Graduation

Photo by Kasia Broussalian Dean Paul Voakes helps Dan Pacheco adjust his mortarboard.

Dan Pacheco ('94) delivered the School's spring commencement address May 10. A Broomfield resident and former principal product manager and programming director at AOL, he is senior manager of digital products for The Bakersfield Californian and president of FutureForecast Consulting.

Pacheco started his career designing Web pages and producing content for The Denver Post and The Washington Post. Pacheco is a member of the SJMC Advisory Board and remains at the leading edge of the integration of new technology and media.

His advice to graduates included:

• "It will be up to all of you and those who come after you to make sure that time-honored journalistic values remain intact while also leveraging the incredible new opportunities that digital media have created."
• "As more people share their opinions, they also care more about fairness and the right of people on different sides of an issue to be able to voice their views."
• "As we all drown in a sea of information, we still value the convenience of having someone summarize the five most important things we need to know."
• "As more people are able to instantly publish anything about any subject or person to a global audience, they also have an even greater thirst for truth and cold, hard facts to help them make informed decisions in their lives."