Photos: Loomis Chaffee's Class of 2011 Told To "Do You"

Loomis Chaffee's newest graduates had the pleasure of receiving their commencement address from designer and fellow Pelican Ruthie Davis, '80. She is best known for involvement in turning UGG boots into an iconic shoe and her current, fashion-forward shoe designs, to which she has sold to celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez, to name a few, but the seeds of her entrepreneurial success, she told the new graduates, were planted when she sat in they same place they sat on Friday morning during the commencement ceremony.

“What I was doing at Loomis—what I was passionate about—became my career in way,” she said. “What I liked most about Loomis is what I do today.”

Her time at Loomis was not spent in an art classroom, as some may suspect. Instead, her inspiration came from an unexpected source - the ski slopes.

After two consecutive years of fruitless try outs, Davis became the first girl to make Loomis Chaffee's boy's ski team. Yes, she enjoyed participating in the sport, but her true joy was found in the apparel. "I loved my sports outfits," she said.

This was the beginning of her career in fashion athletics.

Sheila Culbert, the Head of Loomis Chaffee remembered Davis, saying she was always sketching shoes. That passion continues to this day, and has contributed to her success and ability to standout in a highly-competitive field.

“I don’t want to go to bed at night because I have to stop working on shoes,” Davis said. “Nothing is too silly; just do what you love because your passion and happiness are one in the same.”

For those graduates who are unsure about what they want for a career, “don’t worry,” Davis told them. “Follow your passions at the time, and they will reveal themselves organically.”

The key to following your passions at the time, however, Davis said is to try new things and continue to learn because there are “no shortcuts.”

A word of caution from Davis was to “get a thick skin because there are going to be the naysayers.” She told the graduates that sometimes she felt like her middle name should have been “too.”

“My skirts were always too short, my heels always too high, I always worked too hard…” she said. “I embraced ‘too,’ and I made it into a business. These girls want something crazy—from me.”

The main point of Davis’ speech was for the graduates to “do you.” She told them, “I’m living my dreams,” telling them that the same is possible for them if they take the skills they acquired at Loomis and put them to work.

“Remember to learn and grow every day,” she told them as she congratulated them on their commencement.

Ruth Davis graduated from Loomis Chaffee in 1980 and received her Bachelors of Liberal Arts from Bowdoin College, where she studied Visual Arts and English Literature. She then earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson Graduate School of Business.