329 receive degrees at Northern

Saturday was a big day for Janice Harbor and her family. After four years, her son Caleb graduated from Montana State University-Northern.

She said that as her 22-year-old son was pursuing a double major in diesel and automotive technologies, he worked for General Electric for two summers, was a residential adviser on campus and worked for BNSF Railway in Havre to pay for college.

He managed to do it all while remaining on the dean's list.

Harbor said the years between when she first traveled with her son from their home in Twin Bridges to the Northern campus had passed quickly.

"It seems like last week that we brought him up here, and he is already done," Harbor said with a smile.

Harbor was just one of the many loved ones of graduates in the bleachers in the Armory Gymnasium Saturday peering out into the sea of black gowns.

For students, it was the sum total of years of scholarship and efforts, of late nights concentrating on homework assignments, busing tables, bartending, internships and working in department stores.

That morning, they entered the gymnasium as students, tassels dangling in front of their faces, but emerged as graduates.

The ceremony began with the MSU-Northern Community Orchestra providing the music for the processional. Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel entered the gymnasium, followed by a line of Northern administrators and Paul Tuss, chair of the Montana University System Board of Regents, all making their way onto the dias in the middle of the gymnasium.

Professors followed close behind and sat in foldable chairs closest to the platform.

Nine alumni from the graduating classes of 1951 and 1966, back when the university was Northern Montana College, took their seats while sporting yellow gowns.

Graduating students then filed in, loved ones responded by calling out and waving, while others aimed cameras and smartphones to capture the milestone.

The orchestra played the national anthem, before Ila McClenahan, pastoral care coordinator for Northern Montana Health Care, gave the invocation.

"May the skills they have developed in managing their time, setting priorities and keeping focused will be the foundation on which they build successful careers and lives," she said.

McClenahan said her daughter Amanda was among those graduating,

Students were awarded their certificates and degrees, with a total of 329 given out in the fields of education, health, business administration, automotive technology, diesel technology, agricultural technology and criminal justice, among others.

Graduates walked on stage when their names were called and were given their degree. Graduates posed for a photo as they shook hands with Kegel before exiting the stage.

Some graduates were greeted by relatives with bouquets of flowers or a tight embrace as they walked off the stage.

Verne O. Sedlacek, a Havre native who served 12 years as president and chief executive officer of the Commonfund and is currently a senior fellow at the M.J. Murdoch Charitable Trust in Vancouver, Washington, was the commencement speaker.

Sedlacek began his address by talking about the Apollo 11 moon landing and "doing things that are hard because they are hard," a reference to a line from a 1962 speech by President John F. Kennedy.

Sedlacek lamented that in modern America, people are willing to settle for mediocrity, rather than actively seek new challenges.

He said when in our personal or professional lives or as a nation, when we seek to accomplish things that are hard, "we can look back later and feel good about what we have done."

He recalled moving on his own to the East Coast to attend Princeton University when he was young, despite never having even visited that part of the country.

"It was not safe, it was not comfortable, but it scared me to death," he said.

He said that when he was hospitalized, he was drawn to a nurse. He said he "decided to do the hard thing" and ask her out on a date.

"Sometimes risks have downsides," Sedlacek said, evoking laughter.

He said that she rejected his offer.

"And I went crashing down in a huge ball of flames,"

However, the nurse ended up calling him back a few days later and accepted his offer. Sedlacek and that nurse later wed and are still married.

He said she later told him that she decided to go out with him because he "takes rejection so well."

Sedlacek said risk is an inherent part of doing the hard thing.

He said that whenever doing hard things, there is always a risk of failure, but the important thing is how you cope with it.

Sedlacek returned to the theme of the moon landing, noting that moment in 1969 came after a string of failed attempts, most notably the Apollo 1 fire two years earlier that claimed the lives of three astronauts.

But, he said, people responded by finding what went wrong, remedying it and renewing their efforts.

Sedlacek said people spend too much time worrying about the future and thinking about what could have been done differently in the past, which comes at the expense of the present.

"The past is over, the future is unknowable and so thinking about doing those hard things is important," he said