Shields '87 discusses undergraduate years, career at Class Day

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Actress Brooke Shields ’87 recalled stories from her time as an undergraduate and discussed the advantages that a University education gave her at the Class Day ceremony on Monday morning, joking that the Class of 2011 should be the “tools” of change after graduation.

In her introduction, President Shirley Tilghman welcomed Shields to the stage by noting that, “when The Daily Princetonian mentions God as the most notable Princeton alumni after Brooke Shields, you know you’ve made an impression.”

Shields began her address by telling the assembled students that they should be excited to leave the “Orange Bubble” and be free to pursue their own interests in the outside world. “You will no longer have a syllabus to follow, you will no longer have an adviser to consult,” Shields said. “You may never be this protected again."

“You will leave here to do the same thing all of us have done before you: make mistakes, grow, and make fewer mistakes,” she added.

Shields also noted that it is too easy to overlook the simplicity of one's accomplishments, urging the Class of 2011 to revel in its success. She said her high school adviser told her that she “probably would not get into Princeton, let alone graduate.”

“It’s so easy to get caught up when the simple and quiet truths carry the most weight” Shields said, emphasizing the success inherent in simply walking out FitzRandolph Gate.

“You survived, through all of the hard work, the fear, the anger, the tears, the fatigue, the joy, the sadness, the feelings of success, the love, the excitement, the fun — and that was all just during Nude Olympics,” she joked, before learning that the Nude Olympics had been banned.

Shields also talked about her own experience coming to the University as a nationally known figure, recalling instances such as being taken out of a midterm to meet the emperor of Japan, having her grades published in Life and having a photographer from the Enquirer trying to take pictures of her in the shower.

But despite the fame, Shields said, her time at the University was as conventional and normal a one as she could have wished for, thanks to the friendships she made.

“Loyalty is what I always got and loyalty is what you always get,” she said. “That never diminishes.”

She also addressed the normal struggles she experienced starting her career after graduation, as even with an acting career expected of her she had lost much of her footing during her years at the University and had to work her way back into the industry. “But that’s another story I’ll be telling at Winberie’s about four beers in,” she added.

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Despite the challenges that came from taking off four years to attend college, Shields said that without her experiences from the University she would have become a cliche, without the ability to adapt and reinvent herself.

“I was gaining the most important footing of my life” she explained. “I would have never survived my industry, a business that predicates itself on eating its young.”

In speaking about her career, Shields said that being an actress was like going through Bicker every day and that she always had to prove herself, an experience that all graduates must face.

“Once you graduate there will be no guarantees, and even if you work your ass off you will rarely get what you think you want are deserve” she said. “You will, however, get what you were meant to.”

“I urge you to surround yourself with good and honest people ... to not let fear inhibit you,” she said. “I beg you to never settle for less.”

Shields also addressed the habit of University students to call their peers “tools” if they choose to pursue careers in areas such as finance or politics, noting that in recent years people have “made the world bleak, broken our economy,” and that it was the responsibility of the recent graduates to go out and fix it. “We need help, we need you,” she added.

“With all due respect, you are all a bunch of tools,” Shields said. “You are tools that we need to fix this country ... Go be bankers, be politicians, be scientists, be artists, be thinkers, but you need to figure out what kind of tool you want to be.”

Shields finished her address by reminding the audience that times of struggle are the times that make heroes. “Forge ahead,” she urged the Class of 2011, “make change responsibly, and remember that there is a world behind you.”

After her speech, Shields was inducted as an honorary member of the Class of 2011 and presented with a beer jacket. The class then sang “Happy Birthday” to her in honor of her birthday on Tuesday.

The ceremony also featured the traditional speeches from members of the graduating class, with Dan Maselli ’11 joking that the only book he read during his years at the University was the “Zombie Survival Guide” and Cristina Luzarraga ’11 addressing the “socialist” nature of the University, with free items such as Frist pizza being paid for by “taxes” on students’ parents.