The Bona Venture

Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: Web Exclusives

Media Credit: Ruthie Harper Wolf Blitzer addresses local and campus media Sunday morning.

Media Credit: Ruthie Harper Wolf Blitzer addresses the Class of 2009 Sunday morning.

Video footage from the Class of 2009 commencement exercises aired toward the end CNN's "The Situation Room" Monday evening.
In addition to showing a selection of the commencement address, the political news program's anchor, Wolf Blitzer, thanked St. Bonaventure University for his honorary degree.

Blitzer visited St. Bonaventure Sunday to deliver his address to the Class of 2009 and to receive an honorary doctorate degree of humane letters. He said he watched Bonaventure basketball while growing up in Buffalo, N.Y.

"I've got a soft spot in my heart for St. Bonaventure because, as a kid growing up, I used to watch the Bonnies play basketball," Blitzer said in a press conference with local and campus media, including SBU-TV and The Bona Venture, Sunday morning.

He encouraged graduates not to worry about the future because things will begin to fall in place, and he said he would never have imagined he would end up on CNN.
During the press conference, Blitzer discussed how he got his first reporting job through a foreign correspondent trainee program at Reuter's News Agency, a British wire service. He mentioned the importance of a student's first job.

"The first job is really important because it's going to give you that flavor, it's going to give you that sense (that) 'this is something I really want to do' or 'maybe I should go into something else'," Blitzer said at the conference. "So, it's really important that that first job is a good one because it can affect the rest of your life."

During commencement he also told graduates of the importance of finding and working at something they are passionate about. He said he loved journalism because every day he learns something new.

"At the end of the day I'm going to be a little smarter than that morning," he said.

Blitzer also advised graduates to take one day at a time, to be upbeat, not to worry about everyone else and not to worry about making mistakes because everyone makes them at some point.

He ended his speech by saying he admired, but is envious of, the graduates because of the future they will see.

"I admire, I'm envious of, all of you because so much is going to happen over the next several decades that none of us right now can appreciate," Blitzer said. "So much is going to change; it's going to be exciting and terrific."

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