Bishop Cagiano, members of the Board of Trustees, deans, members of the faculty, administrators, president of the Alumni Association, alumni from the 50th anniversary class, members of the graduating class, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen, as provost of the university, I would like to welcome you to the 66th commencement exercises at Fairfield University. Please remain standing for the invocation which will be offered by the most reverend, Frank J. Cagiano, Bishop Diocese of Bridgeport, and remain standing for the singing of the national anthem and the Fairfield University Alma Mater by the members of the University Glee Club under the direction of Dr. Carol Ann Maxwell Conductor, accompanied by Beth Palmer and the brass salad quintet. Let us pray, gracious and merciful God, we lift our minds, our hearts, our hands in thanksgiving and praise to you this day as we begin these commencement exercises. For we have come here to ask your abundant blessings upon our graduates who are about to embark on another phase of their life of grace. We give you thanks for all that they have accomplished, for opening their minds to the beauty of the world and its truths, to allowing them to develop their gifts and talents for they are your children, and to also give to them the opportunity to give back to our community, our society and the world. May your spirit bless their eyes so that they may see the beauty of the world and those who are in need, bless their ears to hear the cries of the poor in our midst, bless their hands to continue to reach out in service and bless their hearts so that they may always be upright women and men, always open to curiosity and the truth, to be good citizens, to be faithful women and men. May your Holy Spirit, O gracious God, grant them lives that are long, healthy, prosperous, joyful and full of peace. And we also this day ask your blessings upon their families and all gathered here, upon the wonderful faculty here at Fairfield University, for we all strive to do your holy will each day. May your blessings come upon them now in all the days of their lives, for we ask this to your honor and glory, amen. Congratulations, my friends, may God bless you all. Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? The valedictory address is chosen from among those members of the senior class outstanding for their academic achievement. This year, that honor belongs to Molly McCarty Gregory. President, members of the Board of Trustees, honored guests, members of the faculty and administration, family, friends and members of the class of 2016. Hello, and thank you for trusting me to give the speech that will set the tone for the rest of this graduation. I'm sorry in advance if it's not what you're into or if you don't think I'm funny. To my fellow students, I'm also sorry if the word graduation comes up at all in this speech. I really didn't wanna talk about it but I was told I had to mention it, so sorry. But yes, everyone, in case you weren't sure why we were dressed like this, we are graduating and just a few minutes we will take to that stage and we will run across it as someone reads our names as fast as possible and we will flash our families a smile to prove to them that we did it. We could not be more thrilled to leave college behind. This speech, to be candid with you all, is not going to be about me. I'm not going to stand up here and tell you an anecdote about my own life and how I achieved this award or that GPA. The story of how my niece sporadically dislocated last fall is not going to be used to inspire you to go climb a mountain or to take that road trip you've always wanted to. Because this day is not about me, it's about us. So to start, family and friends, I'm going to tell you the truth of how we really feel about today. As much as we say I'm ready or I am so excited to get a job, the truth is that we're terrified. We are profusely sweating beneath these robes not just because we're all wearing ponchos underneath them but because we have no idea what's coming. Graduation sneaks up on you in much the same way that weekly cheesy bread orders sneak up on your waistline. I'm speaking from experience here. Freshman year, you know that graduation is there, you know it's coming but you never really expect it to happen. As you go through college, you just don't think about it. You're too busy focusing on your friends and your classes to realize that, bam, graduation is right around the corner. Adulthood, here we come. What? The last time I checked, I was still a shrimpy freshman with more limbs and I knew what to do with. Where did those four years go? How did I get here? For the first time in our lives, we don't have a plan or to put it another way, no one has planned anything out for us. Most of us don't have an inevitable next step.  Congratulations to all of you. Some of us are off to law school or medical school. Some of us are going to be doing service for a year, something that is truly amazing. Some of us have jobs already and some of us are still figuring it out. But for all of us, we don't know exactly what's going to happen. We don't know if we'll make friends or if we'll fail or if we'll destroy everything that we've worked towards. We don't know if we'll be big successes and make millions or if our lives are going to be a lot tougher than we ever planned on them being. But I'll tell you something else. We're all going to be okay. And I know what you're thinking.   But just think about it for a second. Look around you. You made it. You are all sitting here today because you made it. Not your best friend, not your grandma, you. You were the one who studied all night in Club Domenna to pass that final, who wrote that capstone paper, who did that huge presentation. And of course, we have our amazing professors, our friends, our parents who helped us along the way and who got us here. Hi, mom and dad. But the main reason you're sitting here in an outfit that would look completely ridiculous in any other context is because at the end of the day you worked hard and you committed, not someone else. Freshman year, when we all came into Fairfield from our different backgrounds, we had no idea what to expect. We didn't know if we would make friends or not, but we took a deep breath, marched across the quad and proudly donned our red lanyards that screamed, I'm a freshman, I'm new here, help me. That first week, we played birdie on a perch like there was no tomorrow.  We asked that person in our FYE group to come to lunch with us and they said, yes, we took our first college course ever and we somehow survived it. And now we're here. So we might be terrified and shaking and sweating, but we're surviving. If we survived the college experience, if we earned our diplomas and got through our classes and made friends, then we can survive anything else that the world has to throw at us. Fairfield has given us all of the tools that we need for the world. What's more than that sheet of paper you're going to receive in just a little while is the lessons we've all learned. And I'm not talking about an algebraic equation or learning that tequila should not be consumed past 1 a.m. It's how we've learned to be people. What is so unique about Fairfield is those four Jesuit values that we've been reminded of over and over again. In case you've forgotten what those four values are, let's refresh. Magus, striving for the greater good. Cura personalis, care for the whole person. Men and women for others. And finding God in all things. Now, here's a disclaimer. During my freshman year, I distinctly remember rolling my eyes whenever the four Jesuit values were mentioned. Little did I know that now whenever I hear the words, who am I, I immediately respond with who am I, who's am I, who am I called to be. All of you respond exactly the same way. Don't pretend that you don't. But I digress. These four core values are without question the most important thing that we learned during our time here at Fairfield. The lessons, the tests, and the essays pale in comparison. Why? Because as important as academia is, learning to become a citizen of the world, learning to be a person who cares, a person who champions for others, that is what matters. The diploma, it looks nice in a frame, but that's not the thing that will make a difference. It is you, human beings of the world.  I don't care that we're only 21, 22, 23 years old, and that none of us have 401ks yet, and that God forbid we're millennials. But I have gotten to know too many of you during my time here to not know that you are all more than capable of, as St. Ignatius of Loyola once said, going forth and setting the world on fire. Not literally, obviously, but figuratively. We have a truly amazing group of seniors here. We have engineers, nurses, accountants, doctors, teachers, lawyers, activists. Looking at you, basement babes. We have an exceptional group of musicians at this school, some of whom I'm very proud to call my friends. And this combination of talent is capable of things greater than we can ever know. It's important to remember that you don't have to win a Nobel Prize or cure cancer, or stop global warming single-handedly to change the world. In fact, the best way to set the world on fire, just to live your best life, to be a good person. It doesn't matter what you do, but take your joy and pour it into someone else.  And maybe you're still figuring out how to go forth and set the world on fire. And that's okay. Sometimes it's best to just sit back and let the passion you have for something, your own little flame, guide you in whatever direction you need to go in. Trust it. Trust yourself.  Thank you for your gifts, class of 2016. Congratulations and welcome to the world. Go Stags! The president and faculty of Fairfield University have the honor to cite the following members of the graduating class who have won special recognition by their academic achievement. The Bellarmine Medal established to commemorate the patron of Fairfield University, St. Robert Bellarmine of the Society of Jesus, Cardinal and Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church is awarded to the undergraduates who throughout their entire four years of full-time study earned the highest academic average. This year's recipients earned a perfect 4.0. The 2016 Bellarmine Medal is awarded to Bridget K. Callahan, earning a BA in Psychology from Arts and Sciences, Kristen M. Fiji, earning a BA in Arts and Sciences in Communication, and Rachel E. Sterity, earning a BS in Nursing. The Alumni Association of Fairfield University selects an undergraduate student each year who has made a significant contribution of service and has loyally represented his or her school during four years of attendance. This award is known as a Loyola Medal. The 2016 Loyola Medal is conferred upon Jacqueline Aquino. The president will now officially confer the honorary degrees on the recipients. The first citation for Donald James Gummer will be read by Dr. Linda Wolk Simon, Director and Chief Curator of University Museums. President and Trustees of Fairfield University, to all who shall view these presents, greetings and peace in the Lord. Born and raised in Bridgeport to Cuban Board, oh, this is the wrong, sorry. You got a sneak preview of, I think you were born of Cuban parents, Don. Here. When he first came to New York, Donald James Gummer worked as a union carpenter, building the forms for staircases and ramps that went into making the city skyscrapers. I got a sense of how things get built, recognizing how dense and heavy buildings are at the base and how they get lighter towards the top, he says. I realized then that something massive, like a skyscraper, is actually built very simply. It was an important realization and one that has influenced Mr. Gummer's work ever since. Today, an internationally renowned artist and sculptor, he's probably best known for his soaring abstract sculptures and steel and bronze. It's work that starts out with some complexity, then strives towards simplicity and openness as it grows. Elements of floor plans and contemporary and classical architectural form are all central to his work. It's not unusual for him to combine the flexibility of rubber with the immutable strength of steel and the delicacy of stained glass. Mr. Gummer's studio in an industrial part of Queens is surrounded by the factories and ever-present construction that inspires his work. I like the idea of seeing a house in a way that no one has ever seen it, he says. He creates blueprint-like drawings before embarking on his sculptures, so he admits the piece is likely to evolve before it's complete. To start something without knowing what it's going to be like in the end is much more exciting and much more alive, he said. Mr. Gummer's current exhibition at Fairfield University's Walsh Art Gallery features over 50 drawings, watercolors, wall reliefs and sculptures, most of which can trace their origins to architecture at its most simple and stripped-down form. Rothic structures in tree cam, he says, because they defy gravity. One body of work is inspired by the Twin Towers, which Mr. Gummer used as the subject of a series of watercolors just weeks before they were destroyed on September 11th, 2001. Several years after he watched the South Tower fall, the artist returned to the subject, creating a sculpture in stainless steel. A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Mr. Gummer went on to earn both his BFA and MFA from Yale University. Many of his works have been installed in public spaces in locations including the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio, the Hiroshima Lying Inn Hospital in Japan, the Joseph Seagram Building in New York City and Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He's been honored with the Lewis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and was a visiting artist with the American Academy in Rome. For his dedication to his art and his ability to mold the most ordinary materials into structures both striking and inspirational, the President and Board of Trustees of Fairfield University hereby proclaim Donald James Gummer, Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. The second citation for Julio Ramirez will be read by Dr. Ronald Salafia, Professor of Psychology. The President and Trustees of Fairfield University to all who shall view these presents, greetings and peace in the Lord. Born and raised in Bridgeport to Cuban-born parents, young Julio Ramirez became riveted by President John F. Kennedy's space program and the possibilities for exploration on the horizon. It was a fascination that his mother nourished, walking him down to the public library frequently so he could gather information he could not find at school. So passionate was he that he persuaded his eighth grade teacher, Sister Norbert, to let him teach a couple of classes on the subject, a feat that not surprisingly earned him the nickname Professor. But it was at Fairfield University that Dr. Ramirez focused his love of science into the study of psychology and where he became immersed in scientific exploration by working long hours, really long hours, in a laboratory with Dr. Ronald Salafia. He went on to earn both his master's and doctoral degrees at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was repeatedly encouraged to challenge the status quo in physiological psychology. What fascinates Dr. Ramirez is the science behind psychology, specifically the neuroplasticity of the brain that allows it to structurally and functionally reorganize itself after an injury. Recovery of function after central nervous system injury remains one of the great mysteries in neuroscience and neurology. The brain is now understood to be a self, oops, I'm sorry, to be a self reorganizing system that is highly responsive to injury. He says, excuse me, his work in this area has implications for Alzheimer's disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injuries. Today, Dr. Ramirez teaches courses in neuroscience and psychology at North Carolina's Davidson College, where he is the R. Stuart Dickinson Professor and Chair of Psychology. For 30 years, he has been an integral part of Davidson's neuroscience program as an accomplished researcher, dedicated teacher, and passionate mentor. Dr. Ramirez always involves students in his research, and many have co-authored papers with him for publication in prestigious journals. Because he recognized the need for mentoring among junior neuroscience faculty at liberal arts colleges, he created a national mentoring program in 2004. In 1989, Dr. Ramirez was named the North Carolina Professor of the Year and chosen as the National Gold Medal Professor of the Year. The National Science Foundation recognized his work in education and research with a director's award in 2004. In 2011, he was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring by President Barack Obama. He has won awards from the American Psychological Association, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and Davidson College. Just last year, he was awarded the Bernice Grafstein Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Mentoring from the Society of Neuroscience. Recalling his own frustration with the lack of comprehensive science curriculum at his small Catholic grade school in Bridgeport, Dr. Ramirez has focused his energies toward making science accessible to the youngest residents of North Carolina. He is a trustee of Discovery Place Science Center in Charlotte and helped to launch Discovery Place Kids, Children's Museum in nearby Huntersville. For his commitment to science education, for the contributions he has made in the field of neuroscience, that will one day help so many people recover from injury or disease, and for his dedication to his students, the President and Board of Trustees of Fairfield University, hereby proclaim Julio Jesus Ramirez, class of 77, Doctorate of Science, Honoris Calza. The third citation for Reverend Akvon Kian-Mongay, a robator of the Society of Jesus will be read by Professor Paul Lakeland, Professor of Religious Studies. The President and Trustees of Fairfield University, to all who shall view these presents, greetings and peace in the Lord. The Reverend Akvon Kian-Mongay, a robator of the Society of Jesus, was born in the ancient city of Benin, Nigeria. Within the milieu of African religion, being familiar with the gods, goddesses, divinities, deities and ancestors of my people, he says. At 16, he chanced upon an Easter vigil at the church across the street from his house and claims he had never imagined such an entrancing religious ceremony. Shortly thereafter, he made the decision to convert to Catholicism. Growing up in a home where polygamy was practiced, Father a robator grew up with many mothers. I know what it means to say it takes a village to raise a child, he says. He has a strong identity as an African Christian. Indeed, it is the intersection of Christianity and African culture and religion that has formed the basis of much of his scholarly work. His popular book, Theology Brood in an African Pot, 2008, is his attempt to give relevance to Christian theology by explaining it in an African context. In From Crisis to Kairos in 2005, he calls the church to a new theological understanding of its mission in the context of HIV, AIDS, refugees and poverty. In Reconciliation, Justice and Peace, the second African synod in 2011, he edited a series of notable essays addressing the theme of reconciliation and justice in the wider context of globalization, post-modernity and other factors shaping the contemporary church and African society. More recently, he co-edited feminist Catholic theological ethics conversations in the world church in 2014, which seeks to highlight the changing face, color, themes and locus of feminist theological discourse. Father a robator served as the provincial of the East African province of the Society of Jesus, which encompasses Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sudan and South Sudan from 2009 to 2014. Before he was missioned to his current post as president of Hekama College Jesuit School of Theology in Nairobi, he was a lecturer there focusing on theological ethics and ecclesiology in Africa and the world church. He is also the principal researcher for the colloquium on church, religion and society in Africa, a three-year continent-wide research project to develop new methodologies of study at the service of the African church and the world church. A gifted orator, Father a robator has spoken at conferences around the world on topics ranging from HIV AIDS, faith and ethics in a modern age and Jesuit teaching in Africa. Delivering the keynote address for the Ignatian Solidarity Network at Georgetown in 2011, he urged his audience to engage in Africa's struggle for social justice. Africa is a rich continent, he said, rich in people and cultures, rich in natural and mineral resources, but Africa is a poor continent. Today, 379 million Africans will go to bed hungry without food, without clean water, and without proper shelter. It is the continent that produced icons like Nelson Mandela, Julius Neyarari, Kofi Annan and Anjali Kijo. Yet it is home, he says, to many corrupt, ruthless and greedy dictators posing as leaders. In recognition of his impressive body of scholarly work and his academic and priestly mission to raise important issues for Africa and beyond, the President and Board of Trustees of Fairfield University hereby proclaim the Reverend Agbonke-Anmege Orovator of the Society of Jesus, Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. Ladies and gentlemen, it's now my pleasure to again introduce Reverend Orovator as our 2016th commencement speaker. Class of 2016, this one is for you. A prayer of gratitude for your success from Benin City, Nigeria in West Africa. Wase no saumai, Iga yere wa koma fwano goho, Anya ma saumai, Ije sune babau, Wase vek, Wase no saumai, Anya ma saumai, Ije sune babau, Wase vek. This one is for you. President Jeffrey Von Axe of the Society of Jesus, the Chair and Board of Trustees of Fairfield University, I thank you for the invitation and privilege to address the class of 2016 and for the award of an honorary Doctor of Laws. To the cynic or outsider, commencement may seem a pointless yearly routine. A carefully choreographed academic catwalk or a monotonous ceremonial display of caps and gowns, hardly a fashion statement of note. Indeed, on this beautiful morning, I see a sea of caps as far as the eye can see, plus an array of gowns on display. It is perhaps unfortunate that caps don't talk and gowns don't walk. So on their own, they cannot refute the contention of the cynic.   Four years on, and look what you've become.  Your smiles radiate joy. And you are the pride and joy of your parents, families, friends, and faculty. Your pride and your joy show us that we do not gather today to partake in a routine, pointless, and monotonous ceremony. Accordingly, my friends, we celebrate and congratulate you for your amazing success and achievement. The honor and the accolade that we bestow on you today are in order. So savor it. Enjoy it. Delight in it. Part of your story began, as we have heard already, more than four years ago. When it's member of your class of 2016, studied and worked hard to maintain a competitive GPA and obtain the requisite test scores to qualify for acceptance into Fairfield University. For your parents and families, the journey stretches even further back than for years. When they worked tirelessly and made enormous sacrifices to build the resources needed to pay your tuition and meet the expenses of a four-year college education. So you, my friends, the class of 2016, on this gorgeous day of celebration and rejoicing, I say, never, ever forget the love, support and sacrifices of your parents and families. They got you here. And so too, the dedication and commitment of your professors, mentors, coaches, chaplains, counselors, staff, and administrators. Your story, your journey would not have been possible without their resolve over the last four years to make sure that not a single one of you was left behind. Today, in your story and journey, the commitment of your parents and families and your professors and administrators and staff at Fairfield have paid off. On the webpage for today's commencement ceremony, I noticed an inscription boldly emblazoned on a graduation cap. It reads, quote, I never dreamed about success. I worked for it. End quote. And how true. You see, today isn't simply a dream come true. You have not sleepwalked to Bellarmine lawn. Each one of you here present is a bundle of stories. Stories of hard work, endless labor, and tireless effort to reach the finish line. And yes, along the way, there were moments of fulfillment and disappointment, elation and desperation. Each one of you, my friends, represents a web of commitment and dedication. The commitment of your families, the dedication and accompaniment of your professors. Each one of you is also a network of relationship, of deep caring friendship formed over the last four years, of strong, loyal bonds forged here on the campus of Fairfield, all of which will soon be tested by distance and separation along the parts that now unfold before you. Again, my friends, we gather to celebrate your success, achievement and accomplishment. And we do so joyfully, proudly and unapologetically, yet I must warn you of a temptation. The euphoria of this moment may numb your consciousness and awareness into thinking that you have arrived at that proverbial finish line. Oh yes, there are no more homework, no more tests, quizzes, exams, papers, essays, presentations. No more due dates or deliverable. And you are free at last from that nagging professor or tough grader while the truth is, my friends, in this end lies a new beginning, a life of work and higher responsibility await those of you who have jobs lined up or grad school, a time of lingering anxiety for those who continue to seek and hope soon for gainful employment. Whether you already have a job or you're still searching for one, you know that this is a moment of transition.  We stand with you. We stand with you at the cost of an amazing future as you are integrated into the global family of Fairfield University. When you step off this campus today, you become the newest vintage of an intellectual and spiritual tradition that was forged in the crucible of Jesuit vision of the world and Catholic faith. You become part of a legacy of Jesuit education that began not just 74 years ago when Fairfield was founded, but over 450 years ago when the first Jesuit schools were founded. You become the ambassadors of the values and beliefs of your alma mater as you step off this campus today. What does this tradition and your alma mater ask of you to be women and men for others? You've heard that a thousand times and more over the last four years. To be women and men of excellence, competence and integrity, those are things you can read on your website. But I invite you today to take a hard and discerning look at the world you are stepping into. The real world, my friends, is bigger. It is wider than the boundaries of Fairfield campus that you've come to know and love as your home. The real world, my friends, is less comfy than the familiar and safe environment of 10, 7 to 3 North Benson Road. Yes, the real world, my friends, is less tidy than the lush green manicured lawns of Fairfield. You see, my friends, ours is a volatile world beset with uncertainties. A complex world, driven by ideological differences and ambiguities. A vast and often times turbulent world marked by social and economic inequality and pockets of deep desperation. In so many parts of our world and indeed in our countries, the civil world, the kind world, has become a rare currency. As politicians and religious opponents trade insults, instigate violence and aim barbed tirades at one another. In our world, millions of women, men and children are on the move. Too many of them forcibly displaced by war and violence, poverty and climate change. For these people on the move, the opportunity of a four-year college education would be an impossible, unattainable dream. But not for you, my friends. Certainly not for you. These challenges are not deterrents. Indivulatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of our multicultural world lie opportunities for you to make a difference as you strive to grow into what you want to be. My friends, my challenge to you today is simple. Dare to fall in love with this world. Do not turn your gaze away from the bleak and dismal tragedies of displacement, migration, sectarianism, poverty. Let the tragedies and miseries of our world break your hearts. And there, in the dim recesses of our broken world, discovered a stunning beauty and the destructible dignity of our common humanity. Allow every challenge that you encounter in our world unleash the audacity of your creativity. Tap into that intellectual rigor, spiritual depth and creative imagination imparted on you at Fairfield to work for a more humane, just, sustainable and reconciled world. Yes, it is okay to work for justice and peace through service motivated by compassion and love, especially for people who are impoverished, marginalized and oppressed. I know that all this may sound daunting, even unrealistic. Your parents, families, friends and teachers are watching you and they believe in you. We believe that you have much to contribute to the healing and transformation of our broken world. So step up, my friends, class of 2016.  After all, it is not for nothing that you call yourselves stags. Well, let me tell you the difference between a Fairfield stag and that lovely, graceful animal you find in the woods. You see, a stag in the woods, face on grass, leaves, shoots and twigs of plants and vines, of which there is an abundance on campus. On the contrary, you, my friends, are women and men whose intellectual capacity and leadership ability have been horned by a world-class faculty and administrators and staff. Stags in the woods survive on grass, but Fairfield stags thrive on respect for the dignity of neighbor, regardless of color, race or ethnicity. Real Fairfield stags strive for social and economic inclusion and cultural acceptance rather than separation and division. And that is not all. As a graduating class of Fairfield stags, you have another unique resource. You are now part of a global family, the alumni of Fairfield University. You do not go into the world alone, isolated and bereft of support. You step into the world as members of a special family of global citizens.  Finally, my friends, as you go forth, never forget your solemn duty to keep Fairfield rising. Through faith and unto total truth, may your cry swell from the sea to spy on sky. Each day and night may your hearts be true and all across the land may you always stand by Fairfield U. And so I join my voice to those of your proud parents, families and friends, President Jeffrey Von Axe, the Board of Trustees, faculty and staff of your alma mater. Together we salute you. Together we congratulate you. Together we celebrate you. For together we rise. Godspeed class of 2016. God bless you. This commencement, I would like to take the opportunity to issue a very warm welcome to the members of the class of 1966. These men represent the alumni celebrating the 50th year reunion at Fairfield University. We are honored by their presence, by their lifelong commitment to Fairfield University and for all of the traditions that this fine university espouses. I would like to take a moment to ask the members of the class of 1966 to stand and be recognized by our graduating seniors, their guests, our faculty and administration. We shall now have the presentation of candidates for degrees in course by the deans of the five schools and the conferring of these degrees by the president of Fairfield University. Jehoorah Williams will present the degree candidates from the College of Arts and Sciences, Dean Williams. Will the graduates please put on their hoods and come forward to receive their diplomas? Please withhold your applause until all graduates have been presented. Mr. President, these men and women have fulfilled all the requirements established by Fairfield University for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees and are hereby presented to the president and trustees for the conferring of those degrees. By virtue of the power vested in me by the Board of Trustees of Fairfield University in the state of Connecticut, I hereby confer the degrees on all of those presented by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.  The degree candidates from the Mariam Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies please stand. These men and women have fulfilled all the requirements established by Fairfield University for the Bachelor of Science degree and are hereby presented to the President and Trustees for the conferring of those degrees. By virtue of the power vested in me by the Board of Trustees of Fairfield University and the State of Connecticut I hereby confer the degree of Bachelor of Science and Nursing on all those presented by the Dean of the Mariam Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies. Will the graduates please put on their hoods and come forward to receive their diplomas. Please withhold your applause until all graduates have been presented. Elizabeth Avery Emily Baldwin Elizabeth Ball Kathleen Bednarts Alicia Britzelara Shannon Buckley Shelby Butwell Matthew Castellano Mackenzie Schaszewski Anna Columbo Julia Croto Anna Cruz Gina Currow Ashley DePaul Catherine DiStefano Carly Donis Catherine Dostal Danielle Esposito Rebecca Fallon Casey Flynn Anne Marie Franklin O'Connor Melissa Ganley Anna Grande Flores Laura Hart Erin Hastings Casey Healy Allison Jacobs Nicole Capps Jenna Kelly Madeline Carons Lindsay Clem Emily Copas Katie Koschwick Michelle Laspino Delaney Lucas Danielle Lug Marcia Lynch Jacqueline McEvoy Erin McCarthy Laura McKee Rachel Morton Deirdre Mundy Catherine Nash Brianna Noons Kelly O'Brien Sophia Pert Danielle Pitola Nicole Prudin Marissa Randoza Holly Reem Kelsey Reardon Mary Kate Riley Nicole Russell Joellen Schappeler Kathleen Sirna Talia Soriano Angelica Stabe Felicia Starapoli Rachel Storiti Kelly Traft Hong Tran Haley Wilson Rebecca Sapala Dianne Gibson Donald Gibson Dean Gibson Will the candidates for the Bachelor of Science Degree from the Dolan School of Business please stand. These men and women have fulfilled all the requirements established by Fairfield University for the Bachelor of Science Degree and are hereby presented to the President and Trustees for the conferring of those students. By virtue of the power vested in me by the Board of Trustees of Fairfield University and the State of Connecticut, I hereby confer the degree of Bachelor of Science on all those presented by the Dean of the Dolan School of Business. Will the graduates please put on their hoods and come forward to receive their diplomas. And this is impossible, but please withhold your applause until all graduates have been presented. Thank you.  We'll present the degree candidates for the School of Engineering. Dean Burdaniere. Will the candidates for the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Degrees please stand. These men and women have fulfilled all of the requirements established by Fairfield University for the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Degree and are presented to the President and the Trustees for conferring of those degrees. By virtue of the power vested in me by the Board of Trustees of Fairfield University and the State of Connecticut, I hereby confer the Bachelor of Science in Engineering on those presented by the Dean of the School of Engineering. Will the degree recipients please put on their hoods and come forward to receive their diplomas. Please hold your repose until all the graduates have been presented. Please be seated. Austin Loboki Thomas Hughes Yaroslav Kahut Noelle Laflum Matthew Lazicchi Michael Loturko Aynan Loko Thomas Lukavik Phillip Meyer Kevin McCaffrey Drew Mignosa Brett Micayachek Michael Negi Tony Panther-Angsy Christopher Rutigliano Cameron Sales Gabriel Schreyer Steven Scheiner James Ercini Hasim Bohora Michael Valvano Charles Visconti Christian Brankovic Connor Wallace Austin Weselowski Kevin Wilson Kevin Zwick Congratulations to all. I would like to ask all of our new graduates to please rise and acknowledge with applause your appreciation for your faculty as teachers, advisors, and mentors. Please take your seats. It is now my pleasure to introduce the Reverend Jeffrey P. Von Arks of the Society of Jesus, President of Fairfield University, to offer remarks. Father Von Arks. Thank you, Dr. Babington. And so, my dear young friends, we come to the end. Don't worry, I'm not going to give another commencement address. I'd look pretty bad after the great one that you just heard. But I did want to exercise presidential prerogative long enough to say simply, come back. I mean that literally, of course. Come back for homecomings and reunions with your classmates to visit your friends on the faculty and in the administration. But I mean it figuratively, too. Come back to Fairfield in your memory because now memory more than presence will mediate your relationship with this university and with the friends and teachers who sit around you. We hope you remember how the education you have received here has made you the person that you are, a person to be proud of. We hope you remember the values you have learned here on this voyage of self-discovery through learning. We hope you will remember how to do the right thing, especially with your lives now that you understand a little bit better what those lives mean and what they are for. Forgive us, the administration and the faculty of Fairfield for any failings in your regard, but also remember how much we care about you and how much we care for you. You, our students, now our graduates are the reason this place exists and the reason that we, your teachers and mentors, have chosen the lives that we have. You leave Fairfield the objects of our hopes and longings, of our dreams and aspirations, and you leave, of course, with our best wishes, our blessings and our prayers. May God be with you all. Please rise. To bring our commencement to a close, President Mark Scalise of the Society of Jesus and Director of Campus Ministry will pronounce the benediction. Let us pray. Loving God, as we gather on this beautiful day to celebrate the academic achievement and character development of Fairfield University's Class of 2016, we do so with great gratitude. We ask your blessings on our new graduates as we send them forth into the world. Continue to guide their minds and hearts that they might actualize the full potential you have placed within each of them and willingly place all their gifts and talents at the service of humankind. We thank you for the gift of reason which allows our graduates to respond to your offer of love and life. Bless their professors and mentors who have so graciously shared with them their scholarship and wisdom and who so generously and selflessly have helped mold their minds and hearts while here at Fairfield. Bless the parents of our graduates, their first and finest teachers. We give you thanks for the families who have encouraged and sacrificed so much on their behalf. Bless their classmates and friends who have helped them overcome obstacles and reach heights that alone they would not have achieved. Gracious God, may the blessings of this day, recognition, affirmation, and celebration inspire all our graduates with the courage to go forth, strengthened in their resolve to elevate our common humanity, and renewed in their commitment to cultivate compassion and justice in their lives, their communities, and our world. Loving God, you have begun this good work in each of our graduates. We pray that you carry it through to completion. We make this prayer in your holy name. Amen. Will our guests please remain in their seats until those on the stage and the graduates have recessed. The 66 commencement exercises of Fairfield University are now officially concluded.


My name's Karl Alexander. I'm also a work camp organizer for work camp Montreal. I've been organizing work camps and wordpress events since 2010 I think And I also write regular on my blog, which I will talk about just shortly If you want to talk to me the easiest way to do it is on Twitter my handle is twig press and like I said, I write regularly on my blog Karl Alexander dot CA before we begin This is a really common joke around me if you've ever read anything on my blog I like talking about advanced topics. This kind of happens pretty often when I get to speak But I fight very hard against this and this talk is no exception. There's a lot of extra material around this talk There's a github project which I'll point at the end and there's also a 3000-word companion article that you can refer to so if I normally I do a lot of question periods during the talk But if I lose you during there's at least that that you can refer to later on So now that this is done. Here's what you're all here for This co-work the other day who's had this problem before It's it's a really frustrating problem and the you want to protect yourself and the only way to the only way to do that is with unit testing and What is unit testing? It's testing at the smallest scale It's in putting values into a function and checking what comes out at the end And the goal with that is to have a constant behavior from your code It's also to have a sort of safety net so that these frustrating moments of god damn it This work. Yes yesterday. I don't understand and Because of that your code also becomes a lot stronger and you get higher quality code out of it so Let's talk a bit about unit testing before getting it to an example the most important part of it about unit testing is Isolation It's actually the cornerstone of unit testing. It's done using test doubles Um test doubles are these kind of machines I call them magical machines that surround your code and gives you absolute control like if you were some sort of god and And what it does is it lets you know? What is my code doing and? This is important because it's not really about what is wordpress doing and I'm gonna do a small tangent about that to talk about unit test versus The wordpress test suite The wordpress test suite is what really we call integration testing and integration testing has a kind of different relationship with isolation It's it's more about how we piece code together It's your plug-in with wordpress. How does it behave together? It's not so much about This idea of isolating a piece of code where like the term unit comes from and it's not really that One is better than the other Ideally you should do both So now that I've done this little tangent. We're gonna start talking about How you can get started with unit testing? So for this for this example, we're gonna be focused on Unix based Operating system, so I'm really sorry for Windows users out there If you want to do this you can use a virtual machine But really a lot of the tools are just based for macOS or Linux In terms of the code, we're gonna be a bit further ahead. We're gonna use PHP 5.3 for the code and 5.4 For the tests the reason for a 5.3 is we're gonna use namespaces and the reason for 5.4 is the testing one of the testing libraries that we're gonna use use as traits so Because of that we have to go with PHP 5.4 We also need composer PHP unit, which is the default Testing library that's also what WordPress uses to run its test. So we'll be using that as well and We'll be using WPCLI our favorite WordPress command line client This is a bit optional, but it does speed up a bit of the process of doing this Creating our first unit tested plugin so This is the easiest step so far Just use WPCLI and scaffold plugin and because you have WPCLI scaffolds already all the unit testing Boost trapping files. It simplifies a lot of the work. That's why it's an optional dependency for our example But it does really simplify a lot of the work that you want to do so it's really useful for that We're also going to add a composer.json file. That's for Composer, which is our package manager that we're going to be using for a testing setup and Inside it we're gonna this is just a sample of what it looks like really the two important lines are this one which basically says that we're gonna use PHP 5.3 and This one which required dev is basically a second section that says we need this library when we're developing So it really has no impact when you're creating your plug-in or Coding in general when you're sending it to clients is just for our testing purposes when you're gonna send it on github for Automated testing it just will download this library to run our tests We also have to modify the bootstrap PHP. This is this is a file created by WPCLI It looks like this and the only thing that's missing is the composer Autoloader So we're just gonna add that line here at the top and we're good to go so what we're gonna do is we're gonna create our first plug-in function It's a pretty easy function. Let's just get a plug-in get your plug-in option With our namespace and our function where we namespace our option because everybody knows that you should namespace your options So we're gonna be testing that to make sure that our plug-in correctly namespaces options when It fetches them from the WordPress database So our first unit test This is that this is what the unit test looks like right now As you might have noticed we're still using the same namespace as before unit test demo We're also gonna import PHP mock which is our mocking function mocking library for PHP functions, which I'll go over in a bit and Then we have our demo demo class Demo test class, which is where we'll store our tests and our trait, which is the what we were using from the PHP mock library That's why we need PHP 5.4. It's just because of this one single line I I want to note that if you do not want to use this library Tenup does have a library called wp mock that's a bit more limited, but does not have this PHP 4 requirement So if you want to use that instead You can use that as well to do something like this So testing our demo get option Here's our test here's our testing function so right now What we have is test that demo get option. We always have to pre-fix our Functions with test underscore. This is a requirement from PHP unit That's how it flags this function as a test versus some upper function that you have within your class and Then we have this asserts equal So so far we haven't talked about assertions assertions is is really the heart of a unit test it checks that What we're getting back from our function is what we expect To get back. So in this case, we're gonna test that We expect to get back the value bar when we do demo get option For the foo option Now what what happens if we try to run this? Damn doesn't work That's because right now it goes to the WordPress database And the WordPress database isn't preceded with any sort of option So it returns false. So this is not what we want. So we need to fix that We need our test double. So this is why we needed the PHP mock library. So This is we're gonna create a mock of get option So what's a mock? A mock is a test double A test double is of not a method With unit testing where you can simulate the function or an object and verify how you interact with it this is really important because It's the only type of test double that does that and it's really at the heart of what we're trying to do with unit testing is we want to check the behavior of Get option true our demo get option Method so what we're gonna do is we're gonna configure our mock So the first thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna say I expect get option to get called once And then we're gonna say I expect that I Expect get option to get called with the parameter demo underscore foo and when it does Satisfy both those criteria's it will return the value bar And then if you try to run our test again, it passes because at this point we've managed to simulate We've inserted our mock instead of the regular WordPress function and at this point we're not hitting the database anymore. So we're not getting the value false anymore, which is really Powerful and it's awesome because our first test passes and we can try to do something a bit more complex now with it another common thing that you see when you use get option is you store arrays in it and One of the things that you run into is that you don't always get an array back And the common way that if that you solve that in core is you'll just cast That option as a as an array right away Just in case that You don't get the value that you want or or not an array, but what we're gonna do this time is we're gonna do We're gonna have our function do that for us But we're gonna do it in reverse We're gonna start with the test failing and we're gonna We're gonna go through that and make a pass it We're gonna fix our code and make sure that our test pass And that's gonna give you a bit of an idea of what test-driven development is which is this philosophy of Going with your tests written first and then writing your code afterwards with us the idea of Writing in the least amount of code possible to fix your bug, which is the failing test So before we do that we're gonna have to do a small change to our demo get option Method we're not and we're gonna need to pass it a default variable So what we're gonna so we're gonna update our demo get option Function and add the default value, which is no, but we also need to update our tests as well So now we're saying not only are we expecting? Demo underscore foo, but we're also expecting the identical value now And you'll notice here that we're using equal and identical to This is just from PHP so in PHP you have double equal For equal to and then triple equal signs for identical This prevents issues for example if you pass an empty array or an empty string Those are all going to be equal to the same thing With a double equal, but they won't be equal to the same thing if you use a triple equals So that's why you use identical to So let's create our failing tests So this is this is our our failing tests so far it's really similar to our other tests really because The idea with unit testing is you're changing your inputs outputs and expected values So there shouldn't be too much to change between tests and this is the same case here What we're saying is we're saying that We want to pass the value the default value to be an array And we expect to return bar again because that's the error that we're checking for but on the other side We expect the value to be an array with bar inside and If you run your test right now it's gonna fail Because we haven't changed anything in our code and we're still gonna return bar and not an array But we can do that we can fix that really easily By adding this line here which checks if our default value is an array But the option that we got back is an array we cast that option as an array and return it and then and at that point our test passes and That's it for like this simple example, but the idea with unit testing is it's in a habit By itself it feels pretty insignificant like I'm pretty sure you were thinking you saw these two examples. You're like, well, that's pretty basic That doesn't do that much But really what it is is it's really one loop in your safety net it takes Hundreds of these tests for really for it to to feel significant to feel safe because one test by itself is just Again a small case a small unit of code that you're testing, but we're pressed or your plug-in is hundreds of functions and each of them have special cases that you can think of every day But you might not be thinking about in eight months when something breaks and you don't remember why it broke well, it's really hard to go back in those cases and It might take you a day to figure it out where where you did that little typo and how it interacted with everything else in your code so it's a lot easier when you can have these mocks around it and I've went already ahead for that one But it's a lot like picking up and you have it so my suggestion is you have to start and you try to do it a bit and you keep doing more and more and Like any exercise you it's hard to stay motivated, but you keep at it and that's it so the first link is The demo project so this is on github if you want to see The exact code that I run right now. It also also runs through Travis CI So if you want to see how this runs with an automated Testing system like Travis you can see how that works. So and then below is the article I wrote on this Thank you questions. All right. Thank you. Okay I Do it So that's it's a great primer like oh you're getting into it. I have a brand new project here some like tests. Mm-hmm What if I'm a developer. I have a bunch of plugins I've written hundreds of plugins. Yeah, how do I get started with projects? Like I already have like where's the best place to start in terms of developing those well There's a there's entire books written about this, but the best strategy that I can give you is Because it's small functions You can even go like if a client comes to you and creates a Tells you oh, this isn't working and then you create an issue in your ticket system You can be well from this point on whenever a client Has an issue and we find a bug in the code we have to create a test for that piece of code and then you just start from there and honestly It you can get pretty far with that just that simple philosophy of just going from that point on and creating a test around it and the beauty of unit testing in that scenario is that you don't have to Create all this infrastructure around WordPress like most of the WordPress tests You have to see the database create your options inside with this you just create a small mock You're like oh, this is this is what's happening like it's happened so many times How many people hear bar dump when something goes wrong? Yeah, exactly So this is the mock is really similar to a bar dump in the sense that you you've bar dump and you see what the values are and You're like oh, this isn't working You can you can just simulate that through the mock because you pass the same values through it and You'll see that the code isn't working and then you can fiddle around with it till it works So it's really powerful around that and it lets you solve these problems a lot faster especially for your clients because again, there's a bit less setup required but The best system is really to just start with the bugs like as they come in Like when I was at an old agency, that's what we did We just started at that point and at that point we said from this point on We and there's no more chips coming into this house And you basically start doing a test every time there's a bug and you'll be surprised how far you can get with that Thank you. Any other questions? Hello. Hello. Hey, so I have a few questions about milliseconds. How many how fast has Your test suite been running for plug-ins I'm running about 200 right now and They run in two seconds It really it will depend so in this example I took some shortcuts for example WordPress is still loading If you if you paid attention because I'm still bootstrapping the same way WordPress is loading When it doesn't really need to the idea is you're supposed to Decouple WordPress entirely from from the the testing And that's supposed to that speeds it up a lot because you're not doing an SQL collection like To give you an idea for the get option if you were doing a WordPress test normally each option test is a it's a database connection Which is incredibly Slow Because you connect to the database get the data back And you have to re-establish that connection for every test unless you you specifically Configure your suite to keep the connection live, but that can be very costly in terms of time and that's why into unit tests in general are supposed to be faster than integration tests which are supposed to be faster than acceptance testing which I haven't talked about but is Is it's all at the browser level? You had another question. Yes, so for your so for your automated testing do you test between them? Multiple matrix matrices of WordPress multi-site installation The press running under a subdirectory WordPress. Well, I actually you you don't need to do any of that at least Not for unit testing because again, you're mocking The WordPress functions so as far as as your concern WordPress Isn't really there You're you have to be okay. I expect to get this value back from WordPress It's on your own as to do that step You have to be able to say okay Well like in this case I expect to get bar back But really in most cases if you're smart and you saved your value as an array you're you're not gonna get that So you're really testing hypotheticals in that scenario So you really don't need to run through the entire Matricy what you do need to run through though is all the matrices of PHP versions because you're testing code So in that respect you still need to run that but in terms of of the WordPress version You don't need to unless you're testing again Changes like one test that that would come to mind right now is I've I ran into a lot of issues recently There was a WP sign up the emails parameters changed a lot So for example for that you want to run a bunch of tests, but again, it's on you to simulate that You don't need WordPress to be different. You just have to be like, okay. I I need to set up I need to send these variables if WordPress is lesser than this version which you can simulate yourself So again, you you really want to get WordPress out of the picture, but In terms of timing like I said before we're still loading it that's because One of the hurdles that I haven't been able to get over yet is there's some classes like WP error or underscore underscore For the translations that are really hard to Extract out so if you have like translations in your in your code it can be hard to Deal around that so it's just kind of a cheat to to leave it there So that the fall back to WordPress still works because it's just a namespace cascading. That's how it works What's your approach on testing WordPress themes and how have you gone about that? I've not done this for teams, but in terms of just thinking about it right now I would approach it the similar way in the same in the sense that you want to just test your functions that PHP You're not really testing Your JavaScript like if you want to test your JavaScript in unit testing you have to use a different testing suite But if you're testing for example, if if a hook gets added at the right time the for example the 10 up WP mock has a really good Set of functions around that like it says like I expect this action to be To be entered or I expect it not to be entered and then you'll get an error if that happens So you can definitely do that with your teams but I think it won't be as strong unless you have a lot of business logic in your team because Unit testing is really about the logic of your code as more so than the behavior of your team for Your users or clients Last question would have you been using the WP test suite classes that they provide for Providing shortcuts for testing work like WordPress URLs and navigation and the rewrite rules like have you been using the help or libraries in the test suite? Yes, but not in this context Because again the context that I'm trying to like when I'm so It's a bit unclear without doing a separate talk on tip like the global scope of testing But what we really want to test with unit test is really Am I insane not really is WordPress insane? So it's really no, but it's really it's really about your code It's about what you're coding and your business logic as opposed to what WordPress is doing and in those cases The WordPress helper functions are super useful to know is is what I coded playing well with WordPress That's super good. But if if you're trying to test like If my plugin is activated at these rewrite rules You you don't need you don't need those helper functions to figure that out and it'll be faster Like you said like you want if you want your test suite to run really quickly, it'll be a lot faster if you do that Yeah, those would be useful for integration test, but you're right. That would be separate from the unit test suite Yeah, yeah, like I said initially like I I've actually zero problems with the WordPress test suite It's just depending on what I'm trying to do Sometimes I'm just trying to see if the way I'm coding things makes sense And not really I'm not I don't want to be bogged down by how it's integrating into WordPress like I'm really more focused on on the behavior of my own code and in that that sense I find that unit testing is extremely powerful, but you have to use it It's not an absolute solution it you have to find where it fits in your own workflow and Really on the complexity of your code right like the same the example here was quite simple, but a good example is like You know if you're WooCommerce and you have a complex taxation that you Like add-on and you want to test the business logic around there Then it's a lot more interesting for that because really it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with With WordPress itself. You're just trying to test the taxation logic Thank you. Thank you Any other questions? All right. Well, thanks a lot