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Welcoming Address to the Class of 2011 August 17, 2007 << Previous | 1 | 2 Indeed, you are a very talented class. Many of you play one or more musical instruments, giving rehearsal and performance time to jazz, symphonic and pep band, wind ensemble, drum line, marching band, indie or garage bands, all-city orchestras and competing at the state, national and international level for ability recognition on more than 28 different instruments, including — but not limited to — French horn, violin, euphonium, bassoon, Celtic harp, oboe, clarinet, banjo, saxophone, cumbus, piano and classical guitar. One of you plays 11 different instruments. Others have been a part of school, church, state or community choral groups, madrigal singers, gospel voices, chorales, jazz combo, A cappella choir, an opera company, barbershop quartet or swing choir. Others have committed significant time to learning, performing and/or teaching dance, including tap, ballroom, ballet, Irish, Ukrainian, flamenco, hip-hop, Latin, Morris, Egyptian, modern and belly dancing. You have performed on stage or worked behind the scenes or in the pit during theatrical productions in your high school, community theaters or summer theatre companies. You've performed in, staged managed, costumed, painted and built sets or designed lighting for Fiddler on the Roof, Peter Pan, Our Town, Little Shop of Horrors, The Crucible, Guys and Dolls, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Grease, Arsenic and Old Lace, and The Laramie Project, to name several. Nearly half of you have played at least one varsity sport (although most have participated on multiple varsity teams) including volleyball, lacrosse, badminton, squash, soccer, wrestling, ice or field hockey, archery, crew, football and cross country. Many of you are engaged in equestrian competition or, in other ways, are serious about horses. You have set school, district, regional and state records and have been recognized for your sportsmanship and ability to lose with grace. Almost true for every student, you have committed significant volunteer hours in serving others, whether working on local or national political campaigns, helping physically disabled children conquer their fears of riding a horse, constructing homes, delivering food to the elderly or serving meals regularly at a local soup kitchen, restoring trails in our national parks, recording books for the blind, or organizing blood and food drives at your high school. You've given freely of your time to and raised funds for such organizations as Heifer Project International, Habitat for Humanity, UNICEF, Multiple Sclerosis, Special Olympics, the American Cancer Society, Seeds of Peace, Amigos, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Martha's Table and the Anti-Defamation League. These commitments have taken you from the Appalachian Mountains to Central America and from inner city Boston to rural South Dakota. You have more often described these experiences as gifts to yourselves, experiences that have enhanced and changed your lives rather than as simply doing good deeds for others. During the school year, you've been active with student government, 4-H, Amnesty International, speech and debate, Model United Nations, scouting, academic competition, newspaper or yearbook staffs, Science Olympiad, peer tutoring, AIDS awareness and education, the Gay-Straight Alliance, SAAD and mock trial — all in addition to your involvement with theatre, music and athletics. Several of you are founders of clubs and organizations at your school. For fun, you watch birds, snowboard, garden, plan parties, braid hair, scuba dive, sail, participate in live action role playing, sew, spin, knit, crochet and/or weave, arrange flowers, play competitive croquet, write poetry, surf, juggle or do magic. In after-school and summer jobs you have been a dietary aide, instrument tuner, camp counselor, auto mechanic, beekeeper, dairy farmer, corn detassler, graphic designer, barista, soccer referee, pet sitter, snail breeder, installer of fire and burglar alarms, smoothie maker, historic reenactor, dock hand, wood stacker and an "underage tobacco controller." Every fast food chain with which I am familiar has employed you, creating sandwiches, serving coffee and bagels, slicing pizza or dishing up wonderful cold dairy and non-dairy confections. And a number of you have bagged groceries, restocked shelves or cashiered at both chain and family food markets. In addition to providing customer service at Skyline Chili, Pizza King, the Gap, Walgreen's, Dairy Queen, Ruby Tuesdays, Maggie Moo's, Albertsons, LL Bean, Bob Evans, Kroger, Cold Stone Creamery, Subway, Papa Johns, McDonalds, Buffalo Wild Wings and Friendly's, you have worked for interestingly named companies such as Molly's Restaurant, Greenfield's Market, Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, Second Story Records, Elmo's Diner, Glen Echo Hardware, Mozzarelli's Pizza, and Rico's Bar and Grill. Sixteen of you are alumni of Earlham's Explore-A-College program. Thirty-six have just returned from hiking the Uinta Mountains in Utah or canoeing the boundary waters of Canada with Earlham's Wilderness Program. Fifteen of you came to campus in late July to work with the faculty in the Summer Writing Intensive, and 25 students participated in the inaugural Global Associates Program with new international students. Among you are a member of the Community Problem Solving team that place fourth in international competition, a map reader and packer for family trips, the queen of toilet repair, a two-year Minnesota State Fair champion, a student who makes sushi like a pro, the tallest girl in her class since fifth grade (and also a student who is the shortest best basketball blocker in the history of his high school), a student who performed at Carnegie Hall and another who created, exhibited and sold a five-foot sculpture of a praying mantis, a student who breeds snails (currently hosting 4,000 caged snails in his basement), a state certified Emergency Medical Technician and several certified scuba divers, a student who won national recognition for a service project designed to educate others about Darfur, a student who wrote and produced a parody on cooking shows entitled Cooking with Men I and II, a student who was featured in an article in The New York Times, another who has been a cast member in several Japanese television dramas and commercials and who also is the only female on her high school's wrestling team, a student who juggles, rides a unicycle in a straight line and walks tightropes, an official member of the National Ski Patrol, a state champion trap shooter, a student who is a pro at wiggling her ears, one of five U.S. teens to compete on an international team at the Icelandic Horse Youth World Championships, a student who achieved first-place recognition at the Tampa Car Show for automobile enhancing, another who accomplished a 3,000 mile coast-to-coast bike ride, a student who placed third in the annual turkey calling contest during the Turkey Testicle Festival, a student who won every one of his wrestling matches during four years of competition in high school, another who spent 2,000 hours over eight years shooting a basketball, and a student who accidentally discovered Earlham College while driving around Richmond looking for a Chinese restaurant. As I hope is obvious from all that I have shared, you bring much commitment, talent, passion and fun to this new community you will call home for what too often seems a short time. We in admissions have enjoyed getting to know you and look forward, along with Earlham's faculty and current students, to becoming even better acquainted. We hope you have fun discovering these and other attributes about your classmates as you continue to "invest in your future" as you progress through your Earlham career. Again, we extend a warm welcome. — EC — Contact: Mark Blackmon, director of
media relations
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Earlham
College · 801 National Road West · Richmond,
Indiana 47374-4095 |