Mark Connolly, '97 (Chair, Department of Modern Languages, Milton Academy)

Mr. Connolly, the invited speaker for our 2011 Sigma Delta Pi induction ceremony, gave an inspiring and eloquent presentation about his time as a Holy Cross student, including his study abroad experiencie in Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and the lessons he has learned along the way.

     Felicidades, graduados. Congratulations, parents and guests. It is a privilege to address a group that is so united through your studies and successes, but so divergent in your passions and possibilities. Your induction into Sigma Delta Pi is a great accomplishment-one that underscores an impressive depth and dedication to your studies. Today my hope for all of you is that you can find your own way to use Spanish in the way that you've experienced it here at Holy Cross-through literature, history, art…through the call to travel or the call to serve. Possibilities in the form of "puentes," a rich word in Spanish, are yours to make and yours to cross.

     I have to confess that I started my time at Holy Cross without a Spanish class. I had taken four years in high school and done well. I had credit for language, but after a semester without a Spanish class, I made sure I had one for the next semester. I missed it. I didn't have to-I wanted to, and in a way I almost felt I was drawn to. Fast forward about a year, to the time when I had to declare a major. I declared an English major. Much the same way I added a Spanish course, I added a Spanish major because I wanted to...I felt drawn to. I think that those decisions were among the most important ones I've made in my academic and professional life. They charted a course for my graduate studies and my career path. These decisions had a significant role to play my personal life as well.

     I think the connection that led me to make professional and personal decisions involving Spanish was the transformative power of language and reading. I liked reading, but more importantly I like talking about reading. I enjoyed doing this in Spanish even more than in English. Reading brought the study of language to life. I especially liked being part of classes and communities that held creative and critical language in the highest esteem. Holy Cross does this better than anywhere else I have been.

     Some can say that language study gave them opportunities that they might not have imagined otherwise. Others may say that language study made opportunities they imagined richer. I am in the unique position to be able to say that the study of Spanish at Holy Cross permeates almost every part of my professional and personal life.

     I think that all of us share in the transformative power of language and reading. You have had the opportunity to read and discuss some of the world's most prized authors in the original: Cervantes, Lorca, Borges, Neruda, García Márquez and Vargas Llosa. These works examine life through language, and in doing so, give life to language. They bridge classical and contemporary culture and link continents through consciousness. Mario Vargas Llosa used reading as the theme for his Nobel acceptance speech in December. On that occasion he said, "La buena literatura tiende puentes entre gentes distintas y, haciéndonos gozar, sufrir o sorprendernos, nos une por debajo de las lenguas, creencias, usos, costumbres y prejuicios que nos separan."

     I expect language and literate will have a role to play in our shared future. You are inheriting a world that has redefined the way people can impact their communities, reminding us that we all should be not only readers but leaders. People narrate their lives through blogs. Entrepreneurs create charities and raise large sums through social media. Individuals and groups launch revolutions on Twitter. Never have there been more outlets for language. At the same time, we live in a world that pays less and less attention to language. We have more visual and verbal creativity than ever before, but our ability to construct and deconstruct a sentence is diminished. The same has happened to our ability to construct and deconstruct arguments. For these reasons, there has never been a greater need for the skills of language and discourse that you have honed here.

     I would urge you to find a way to write your own narrative, paying attention to both the dreams and the details. Vargas Llosa told us that "la nuestra será siempre, por fortuna, una historia inconclusa. Por eso tenemos que seguir soñando, leyendo y escribiendo, la más eficaz manera que hayamos encontrado de aliviar nuestra condición perecedera, de derrotar a la carcoma del tiempo y de convertir en posible lo imposible." He would have us all do this in word and deed. Whatever your field will be, rely on the language and rhetorical skills you've used here at Holy Cross to make the greatest difference: making the impossible possible. This could be in politics, in medicine, in social outreach, in financial analysis or in any field. A diploma from Holy Cross provides you with not just the ability to do this, but the mandate. The workforce and the world need people who are willing to attempt to make the impossible possible.

     In the years since I was where you are today, I've learned many things about the possibilities inherent in learning Spanish. They were things that were within my grasp at Holy Cross, but it's taken me this long to put them into practice. I have seen myself redefine what it is to teach and study language. I have had some of my biggest failures when that definition is too narrow, and I have had some of my biggest successes when that definition is broadly conceived. I would encourage you to take as broad a view as possible, considering these lessons I've learned.

     I have learned that it's best to learn in Spanish rather than about Spanish. This may seem like a silly play on words, a trick by a language teacher, but the difference here is fundamental. Learning about Spanish puts the language itself in the forefront as an end to itself. While students might learn some words and phrases, it is language learning void of content and context. Learning in Spanish gives students a need to use real language to express themselves in a way that makes the language necessary. I have learned that the study of Spanish is inherently an interdisciplinary enterprise. This is what makes studying Spanish unique: it is an open door, an open-ended invitation.

     I have learned that students can use the language classroom as a way to learn about themselves. I ask them to look at themselves from a different vantage point. By asking questions about language, identity, geography, and culture, students are required to look at their own experiences differently and, hopefully, to seek out other experiences that they might not have imagined.

     Finally, I have learned that students can use the language classroom as a way to learn about the lives of others. While it is essential that students learn to express themselves-who they are, where they live, what they value-it is more important that they learn how others live and what others value. I find more and more that the theme of identity, la identidad, is one that I keep returning to. What does Don Quijote tell us about the Spain of the 16th and 17th centuries? What does it tell us about the Spanish conscience today? What made Velazquez's masterpiece Las meninas such a stir in its day? What does it show us about the interplay of artist and audience today? What makes Borges's Ficciones so appealing? How was it that he anticipated our post textual, internet identity crisis decades ago?

     In my end of year student evaluations I ask my students the following question: What do you think the teacher was trying to accomplish beyond the obvious task of teaching you Spanish? I get all kinds of responses. "Instilling an appreciation for art and culture," "how to connect pieces of literature to find bigger message[s]," "How to put together things in context and make connections between different subjects," and "how to make connections instead of just memorizing vocab and conjugations." I would leave you with the same question: What do you think your professors were trying to accomplish beyond the obvious task of teaching you Spanish? Remember that St. Ignatius Loyola was a Spaniard and a teacher. What does he say to us today about how we engage each other through our work? How we treat each other? How we teach and how we learn? In many ways, he did what Don Quijote could not do: he put down his libros de caballería and picked up books on the life of Christ and other saints. St. Ignatius began a new life devoted to study, teaching, service and faith. Follow his model. Follow your professors' models. More importantly: create your own.