U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., advised Claflin University graduates Saturday that their newly minted college degrees are "passports to opportunity" to create a better life for themselves and an improved world for all.

"This is a milestone moment, the day you know all of that hard work was worthwhile," said Clinton, a leading candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president.

She was making her second visit to Orangeburg in three weeks, having participated in NBC's nationally televised debate here on April 26.

On Saturday, her plane landed at Orangeburg Municipal Airport just in time for her to travel on to the 4,100-seat Seventh-day Adventist Worship and Conference Center about two miles west of town.

There she joined the Claflin students and faculty in their formal processional into the building as an organist played Mendelssohn's "War March of the Priests."

A few minutes later, she too became a Claflin graduate: the proud recipient of an honorary doctorate of laws.

Welcoming remarks were given by Orangeburg Mayor Paul A. Miller Jr. and Orangeburg County Council Chairman Harry Wimberly. Both mentioned that Clinton had a good chance of becoming the next president.

Clinton returned to those thoughts in her commencement speech, reminding the audience that "we are all beneficiaries of the sacrifices of those who came before us" who labored on behalf of women, African-Americans and followers of minority religions.

Those people include the founders of Claflin University, who from the beginning admitted students regardless of race, gender or religion. At that time in history, such a policy "was nothing short of revolutionary," Clinton said.

"I urge you to follow in the footsteps of those who took risks for a better life, for equality and freedom and for America to fulfill its founding values and ideals," Clinton said.

"I know that many of you are the first in your families to graduate from college," Clinton said. "My mother didn't have a chance to go to college," but sending her children was "a goal she held dearly."

Clinton enrolled in a college, sight unseen, and "struggled with my classes, especially French and physics. ... I was beset by every doubt and anxiety you can imagine."

After five weeks, she was ready to quit, and her father was amenable to that. But her mother wasn't: "She said, Hillary, you've got to see through what you've started."

Graduation brought another challenge, she said. She recalls "sleepless nights trying to sort out what the future held" for her. As it turned out, "I could never have predicted the course of my life," she said, but she discovered that her higher education had prepared her well to meet all of life's challenges.

Because of "the doors it opens, the opportunities it provides" and the confidence it instills, a college degree can boost lifetime earnings by $1 million, Clinton said.

Yet "most young Americans will not graduate from college, even today in the 21st century," Clinton said. "They are being left behind" and "treated as if they were almost invisible. ... We need to give more young people the chance to live up to their God-given potential."

"Too many of our young people are starting too far behind," she said. "No child in America should walk into a school that is crumbling around him, with a library where there are no books, a school where there is no teacher who is qualified to teach science or mathematics."

It was 18 years ago, but Clinton still recalls meeting a young man from eastern Arkansas who excelled in his studies and longed to become a doctor. But universities rebuffed him because the small high school he attended did not offer the college-preparatory classes he needed.

"Here was a young man who had done everything right, yet the doors of opportunity were not swinging open for him," Clinton said. "We need to do more for people who are college material."

"We need to give them the mentoring, the tutoring and the remedial education they might need," she said, citing GEAR-UP and TRIO as two programs that are beneficial because they both "emphasize academic achievement and demand parent involvement."

Cost is another consideration. "So many students and their hardworking parents and families are balking at the cost of higher education. When they see the price tags, their hearts sink."

"We need to take on the student loan industry, the way they treat and mistreat students and families," Clinton declared, receiving some of the strongest applause of her speech. "I don't believe you should be subjected to bait-and-switch programs."

Claflin's president, Dr. Henry Tisdale, said the historically black, United Methodist-affiliated institution has long stated that "an integral part of a truly liberal arts education" is preparing oneself for service, and "heart, mind, body and soul, our speaker epitomizes the true definition of public servant."

He noted her roles in life as an attorney, a mother, author of an international best-selling book ("It Takes a Village"), a former first lady and now a U.S. senator and a candidate for president, as well as her advocacy efforts on behalf of education, child care, veterans care and breast cancer research.

Clinton said Tisdale left out one biographical nugget: "I am also a United Methodist," she said, "so I feel very much at home here."

Clinton went to extraordinary lengths to attend the commencement convocation. She spent all day Friday in a succession of appearances in New Hampshire and was scheduled to address the Ohio Democratic Party's state dinner in Columbus at 7 p.m. Saturday.

See additional reporting, as well as photos and a video, on this Web site.

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