Posing for photos at Roger Williams University are, from left, Laura Zachowski of Long Island, N.Y., Alex Johnson of Framingham, Mass., and Kaitlin Leahy of Hudson, N.Y.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

BRISTOL — Each spring, on college campuses everywhere, graduates in caps and gowns listen as keynote speakers preach that the world they are about to enter is a much more complicated place than the one they are leaving.

That tired advice has never been more true.

But in crisis comes opportunity, Roger Williams University graduate Patrick McHeffey told his fellow seniors at the school’s 2009 commencement ceremony, a soggy yet festive affair Saturday morning.

“Today we leave the world of orange parking stickers, black-light parties and twenty-five-cent wings and … inherit one of the most challenging times in recent memory,” McHeffey said. “But just as the great minds of the Renaissance inherited the medieval world and envisioned enlightenment, so too do we stand here today in a challenging world and envision opportunity. We may not all have jobs. We may not know what the future holds. But our passion and ambition are needed now more than ever before.”

His words seems to warm the shivering crowd that huddled on the sodden grass under a tent that did little to cut the chill blowing in from Bristol Harbor.

“Welcome to Survivor: Bristol,” Roger Williams President Roy J. Nirschel joked.

In addressing the 1,026 seniors –– the largest class ever to graduate from the university –– the president skipped stiff advice altogether, instead reviving a now-beloved Roger Williams commencement tradition in which Nirschel sings a poor but uproariously funny rendition of a bubblegum pop favorite tune.

This year’s selection: “One Step at a Time” by American Idol queen Jordin Sparks. (“We live and we learn to take one step at a time, there’s no need to rush, it’s like learning to fly, or falling in love.”)

Yes, he really sang. He also danced. Badly.

It was enough to bring the students to their feet, clapping along where they could.

After Nirschel, keynote speaker Joan Countryman, former head of the Lincoln School in Providence, seemed comparatively subdued, talking about her years as an educator, including the time she spent in 2006 helping to open the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa.

But it was Countryman’s lesson that Roger Williams’ graduates may remember most in the difficult days and weeks ahead as they enter the worst job market in decades.

“Your education is more valuable than gold,” Countryman told them.

“They can steal your money but not your education.”

The former teacher and Fulbright Scholar received an honorary doctorate of education. Other honorary degree recipients were Sen. Jack Reed, doctor of public service; Ibrahim Arikan, a Turkish educator and entrepreneur, doctor of humane letters; and Jarrold L. Lavine, chairman and CEO of the Freeman Group, a management and private investment firm, doctor of business management.

As the morning drew on, the tents grew colder and some spectators fled to watch the proceedings on monitors in heated buildings. But the graduates who marched across the stage seemed hardly to notice the bad weather, beaming as they collected their diplomas.

In the words of one father after his son’s name was announced: “That’s it. It’s done. Wow.”

Not quite.

As the ceremony drew to a close and the newly minted college graduates prepared to file out of the tent, the skies lightened, hinting at sunshine and maybe the promise of a brighter path ahead.

cneedham@projo.com