The commencement speaker was John Paul Lederach, a professor of International Peace building at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
SPRINGFIELD - Whether inspired by a tie-breaking goal kick in the state women's soccer championships, bringing peace to violence-ravaged regions across the globe, or fairy dust - speakers at the 80th annual commencement ceremony for Elm's College urged graduates to grab inspiration wherever it presents itself.
At the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield, the 2011 Founder's Cross Award-winner told 340 fellow graduates one of her most anxiety-ridden moments in college came on a drizzly day in 2008 as she poised to kick an overtime goal during the women's intercollegiate state soccer playoffs.
"I was standing in what felt like the center of the world," Sarah Donais, of Granby, told graduates, family members, faculty and trustees of the Chicopee college. "When it was my turn, I watched it soar past the goalie and eventually hit the back of the net."
While that outcome was exhilarating, Donais, 21, said there would be many more uncertain moments in front of her during college and there will be many more to come.
"We may not have jobs, houses or every detail figured out," she said, but be confident opportunities are there.
Commencement speaker John Paul Lederach, a professor of International Peace building at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, told graduates he was first inspired by a scratchy vinyl Peter Pan album when he was a boy and the fairy dust that allowed the character to fly.
"I always waited for the part when he said: 'You can fly. You can fly,'" Lederach said. "That would be the moment when I would leap from the couch and land smack on the floor - and I would do it again and again and again. That's the beauty of a childlike wonder."
Lederach has been to peacekeeping missions in some tense corners of the world, including Columbia, Nepal, Northern Ireland and the Philippines.
Elms College was founded in 1928, on the cusp of the Great Depression, primarily for women of limited means to pursue an education. It has since become a co-educational institution.