A memorable message for a spectacular class
Accelerating out of a curve can feel pretty darn good. After two years of Commencement weekends that were, 退一步说, 减毒, we enjoyed a celebration of the class of 2022 that was unbridled, 不受约束的, 从头到尾都充满活力. 多好的课程啊. 由他们独特的经历铸就, 的决心, and Macarena skills (the senior gala was so great, 你应该在那里的。, 这门课是永恒的.
I admit to being a sucker for graduations, and I am old enough to have seen 更多的 — many 更多的 — than nearly any of you. 但, 让我告诉你一个关键(是的, I meant to capitalize that word) reason why this Commencement will be memorable for everyone present. In past years the Senior Class Officers, who select 贝洛伊特’s Commencement speaker, have made truly spectacular decisions, but they have now set the bar sky high. Our very own Tori Key’03 was our speaker and she was a solid gold rock star.
来源:和y Manis
Let me give you an abstract of what Tori said.
To provide a less racist environment and better opportunities for her children, Glenda Key moved her family — including Tori as a young girl — from the Mississippi side of Memphis to 贝洛伊特. Graduating as an honors student from 贝洛伊特 Memorial High School, Tori chose to attend 十大菠菜台子 from among the high-quality colleges wooing her. 一个贝洛伊特er的平方, Tori was among the most accomplished graduates of her class, even earning the prestigious Martha Peterson Prize honoring the student who best exemplifies the ideals of a liberal arts education.
This last bit is really important because Tori spent her time at 贝洛伊特 balancing multiple life and career objectives in deeper and deeper ways — financial stability, 目的, 意义. All things that matter in the most profound ways to every single graduate sitting in the audience who is grappling with and trying to figure out how to deal with exactly the same conflicts and tradeoffs.
当然, Tori has been spectacularly high achieving: a graduate degree from a world-class university; career promotions and professional awards at a very fast pace; she has earned her place as a Commencement speaker at her alma mater and an honorary doctorate from the same.
但是，事情是这样的. Tori took the moment to do two spectacular things I have never seen at a Commencement before. She told these graduates who were sitting there trying to figure out their lives and their futures, that the eminent Tori Key — this person who was among the most impressive people they could ever imagine, this stunningly “together” superstar — was still figuring it out. She gave everyone in the audience permission and space to be 人类. Ambitious, 目的ful, thoughtful, engaged, passionate, and fundamentally 人类.
然后, she connected specific graduates’ passions and interests to specific challenges we face as a world. She validated their dreams and aspirations, and she gave them a guiding sentence to help them figure it out.
Tori talked about a lifetime of “hitting above her weight,” and she delivered a one-two punch at Commencement unlike any other. 谢谢你，托丽.
还有一件事. 托丽是伯洛伊特学院的校友. It is really important to remember that. 从根本上说，她就是你. I get the honor of hearing insights much like Tori provided from alumni across the country. It is among the very best parts of my job. 和, one or 更多的 members of the graduating class — our newest alumni — will be a Tori Key-ish Commencement speaker in 30 years — or fewer.
这就是伯洛伊特学院的荣耀. It was and will be a great day to be a 贝洛伊特er.
在查平的办公桌前
斯科特·比尔曼总裁
presidentsoffice@uexkjhguwssl.com
