Children are at the mercy of the adults in their lives, and for far too many, mercy is in short supply. As executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund, Carol Bellamy has spoken out for the rights and welfare of children worldwide in a voice both eloquent and powerful. She has reached even the most isolated, and the most abandoned.

"When the lives and the rights of children are at stake, there must be no silent witnesses," Bellamy recently told the U.N. Security Council. "We need to work together to ensure that children are protected from violence, abuse, and exploitation."

Under Bellamy's leadership, UNICEF has become a champion of global investment in children. She has argued that efforts to reduce poverty and build a more secure world can only be successful if they ensure that children have an opportunity to grow to adulthood in health, peace, and dignity. She has challenged leaders to recognize their moral, social, and economic responsibility to invest in children-and to shift national resources accordingly.

Trained in corporate law and finance and deeply committed to global peace and development, Bellamy has brought a compassionate yet pragmatic ethic to improving the lives of children.

Prior to joining UNICEF, Bellamy was director of the U.S. Peace Corps. A Peace Corps volunteer herself in Guatemala from 1963-65, she was the first former volunteer to run the organization.

Bellamy's distinguished career in the private sector included serving as a managing director of Bear Stearns & Co., and as a principal at Morgan Stanley and Co. Bellamy also spent five years in the New York State Senate. In 1978, she became the first woman to be elected president of the New York City Council.

Bellamy earned a law degree from New York University in 1968. She is a former fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and an honorary member of Phi Alpha Alpha, the U.S. National Honor Society for Accomplishment and Scholarship in Public Affairs and Administration. Born and raised in the New York area, Bellamy graduated from Gettysburg College in 1963.

For her dedication to children worldwide and for her refusal to be a silent witness, Grinnell College honors Carol Bellamy today.

It's difficult to imagine what challenges and problems the graduates of today will face in 10, 20, or 30 years, but they will likely be dramatically different than those we confront today. And, as Kathryn Jagow Mohrman '67 has said, this rapid change will continue to prove the relevance of a liberal arts education, as the graduates of places like Grinnell find that they have the confidence, the flexibility, and intellectual tools to adapt to a changing world.

It is in recognition of Ms. Mohrman's leadership and her passionate support for higher education that we honor her today. She cares deeply about the centrality of teaching, and about helping students become productive professionals, contributing citizens, and wonderful human beings. She has demonstrated these beliefs through all her roles in higher education: scholar, teacher, administrator, and college president.

Ms. Mohrman's dedication to education started early: she grew up on the campus of Knox College, and her father, Elmer Jagow, served as president of Hiram College for many years.

Educated in history and public policy at Grinnell College (where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa), the University of Wisconsin, and George Washington University, Ms. Mohrman has spent more than three decades working in higher education. As president of Colorado College for almost a decade, she took advantage of the president's bully pulpit to advance her vision for academe. She created a sense of excitement and shared purpose in advancing her goals for the college. Her belief in the liberal arts institution as a haven for learning, exploration, and discovery guided her every decision.

Ms. Mohrman's support for Grinnell College has been equally steadfast. She served on the College's Board of Trustees for 13 years, focusing on issues of finance, budget, and faculty relations. She has also served as national fundraising chair, and has returned to campus on several occasions to lecture.

Ms. Mohrman also advanced the cause of international cooperation in higher education through her work in East Asia as a Fulbright Professor and now as the executive director of the Hopkins Nanjing Center. She has demonstrated her commitment to the internationalization of education, as well as her own ability to live "the liberal arts life" as she has adapted so skillfully to another culture.

For her commitment to the liberal arts, for her distinguished record as president of Colorado College, and for her curiosity and passion for learning, Grinnell College is proud to honor Kathryn Jagow Mohrman today.

A diagnosis of cancer or AIDS is nothing short of terrifying for those who must hear it. Rein Saral has brought hope to those who feel they are beyond hope, and he has brought the possibility of renewed life to those who are looking death in the face.

As an educator, administrator, and physician-scientist, he has shown tremendous leadership in the efforts to find effective treatments for cancer, AIDS-related malignancies, and other illnesses.

Born in Estonia, Dr. Saral came to Grinnell College as an undergraduate, where he majored in chemistry and served as co-captain of the football team. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1965. He went on to earn a medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1969 and completed a residency in internal medicine, also at Johns Hopkins. He gave evidence of early promise, and that promise has been more than fulfilled in his life as a scientist and scholar.

Returning to Hopkins after three years at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolic, and Digestive Diseases at the National Institute of Health, Saral served as clinical director of a pioneering bone-marrow transplant program. He was the first physician to use bone marrow transplantation in the treatment of AIDS-related malignancies and among the first to use it in the treatment of sickle cell anemia and other blood disorders.

As director of Emory's Bone Marrow Transplantation Program in Atlanta, he developed the program into the largest in the Southeast and one of the five largest in the nation. He helped introduce several new technologies, including stem cell transplantation and the use of marrow transplantation for breast and ovarian cancer.

As senior associate director of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University, Saral leads an interdisciplinary organization that seeks to become Georgia's first National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center.

He has also written or co-written chapters for 28 medical books and almost 150 scientific articles published in medical journals.

For his outstanding patient care, for the far-reaching significance of his research, and for the hope he provides to those who need it most, Grinnell College is proud to honor Rein Saral today.