North Central announced that alum Ryan Dowd, ’00, will address this year’s graduating class at the College’s 153rd Commencement on June 9. This comes after Dowd earned the College’s Alumni Recognition Award in 2011 and delivered a speech for the TEDxNorthCentralCollege event in 2015.
Dowd earned his bachelor’s degree in religious studies from North Central and went on to earn a master’s in public administration as well as a law degree from Northern Illinois University. Presently, the alum is the executive director of Hesed House in Aurora, the second-largest homeless shelter in Illinois.
“I started volunteering (at Hesed House) in junior high and started working there while I was at North Central,” Dowd said. “We serve about 1,000 people per year, including over 100 children. It is really intense, but also very rewarding.”
Hesed House prides itself on going the extra mile to help individuals in need. According to the organization’s website, 45 percent of those who stay in the Public Action to Deliver Shelter (PADS) program for a month or longer will find employment. Five percent of adults will receive further education. Twenty percent will find some type of housing. In addition, 93 percent of the adults enrolled in the Waubonsee Community College job-training program will complete it and receive a graduation certificate.
Dowd stated that as soon as he arrived at Hesed House — as a 13-year-old volunteer who took note that many girls were volunteering and liked his odds to get a date — he was “mesmerized” by the organization.
“It was a place where the values I held most dear were being lived out in flesh and blood,” Dowd said. “It felt like home immediately, (but) it took me years to fully understand why. At 13, all I knew was that I liked being there.”
The gravity and excitement of speaking at North Central’s commencement is not lost on Dowd, who anxiously awaits another opportunity to remain connected to the college that served as his platform as an undergraduate.
“I remember that time in my life,” Dowd said, “when I was anxious and excited and a bit frightened. It is the end of one chapter in a person’s life and the beginning of another, making it very special. North Central College has been such a big part of my life, not only while I was there, but since then. I just feel honored to get to share that occasion with the graduates and their families.”
Finally, when asked about the lasting impressions North Central left on him, Dowd recalls a moment that came during a class-lecture on meta-narratives with Dr. Jennifer Jackson.
“I have thought about that lecture/debate for almost 20 years,” Dowd said. “For nearly half of my life, I have been reflecting on that one lecture. I have to admit that after two decades of reflection, I have come to the conclusion that I was right, and she was wrong. If her goal was to convince me, then she was not successful. If her goal was to expand my intellectual horizons and force me to challenge all of my assumptions about the world, then she was remarkably successful. I think that is the real and long-lasting value of a liberal arts education.”
