CHSS alumna to Class of 2015: Find your mission…and people who support it

Align yourself with people who support your mission. Recognize that a failure or a change makes you stronger. Proximity does not mean you are fully present in someone’s life…listening does. Think about the person you want to be when you’re 90.

Those are some of the messages Ashley Abdullah offered to 490 graduates of the College of Humanities & Social Sciences (CHSS) during her Commencement address on Friday, May 15. In a passionate address, Abdullah, who earned her bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Rowan just nine years ago, implored the graduates to find their mission, be there for the people they love, and think of difficulties they face as building blocks to success.

“If you were to wake up today and you were 90 years old, who would be the people who would be there with you?” Abdullah, associate manager for media planning multiplatform strategy for the Univision Network in Miami, asked the graduates. “What makes you get out of bed every morning? What is your purpose? What is your mission?”

The importance of having a mission—“and in articulating your purpose--is your North Star,” Abdullah said. “(But) even a failure can be embraced. It will always motivate you. It will build your muscle. Some lessons you only learn through pain and failure.”

The youngest speaker in six addresses over four days at Rowan University’s 90th Commencement, Abdullah was honored with the college’s first-ever Medal of Excellence Award in recognition of her professional achievements. She has enjoyed a meteoric rise with Univision, which she joined shortly after graduating magna cum laude from Rowan in 2006.

In her address to the graduates, CHSS Dean Cindy Vitto noted that students in the college gain “transferable leadership skills,” such as critical thinking, problem-solving, finding and synthesizing information, communicating effectively and demonstrating empathy.

“These are the skills that will allow you to navigate the seven or more career changes that most likely lie ahead of you—and some of those careers don’t even exist yet,” Vitto said. “One of the many reasons we invited Ashley to be our Commencement speaker is that she embodies just how quickly top-level success can come to an individual with the transferrable leadership skills we emphasize in the humanities and social sciences.”

During the ceremony, the University honored another leader when Glassboro Mayor Leo McCabe received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree. McCabe, who already holds one doctorate—in organic chemistry from The Ohio State University—is a keen intellectual and a decent, loving, kind, special man, Rowan President Ali A. Houshmand said.

Nick Petroni, vice chairman of Rowan’s Board of Trustees and a native of Glassboro, presented the degree to McCabe. In doing so, he paid tribute to the mayor’s work to turn Glassboro into a true college town and to his extraordinary involvement in the community. McCabe was a founding member of the Boys and Girls Club of Glassboro, president of the Glassboro Education Foundation, and a board member of the school board, planning board and St. Bridget’s Church, among other groups.

"His commitment, his dedication and his ceaseless work have been critical to the present and future of Rowan University, as well as Glassboro,” Petroni said of McCabe. “He has exhibited great vision and outstanding leadership.”