Recent News

Faculty Charge 2023 - You Are Ready
Senior Picnic Flickr Link

At this year’s senior picnic for our spring 2023 graduates, Associate Provost Dr. Laura Hunt delivered the Faculty Charge to the Class of 2023. Below is her inspiring speech, “You Are Ready.”

When I think about you all, at this critical moment, I can't help but think about the trees at the end of winter. Right before spring, they look a little battered and bare from what they've gone through; but they harbor an incredible secret: they are absolutely full of green potential, that is waiting to burst forth at the right moment. You are just like those trees, filled with incredible potential! Standing still, waiting, ready to dazzle with their hidden power in blossoms and color and growth. A switch flips and then boom, it's an unbelievable sight.

When I was thinking about what message I needed at my own undergraduate graduation 21 years ago, I think it was the reassurance that I was "ready." I didn't feel ready - I was excited and nervous, although I wasn't at all sure what for. What were we all doing, anyway?  Making plans, acting like we knew what would come next? With that sense of anticipation came a nervous uncertainty about those plans. I sort of knew what was next, but I definitely didn't have a long-term plan, and I certainly couldn't have imagined the path I ultimately took!

I want you to know that you are exactly where you are supposed to be today. You ARE ready even if you don't feel ready. If you’re scared, if you’re excited, if you’re worried, if you’re relieved… those are all the correct feeling. You’re in exactly the right place. You’re feeling just how you're supposed to feel. If you know for certain what you’re doing next, or if you’re not sure what’s coming next, or if you have a plan, but you don’t know if it’s the right thing…

You are in the right place. At this moment!

You are ready.

How many of you have changed your major at least once? Or came in with a completely different idea for your career? That’s great! You’re ready. That’s exactly what happens as an adult. You’ll change jobs, change interests, even political parties! What that means is that no matter where you are on that path…

You’re ready.

Did you have a roommate while you were here? Now that is the best preparation for marriage, right there. Or any relationship where you have to live with another human and navigate a shared space.  I think being a friend or a partner is easy; being a roommate is hard!

You are ready.

Another important skill you have learned while here is time management. You probably made some mistakes.  Did you stay up late preparing for songfest and then have to get up early the next day, wishing you had more hours to study for an exam?  Did you fall asleep in class because you spent too many hours at your job the day before?  Did you go out when you should have stayed in?  Did you stay in when you should have gone out?   It's okay!  Time management is what you were learning.  Sometimes, we have to learn it the hard way. And because of that…

You are ready.

Did you try something and fail at it while you were here? A class, a relationship, an interest? Honestly, I hope you did. I know it was so hard, but you got through it- you learned and moved on! It wasn’t for nothing. Failing is growing, and you’ll do it again. Don’t be afraid to fail. Let me tell you that looking back on my life during college, every failure led me to where I am today. It is so hard to see it at the time, but if you learn something, the failure is really just growth. Every failure propels you forward, it doesn't actually hold you back. This is what life is about!  So, if you have had one or more of those moments, then…

You’re ready for what is next.

You have received the best education at this place. You learned about societies and how to fight for fairness through your sociology professors; you learned about leading a fulfilling life with our psychology faculty; you learned the myths and realities of the Covid virus and immune response (that came in handy) with our biology and chemistry faculty. You learned to spot logical fallacies with our English and Foundations faculty.

You learned from our history faculty about how the courageous acts of others have given you the rights and freedoms you have. You learned to debate how to best protect those rights from our political science faculty.  From our religion faculty, you learned to question and determine your own spiritual beliefs instead of just blindly internalizing others'; hopefully, you stand strong in your faith today and have respect for the faith of others. Maybe our language faculty have even helped you to value the different beliefs of other cultures around the world. If you had any classes with our education faculty, you are ready to share these lessons with the next generation.

Now you know how to interpret studies in the headlines because of our math faculty, and you know how to do your own good research because of the help of our librarians.  I hope you can spot fake news a mile away. 

You learned to see and create beauty with our art and music faculty; and I bet our theatre faculty helped you learn how to act like you do even when you don't. You maybe learned how to spot such dishonesty in others by their body language with our communication faculty. You learned the time value of money from business, and maybe the value of time from philosophy. You've perhaps even learned how to save a life from our kinesiology faculty.

You have spent more than 84,000 minutes, or over 1,400 hours in class at Georgetown College. If you studied, let's say, the recommended two hours outside of class for every hour in class, then you spent over 4,200 hours learning!  Can you believe how much you've learned? 

You are ready.  

Does anyone out there remember the word in Spanish for ready? Yes - listo! And that same word, what else can it mean?  Smart. You are smart. Not because of the knowledge you have right now, or because of your GPA when you walk across that stage on Saturday. You are smart because you have learned the most important lesson—how to learn!  You know how to look critically at what you learn. Decide what to keep and what to throw away. You can learn to do, anything. You also learned how to ask for help.  Maybe when you studied Hobbes in Foundations?  Or maybe later?  That is a critical skill for adulting. See?  You know how to get information you don't have. As Dr. Mckenzie has said, the best leaders are the ones who know what they don’t know and ask for help.

You are ready.

Lastly, you’ve also  learned how to love your classmates. Love people different from you, with more than you, with less than you. You’ve learned to love your enemy. You’ll need it again. And again and again. You know about love. You’re ready.

Now, I'm going to tell you a secret; even as adults, it may appear to you that we have it together. But we never feel "ready." We, too, are often feeling scared, nervous, unsure, or unworthy. Know that you are worthy, you are capable, and you can do anything. It is impossible to get "ready" for the surprises life is going to throw your way. The truth is, even though we don't feel ready, we always are. Ready to love, ready to learn, ready to fail, ready to change. Try to embrace that uncertainty and see the richness of where you are in the exact, uncertain moment instead of living for some future outcome. I promise, you'll be a lot happier. There is no finish line to be ready. There is only the moment you're in.

Let me tell you about your class.

You are from 14 different states: Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. You are from eight different countries: Austria, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Ireland, Italy, the United Kingdom, and of course the USA. Of our 44 possible different majors, you represent more than 30 of them. Of the nearly 200 of you, 31 of you completed two majors.

You have wowed us with your brilliant senior papers and projects.

You have amazed us with your resilience and tenacity. We know some of the struggles you’ve faced and overcome. We also know there are so many struggles we didn’t know about, and yet you carried on and kept going, coming to class, completing our projects and our tests when other parts of your life felt out of control. We know it must have been incredibly hard, and we’re proud you’re standing here today. You have done hard things!  You can do really hard things!

You have made us smile with your humor and especially your care for one another.

You are ready, like that tree on the verge of spring just full of hidden potential waiting to burst forth. Sometimes, you are going to feel unseen for what you are capable of, feeling bare, ugly, and weak. People WILL underestimate you. But know that we, your faculty, see you! We KNOW what you are capable of. You may have to sit quietly for a time, gathering strength and storing up energy, just waiting for your moment. It's going to take a lot of patience and times WILL get hard. Please remember that while you’re doing that, something else is happening below the surface. Although the trees at the end of winter may look like they are fighting alone, they are actually sharing nutrients underground in their overlapping roots. Have you read that? A 1997 paper published in Nature introduced this theory, that trees use fungal links in their roots to share water, information, nutrients, and more. We can't see it, but if one tree is suffering, their roots actually send help to one another when it's needed. Isn't that amazing? They don't compete, they cooperate! I like to think that this is us. We are your forest.

Look around you - these people you're standing with today, they are also your forest. They are ready to help. Listos. They are going to be there when you need them, just as you will be for them. This, through the long, lonely winters AND the glorious springs. I hope your roots stay bound to theirs, and every one of you continues to grow so that your roots spread that support and love even farther and wider; eventually, our forest will cover the earth with that shared strength.

You are ready! You're as ready as you will ever be. Your roots are strong and holding fast. Now go out and dazzle us. Congratulations Class of 2023!