The senior class was ushered into life after Georgetown with advice on how to meaningfully contribute to society at the Senior Convocation yesterday in McDonough Gymnasium.

In the keynote address, investor Peter Cooper called the degrees that seniors will receive this weekend “a ticket to your future,” commending the positive impact that the Class of 2007 has made on Georgetown.

“Georgetown’s greatest asset [is] its people and its promise,” he said.

Cooper, a member of the university’s board of directors, encouraged the soon-to-be graduates to contribute to society with the same vigor that they have at Georgetown. He added that now is the payoff time for students and their parents after years of educational investment.

“You will have the opportunity for greatness,” he said. “You are also human capital. . [Graduation is a] return on investment for all who have believed in you.”

Cooper also lauded the university for maintaining high academic standing despite having an endowment outside the top-70 among American universities.

Arthur Chan (SFS ’07) and Greg Pope (COL ’07) also delivered messages that focused on how the seniors may positively affect the world are about to enter.

Chan highlighted a need to embrace diversity throughout one’s endeavors by describing how his parents, who immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong, ended up opening a Swedish bakery. He said the seniors must embark on life as a “journey full of risk, full of innovation and full of opportunity.”

A George J. Mitchell Scholarship recipient, Chan will enter the Contemporary Migration and Diaspora Studies program at University College Cork in Ireland next year.

Pope, meanwhile, spoke about “investing forward,” or using one’s strengths and passions to make a difference in the world.

Growing up in Vermont made Pope an emphatic environmentalist, and he said that global climate change must be a foremost concern of the graduating class.

He said the common phrase, “Take only photos; leave only footprints,” should apply only to the environment and not to one’s life. The seniors must strive to achieve a lasting impact through what they end up doing, Pope said.

Pope received a Marshall Scholarship in November and will study at University College London for the next two years.

After the speeches were delivered, Fritz Brogan (COL ’07), Senior Class Committee chair, presented President John J. DeGioia with this year’s senior class gift. In the form of a donation to the Georgetown Fund, the gift will provide aid to future Georgetown students in financial need. Brogan said the $64,000 check he handed to DeGioia represents the most money raised by any Senior Class Gift campaign.

Thanking the Class of 2007 for helping to ensure that Georgetown “will remain accessible” to future applicants, DeGioia told the seniors to “know that you will be missed, and you will be remembered and you will always be a part of Georgetown.”