Education Secretary Betsy DeVos received a standing ovation Saturday where she might have least expected it — at a college graduation ceremony.
The friendly reception came at Ave Maria University, a small Catholic liberal arts college near Naples, Florida, after her commencement speech on the importance of public service that included a jab at the “pernicious effects” of big government.
Standing O for @BetsyDeVosED following @avemariauniv commencement address. Speech was focused on religious teachings and importance of service pic.twitter.com/D4Md9KzhAt
— Annika Hammerschlag (@a_hammerschlag) May 5, 2018
“Service — to God, to country and to neighbor — is a calling, and it’s an imperative,” Ms. DeVos told the crowd of about 250 graduates in her prepared remarks. “It’s at the core of what it means to be an American. And it should be a calling for you.”
Congrats to the @avemariauniv graduating Class of 2018! It was an honor to be in the building for your special moment. Special thanks to @BetsyDeVosED for your inspiring inspiring words, and your unfathomable courage in the service of our nation! pic.twitter.com/ibIG98Plom
— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) May 5, 2018
The appreciation contrasted sharply with the response to her graduation speeches last year at Bethune-Cookman University in Dayton Beach and the University of Baltimore, where some students booed and turned their backs on her.
Her Ave Maria appearance was not without controversy. In April, 36 alumni and students wrote a letter calling on the university to rescind the invitation, saying her actions were “hostile to a culture of life and of advocacy for the marginalized among us,” but others came to her defense.
About 100 alumni argued in a letter that as Catholics, “we must reject this widespread tendency to seek to silence opposing viewpoints and must not allow our political proclivities to cloud our judgment of ideas.”
Ave Maria president Jim Towey, who served as director of President George W. Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said in a Thursday op-ed that she had “restored sanity” to the Education Department despite unrelenting criticism from the left.
“Secretary DeVos has found no safe harbor among the elites of our nation’s public schools and institutions of higher learning,” said Mr. Towey in the Daily Caller op-ed. “Her public appearances typically trigger rude protests, heckling, and coordinated disinformation campaigns. But she, too, has weathered the storm.”
In her remarks, Ms. DeVos placed an emphasis on Christian faith and cited Jesus, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa, noting that Ave Maria started in 2014 the U.S. first museum dedicated to Teresa of Calcutta.
“’Find your own Calcutta,’ Mother Teresa begged us. ’Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are — in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools,’” said Ms. DeVos. “So here’s a question for each and every one of you: Where is your Calcutta?”
Florida state Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican, tweeted afterward that Ms. DeVos had shown “unfathomable courage in the service of our nation,” while several students told reporters that they enjoyed her speech.
“To have her take time to come down to this small school was just incredible,” graduate Miles Stevens told WINK-TV in Fort Myers.
Graduate Patricia Nichols told the Naples Daily News that, “I thought it was honestly beautifully done.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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