News Staff Reporter
On Monday, April 10th, Headmaster Ed Shanahan announced in an email to the 6th form that this year’s Commencement speaker will be Connecticut Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D). The Commencement ceremony, Choate’s 116th, will be held Sunday, June 4th, in front of Archbold.
Son of the late Senator Thomas J. Dodd and Grace Murphy Dodd, Senator Chris Dodd has played an active role in the Senate throughout his five terms. He is well-known for his work on behalf of children. Senator Dodd introduced the first children’s caucus in the Senate, and has worked to improve access to safe child care. Senator Dodd has also worked hard to improve voting rights, authoring the “Help America Vote Act.” Striving to better our nation’s education, Senator Dodd was honored as a national Head Start “Senator of the Decade” for his work with the Head Start program. In addition, Senator Dodd has fought to provide more Americans with good jobs, played a vital role in delivering extended health insurance to 5-7 million uninsured children, and received the Edmund S. Muskie Distinguished Public Service Award, which acknowledges leadership in foreign policy.
Senator Dodd currently is on several important Senate Committees. He is a senior member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, also serving as its senior Democrat on the Education and Early Childhood Development Subcommittee. Additionally, Senator Dodd acts as the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Committee. He is the senior Democrat for the Rules and Administration Committee and is also the senior Democrat on the Securities and Investment Subcommittee of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
Choate will be instituting a new graduation requirement in global studies next year, and Senator Dodd’s work in foreign relations makes him “the perfect fit for Commencement speaker,” according to Mrs. Lorraine Connelly of the Communications department. Senator Dodd, who spoke at Choate in 1998 as the Adlai Stevenson fellow, is a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee. Mrs. Connelly explained that “Sen. Dodd can certainly offer insights in this area. He is fluent in Spanish and spent two years in the Peace Corps after college working in a rural village in the Dominican Republic.”
The Communications Department works alongside the Headmaster’s Office each year in recruiting Commencement speakers. It is often difficult to book a commencement speaker due to scheduling conflicts. When Kiran Pendri ’06 and Jeff Chen ’06, two Choate students who scored a perfect 2400 on the new SAT, met Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell last summer, Governor Rell was invited to be the speaker for the Class of 2006. Mrs. Connelly explained, “we were in wait mode with Governor Rell for a couple of months...and it didn’t pan out recently.”
This was not the first time that Senator Dodd was invited to be Choate’s Commencement speaker. In 2003 he was asked to speak at Commencement, but since, according to Mrs. Connelly, “he was considering throwing his hat in the ring for the 2004 presidential election,” Senator Dodd declined the invitation. It was confirmed last Monday that Senator Dodd would indeed be available, and, as Mrs. Connelly explained, “we’re very excited.” She continued, “Senator Dodd was certainly at the top of our list of potential speakers. The Senator’s office has been a big supporter of Choate students in the American Political Institutions classes.”
