"The rest of the world is waiting for you," Joan of Arcadia creator and Madison alumna Barbara Hall told JMU's latest class of graduates in May.

Hall ('82) was the main speaker of the university's spring 2004 commencement ceremony in Bridgeforth Stadium. President Linwood H. Rose welcomed the graduates and their families and guests and conferred 3,115 doctoral, master's and bachelor's degrees. Provost Douglas T. Brown, SGA President Levar Stoney and student speaker Matt Brownley also made presentations. In addition, Senior Class Challenge steering committee members Ryan Hudson, Jessica Lumsden and Kathleen Hochradel presented a check of $32,795.12 to JMU.

"We want you to shake us up," Hall said, bringing back to JMU the same wry and inspiring voice she has brought to television for two decades. "We'll call you naive and silly and overly ambitious and young. We're not going to take your phone calls. You are going to feel small and insignificant. Oh, well. But you are a force on this earth."

As creator and executive producer of Joan of Arcadia, Hall reinvented the Joan of Arc legend in the form of a modern teenager who encounters God in various characters and guises. The Friday night series won the 2004 People's Choice Award for Favorite New Television Dramatic Series. Hall previously was executive producer and continues as consulting producer on the current CBS drama, Judging Amy.

"I remember I had a definite ambition when I was in your seat," Hall told graduates, "a simple ambition: I was going to change the world. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. I was going to change the world by being a rock critic … until it became clear to me that I couldn't change the world by criticizing and analyzing it," the English graduate said.

"My best hope to change the world was … by creating something," explained Hall, who is a novelist, poet, vocalist and musician in addition to her career as a television writer and producer with such well-known programs as Family Ties, Newhart, I'll Fly Away, Chicago Hope, Northern Exposure and ER.

"Still," she pointed out, "[I received] no formal notification of having altered the course of modern society." Hall acknowledged, though, that "certain journalists have suggested that with Joan I changed TV a little.

"Your task," Hall told graduates, "is the same as mine was all those years ago. It's incumbent upon you to change the world. … You're going to change the world. You can't avoid it. It's Newtonian physics -- every action has an equal but opposite reaction (You probably should have gone to that class. Oh well). You're going to change the world simply by entering it.

"Everything you do has weight," Hall said. "Everything you do has the potential to affect one other. That's how it works.

"Your mission," Hall concluded, "is, was and always will be, to change the world. It needs changing."

-- Pam Brock

Broadway bound? I would love to go to Broadway or Hollywood," says Betty Gravett (above), who graduated in May with a bachelor's in independent studies and a concentration in theater. "I'm free. I'm ready, willing and able," says Gravett, who starred last summer as the Fairy Godmother in the School of Theatre and Dance Children's Playshop's production of Cinderella. Twenty-six members of her family attended graduation, flying in from Washington, California, Hawaii and Texas to celebrate with her. Reveling in her success, Gravett said she wanted to "live in her cap and gown."

Sweet rewards: Proud JMU parent, Shirley  Stephens is one smart cookie. She surprised her graduating twins, Amber Lea and Athena Lyn Stephens, with special-order Duke Dog cookies (in three flavors) for their post-commencement party. Amber earned her B.S. in biology and Athena earned her B.B.A. in hospitality and tourism management.

We need you: JMU President Linwood H. Rose, College of Education Dean Phil Wishon and commencement speaker Barbara Hall ('82) applaud a speech from the dais. Hall told graduates, "We need you. Your ideas, your enthusiasm. Your work ethic, your stamina, your anger, skepticism, your snobbery, your passion, your lack of direction and your restlessness. The world needs new ideas, new blood, new restlessness and new confusion."

Mortarboard memories:While new graduates reach for the stars and build that purple pride, one JMU tradition remains true -- friendships that last a lifetime.