ORONO (AP) – Michele Montas, a Haitian broadcast journalist and 1968 University of Maine graduate, returned to her alma mater Saturday to speak at the largest commencement in school history.

More than 1,900 degrees were awarded at the university’s 202nd commencement at Harold Alfond Stadium, where a crowd estimated at 12,000 filled the stands.

Montas recalled leaving Haiti, which she called “a land of turbulence, fear and repression,” in 1964 to begin studies at Orono.

“Being forced to adapt to a new culture gave me a wide perspective on my own society and, above all, on myself,” she said.

She told graduates about her life with her late husband and fellow journalist Jean Dominique. The couple’s efforts to report the news led to arrest, harassment and exile under various dictatorial regimes, she said. In 2000, Dominique was assassinated as he was arriving for work at Radio Haiti International.

Montas kept broadcasting following her husband’s murder. But 15 months ago, after the assassination of her bodyguard during an attempt on her life, she closed Radio Haiti International and moved to New York, where she continues to work to try to bring Dominique’s killers to justice.

“In choosing the road we followed, Jean and I shared the wonderful exhilaration of knowing that what we did mattered. It mattered to us. It mattered to thousands of others. We saved lives. We galvanized efforts. We nurtured solidarity. We fostered hope by simply doing our job,” she said.

Montas compared the “fire that Jean stole from the gods” to the fire that education has lit in today’s graduates.

“If you look inside yourself, that small flame is there,” she said, “of daring to be different, of daring to accept the differences of others, of daring to dream big dreams…,” she said.

Montas was presented one of four honorary doctorates. The others went to Brian Naylor, a National Public Radio correspondent and 1979 UMaine graduate; Walter Anderson, a former Maine state geologist, and Robert Kates, a pioneering scientist in the study of the relationship between humans and the environment.

AP-ES-05-08-04 1707EDT