Princeton Weekly Bulletin September 21, 1998
Shapiro launches '98-99
Students hear presidential address, receive awards at Opening Exercises
At Opening Exercises in the Chapel on September 13, President Shapiro launched the academic year 1998-99.
The program included the presentation of academic prizes to undergraduates and an address to the entering students by the president.
Shapiro spoke about a "very particular type of conversations exchanges either between individuals or between individuals and such cultural artifacts as books, new ideas, works of art and musical masterpieces."
In these types of conversations, Shapiro said, "the individual or individuals involved expect, through the reflective and thoughtful engagement of the work and ideas of others, to expand their imaginations, enlarge their awareness, deepen their understanding and hone their ability to perceive new possibilities.
"Both the dividends and risks of these distinctive conversations," he added, "are that they can transform one in important ways."
He emphasized that such "transforming conversations" can take place not only with contemporaries but "across the generations, as we reach back with empathy to learn something of the wisdom of those who went before us."
As one example, he cited a "conversation" with the French impressionist Auguste Renoir on the subject of "The Luncheon of the Boating Party," a painting Renoir revised and reworked many times.
Said Shapiro, "The painting in this sense demonstrates Renoir's multilevel 'conversations' with reality and with his own emerging interpretations and objectives to create a work that allows each one of us who carefully reflects on, or 'converses' with, this great painting to expand our own imaginations."
Shapiro used Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" as another example of a "conversation without words." University organist Joan Lippincott played a theme from "The Great Gate of Kiev" for the appreciative audience that packed the Chapel, and then Shapiro continued his address, describing the historical circumstances of the composition.
Conversations with music, Shapiro said, "can be a gold mine in terms of possible experiences and meanings that we can unearth, but only if we are willing to listen carefully and enter into an active and reflective exchange with the work and its creators.
"I hope you will be alert to the full possibilities of such exchanges. Use these conversations to build new worlds of meaning and lasting connections of all kinds," he advised the incoming students, and he concluded with the hope that "the conversations you begin today will lead you to deeper understanding of yourself, your place in the long stream of human history, your appreciation of others different from yourself, and your enhanced capacity to help us meet the challenges before us all."
Undergraduate academic prizes
Shapiro also presented four undergraduates with academic prizes honoring exceptional scholastic achievement: Chan Vee Chong '99, Renee Yuen-Jan Hsia '99, Andrew Houck '00 and Jared Kramer '01.
Chong won the Class of 1939 Princeton Scholar Award, given annually to the senior who, at the end of the junior year, has achieved the highest academic standing for all work at Princeton. Chong, who is completing a degree in electrical engineering, expects to graduate in June 1999 after only three years at Princeton. He is studying on a full scholarship, the Glaxo-Wellcome EDB Scholarship, from the Singapore Economic Development Board. He has been active with the Southeast Asia Society.
Hsia received the George B. Wood Legacy Junior Prize for academic achievement during the junior year. A Woodrow Wilson School major earning a certificate in East Asian Studies, she plans a senior thesis on nongovernmental organizations in mainland China. She has been involved with the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship and Student Volunteers Council and is a member of the Symphony Orchestra.
Electrical engineering major Houck won the George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize. Last year's winner of the Freshman First Honor Prize, Houck is active in the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship, and this year he will be a resident adviser in Wilson College.
Kramer received the Freshman First Honor Prize. His high school, Phillips Exeter Academy, will receive a check for $250 for the purchase of books in his name. Kramer plans to major in computer science and is also interested in English literature.