Career Ambassador Pamela Bridgewater urged University of Mary Washington graduates to embrace new challenges, take risks, value diversity and learn every day from people and situations throughout their life’s journey.
“On this day your dreams should be your only boundaries,” said Bridgewater during the University’s 2015 commencement address on Saturday, May 9. “It’s never too late for your dreams to become opportunities.”
Bridgewater, who retired from active duty in the U.S. Diplomatic Service in 2013, said she dreamed of joining the Peace Corps after she graduated from Virginia State College to answer President Kennedy’s call for youth ambassadors. But the political science major was disappointed to find that the Corps needed volunteers with agriculture and other development skills for which she didn’t qualify.
Instead she took a different path, attending graduate school that led to a position as a university professor, until a friend cajoled her into trying a two-year tour of duty in the Foreign Service. That stint stretched to 34 years and led to a rewarding career where she became the first African-American female consul general in South Africa during the historic transition from Apartheid to a non-racial government and cemented a friendship with anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela who served as president of South Africa.
During her Foreign Service career, she helped open communication channels between the African National Congress and the U.S. and, as special coordinator for peace in Liberia at the height of a civil war, led a U.S. delegation to peace talks that set that country on a road to recovery. Bridgewater served as U.S. ambassador in three countries under three different presidents: President Bill Clinton appointed her U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Benin; President George W. Bush named her U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana, and President Obama appointed her as Ambassador to Jamaica.
Despite her distinguished career, Bridgewater told graduates that her most cherished award was being named an honorary Peace Corps Volunteer by the Peace Corps in Jamaica where she swore in Peace Corps volunteers.
“So you see, it’s never too late for your dreams to become a reality,” she said. “One setback can open opportunities more exciting than you thought and erase any disappointment you might encounter along the way.”
She shared what she called “Pam’s Principles” and urged graduates to believe in themselves and to be passionate about their journey ahead.
“Stand for something or stand against something, but always stand up and be counted,” she said.
She challenged them to make the pledge: “’I can make a difference, I must make a difference, I will make a difference.’ The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.”
