are fairly balanced with the rights of the individual. We need talented lawyers to protect society from those who would cause it harm, to defend the individual against overly aggressive regulation and governmental bureaucracy, to ensure that all members of our society have access to legal representation when they need it. In short, to keep society's machinery running smoothly. These activities must be carried out at the highest ethical levels so as to ensure that society never becomes mistrustful of the legal process. These are significant responsibilities, but asking anything less of you is to diminish the importance of the role you will play. Graduates of the Roger Williams University School of Law Class of 2018, we know you have the intelligence, the education and the experience to meet the challenges you will face and the expectations we place on you. So go forth with confidence and resolve. And as you do so, remember your professors and those who helped you get to where you are today and stay in touch. They will be grateful if you do. Thank you very much. And in case you missed me, I'm back. And so one mark of a great law school is a great board of directors and this law school has one. That board is chaired by the Honorable William E. Smith, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island. He became a member of that court in 2002 when his nomination by President George W. Bush was confirmed by the United States Senate and he became Chief of the Court in 2013. He is well regarded for his performance as a trial judge, for his intellect, his temperament and his character and he has an impressive record of effective and forward thinking leadership in his role as Chief of the Court. He has served the law school in many capacities for many years. He hosts our students in his chambers as part of our clinical externship program and he is taught as an adjunct professor every semester for many years, sometimes more than one course in a semester. Now we are benefiting from his leadership and wise counsel as not just the chair of the law school board, but as a trustee of Roger Williams University. To bring greetings from the board of directors, I am pleased to introduce to you the Honorable William E. Smith. Well good afternoon everyone. I love coming to this commencement so I can just hear the President give that introduction. It's the nicest thing anybody says about me all year. So it's so wonderful to be here. This is such a wonderful event to see all of you many of you who have been our students or I've seen you in the courtroom. And to bring you the congratulations and the greetings on behalf of the board of directors. The board of directors of this law school is a group of women and men from the legal community, the business community, the judiciary that you don't see or hear much of but who labor behind the scenes to ensure that the quality of the programming and the mission of this law school stays on course. And I would like to ask you to take a moment to recognize them and congratulate them for all they do to help you get where you are. And I'm gonna ask all of them who are here with us and there are many of them here to stand to be recognized. So why do these people give it themselves to serve this law school? And I'll tell you, it's because they believe and have come to believe in the role of this law school in ensuring the quality of legal practice in our community. These people believe and we all believe that a quality bar is essential to a well functioning democracy and to ensuring that the rights of the people are protected and particularly those who can't afford legal representation. And that has been a primary mission of this law school in its young life is to represent those who can't otherwise afford legal representation. Now, at a time like this, it's also time for us to say thank you and goodbye to a few members of our board of directors. Some of their names you've heard and some perhaps not. But three of our board are retiring with this commencement and I'd like to just take a moment to tell you about them. The first is Judge Bruce Selya who serves on the First Circuit Court of Appeals now as a senior judge. Judge Selya was a member of this board of directors from 2004 to 2017. He was vice chair from 2011 to 2017. He received an honorary degree from the law school in 2002 and has been an adjunct professor from the years 2006 to 2014. Judge Selya, as many of you have probably noticed, the appellate courtroom is now named for him. He has made it a practice to bring the First Circuit Court of Appeals here to sit at the law school in that courtroom for many years. He has too many awards and recognitions to detail. But one thing you should know is Judge Selya, along with the next board member I'm going to mention, have been largely responsible over the years for bringing to this law school some of the luminaries that students have had a chance to interact with, including Justice Scalia and most recently Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from the Supreme Court. And I know many of you attended the fireside chat that he held with Justice Ginsburg. The next member of our board of directors who is stepping down is the Honorable Ronald Kass. Dean Kass is the dean emeritus of Boston University School of Law. He served as dean there from 1990 to 2004. He was a law professor at Boston University and University of Virginia. He served as the vice chair and commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission and the chair of the Center for the Rule of Law. He's president of Kass and Associates. He has received five presidential appointments spanning the presidencies from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama. And as a law professor, a scholar, a writer, he has written and taught on a wide variety of topics and taught judges, law students, students of economics. In 2012, Dean Kass brought to the law school Justice Samuel Alito and hosted a fireside chat with him. In 2008, as I mentioned, Justice Scalia was here and Justice Selyan and Judge Selyan and Dean Kass were instrumental in bringing them here. And finally, we say goodbye to Robin Steinberg. She is the founder and the former executive director of the Bronx Defenders and founder and CEO of the Bale Project. See, is at the Gilbert Foundation and Senior Fellow of the Criminal Justice Program at UCLA School of Law. She has served on the board of directors since 2005. Ms. Steinberg has been a public defender for her entire career and a leader in pioneer in the field of indigent defense. She's been honored by numerous legal aid organizations, including the New York Bar Association for outstanding contribution to the delivery of defense services, the Harvard Law School's Wasserstein Fellowship. She was recognized with the Impact Award the New York Law Journal. Many Roger Williams Law School students have spent time and alternative spring break at the Bronx Defenders and the Bronx Defenders hosts, continues to host that alternative spring break because of Robin Steinberg. So we say goodbye and we say thank you for their service. So on behalf of the board of directors, I want to thank these folks for their service. Thank the board and congratulate you. You're going to hear a lot of inspiring words today, but I'll leave you with just three thoughts from the people who have been practicing for a lot of years. One is remember to keep public service in your mind as you go out into the legal profession. Pro bono work is key to this profession. We are service leaders. And become involved in your community and give back to your community. The second is to take care of yourselves. Practicing law is a stressful and difficult profession and you need to take time to take care of yourselves. And thirdly, as your career moves on, give back, think about the law school and pay it forward as all the people up here do to the people that will come behind you. So congratulations and we wish you the best. Thank you, judge. The law school is also fortunate in that we have a very active law alumni association. It's members support our program in each other in many important ways. They provide financial support. They return to judge, move court arguments. They mentor and hire our graduates. They teach as adjuncts and they pave the way for those who will follow by practicing law at the highest level and by engaging with and improving their communities. And here to welcome you into that law alumni association is its president, Jillian Jagling, a member of the class of 2009. Jillian gives and gives to the law school and to her family and at the same time, she is making a name for herself as an attorney for West Group in Massachusetts where she focuses her practice on municipal infrastructure. Jillian. Good afternoon, President Farish, Chairman Smith, honored trustees, Danielle Noski, honorary degree recipients, faculty and staff, family and friends. And most importantly, very soon to be alumni. On this commencement day, it is my pleasure to bring greetings to you from over 3,100 members of the Roger Williams University Law Alumni Association. As a graduate of the School of Law, today you begin a new role, one that you'll serve for the rest of your lives, that of an alumnus. For days, years and decades to come, the Alumni Association will serve as your link to the law school, its faculty and staff, and your classmates. I urge you to become an active alumnus, to stay connected to your alma mater, to stay in touch and continue to advance the interests of our School of Law. Your involvement will provide valuable insight, energy, and support, and continue to keep the law school on an upward trajectory. In recognition of your achievements, I formally welcome you to the Law Alumni Association. Congratulations. Thank you, Jillian. Law school is fortunate to be able to award honorary degrees today to the Honorable George E. Healy Jr. and Mary Elena Encapi. Would R.W. Law Board of Director, Judge Francis Flaherty, please escort the Honorable George E. Healy Jr. to the podium. Judge George Healy, you have dedicated your professional life to the safety and protection of Rhode Island's workers. Not only did you serve as a respected jurist on the Workers' Compensation Board, a compensation court for some 25 years, you were instrumental as a member of the very task force that created that court in 1990 and that ultimately overhauled and re-engineered the Rhode Island Workers' Compensation System in 1992. Prior to your appointment to the bench, you were an active civil litigator and Workers' Compensation Practitioner. You were first appointed to the Workers' Compensation Court by Governor Bruce Sunlin in 1991 and sworn in as Chief Judge on August 27th, 2004 by Governor Donald Carcieri. You served as Chief Judge until your retirement on July 31st, 2015. Today you remain a member of the State's Workers' Compensation Advisory Council, comprised of representatives from labor, business, state government, the insurance industry, and the court, with the admission of advising the Governor and General Assembly on matters relating to Workers' Compensation. You served on the editorial board of the American Medical Association's Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, fifth edition, and you have lectured and published numerous articles on many aspects of Workers' Compensation law and practice. Judge Haley, you have served on the board of directors for the Institute for Labor Studies and Research and moving closer to home on the board of RWU's laws, own very own pro bono collaborative. I would add that you have served as a popular and respected adjunct faculty member here at the law school, teaching Workers' Compensation law to a new generation of lawyers. You and your wife Ruth raised two sons in beautiful East Greenwich, Rhode Island, one of whom, Timothy Haley, O5, is also one of ours. Judge Haley, for your lifelong service to the advancement of law and justice in the state of Rhode Island, we are honored today to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, given this 18th day of May, 2018. Would RWU Trustee Pablo Rodriguez please escort Mary Elena Hincapie to the podium? Mary Elena Hincapie as executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. You have dedicated your life to defending and advancing the rights of low income immigrants in the United States. Under your leadership, the NILC has become one of the premier immigrants rights organizations in the country strategically employing a combination of litigation, policy, communications and alliance building to affect social change. You have won the respect of your peers and clients alike for the legal and political strategies you have developed. And today you are widely recognized as a bridge builder, both within the immigrants rights field and across the broader social justice sector. Fully bilingual and bicultural, you serve as a resource on immigration policy and data, appearing frequently in media outlets that include Univision, Telemundo, CNN and Espanyol, MSNBC, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. You frequently lecture at national and international conferences addressing issues of migration and work closely with emerging leaders across the social justice movement. These concerns have in fact formed the underlying theme of your professional career. Born the youngest of 10 children to a family in Medellin, Columbia, you immigrated as a child to Central Falls, Rhode Island. Having earned your JD at Northeastern, you became your tenure at the NILC in 2000 as a staff attorney, leading the organization's labor and employment program. From 2004 to 2008, you served as the NILC's director of programs. Before joining NLC, you worked for the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco's Employment Law Center, where you founded the Center's Immigrant Workers Rights Project. Your extraordinary efforts have been recognized through countless professional awards and honors, and you continue to be a leader in the field of immigrants rights. You have served on the American Bar Association's Commission on Immigration. You are currently a member of the board of directors for both Wellcome US and for the Center for Law and Social Policy, and you are board chair for the Indivisible Project. Mary Elena Hincapié, for your lifelong service to the cause of justice and equality. We are honored today to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, given this 18th day of May, 2018. I now invite Mary Elena Hincapié to make the commencement address. Thank you, President Farish, for that introduction, and good afternoon to all of you, especially a congratulations to the graduating law students, and to your parents, your loved ones, your family members who have supported you through law school. Today, it is your day as well. Thanks to President Farish and the board of trustees and the boards of directors for building a private institution who has a public purpose, which has provided all of you students with the legal education that the world needs you to have. Thanks to Dean Yolnowski for the invitation and for providing, prioritizing experiential learning, and coupling legal clinics with robust critical analysis and legal theory, as well as to the amazing law faculty that you have here at Roger Williams that has invested their very best in preparing you for a legal career. And finally, a special thanks to one of Rhode Island's most compassionate and brilliant leaders for justice, Pablo Rodriguez, for hooding me today. I am so humbled to receive this honorary degree, and I want to congratulate Chief Judge Healy, who also received the honorary degree today. I've gotten to know him over the last 24 hours and have just been so touched by his spirit and his commitment to what he calls a nation of workers. Growing up in Central Fault Road Island, I never imagined for a single moment that I would be standing here addressing all of you. As our nation debates who we are and what makes America great and how to ensure that we become an even greater country, I cannot think of a better career to be embarking on than a legal career because I believe that this is a great time to be alive. Please don't think that I'm naive. Trust me, as a woman, as a Latina, as an immigrant from Colombia, I know full well and at a very deeply personal level that we are living in dangerous times in this country. I know full well that if my family were trying to migrate to Rhode Island today, we would not be considered worthy of being here. Although my father was recruited as a skilled textile worker in Central Faults, the fact that he only had a second grade education and that my mom had a fifth grade education, the fact that they didn't speak English, that would be used today by this administration to exclude my family. My parents, Arturo and Teresa, came to the United States in search of that elusive American dream, that lively experiment of a society based on freedom, inclusivity and tolerance that Rhode Island's founder, Roger Williams espoused. It is that same promise of equality, freedom and justice that today's immigrants and refugees, whether they be from Portugal, Cambodia or Liberia, whether they be Muslim, Catholic or Jewish, continue to believe in. Through my parents' immense personal sacrifices, my nine brothers and sisters in me have had a better life, just like millions of immigrants and refugees have done throughout our country's history, just like many of you and your families. Today, my nine brothers and sisters and I are contributing to this great country in many ways. Among my siblings, including my sisters, Patricia and Gloria, who are here with me today, I count educators, health providers, a physical therapist, a biochemist, a small business owner, a corporate manager. My family, like your families are what make America great. And I dedicate this honorary degree to my family and to my team at the National Immigration Law Center. Thanks to the many sacrifices that my family and others who believed in me have made today I have the privilege of fighting to defend the Constitution while we're working to build a more just, inclusive and equitable society. I have the honor of doing so by leading the National Immigration Law Center, an organization that believes that we should all have the opportunity to thrive and fulfill our full human potential regardless of our race, our gender, our gender identity, where we were born or how much money we have. I consider myself one of the most blessed people who gets to work on the most pressing issues facing our nation. Since the elections, our team at the National Immigration Law Center has responded to crisis level requests from immigrants, advocates, lawyers, health professionals, local, state and federal policymakers and so many others who are concerned about what the new political reality means for immigrants and their families. This includes educators and pediatricians who are grappling with the toxic stress that children, many US citizen children are experiencing as they are petrified about whether their mother will be there at the end of the day, whether she'll be able to pick them up or whether their mother will have been detained by immigration, whether a father will be able to take their child to an important medical appointment or whether he will be racially profiled on the way to the medical appointment and put into deportation proceedings. Immigrant spheres are well-founded today, especially when you take into account our country, how our country's immigration policies are radically changing right before our eyes. Last month I had the honor of being at the United States Supreme Court listening to the oral arguments in the Hawaii versus Trump case challenging the Muslim ban. We at the National Immigration Law Center are co-leading the No Muslim Ban Ever campaign along with our partners at the Council of American Islamic Relations and the Asian Americans Advanced in Justice. Among the people in the courtroom that day were Ramla Sahid, who is the executive director of a nonprofit in San Diego. When she was five years old, Ramla and her family came to the United States fleeing civil war in Somalia and she's been here her entire life. But today, this government is telling Ramla and people like her that she and her family do not belong here simply because of their faith. This Muslim ban has turned religious freedom on its head and is resulting in increased hate crimes. We're also witnessing the creation of a deportation force which is ripping families and children apart, despite the fact that one out of every two undocumented immigrants in this country has been here for over 15 years, despite the fact that they are contributing over $9 billion a year in federal payroll taxes, including $31 million in Rhode Island taxes. If you listen to the rhetoric, you would think that this administration is only cracking down on undocumented immigrants, but instead we're witnessing attacks on legal immigrants. The Trump administration has taken a systemic approach toward dismantling our immigration system and part of that is by terminating the legal status of hundreds of thousands of families who have protection under various programs. Today, countless parents of US citizen children are being forced to make the heartbreaking choice about their children's futures, their homes, and the danger of returning to dangerous countries they left decades ago. Rhode Island will be hit hard by the termination of the DED program for librarians, especially since Rhode Island is home to more librarians than any other state in our country. They are your neighbors, coworkers, and family members. Over the next days or weeks, we're expecting that the administration will publish a proposed rule which could affect millions of families, including citizen children, and their willingness to seek vital safety net programs like nutrition assistance and medical care, as well as the earned income tax credit, one of the most successful anti-poverty tools in our country. And as you have probably heard, the administration tried to terminate the DACA program, leaving over 700,000 young immigrants who are American at heart in legal limbo. Just think of what your life would be like if in September, as you were beginning your third year of law school, you suddenly learned that the administration was going to end this DACA program, which meant that your work authorization would end and would bring your legal career to a screeching halt. Fortunately, there are courageous dreamers like our plaintiff, Martin Batalla Vidal, a DACA recipient from Queens, New York, who is a medical assistant. He works at a rehab center for patients who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, strokes, and heart attacks. Martin aspires to be a registered nurse. We filed the first lawsuit just hours after the administration made the cruel decision to end the DACA program on September 5th. Because of Martin and other DACA recipients like him, as well as other lawsuits that have been filed by 18 other states, including Rhode Island, we achieved a nationwide decision blocking the administration from terminating the program on March 5th. Since our decision earlier this year, over 55,000 young dreamers have been able to renew their DACA. This means that they can continue working, going to college or law school, and supporting themselves and their families. During this period, we have seen court serving as an important check and balance against the capricious actions and arbitrary actions of this administration. Both Republican and democratically appointed judges have found time and time again that this administration's policies and this president's tweets are grounded in racial animus and are otherwise unconstitutional. This is a sign that our democracy is working. And this is another reason why I believe that this is a great time to be alive. We are at a pivotal moment in our country's history. Despite the many challenges facing our nation, I am deeply optimistic about the prospects of people of good conscience and people on both sides of the political aisle to come together and step up to shape the future of our country. And you are graduating and entering the legal field at the very moment that this country needs you. The fight is not about immigrants, it is about all of us. It is about our national identity. It is about how we define what it means to be an American. This is a fight about the soul of our nation. Let's remember that unless you are a descendant of Narragansett, Wampanoag, or Poconoa Indians here in Bristol, or unless you are a descendant of African slaves who are violently forced to migrate here, we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants. We are also a nation. We are also a nation based on the rule of law, but we also have a history, a long history of unjust laws that have had to be repealed or overturned by our courts. Just yesterday, I was walking here in Bristol and walked by the DeWolf Tavern, which many of you may have hung out at and had a drink. I learned about the history and how the two DeWolf brothers, James and Williams, traveled to Africa to trade rum, rum for slaves, and then they brought those slaves to Cuba and South Carolina and traded them again for molasses and lumber, which they then used here. This was such a stark reminder of the unjust and inhumane laws that have allowed for people, for human beings to be traded in exchange for molasses and lumber. As future lawyers, it is your role to shape the future of this country through rules and policies and laws that you either support or reject. So you must constantly ask yourself, what are today's unjust laws that must be undone or repealed? As difficult as these times may be, I know that this is a great time to be alive. There is no better time to be a law student, a lawyer, an activist, or a patriotic American. We get to shape the future of our country. We get to shape the laws that will ensure that there is true inclusivity, equality, and opportunities for all of us. As a graduate of Roger Williams School of Law, you understand that our responsibility as lawyers is to serve justice and the public interest. When I look at you, do you know who I see? I see the future of judges in Rhode Island's courts and our federal courts. I see state legislators and US Congress members who will repeal today's unjust laws and draft new laws that will build a more equitable and inclusive society. This is a great time to be alive. I see lawyers who will take a pro bono case to help a single mother and her children prevent an eviction. I see those of you who will represent indigent people who have been accused of a crime. I see those of you who are lawyers who will represent workers who have been injured on the job and need workers' compensation. This is a great time to be alive. I see lawyers who will represent a teenage girl from Central America who has come into the United States seeking safety because she has been threatened with or actually gang raped. I see future members of boards of directors of nonprofit organizations. You will help those organizations be more effective and serve their local communities. This is a great time to be alive to see all that you will do. I see so many of you who are going to work on developing new policies, policies that address climate change, address gentrification and the housing crisis in this country, and who ensure that everyone in our country has quality and affordable healthcare. I see many of you who will support the women who are courageously standing up and saying, times up, me too. And I see those of you who will represent them in their sexual assault, harassment or rape cases. I see many of you who will work to ensure that no child is subjected to sexual abuse, that no child goes to bed hungry. And this is a great time to be alive. I see how many of you will support young leaders like those in Parkland, Florida who are fearlessly calling on every single one of us to say, never again. Never again will we allow another school shooting to occur. But given that this morning, I understand there was yet another shooting at a school in Houston. It's a reminder of how much work we have to do and we are counting on you. You will also be the ones that I see representing and ensuring that no African American parent will continue to be afraid when their children go out, especially they are young black men. You will represent the numerous people facing discrimination in our country, the low income, the underprivileged, the LGBTQ, the women, people who need you. That is who I see in you. That is who you are becoming today. And this is a great time to be alive. I see you as the future law school professors, perhaps even a future law school dean or the presidents of Roger Williams Law School as you shape the next generation of public interest lawyers. I see you and I know that this is a great time to be alive. In closing, I congratulate you for getting to this point in your life. As you enter this new stage of your career, take risks, keep learning and stay grounded. Stay grounded in the teachings that this great law school has taught you and the values and principles that your families and communities have instilled in you. Please know that you are the type of lawyer that the world is waiting for. We are counting on you to become the legal architects. The legal architects of the new laws and policies that our cities, our state and our country desperately need. Laws that are more fear, equitable and just. This is not a time to sit by the sidelines. This is a time to take action. But for today, this is a time for you to be grateful for the many people who have helped you get to this moment in your life. Go celebrate and congratulations. Gracias. Thank you, Marielena. The valedictorian of the class of 2018 is Jennifer Leasy. It is with great pride on behalf of the law school community that I welcome you to this podium to offer your remarks. Congratulations. Thank you, Danielle Noski. Good afternoon, President Farish, members of the Board of Directors, distinguished guests, faculty, staff, family, friends, and graduates of the class of 2018. As I stand up here in front of you, I can't help but feel like it's the first day of law school all over again. My palms are sweaty, my heart is racing, and Professor Murphy is looking at me expectantly. Don't worry, Professor, I have my takeaways right here. I'm reassured that just like law school, as time goes on, I'll get into my groove and everything will be all right. Many things have changed since we started this journey in August of 2015. Looking back, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. I distinctly remember trying to decipher the different types of pleadings and civil procedure, the hairy hand case and contracts, and why Manny Rea should not be convicted for chopping up his neighbor's hot tub. Over the past three years, we spent countless hours reading and outlining for our doctrinal classes, writing for legal practice, and getting completely lost in Westlaw. Professor Hashway informed me that those dark circles developing under my eyes were absolutely normal. In those moments, we were mostly worried about not making fools of ourselves and hoping to earn good grades. But while those two things remain important, they're not really what law school is about. Today is a time to reflect on how far we've come and the endless opportunities that lie ahead of us. On the first day of criminal law, Professor Ritchie terrorized the entire class by asking us what lawyers do. Of course, we all had an idea of what motivated us to attend law school and what it meant to be lawyers. But for those of you who don't know Professor Ritchie, he's been teaching since 1970. And I would be willing to bet that a student has still never given him an answer he's completely satisfied with. Although we were frustrated at the time in typical Ritchie fashion, he ended up being right. We had no idea what lawyers do. But our time at Roger Williams has transformed us. We now know what it means to be a lawyer. Although we all have slightly different lawyering styles than Professor Ritchie. The first noticeable change in this transformation was in our vocabulary. After just a few weeks of class, we were suddenly using words like scintilla, aforementioned, totality of the circumstances, and impracticable. The next change was in our way of thinking. Every car ride was a torts hypothetical waiting to happen. And we refused to sign anything without reading every line of fine print. And before we knew it, we became so immersed in this educational journey that we ignored our friends and families sorry about that. And learning about the law became all we could think about. But the classes we took were just one aspect of this journey. After we formed that foundation, we all had the opportunity to go out into the legal community and try our hand at being lawyers. Okay, maybe heavily supervised many lawyers. The class of 2018 had internships, jobs, and volunteer positions that ran the gambit from working with judges, prosecutors, corporations, and law firms to helping low income clients with legal needs, grappling with immigration issues, and advising startup businesses. These experiences completed the transformation. We built upon our legal foundation to solve real world legal problems and help people in need. These experiences are part of what makes Roger Williams such a unique law school. When we walk out of this school for the last time, we will all be prepared to enter the legal profession because this journey has taught us what it means to be a lawyer. Class of 2018, we should all be extremely proud of everything we've accomplished in these past three years, but we did not do this alone. We owe an enormous thank you to the Roger Williams community. Our dedicated professors taught us how to think like lawyers. The librarians never let us fall too far down the rabbit hole before rescuing us, and career services helped us find jobs. Another crucial piece of the Roger Williams community is our fellow classmates. While law school is no doubt a competitive environment, this class has always helped each other out, whether by lending notes to another student when Professor Heyman spoke too quickly, or whispering the right answer to the unlucky person that Professor Logan Cold called. Personally, I owe much of my success and happiness to my friends who have been by my side, especially my original study group, Hannah Pfeiffer, Sam Armstrong, Andrew Lentz, and Tyler Bischoff. Thank you for the study sessions, the last, and your friendship. And I'll go off script to give a special shout out to Sam who, in addition to being an incredible law student and public servant, is now going to be an amazing mother. And to my cue mate, Alex Rosson, thank you for making our insane three-year somewhat bearable. And lastly, I'd like to thank our biggest supporters, our families. Our families have been the shoulders we cried on, the ones we celebrated with, and in many ways, experienced the drudgery of the life of a law student along with us. I know many of them feel like they are graduating today too. I personally want to thank my parents and grandparents and the rest of my family for understanding when I couldn't make time to see them, sometimes for months at a time, and for continuing to support me nonetheless. Most importantly, I could not have done this without my partner and everything, Ben. You cooked me almost every meal for the past three years. You accepted it when I had to spend nights and weekends doing work. You built me up whenever I was down and you allowed me to be selfish when I needed to be. Your support was unwavering, and for that, I am forever grateful. Graduates, as we leave here today, we will be alumni of the Roger Williams University School of Law. We are now colleagues and we can continue to turn to each other for friendship, moral support, and advice. Our shared experiences in learning how to be lawyers has uniquely bonded us together. If there is a scintilla of trouble for any of the aforementioned graduates under the totality of the circumstances, it would be impracticable not to rely on each other. Thank you and congratulations to the class of 2018. Thank you, Jennifer, and congratulations. And now it's time for the main event. Will the candidates for the degrees of Juris Doctor and Master of Studies in Law please rise? President Farrish, I certify. President Farrish, I certify on behalf of the faculty of the School of Law that these candidates are eligible for the degree of Juris Doctor or Master of Studies in Law. By virtue of the authority granted by the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and delegated to the Board of Trustees of Roger Williams University, I confer upon you the respective degree to which you have been recommended, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities pertaining thereto. The candidates will come forward, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Diana Hassel, will present each candidate. Thank you, F. Kester, Master's in Study of Law, and Ripley, Master's of Study in Law. Maria D'Nito, Master of Studies in Law. Leslie Estrada Baroa, Master of Studies in Law. Derek J. Tevia, Master of Studies in Law. Alexander B. Terry. Andrew Domenico Sanercha, Summa Cum Laude. Kelsey Ann Hayward, Magna Cum Laude. Caitlin E. Combok, Summa Cum Laude. Katherine Dixon Bishop, Magna Cum Laude. Colleen Marie Kelly Barnes. James C. Bass IV, Cum Laude. Jennifer E. Leasy, Summa Cum Laude. Hannah Rose Pfeiffer, Magna Cum Laude. Andrew M. Lentz, Magna Cum Laude. Tyler J. Bischoff, Magna Cum Laude. Sophie Bellicosa, Andrew B. Murphy. Jovan St. George, Register. Injino, Natasha Montalvo. Romulo Ribeiro, Master, JD, and Master of Science in Cybersecurity. Jacqueline Alextrina Procwell. Jeff Michael Linares. Pelletier Esquire, Magna Cum Laude. Cole Steven Whitman. Mikayla Jane Bauer. Tiana Pittman. Hagan C. De Silva. Elizabeth Higgins. Shay Lindsey Griffin, Cum Laude. Connor J. Mills, Magna Cum Laude. Jeffrey Thomas Todd. Anthony Francini. Thomas Donald Medeiros. Kustadus, Cum Laude. Carol Shay Hornbach. Jessica Elizabeth Trio, Cum Laude. Catherine Spinella, Magna Cum Laude. RT Kennedy III. Michael J. Chase, Dirks. Michael Kelly, Master of Science in Cybersecurity. Stina Marie Canty. C. Lynn O'Gorman, Cum Laude. Forsier, Kylie Elizabeth Candon. Lee McKenzie. Clarissa M. Lawrence. Carolyn Faye Keller. Kelsey Erin McDonald, Magna Cum Laude. David M. Remelard, Summa Cum Laude. Cum Laude. Ellen Corbin. Annandroulis, Master of Studies in Law. Lee Rusk. Suza, Patricia Helmrich. Barbosa, Karen Michelle. Lynn Candela. Esposito, Cum Laude. Esquire, Cum Laude. Greenberg. Brandon Randolph Abner. Master of Science in Cybersecurity. Peter Ruggieri. Elizabeth Mealik, Cum Laude. Casey Catrine Hobby. Jessica Marie Saint-Germain. Shannon Adler Guthrie. Magna Cum Laude. Eat Smith Jr., Joseph DeSimone Jr. Jonathan James Moffett. Marie Chaka. Grace Duzlinski. Michelle N. Charles. Kelsey F. Wallace. Alyssa Marie Mason, Cum Laude. Champagne Al Robinson, Esquire. Ryan Suza. Gonzalez Jr., Cum Laude. Henriquez, Cum Laude. Francisco Javier Martinez Jr., Joseph Theodore Coppola II. Michael Pierre, Cum Laude. Antoine Smyth. Pearl Mutter. Ancentino. Higanti, Cum Laude. East, Cum Laude. UD Strauss. Andrew C. Rossin, Summa, Cum Laude. Magna, Cum Laude. You can sit down. It's all official now. Can't take anything back. Before we close, and I'd like to invite you all back to the law school to continue this celebration, I want you, the class of 2018, to know that we will miss you. You have enriched our lives. You've made the law school a better place. We are the ones who have decided to stay here forever. You get to leave, and there's a big world out there that awaits you. You've already improved that world by taking the time and doing the work and spending the money to become well-educated. First, education is such an important investment in your future. But there are what economists like to call positive externalities. More education, more knowledge leads to more understanding, and more understanding leads to less hatred and more peace. The author Beverly Tatum was with us this year, and her powerful message to us was that we each have a sphere of influence, and we have the power to work within that sphere to make our society more just. There is great honor in that work. Indeed, it might be the most important work that any person can do. And you are leaving here with more power, more skills, and more status to make that difference. One client at a time, one neighbor at a time, one stranger at a time, one child at a time, you can change the world. And God knows we have screwed it up for you. And for that, I apologize. I wish for each of you good health, joy, peace, and satisfying, meaningful work. You are ready. And you leave here with our unwavering support. Please remain seated until the platform party and the graduates have filed out. Thank you so much.