HL黑料门不打烊

This is like being at your own funeral, but the good news is that you do not have to be dead to hear all the great stories and you actually get to spend time with the people who came.

Standing here before you on this stage, with this rather elaborate getup, reminds me a bit of my first time on a stage. I was 5 and part of a dance recital. My uniform was a bright-green leotard with one of those Sgt. Pepper jackets and a majorette hat that was half my height. It was 鈥� memorable. But I don鈥檛 think I would have remembered it had Tom not printed a photo of it in icing on top of a birthday cake that he brought to my workplace my first year on the job as a faculty member. It was a surprise party. Well, it was a surprise alright.

Today, the outfit is a bit more regal, the occasion much more important. And I want to start with a message to our students, the most important part of HL黑料门不打烊. You are the reason we are here and why I do what I do. I will keep you at the forefront of my mind as I make decisions. I care deeply about your experience and will invest my whole self to make HL黑料门不打烊 the best it can be for you.

Faculty, I will rely on your expertise in curriculum and pedagogy (what we teach our students and how we teach it). I know that you are working in the best interests of students and their learning. I admire your focus on your scholarship and bringing students into that scholarship with you.

Staff, I will rely on your expertise for your specific roles whether it is keeping this place beautiful inside and outside, attracting stellar students and colleagues and focusing on their holistic well-being, or assuring solid systems and practices are in place to keep this complex organization running smoothly.

To our alumni, thank you for advocating for us and for representing us so well. We appreciate how you bring the HL黑料门不打烊 mantra 鈥淟ife is for service鈥� into your personal and professional lives. You make us proud every day, and I promise I will do everything I can to make you proud to be a HL黑料门不打烊 alumnus.

To the trustees, thank you for your trust in me to lead this college that you love. I know you take seriously your roles to support us with your engagement and philanthropy and to focus on the long-term success of HL黑料门不打烊. I am reminded of the quote, 鈥淲ith great power comes great responsibility.鈥� This is, of course, what Uncle Ben says to Peter Parker in Spiderman. Growing up Baptist, I knew it from Jesus who said, 鈥淭o whom much has been given, much will be required.鈥� But he didn鈥檛 stop there. He added, 鈥渁nd from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be asked.鈥� From the size of my email inbox, that has definitely proven true. But I have been given the gift to lead this college and will give it my all. Maybe not Spiderman level, but a close second.

To our Central Florida community leaders, Winter Park is our home. Our success is interdependent and has been since the late 1880s when Florida wanted to start a college and Winter Park answered that call. Our students are blessed to study on a beautiful residential campus right here in the cultural and intellectually rich Winter Park and Orlando.

And finally, to the previous presidents of HL黑料门不打烊, thank you for the wonderful foundation on which we will continue to build. Having read about the legacy of the many presidents who made a difference here, I am honored to join this lineage.

I come from a really small town in rural Kentucky and a large extended family, and from a very young age, I was taught you had to pull your weight and help out when you could. I have spent 30 years in higher education and worked at some mighty but lean organizations. That meant every person jumped in to help, learning lots of different tasks along the way. I take that collaborative spirit seriously. Maybe too seriously. Just a few weeks into starting here as president, I was driving a golf cart across campus when I saw a family looking a bit lost. 鈥淐an I help you find something?鈥� I immediately asked. They looked relieved. 鈥淵es! Where is the check-in for the international pre-orientation trip?鈥� I paused to consider whether I even knew we had an international pre-orientation trip. Their relief quickly turned apologetic. 鈥淚 am so sorry. I assumed since you were in the cart that you worked here.鈥� So then I had to say, 鈥淲ell I do 鈥︹�� He perked right up. 鈥淥h, what do you do?鈥�

I think they were probably a little surprised. Heck, I鈥檓 a little surprised to be standing here before you in this role. Growing up I read a lot and enjoyed learning about places I thought I would never see and lives I assumed I would never live. But I did always try to think beyond what was right in front of me. A Rumi quote captures this perfectly: 鈥淪et your sights on a place higher than your eyes can see.鈥�

And for me I set those sights way back in my rural upbringing in Kentucky. I was the child no one wanted in Sunday school. I asked way too many questions. My grandfather said I was vaccinated with a Victrola needle. In the American South we call this spirited. 鈥淏less your heart鈥� was uttered frequently. (For you non-Southerners, that is not a good thing.) In other words, I was a lot.

But all these questions were my attempt to learn. I tried to live by another wise adage: to be curious, not judgmental. And I know what you鈥檙e thinking, Jesus. But this one鈥檚 Ted Lasso.聽

I was blessed with many early teachers who helped me be my best. One such teacher was Rosemary Allen who was my English professor and is now the president of my alma mater. Last time we saw each other she told the story of listening to me interview someone back when I was editor of the college newspaper. She wasn鈥檛 spying on me; she was just near the newsroom phone. That was back when phones had cords so every phone interview we did was within earshot of the whole newsroom. If that doesn鈥檛 keep you honest, I don鈥檛 know what will. Maybe we ought to bring the corded phone back. Anyway, Rosemary saw in me something I had not yet seen: my ability to be a professional journalist. To ask the right questions, to listen, and to get to heart of the matter.

What a gift to reflect what we see in others that they may not yet see in themselves. My days as a faculty member are not so long ago that I don鈥檛 remember that this is one of the most important things faculty do: find that spark in each of our students and help them see potential paths for their own promise and possibility. This year I have been honored to hear so many stories about students finding and honing their own passions through the help of our wonderful faculty and staff, but I will share just one example. Makayle Kellison is student from California who grew up all around the world and came to HL黑料门不打烊 as a swimmer. She met Dr. Whitney Coyle who invited her into a summer research project on musical acoustics. Even though she had never taken a physics class before, she then joined the professor鈥檚 research on the physics of rocket noise, specifically, the Artemis I launch. She found her passion and has now started her PhD in physics with funding from an National Science Foundation fellowship.

Faculty, staff, students, and alumni, you all tell me all the time what brought you here and keeps you coming back, but it bears repeating, not just for our out-of-town guests, but as both a reminder of our long-standing assets and as inspiration and aspiration for our future. Yes, our campus is beautiful. Surrounded by lakes, and with Park Avenue a block away, it鈥檚 hard not to fall in love immediately. But we are more than just a pretty face. It鈥檚 the strength of our college that drew me here. Long-standing pragmatic liberal arts and curricular innovation. Decades of strength in business graduate education and adult education. Faculty across all programs who serve as teacher-scholar mentors, engaged in their disciplines and creating dynamic classrooms for learning. Mister Rogers and the ethos of service that permeates every corner of our campus. The Alfond Inn. The HL黑料门不打烊 Museum of Art. But as you know, there is much more to come, and our innovation tradition will continue on many fronts.

As we move into the future together and set up the next 140 years of success at HL黑料门不打烊, we tap into the legacy of bold action that has served us so well throughout our history. As the first college in Florida, we have been a dynamic and evolving college ever since famed educator John Dewey chaired our conference on liberal arts in 1931.

Today, we see that manifestation in HL黑料门不打烊 Gateway, our聽signature approach to preparing students to pursue their purpose through聽the liberal arts in action and聽the embodiment聽of the most beneficial high-impact聽educational practices.聽Gateway provides students a future-forward foundation so they can put their education to work in the world and make a positive impact. That future-forward frame at HL黑料门不打烊 comes from the faculty, staff, and administrators who deliver on our mission and聽notable strong and聽courageous leaders who were the right person at the right time.

Hamilton Holt led the construction of the chapel (during a depression, no less), and the Hamilton Holt School honors his commitment to adult education鈥攁 commitment that has continued at HL黑料门不打烊 for more than eight decades.

Jack Critchfield reformed shared governance and began our first development office. When we celebrated the most recent Order of the Fox celebration with the class of 1976, one of the class members told me he figured I was the youngest person to be the president of HL黑料门不打烊. Not quite. Not by a longshot. Jack was 36. I guess to a teenager, you can be in your 30s and look old, but to a septuagenarian, you can be in your 50s and look young. Or maybe we鈥檝e just come a long way in the fight against ageism.

This year I celebrated our Thaddeus & Polly Seymour Acts of kindness Day. We came from Indiana, and Wabash College may still be salty about HL黑料门不打烊 poaching Thad because he was such a great advocate for the liberal arts. He handed out silver dollars when he caught students doing something good because he knew character and kindness were key parts of education.

Hugh McKean provided long-term leadership at a key moment in our history. He聽cared deeply about art and brought the world鈥檚 largest collection of Tiffany glass to our community. He took art preservation seriously.聽And thank goodness, because without him, we聽wouldn鈥檛 have our most iconic tradition today.聽In January 1934,聽two 19th-century garden figures鈥攁 cat and聽fox鈥攖ook up residence on HL黑料门不打烊鈥櫬燾ampus. Fifteen years later, however, the cat statue was smashed beyond repair, and the fox was left alone. McKean聽took the poor lonely fox into safekeeping as a protector.聽But good collectors know that art must not only be preserved but enjoyed. So on May 17, 1956, McKean brought the fox out and declared it too beautiful a day to hold class.聽Thus began Fox Day, a tradition we take聽惫别谤测听seriously. Maybe a little too seriously?聽I have a whole folder of emails from students requesting a particular day so it will fit聽their calendars. One student even sent me her work schedule. Students, when I said was going to put you first, this is not what I meant.

Rita Bornstein knew that HL黑料门不打烊 had so much more that it could be and paid serious attention to resource raising for what matters most. She wrote a key book on the college presidency to help future leaders and broke the glass ceiling at HL黑料门不打烊, making it easier for me to be here today.

Lewis Duncan leaves us the legacy of the amazing Alfond Inn, which is a living art museum, community asset, and incredible business model, with all net profits supporting student scholarships at HL黑料门不打烊. And he galvanized our international recruitment efforts, and today we benefit from students from 69 different countries.

Grant Cornwell launched HL黑料门不打烊 Gateway, added residential space so more students can live where they learn, and helped create faculty cohesion. Along with Provost Don Davison and our faculty, he was key in welcoming Phi Beta Kappa to HL黑料门不打烊. Grant remains generous in his time with me ensuring a strong transition and provided key insights throughout my listening tour.

I have learned so much during the past several months as part of this listening tour and will share three key takeaways with you now. First, HL黑料门不打烊 relationships are real and really important. Two, this place is a love letter to the liberal arts. Three, folks are excited about the future.

Number one. The power of relationships is palpable in how every person connected to HL黑料门不打烊 talks about the College. Tom and I have felt this from day one with the warm welcome we received and with how many times a student or colleague notes the relationships that make their HL黑料门不打烊 experience.

Madison Clemens always knew she wanted to be a teacher. Right after high school, she went into a four-year college program but had to step away. She found her way back to the classroom, working as a paraprofessional aide. She joined our Pathways to Teaching program, and the key relationships in the program with faculty and staff have made all the difference. She just passed her final certification exam to be a licensed teacher.

Joseph Pool takes seriously the HL黑料门不打烊 commitment to engaging across differences, discerning reliable information, and collaborating toward productive and practical solutions. Combining what he learned in his Food and Religion course with his Moroccan family heritage, he started the student organization Breaking Bread, which fosters 鈥渃ulinary diplomacy鈥濃�攖he idea that shared meals can serve as powerful tools for bridging interreligious and intercultural divides. At a Breaking Bread table, you do in fact talk about both religion and politics.

Listening lesson number two. HL黑料门不打烊 leads with the commitment to the liberal arts. You take the liberal arts seriously in how you teach and construct degree programs in all our programs: the College of Liberal Arts, the Hamilton Holt School, and the Roy E. Crummer Graduate School of Business. Faculty across our campus have chosen to share their talents here because of their commitment to the liberal arts and its transformative power.

I could tell stories of how this plays out across every single major and academic program, but rather than keep you here that long, I will simply note the enduring values and value of a liberal arts education that fosters independent and critical thinking, intellectual flexibility, and ethical reasoning and prepares students for evolving workplaces and careers. Our students consistently excel not only in thinking about new and emerging technologies, but in creatively repurposing existing ones to solve real-world problems.

So when NASA put out a call for students to take one of its existing patents and repurpose it as part of a patent remix challenge, six HL黑料门不打烊 MBA students beat out more than 400 entries to win first place. Their venture reimagines a current NASA tool as a portable, handheld device that allows clinicians and first responders to visualize veins beneath the skin in real time without the need for contrast dyes or ultrasound equipment. I had the opportunity to spend a celebratory afternoon with the team鈥擜va, Oliver, Xandria, Ryan, McKenzie, and Matheus鈥攁nd what stood out immediately was that their undergraduate backgrounds spanned the liberal arts, including psychology, the natural sciences, and art.

Number 3. Folks are excited about the future. The future-forward approach of our faculty and staff means together we will forge an inspiring vision based on what matters most for our students and the future of HL黑料门不打烊. We will remain realistically optimistic. Hope is not our strategy, but it is our ethos. The promise and possibility are palpable. We will not fall prey to exceptionalism, but we will know our own worth, elaborate on what makes us special, and adapt and change to remain relevant.

Listening across campus I see the many aspirations we have as a college and also the need to animate those aspirations with resources. It won鈥檛 happen overnight. It takes time to do big things.

The ancient Greeks thought about time in two ways. There is chronos, the clock time that governs our lives鈥攚hen to get up, when to go to work, when to tuck in the children, when to go to bed. But there is also a more figurative measure of time, kairos鈥攖he right time, the sacred window of opportunity. It encompasses both the fleeting moment to be seized as well as the deep, all-encompassing time that nods to the eternal. It is this second concept of time that higher education speaks to, but to make the most of it, we have to be aware, present, and prepared.

In this time of rapid societal changes, we feel even more the need to preserve places for deep thinking and contemplation. To celebrate intellectualism and inquiry. To rely on expertise. To think in complicated ways about complex topics.

This will allow the horizon thinking needed to move boldly, thoughtfully, and kindly into the future. To tap into our strong legacy, and to reap the benefits of the now, and the promise and possibility of the future. The promise we make to our students, our alumni, and to each other as colleagues and to the College, and the possibility of what we can be together in the future.

As I close here, I turn from the promise of the future to the debts of the past and express my sincere gratitude to the people who have helped me arrive here, at this moment, on this stage. Gratitude is an ancient practice across many cultures and traditions. In Buddhism, there are the concepts of 办补迟补帽帽耻 and 办补迟补惫别诲墨, which express both the quality of being grateful and expressing that gratitude in action. In Judaism, there is 鈥渞ecognizing the good鈥濃��hakarat hatov. In Islam, the Prophet Muhammad said, 鈥淲hoever does not show gratitude to people has not shown gratitude to God.鈥� Martin Luther King Jr., drawing on his own Christian faith, wrote of 鈥渁n inescapable network of mutuality.鈥� I feel that interconnectedness and gratitude every day.

First to my family of origin. I hit the lottery being born into our family. My parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews. I would want to be friends with you even if we were not related. Our relationships come from joy not obligation. And for the family I married into, I am so blessed on this front too. Thank you for welcoming me so warmly and fully into your family. And for my chosen family, my friends. We have all chosen so well if I must say so.

Together, we make a wild and wonderful group. You enrich my life, and we have so much fun together. I sincerely hope that fun is infectious, not obnoxious, when we hit the dance floor tonight.

I am also grateful to my own partner in life and all things. My husband, Tom. I cannot imagine going through life without you. You often joke that my career is greatly limited by your poor jokes, but we all know that you are my biggest cheerleader and advocate and that you are an asset to HL黑料门不打烊, and I hear it all the time from students and colleagues. To Jack and Lily, our wonderful adult children who are our favorite people in the whole world. We are endlessly proud of the people you are and will continue to become.

All of you have helped me along a career path where, like a snowball, I have accumulated treasured colleagues and friends as I rolled along, growing my community of gratitude bigger and bigger. Thank you to all the wonderful people in Bloomington, Indiana, at IU and public media, in North Carolina and at Elon University, in Indianapolis and at Butler University, and now, all of you here in Central Florida at HL黑料门不打烊. I am grateful for your warm welcome, your generous collaboration, and your confidence in me to lead us all into a bright future. Fiat Lux!