New responsibilities come with an Elliott School of International Affairs diploma, said Roger Cressey, president of Good Harbor Consulting Group, at the school’s graduation ceremony Friday in the Smith Center.

Cressey, the keynote speaker for the ceremony, and a 1991 alumnus, urged students to take everything they were taught and apply it to future situations.

“As graduates of the Elliott School you are in a tremendous position to give back,” Cressey said. “As you receive your diploma today and celebrate your wonderful achievement, just remember one thing – it’s time to pay the rent.”

Student speaker David Aaron Morgenstern imposed upon his classmates the wisdom he learned from one of the most important people in his life – his mother.

“I think achieving perspective and maintaining it is a worthwhile goal for all of us,” Morgenstern said.

Some of the ceremony speakers also sent the graduates off with advice taken from fortune cookies.

Professor Barbara D. Miller – this year’s recipient of the Harry Harding Teaching Award – said she asked her colleagues if they had any good advice from fortune cookies to share with the graduates.

Harry Harding, a professor of international affairs, approached the microphone and said his favorite Chinese fortune: “It takes brains to be a real fool.”

As the class of 2008 walked out of the Smith Center, families said they were excited to celebrate with their accomplished children.

“I can’t believe that it’s happened,” said Paula Miller, who traveled with her family from Kentucky to see her son graduate. “I mean, four years have just flown by. Who would’ve thought?”