Senior Seth Bergeson was chosen by his classmates as this year’s student commencement speaker. A history major from Seattle, Bergeson is notorious for spending as much time in his room studying as socializing with his endless group of friends, which is to say, a lot. During his time at Whitman, Bergeson has maintained his chiseled calves through Whitman cycling, stayed in touch with his first-year roots by serving as an RA of Anderson, and gotten to know Danish prison systems by traveling overseas through a Humanity in Action Fellowship, among many other things. Yet Bergeson also has brought students together; he has mastered the art of fondue parties by ingeniously harmonizing students’ love of chocolate with their love of Hugh Grant movies.
Bergeson’s speech is titled “Pink Shorts and Idealism.”
Pioneer: How did you become commencement speaker?
Bergeson: Last fall, two of my housemates suggested that I should try to become commencement speaker. It was very early, but I was immensely flattered [and] as the time went on they encouraged me. [In April], there were about 10 [seniors] that nominated ourselves to be on a panel of potential speakers. We gave five-minute sample speeches . . . and then the seniors that attended this panel voted. It was also really interesting to see what a lot of my friends decided to speak about . . . I was really impressed by all the speeches. There were pieces about memories at Whitman, and there were also speeches passing on wisdom to current students that we have gained during our four years here. There were also some great Disney allusions.
Pioneer: What aspect of being the student commencement speaker are you looking forward to the most?
Bergeson: I enjoy public speaking and I’ve really enjoyed my Whitman experience and I’ve gotten to get to know a lot of people through the years. I think it will be a really great way for me to get closure on my Whitman experience, and also tie things together for others so they get closure as well. Senior year is a really interesting year, particularly at this time of year, because we are all gearing up for uncertain futures in a lot of ways. Some people know what they are doing next year . . . and a lot of people don’t: but we are leaving Whitman. That is really everything we have known for the last four years. Even when you study abroad, you have Whitman before, and return to Whitman after. I think it’s also a very nice personal touch to commencement, because commencement is mainly about the formalities and giving out the diplomas. I’m very honored to be representing the senior class because I’ve learned a lot from them.
Pioneer: What does your speech focus on?
Bergeson: Well, it’s an interesting speech because you only get five minutes and you are trying to tie together a bunch of threads of your Whitman experience and speak to the future: you’re speaking of the past, present and future. The speech is currently called “Pink Shorts and Idealism,” and the pink shorts are a reference to these very small pink running shorts that I owned in high school and I wore during the first week of school when I was running an ASWC campaign . . . It’s about how these pink shorts are a symbol of this idealism that I came into Whitman with: and am definitely leaving Whitman with. But the speech is a story about what happened to that idealism, and then what else I’ve learned that you need to complement idealism with. [The] speech is also about the insecurity of moving beyond Whitman, [moving] outside of this really controlled setting of Whitman that we have really come to love.
Pioneer: How has Whitman influenced you during the last four years?
Bergeson: I’ll say that Whitman has been incredibly formative. And as senior year is coming to an end, I think I’ve changed a lot and developed a lot of my character from my time at Whitman . . . I think Whitman has developed a lot of my creativity and imagination and helped me think really critically about many interesting ideas. Along with that it’s complicated a lot of ideas that I used to think were very basic and simple . . . I don’t think Whitman has jaded us but it definitely taught us how to approach all ideas much more critically, and also to weigh a lot of different options. And I think my speech points at that. I do think Whitman teaches us to approach an ever-complex world and involve ourselves . . . I think that the speech will interest and appeal to those at Whitman and beyond our community. It speaks to many questions that people ask about an ever more complex world.
