Senior Rachel Isaacs Will Talk about ‘Virtues of Making Trouble’
at Wellesley College’s 127th Commencement

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Rachel Isaacs, a member of the Wellesley College class of 2005, has earned an honor shared by Wellesley alumna Hillary Rodham Clinton. She’s been chosen as the student commencement speaker, a role Clinton inaugurated when she graduated from Wellesley in 1969.

Isaacs is a religion major from Manalapan, N.J., and the daughter of Drs. Charles and Paula Isaacs. Her speech, which aims to stir her classmates to action as they enter the world beyond Wellesley, is titled “Antigone’s Legacy: On the Virtues of Making Trouble.”

She has earned First-Year Distinction academic honors, has been named to the honorary society Phi Beta Kappa and is the winner of the Jacqueline Kreiger Klein Fellowship for Jewish Studies. Co-President of Wellesley College Hillel, she has served as resident assistant in Wellesley’s Pomeroy Hall and is a founding member of Wellesley Friends of Israel.

“I will be studying Hebrew scripture and Jewish law at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, Israel,” Isaacs says of her plans following her June 3 graduation. Her role as commencement speaker, she noted, presents an opportunity to focus attention on important issues of our times.

“I look forward to discussing the importance of political responsibility, spiritual fortitude and intellectual iconoclasm among our generation’s leaders as our nation searches for unity and strength in a time of troubling division,” Isaacs said. “The women of the class of 2005 are intelligent women of integrity, character and strength, and I feel sincerely honored to address our common concerns, challenges and potential for the years to come.”

Isaacs will share the stage with two Wellesley alumnae speaking at the college’s 127th commencement: Columbia law professor and author Patricia J. Williams and Wellesley President Diana Chapman Walsh.

Since 1875, Wellesley College has been a leader in providing an excellent liberal-arts education for women who will make a difference in the world. Its 500-acre campus near Boston is home to 2,300 undergraduate students from all 50 states and 68 countries. For more information, go to www.wellesley.edu.

###