FARMINGTON – More than 400 University of Maine at Farmington students received shiny new degrees and diplomas under overcast skies at Saturday’s 156th commencement ceremony.

Of 468 members of the graduating class of 2009, 416 students wearing black gowns and maroon collars marched off High Street behind a band of Highland bagpipers and into a crowd of hundreds.

Family and friends hurried out of their seats to photograph the start of a new chapter in the lives of the students, some of whom are going on to graduate school. Others will try to enter a shrinking work force.

Throughout the ceremony, a cooling breeze that kept black flies at bay blew into the on-stage microphone, where it was amplified through giant speakers and sounded like peals of rolling thunder. Many an eye glanced warily to the sky, but predicted rain held off.

Between speeches, a few humorous attempts were made to keep a pair of colorful beach balls bouncing around above the students seated in the large parking lot. The antics played into student speaker Katharine Rose Gergosian’s talk about bridging generations.

“We have broken the rules, argued our points, bucked authority and waited to prove ourselves,” Gergosian of Topsham said. “This is our chance.”

Speaking about their future in a nation under the siege of recession, Gergosian said her generation and the generations who came before them have much in common.

“Just like our parents and grandparents, we are on the edge of a changing world,” she said. “We live surrounded by chaos. It is in our news, in our music, in our television, in our bodies and in our minds.” America, she said, is evolving and many will look toward the graduates to ensure the nation’s future success.

“There is hope,” Gergosian said. “Our parents and our grandparents were also rebels in their day Just like us, they were doubted, but they went on to change the world.”

She urged her fellow students to stand fast and be courageous in the face of adversity.

“We are ready for the challenges ahead of us and we will change the world,” she said. “Now, it is time to prove it.”

University President Theodora Kalikow conferred honorary degrees of Doctor of Humane Letters on Ann Arbor, a Mexico native, and her husband, John Rosenwald.

“Together, they have brought their love of poetry and passion for international culture to western Maine,” Kalikow said.

Naomi Schalit, a national award-winning journalist and an opinion page editor with the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, gave the commencement address.

Schalit told the graduating class to use English instead of jargon and urged them to understand how the world works.

“You have to know who you can count on, who loves you, who doesn’t care at all about you, who is willing to lead and who you will only follow. Know where you stand and what you mean,” she said.

Schalit urged the graduates to be courageous, to speak their minds and to encourage others to do likewise.

“Use your eyes, your heart and your head – and then give the world its due, in plainsong,” she said. “That takes courage. It takes persistence. It takes honesty. Good luck.”