The American University of Rome was proud to award an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters to Cindy H. McCain, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), during its 2025 Commencement Ceremony.
In presenting the degree, AUR President Dr. Scott Sprenger reflected on the alignment between McCain’s global leadership and the aspirations of AUR’s graduating class.
“Many of our graduates today aspire to careers in international development, diplomacy, and public service,” President Sprenger noted. “In you, they see a model of ethical leadership and unwavering commitment - someone who has used voice, vision, and position to confront some of the world’s most urgent challenges with principle and compassion.
“As Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, you lead the world’s largest humanitarian organization at a time of profound global crises. You’ve responded with clarity and urgency—calling attention to hunger not just as a problem of access, but as a matter of peace, equity, and human dignity. Under your leadership, the WFP has remained not only a lifeline, but a force for change.”
In her speech to the Class of 2025, McCain drew on a lifetime of public service and humanitarian leadership to offer a message of hope, resilience, and purpose. She praised the values instilled through an AUR education and encouraged graduates to apply their knowledge and convictions in service of others.
Read the full address by Cindy H. McCain below:
President Sprenger, ladies and gentlemen, and especially the Class of 2025: thank you for inviting me to join you on this very special day. It’s a huge privilege to be here at the American University of Rome: to share this occasion with you, to celebrate your achievements, and to share a little of your and your family’s joy.
Congratulations on your impressive accomplishments, which demanded hard work and dedication. Well done!
I’m humbled to be the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from this prestigious university. Thank you. I’m extremely proud to accept it.
I remember my own graduation from the University of Southern California – although it was a few years’ ago now.
I remember the hope I felt, and my sense of opportunity and excitement about all that the future would hold.
As the years have passed, it’s sometimes been hard to hold onto that hope. We’re living through challenging times, in a world plagued by war and starvation, poverty and injustice.
Famine has already tightened its grip on desperate families in Sudan, who are caught in the crosshairs of a vicious civil war. It’s also threatening to overwhelm the broken people of Gaza within a short weeks. Many millions more – in countries ranging from Haiti, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to Myanmar – live with permanent hunger, as they struggle each day to survive.
Today, in 2025, this is completely unacceptable. Yet I still have hope.
Last week, here in Rome, the Conclave of Cardinals elected the first ever Pope from the United States. As an American, I felt enormous pride – and I’m sure you did, too. When His Holiness, Pope Leo the Fourteenth, addressed the world from the Balcony of St Peter, he urged each one of us to build bridges between people through dialogue. To ease suffering, heal divisions, and to work for peace and reconciliation.
Your time here at A.U.R. has equipped you with the knowledge, skills and character to answer his call – to be bridge builders and peace makers.
And this is why you give me hope.
Your generation has what it takes to make our world better, I know you do. So please use all that you have learned here to try.
My late husband, John, used to say there is nothing more liberating in life than serving a cause greater than yourself. A cause that might encompass you, but is not defined by your existence alone. John believed that serving worthy causes brought a happiness far greater than pleasure – and he certainly lived experiences that proved it, spending five years as a prisoner of war.
Of all his accomplishments, all his battles won and lost, the thing that brought him the most satisfaction was defending the cause he cared about most: respect for the dignity that all human beings possess, no matter the circumstances they live in. John was never happier than when he was helping good guys, fight bad guys, to help little guys. He inspired me in my career as a humanitarian, and as you consider your next steps, I hope his beliefs will inspire you as well.
He’s with me every day as I lead my team at the World Food Programme. As the world’s largest humanitarian organization, headquartered here in Rome, we’re at the forefront of the global movement to end hunger and food insecurity. Last year, we brought hope and dignity to more than 120 million vulnerable people in more than 80 countries.
Yet with hunger surging in many parts of the world, and millions more people urgently requiring lifesaving assistance, we need the support of smart, motivated young people like you, now more than ever.
One of the great inspirations of my career has been the privilege of working with people who act from the heart, and who serve others. I first encountered WFP in the early 1990s in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where I saw firsthand the horrific impact of the Rwandan Genocide, as refugees poured across the border.
In that awful moment I also saw the hope that WFP and other humanitarian organizations provided, as they stood in harm’s way to help people fleeing for their lives. The compassion, dignity, respect, and ultimately the life-saving help that they provided. Since then I’ve seen WFP’s dedicated frontline teams in action all over the world.
In Somalia, I met mothers in a camp for displaced people in Dollow, who told me stories of their crops and livestock being wiped out by drought. Terrorists recruiting children as young as 11. And the dangers they faced every day trying to survive.
One woman I met, Halima, told me she had fled her home with her family of ten, to protect her young sons. She said armed groups had been taking boys from their families by force to join their ranks, killing anyone who refused.
In this camp in Dollow, I was confronted by the worst and also the very best of humanity. People forced to leave their entire lives behind because they risked starvation or violence at the hands of others. But also people dedicating their lives to helping others who cannot help themselves. It’s an experience I’ll never forget.
As you go out into the world, I hope you will also be inspired and motivated by encounters with extraordinary and selfless people. And whether you become statesmen or scholars, humanitarians or health workers, I hope their example will guide you on a path to becoming bridge builders and peace makers.
In today’s world, there are more worthy causes for you to serve than there are people willing to answer the call. Feeding the hungry. Healing the sick. Building strong communities. Empowering the oppressed. Spreading economic opportunity. Striving for peace.
Whatever you decide to do, answer the call to service, and offer others hope. You will never regret it.
I wish you all happiness, and lives filled with purpose and satisfaction. Thank you again for letting me share this special day with you. It’s truly a pleasure and a privilege.
Good luck to you all."