Alumni Day Award Winners Office of the Alumni Association

Sonia Sotomayor ’76, Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court, reflects on the various ways that one can live a life of service. She wonders whether we have conflated the idea of service into a daunting goal for the next generation and counsels us to break down “service” to its basics: sacrificing one’s own interests to help another in need. Justice Sotomayor inspires other Princetonians to be role models of service to those around them by providing tangible, one-on-one acts of service and talks about service on the personal, professional, and civic levels. She additionally provides her personal key to happiness: asking two specific questions of oneself each night. Sotomayor was the Woodrow Wilson Award winner, Alumni Day 2014.

Hunter R. Rawlings III *70, President of the Association of American Universities, notes that, while American research universities are considered today the best in the world and are emulated, envied and entertained by other countries eager to catch up with our success in building such strong institutions, our universities have never been so hard pressed to make their “value proposition” in the face of such strong public criticisms—for everything from high cost and student debt to curricular sclerosis, administrative bloat and failure to change traditional paradigms in the face of the digital revolution. How, Rawlings asks, do we make sense of this paradox at the heart of the critique? He outlines how the history of the American higher education system and the more recent trends answer this question. He concludes with three reasons to be an optimist about the future. Rawlings was the Madison Medalist, Alumni Day 2014.

Arminio Fraga *85, Founding Partner of Gávea Investments and former President of the Central Bank of Brazil, discusses the topics of central banks, inflation, and key lessons from monetary history that should impact the present roles of central banks and government today. By comparing the fiscal past and present of Brazil and the U.S. with their European and South American counterparts, Fraga pinpoints specific corrective measures that restored stability to systems fraught by hyperinflation and makes recommendations for fiscal policies that honor the true scope of what central banks can realistically achieve. Fraga was the Madison Medalist, Alumni Day 2013.

Robert Mueller III ’66, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, reflects upon the core values of leadership, humility, and service learned during his time as an undergraduate student at Princeton University and reinforced by his service in the U.S. Marine Corps. He further discusses the effects of globalization, technology, and social media on law enforcement and the need for constant strategic adaptation to protect against global threats and terrorism. Mueller was the Woodrow Wilson Award winner, Alumni Day 2012.

Elaine Fuchs *77, Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at Rockefeller University, explains her work on epithelial stem cells, the background of skin cell stem cell research, and future directions. Fuchs was the Madison Medalist, Alumni Day 2011.

Denny Chin '75, U.S. Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, shares remarks about his career in public service, the past 17 years as a federal judge, and the types of cases with which he has been involved. Chin was the Woodrow Wilson Award winner, Alumni Day 2011.