The first class of Hartford Promise students – 75 strong – graduated from colleges in Connecticut and beyond, this spring. Two of the Hartford Promise scholars delivered messages to their fellow graduates, and the community, as part of the hour-long Night of Promise celebration webinar, honoring their graduation in the midst of challenging times. Their messages resonated with their peers and their community.

You might be familiar with the work of Eliot Noyes and not realize it. If you have ever used an IBM Selectric typewriter or stopped for gas at a Mobil station, you have encountered his work. From his home base in New Canaan, he was pioneering in a new way of thinking about design and the impact on business. Yet he would insist, “I am first an architect.”

Just as the world today is consumed with images of American law enforcement officers pepper-spraying peaceful protesters in front of the White House and pushing old men onto the sidewalk, so was the world transfixed by similar scenes during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. When Americans stand up successfully for their own rights as human beings, it gives inspiration and confidence to others, alighting the world in civil rights and democratic activism.