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What will it mean to you?

What will it mean to you?

When Dean Faber asked me to give the address at this afternoon's reception, I found myself thinking about one of my professor's parting words when I graduated. I had just taken my last undergraduate exam in a class on the American Presidency. I remember handing in that ink filled blue book and leaving the classroom with conflicting feelings. I was excited about the future and anxious to move on to the next step in my life, but I was also sad to see the end of what had been four pretty terrific years. On my way out of the building I stopped in to say goodbye to Dr. Campbell. As I left his office he said to me, "When you've had time to reflect on it, write to me and let me know what your undergraduate education meant to you."

Six whole months later I sent him a letter. Not much time for reflection, really, but at the age of 22 six months seemed a lot longer to me than it does now. I don't remember what all I wrote in that letter to Dr. Campbell, but I recall that it had something to do with my analysis of the farm crisis of the mid 80's and how my undergraduate education impacted my understanding of the issues.

Now don't get me wrong, I think I was on the right track even just 6 months after I'd graduated. I had already begun to realize that things I'd learned in seemingly unrelated classes were coming together to influence my thinking, my understanding on a wide variety of subjects. It's been nearly 18 years, what do I think my undergraduate education has meant to me? Well, things I learned then still impact my understanding of current events, but I realize now that the impact was a lot bigger than that. What has my undergraduate education meant to me? In a word - everything.

In the last 18 years I have married, moved to Kansas, gone to graduate school, practiced law, traveled abroad, had children, and become a college professor. I've made friends. I've taken up hobbies. I've published academic articles, written works of fiction, and learned to use technology that didn't even exist when I was a freshman in college. I've worked cattle, taught Sunday school, and been involved in political campaigns. And it strikes me as undeniably true that every decision I've made, every relationship I've had, every endeavor in which I've engaged has in some form or another been impacted by the education that I received during those four important years.

When I was an undergraduate I spent a summer interning for a Congressman in Washington D.C. I could spend the rest of the afternoon talking just about the ways in which that single undergraduate experience altered the course of my life, but I'll just mention one way. On a hot afternoon that summer I sat in an audience with hundreds of other interns and listened to the comments of then Senator Paul Tsongas. He was reflecting on his own youth and remarking that he'd met his wife when they were both interning in Washington D.C. He said to us, "Look around. You never know. Maybe you'll end up marrying the intern sitting next to you." I laughed along with others as I looked around the room never suspecting that the young man from Kansas who was sitting next to me would, indeed, become my spouse. He brought me to his home state, fathered my children, and though he's never quite made a real farm girl out of me, I have learned to brand cattle. When you get right down to it, I wouldn't be standing here today talking to you all at Fort Hays State University but for that undergraduate internship for which I received 3 hours of college credit.

I don't remember the names or even the faces of the two professors under whom I took geology. But my family can tell you that I can't go on a vacation without picking up rocks, commenting on whether they're igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic, and speculating about the geologic history of the region. General education courses I took over 20 years ago educate my daughters today and enhance my enjoyment of the natural world.

College improved my writing skills. Thanks to my freshman English teacher, I will never again misspell the word develop. (I lost my argument with her that it ended with an 'e'.) I give credit to every course I took in my Communication minor for giving me the degree of complete comfort I feel standing before you all and speaking today. I can still recall the exhilarating experience of my first Philosophy course. It opened my eyes and exposed me to ideas and ways of thinking that I had never before considered but will never ever forget. I was utterly inspired by the faculty in my History department. They instilled in me a deep desire to know more, to think critically, to travel in the US and abroad, to see the places and things they described. And they infused in me a way of looking at the present and the future in relationship to the past.

I could go on and on about how various courses I took impacted me how they imparted knowledge, developed skills and motivated action. But I realize that the courses I took were only a part of the education I received. When I first went off to college my wise and wonderful grandmother told me to study hard, but to never forget that education was a lot more than books. She was, as always, right. Many things I carry with me today that I learned during my undergraduate years were not substantive bits of information from a text book or a lecture. I learned how to do my own laundry because there wasn't anyone around to do it for me. I learned tolerance living in a dorm for two years and having to share space, sometimes with people I didn't care much for. I learned what real friendship was. I discovered that broken hearts aren't fatal and that, with time, they heal. I developed a taste for Chinese and Indian food and the music of James Taylor. I discovered that I loved John Steinbeck, but that I hated William Faulkner even if one of my favorite professors thought he was great. I found solace in Walden Pond. I became a news junkie. I bought my first bookshelf and started collecting books. If you've been to my house and seen the books spilling over the bookshelves in every room, then you know that like Thomas Jefferson, I've come to realize that I can't live without them. I discovered that I didn't believe everything I'd been taught as a child. I came to realize that prejudice was real, that you can't judge a book by its cover, that people are sometimes better and sometimes worse than they appear. I learned that we all make mistakes. And I learned about not focusing on the bugs.

Those of you who've had me in class know that I tell a lot of stories. I grew up in the South. We in the South have a fine storytelling tradition and some of my professors at Baylor were masters of it. I'm sure the bug story illustrated some point in the professor's lecture, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it had to do with the course. I just remember the story. He said that when you drive down a Texas road in the summer, you just can't help but have bugs hit your windshield. It's unavoidable. But if you let yourself get distracted by the bugs, if you start looking at how gross they are all blood and guts on the glass, then you'll lose sight of the road. The next thing you know, you'll find yourself in the ditch. What a great metaphor that professor gave us to live by. In the past 18 years, I've had plenty of bugs hit the windshield of my life, but as he recommended, I've tried to keep my eyes on the road. I'm not sure but what that might have been one of the more important things I learned in college.

There were a lot of defining moments clustered in that short 4 year time span. My classroom and out of classroom experiences left an indelible mark on me molded me into the person I am today. It's probably obvious by now that I look fondly on those years. I often say that I loved college so much I just couldn't ever really bring myself to leave, and that's why I'm still here.

Well, they didn't ask me speak today just so that I could talk about myself. The reason we're here today is to celebrate the milestone you all have reached, to honor those of you in the college of arts and sciences who have stood out among your peers through the excellence of your academic achievements. We know you must have learned something in all those classes in which you made A's. It is my sincerest hope though, that your education was more than that accumulation of good grades. Dean Faber suggested that I might address the question, "How has my undergraduate education been more valuable than a subscription to USA Today?"

That's really the point of my comments to you. College should be more than reading books, taking notes, regurgitating information on an exam and then promptly forgetting the stuff you crammed. It should be more than a collection of data. If you look at yourself today and realize that you aren't quite the same person who walked onto this campus four years ago, and if you believe you're better for the change, well, then we've succeeded.

I hope you've learned to think critically, have developed a love of learning so strong that you'll be life long learners, have gained knowledge broad enough to serve as a foundation for understanding the world around you, have gained a real depth of knowledge in at least a few areas, and have learned lessons to last a lifetime. I hope you've developed meaningful relationships with peers and mentors. And I hope you have been inspired.

When you've had time to reflect on it, what will your undergraduate education have meant to you? When you're ready to answer that question, I hope you'll be able to say, "In a word everything."

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