The Rev. Eugene Cho, in his Wake Forest Baccalaureate address on Sunday, called on participants to resist cynicism even as they enter adulthood in an era marked by “profound challenges and exhaustion in our world” resulting from wars, polarization, economic anxiety, institutional distrust and the impact of artificial intelligence.
Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy organization working to end hunger, said that it would be easy to become cynical in the face of these challenges. He called such cynicism “wounded hope masquerading as sophistication.”
Cho gave attendees three exhortations based on the morning’s scripture reading from the Book of Galatians on how they can “not grow weary in doing good.”
1. Remember you did not arrive here alone
A woman embraces a graduate after the May 17 Baccalaureate ceremony. Photo: Nick Fantasia
“One of the persistent myths of modern life is this myth of the self-made person … We celebrate independence. We romanticize and elevate the solitary genius or entrepreneur. But underneath every meaningful human achievement stands a network of service and sacrifice. …
“This is one of the first truths adulthood asks us to confront honestly. None of us arrives anywhere alone. … Someone sacrificed for you. Someone prayed for you. Someone encouraged you when you even doubted yourself. Someone absorbed burdens so that you could move more freely through this world. Someone believed your future was worth investing in.
“The question is not simply whether you will succeed. We hope so. We pray so —however you define success. But the deeper question is whether your life will become a bridge through which others may flourish.”
2. Refuse the dehumanization of others
The Rev. Eugene Cho in Wait Chapel on May 17. Photo: Nick Fantasia
“In the year 2026, a child dies from the complexity of hunger and malnutrition every 11 seconds. It doesn’t have to be this way. …
“Hunger endures not because humanity lacks resources but because humanity often lacks the will to recognize itself in one another. And this is where the crisis becomes spiritual as much as political. And soon, whether we know it or not, suffering, vulnerability becomes somewhat abstract, nebulous, talking points, data points, demographics, merely policy discussions. … When people are reduced to abstractions, compassion almost becomes optional.”
“Every human being bears the image of God. Not merely the successful, not just the productive, not merely those who resemble us politically, culturally, economically or nationally, but every person. Every hungry child, every refugee person, every unhoused neighbor, every elderly person abandoned in loneliness, every immigrant family navigating fear. Every person bears sacred worth.”
3. Choose presence over performance
Graduates during Baccalaureate on May 17. Photo: Nick Fantasia
“We curate ourselves constantly. Just check out my Instagram or LinkedIn — I am so impressive! And yet beneath all this visibility, many people remain profoundly lonely.
“Presence asks us to remain when problems or life becomes complicated. When solutions become unclear and muddy. When gratitude is not always as immediate. When transformation unfolds at a slower pace than we want. But … presence is where our love becomes credible.”
The question is not whether you can do everything. The question, graduates, is whether you will refuse to do nothing.
Natalie Jennings is senior managing editor of Wake Forest Magazine. Before joining the team in 2026, she spent nearly two decades as an editor and newsroom leader at The Washington Post and Vox, where she led teams of text, video, visual and audio journalists who covered politics and other topics. She co-founded Down from DC, a newsletter about the impact of federal policy on North Carolina.
