Moments into her first commencement speech, first lady of Arkansas Ginger Beebe set a picture of a boy decked out in graduation regalia on the podium Saturday.

Beebe told the 44 University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service graduates at their commencement ceremony that the boy -- a Flat Stanley, based on a children's book written 50 years ago by Jeff Brown -- served as an example of a successful product of "combining a basic idea with a good perspective."

More than 20 years ago, Canadian teacher Dale Hubert kick-started a project that encouraged students to read the book and then mail their own Flat Stanleys "to their friends, to their family, public figures, to people around the world," Beebe said.

"These children have an opportunity to learn about other people, other cultures, other places all over the world," Beebe told the graduates. "That story was the product of creativity and an imaginative mind."

Beebe spoke to the crowd of more than 200 family, friends and alumni during the eighth graduating class's ceremony at the Wally Allen Ballroom in the Statehouse Convention Center, where the students earned their master's degrees after completing three public-service projects.

The 44 graduates -- who hailed from countries including Rwanda and Saudi Arabia and states such as Pennsylvania and Arkansas -- made up the largest class since the school's inception, according to former President Bill Clinton, who spoke in a video broadcast Saturday during the ceremony.

The graduates streamed to their seats, waving at those in the crowd before Clinton School Dean Skip Rutherford welcomed everyone.

The dean lauded the class's accomplishments, including collecting and shipping out supplies to the northeast after superstorm Sandy and representing the school at a United States-Ukraine National Conference.

"During your time at the Clinton School, we surpassed over 500 field service projects and over 175,000 non-classroom service hours," Rutherford said.

As the graduates continue their "ever life-changing work of public service," Rutherford reminded them of Eli Segal, the late founder of AmeriCorps. Segal once urged University of Michigan Law School graduates to "do acts of service that rely upon your humanity," Rutherford said.

"As graduates, I hope you will always be proud of your Clinton School diploma, but don't agonize over the road map or even compromise your compassion," he said. "Instead, be bold. Keep focused on doing your best, and where needed and when needed, bounce back."

The graduates have gained something "special" during their time at the Clinton School, Beebe said.

"And that special thing is [a] priceless benefit," she said. "It's the change in your perspective."

Public service is one of the greatest ideals, Beebe said, but the desire for service and the ability to effectively achieve it are different.

"The smallest idea can take root. It can help millions of people with the right conditions," she said. "But at the same time, the largest, the best-intended ideas can sputter on the individual level."

The graduates need to combine "that high-level thinking and that grass-roots action" to spur change, Beebe said.

Flat Stanley has helped students learn more about the world as fewer American children are meeting proficiency standards in geography, she said.

"This is just one tool, one thing that can help push that number in the right direction," she said. "So this idea, it worked because there was a need for it, there was a need to address it. This is the kind of combination that can be true public service."

Graduate John Delurey, 23, of Winchester, Mass., said after the ceremony that he planned to take a few months off before applying for environmental jobs with the federal government.

Delurey, who was awarded a Boren scholarship, said he wanted to continue working on climate-change issues. For his largest project, Delurey helped to establish a vocational training center on solar energy for rural, illiterate and partially illiterate mothers and grandmothers in Zanzibar. The center, he said, was recently approved to be funded.

"There's a lot that can be done [with climate change]," Delurey said. "A lot of these countries can skip straight to the solar -- dive right in and learn from the lessons we've been learning."

Having returned from an 11-month trip around the world, the Washington University graduate said he learned that developing a community is everything.

"The relationships we forged are by far the most important thing," Delurey said. "It's everything."

Metro on 05/11/2014