Betty Rausa couldn't help but crane halfway out of the seat. She wanted to see Stephen as he stood in a gray line of men and women small-stepping ahead to receive diplomas, filing out of The Citadel and into the world.

"The ring, the diploma, it means a little. But when you compare it to your friends and your experience here, it doesn't mean a thing," he said.

The keynote speaker, Gov. Mark Sanford, expressed his hope that this year's Corps of Cadets will take their experience at The Citadel and use it to become leaders and pursue their own dreams. To illustrate his point, he told the tale of how his own young children wore plastic beach pails over their heads and rammed them into a brick wall.

"Don't go through life wearing a plastic bucket over your head," he told the laughing crowd. "You know what you can see when you pull a bucket over your head? Just your feet."

Viann Bolick would like to see the inner halls of medical school. She graduated this year in a mostly male class as a regimental executive officer, the cadets' second in command. As a high school kid in Greenville, she would have never dreamed of attending The Citadel. She even wrote a political science paper denouncing the presence of females during her sophomore year.

"I'm very much a traditional Southern girl," she said. "I just thought it was fine the way it was."

She changed her mind, obviously, and now has a much different outlook on it.

"I've gained the confidence it takes to do anything," Bolick said. "The Citadel opens all kinds of doors. Coming here was the best decision I made in 21 years."

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