Inspiration

I was asked/told today at Noon today that I needed to say something inspirational at the conclusion of the dinner recognizing this semester's Emerging Leader group. Emerging Leaders is a program for first-semester first-year (or freshmen) students that groups them with an upperclass student to complete a project on campus or in the community.

Here's what I came up with this afternoon:

First of all, congratulations on and thank you for all your hard work this semester. You've accomplished so much. It's impressive to have seen throughout the semester and to hear more tonight about all the projects that were able to happen because of you.

Second, your participation in the Emerging Leaders program has prepared you to continue serving and leading your peers, the college and the greater community. You may have discovered how you'd like to continue to do these types of things through your project, you may yet learn it through your apprenticeship (if you're participating in that program) or it may still be out there waiting to be discovered.

Third, I hope you decide to continue to seek out opportunities for leadership on campus through service trips, working for and with a student organization or an office, participating in the annual leadership retreat, participating in the leadership certificate program in your junior or senior year or even by becoming a Leadership Studies minor.

In closing, I'd like to share a quote by Winston Churchill:

"To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment
When they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder
and offered the chance to do a very special thing,
unique to them and fitted to their talents.

What a tragedy if that moment finds them
unprepared or unqualified for that
which could have been their finest hour."

I think our campus is the place where students are "tapped" on the shoulder. It could be by faculty, staff, other students or even yourself. And, programs like Emerging Leaders help you to find that very special thing - whatever it may be. Thanks again for participating in the Emerging Leaders program and preparing yourself for that moment.