Remarks at Matriculation of Class of 2012
Terry Cowdrey
Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid
It is an honor to add my welcome on behalf of the staff of the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid. It is a great pleasure to see all of you—students in the Class of 2012, transfer and exchange students, and your families. You students were invited to join this community of scholars because of the potential that you bring to gain much from this experience and to contribute much to each other and to those who are already here.
Your reasons for selecting St. Lawrence are as varied as the talents and experience you bring. As has become our tradition, I will spend the next few minutes introducing you to one another and introducing you new students to the campus community. As I do so, I challenge each of you to commit yourselves to benefiting as much as possible from your time at St. Lawrence. Much that you will gain will be from the relationships you forge with one another---both from those with whom you share common experiences and interests, and also from those whose backgrounds and perspectives are very different from your own.
From Nassir Abou-Ziki to Annie Znamerowski, there are 616 first-year students, 334 women and 282 men. There are 6 exchange and 24 transfer students, enrolling from 21 different colleges. You come from 24 countries, 4 Canadian provinces, and 26 U.S. states. We welcome students from across North America and from Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo; as well as from France, Spain, Germany, Poland, and Finland; Bulgaria, Slovakia, Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia/Herzegovina. Students have traveled to Canton from Japan, China, Vietnam and Timor Leste; and from India, Lebanon and Turkey.Closer to campus, eight members of the Class of 2012 graduated from Champlain Valley Union High School in Vermont and eight from high school right here in Canton.
Many of you bring an awareness of the world beyond your own community however near or far it is to campus. Some of you have studied in countries different from your own—Australia, Japan, France, and Belize; others have sought opportunities to share your energy in service to communities in need in Tanzania, Thailand, Ghana and Fiji. You have sold hats to raise money for an orphanage in Peru, traveled to Nicaragua with Mission of Hope, and interned with an NGO in the Dominican Republic. You have visited family in Germany and Croatia and expanded your family by traveling to China to adopt your sister. You have skied in Chile, New Zealand and Switzerland, played soccer in England, danced in Austria, and backpacked in Botswana. Many of you chose St. Lawrence because you know of our emphasis on education for global citizenship, and you seek classmates who share an interest in learning all you can about the world.
Some of you have experience in helping people of different backgrounds work and live together—through your involvement with organizations such as Diversity in Action, A World of Difference and the Unity Club. You have taken active part in the Community-wide Dialogue to End Racism and founded the Gay-Straight Alliance and Change the World. You honor your family heritage through your involvement with LUNA (Latinas United in North America), the Estonian Children’s Camp, and the Polish National Catholic Church.
One way you have brought others together is through your participation and leadership of your student government and other school organizations. You have been student body president—one of you for 4 years—and officers in the student council, National Honor Society, Youth Court and Disciplinary Committee. You are prefects and proctors, tourguides and editors of yearbooks, literary magazines and school newspapers. Some of you developed your leadership skills through your participation in Scouts, Jr. ROTC, Boys and Girls State. Others have participated beyond your schools in the Community Action Committee and the Town Planning Council. Your work has enriched the Tribal Community Alliance and the Urban Youth Collaborative, and you have learned more about your local communities through Youth Leadership Buffalo, Lead America, and the Green Mountain and New Hampshire Teen Institutes. You organized a political forum and an ethics forum; you have been active in the campaigns of Barack Obama and John Edwards and have interned with state and U. S. Senators. You have been president of Jack and Jill and FFA and a 4-H Teen Ambassador. Nearly three-quarters of you were involved in leadership activities.
Another reason you chose St. Lawrence is because you value hands-on, experiential learning. Your interest in science has led you to do research in genetics and physiology and work as a biochemistry lab assistant. Three of you have worked on projects related to the protection of turtles. You have published poetry and won awards for your art work, taught computer classes and competed on math teams and in the Science Olympiad.You sought challenge beyond your schools on the MaineCoast and Rocky Mountain Semesters and at the Island School and the Ocean Classroom. You have pursued college credit while still in high school, through Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and dual-enrollment. You were named Best History Student, Best Debater, and were the Destination ImagiNation State Champion. You have interned at the Yale Foreign Language Institute and apprenticed at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. You are a facilitator for your book club and active in the astronomy, philosophy, and Medical Careers clubs. You have pursued activities that match your academic interests---Model UN, Mock Trial, and Model Congress. You have competed with your classmates in Academic Decathlon, Quiz Bowl, and Whiz Quiz.
You have a love of the natural world—evidenced through your academic interests, your concern for the environment, and your pursuit of outdoor recreation. You have inspired action through founding the recycling club and running the composting program at your school. You are members of the Ecology Club, the Earth Club, the Green Club and the Green Team. You have worked with SAVE and MOVE—Students Against Vanishing Environments and Maintain Our Vital Environment, as well as Students for Environmental Awareness. You have volunteered with Earthwatch and the Nature Conservancy and work to beautify public grounds in your hometown. You have interned with the Adirondack Loon Conservation Society and the Dutchess Land Conservancy. You are in the Bee Club.
Some of you combine your love of the outdoors with physical activity. You mountain bike, rock climb, kayak, and backpack. You have built and maintained trails in the Adirondacks, the Appalachians, on the Continental Divide and the Pacific Coast Trail. You have hiked the Long Trail, canoed in Quebec, and biked from Georgia to California. One of you became an Adirondack 46er at age 13. Your participation in Outward Bound, National Outdoor Leadership School, and Overland has taken you on adventures from Maine to Alaska to Mexico. You are active in Project CLIMB, and founded the Fishing Club and Outdoor Pursuits Club. You have translated your interests into part-time jobs---working as lifeguards, caddies, on ski patrol and as a belayer. You are Wilderness First Responders, firefighters and EMTs.
Many of you are competitive athletes--85% of you competed in at least one sport in high school. You race bicycles and snowboards, play water polo, golf and badminton. You love Ultimate Frisbee, roller-skiing, and fencing. You dive, surf and lift weights, and play netball and table tennis. You are state champions in basketball, lacrosse, soccer and cross-country; you were named All-State in football and Nordic skiing; and you are nationally ranked in squash and tennis. You have competed in the Empire State Games, the World Scholar-Athlete Games, and you played for the Under-18 Quebec Women’s Ice Hockey team. You have competed internationally in boomerang, and rowed in the Royal Henley and the Royal Canadian Henley Regattas. You hurdle and triple jump; you are cheerleaders, gymnasts, boxers, and SCUBA divers. You are on the rifle team and the synchronized skating team. You have competed in road races and a family triathlon, and set a school record in the 4 x 800 relay. You have earned your black belt in karate and Tae Kwon Do, and skied in the Junior Olympics. 278 of you captained athletic teams in high school, and several of you captained three sports in high school. You won the School Spirit Award, and were named Best Male Athlete and Dodgeball Champion at your school. You won the People’s Choice Award in the Soapbox Derby.
You love sharing your sport with others—teaching kids through CitySquash, organizing a Wiffleball tournament, and volunteering at Learn to Skate. You teach swimming, sailing, and windsurfing; skiing, skating and snowboarding. You coach and referee soccer, lacrosse, and basketball. Many of you volunteer with Special Olympics, and you have worked at the Lake Placid Iron Man, triathlons and marathons.
One of the best ways to get to know the Canton community is by continuing your involvement in service which 84% of you pursued while in high school. Some of you chose service activities that match your academic or extra-curricular interests; others reacted to the needs you saw most evident in your home communities and around the world. You built houses with Habitat for Humanity and traveled to the Gulf Coast to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. You reached out to the elderly, shoveling snow and escorting at the Senior Citizens Ball, and going to nursing homes where you played Bingo and the piano, made and delivered cards, and brought your dog to visit. You care, too, for the children in your community by volunteering at day care centers, making blankets for children in foster care, running the After School Club, and participating in Big Buddies, Best Buddies, and Study Buddies. You founded Reading in Action and provide books to kids through Read to Grow. You bring happiness through your involvement with Toys for Tots, Santas Anonymous and Operation Happy Birthday. You volunteer at Camp Sunshine and with Give Kids the World and the Make a Wish Foundation.
You have shown deep commitment to raising money to find cures for diseases that ravage our society. You have biked for MS, brain tumor research and cancer research, raising thousands of dollars in the Pan-Mass Challenge. You have swum, danced, golfed, washed cars, and cut your hair for cancer. You organized a benefit concert and participated in Hoops for Hearts and Volley for a Cure. Dozens of you have participated in Relay for Life. You have walked for AIDS, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and lupus. You have volunteered with the American, British and Bulgarian Red Cross. You have worked to reduce teen pregnancy and to educate your peers through Mixed Nuts, a nutrition advocacy group; you support your friends through Safe Rides and SADD. You received the President’s Volunteer Service Award. You have been altar servers and Sunday school teachers, peer mediators and peer mentors.
You think globally and act locally volunteering at food banks, soup kitchens and homeless shelters. You have delivered coats with Midnight Run and food with Meals on Wheels. You restocked food pantries through Halloween for Hunger and cooked with Bread and Roses. Your global awareness has led to your involvement with Amnesty International, the Global Action Project, Invisible Children, and Heifer International. You have baked cakes to raise money for Darfur and founded Project Renew to focus on land mine removal. You are involved in STAR (Student Action for Refugees), and work as an ESL tutor. Many of you combine your love of animals with your service work—training dogs for assistance work and rehabbing retired racehorses. You have volunteered at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, with the SPCA, People for Cats and at the Second Chance Wildlife Center. Your efforts with the Salvation Army, the National Charity League and the Service League of Boys continue traditions your parents have passed on. You volunteer with them at the Community Rake and Bake and the Festival of Trees, and on Make a Difference Day and Earth Day.
Some of you combine your service with your talent in the arts. You play Taps for the VFW and paint portraits of orphans through The Memory Project. You have interned at the Hampton Shakespeare Festival, and volunteered at the Aspen Music Festival and Sarajevo Film Festival. Nearly 70% of you have been involved in the performing arts. You play in string quartets and youth symphonies, and in all types of bands—marching, jazz, rock, pep and steel. You play the bagpipes and the fiddle; the euphonium and the piccolo, and all of the instruments in between. You have performed with the All-County Orchestra and All-County Band and competed as a drummer in a pipe band in the World Championships in Scotland. You founded the Led Zeppelin Club.
Your talent in dance is as wide-ranging as your talent in music. You have danced as the mouse in The Nutcracker and as part of a competition dance team. Your dance traditions reflect your culture as you perform Irish Step, Polish Folk, African and Indian classical dance. You are ballroom dancers and swing dancers—you have danced at the NY State Fair and at Disney World.
Some of you have worked behind the scenes in technical theater, as choreographers and stage crew. On stage you have played the lead roles in Annie, Lysistrata, and Phantom of the Opera; and three of you have been in different productions of Grease—two of you were “Sonny”. You have performed in an opera, in The Laramie Project, and in a professional theater production of High School Musical. Many of you sing---with a capella groups like the Adelines, the Adlibs, and the Sweet Sixteens---as well as in the gospel choir, the All-State Chorus and at the All New England Choral Festival. You have sung the national anthem at Fenway Park. You have composed and arranged music and served as talent show host. You also have talent in the studio arts—ceramics, sculpture, painting and photography. Your artwork has been displayed in the Vermont State House and at a children’s hospital, and you have made documentary films.
You have remarkable talents to share with one another. You knit, crochet and sew, and make jewelry and moccasins. You have built floats for Homecoming, a sea kayak and a 120 square foot tree house. You love to cook and write poetry. Two of you are historical re-enactors. You practice yoga and Tai Chi, and are active in clubs ranging from Amateur Radio to Improv, from Anime to Pirate Adventure. You have pursued your interests through internships in galleries, museums and libraries as well as at Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and the Metro Transit Authority
80% of you have also held jobs while in high school—some that were related to your interests, most that helped you earn money to contribute to your family and to help pay for college. Lasting well beyond the paychecks are the lessons you have learned from your work experiences. You have learned about people while working as camp counselors, nannies, and custodians; at movie theaters, mini-golf and Great Escape. You have delivered pizza, newspapers and Chinese food, and sold books, shoes, and a lot of groceries. As a group you could run your own restaurant—you have been servers, busboys, and dishwashers; fry cooks, a donut chef, a pizza chef and The Sandwich Guy. You have made smoothies and both scooped and twirled ice cream---at Ben and Jerry’s, Coldstone, Bubby’s, Fat Bob’s, and Frosty Joe’s. Some of you have worked outdoors---as field hands, stable hands and dock hands; as lobstermen, roofers, and landscapers. You tied grapes, baled hay, maintained cemeteries, and repaired sails. You have been a boat tourguide and a launch driver, a gardener and a caretaker’s assistant.
You have worked in offices with realtors, accountants and lawyers; with dentists and athletic trainers. You have worked at newspapers, veterinary clinics, libraries and hotels; in floral design and furniture joining. Some of you have turned your talents into your own business—detailing cars, selling on eBay, and taking photographs. You are the owner/operator of the Farmer’s Daughter Farm Stand and of Water Girl—your gardening business. You founded an on-line storage company and you mow lawns.
Others of you have learned from working with your parents or other relatives---on family farms, in restaurants, in construction, and in stores. You have installed fire alarms, coordinated weddings, painted houses, and made gift baskets. You have worked with your grandfather at auctions, with your mother in her sewing shop, and with your father as an electrical apprentice.
Many of you continued family traditions by choosing St. Lawrence. Sixty-one of you have parents who graduated from St. Lawrence--for 18 of you both parents; 40 of you follow older siblings. Twenty have grandparents who graduated from St. Lawrence—nine of you are third generation Laurentians, and two are fourth generation. One set of twins and one set of triplets, as well as a brother and sister, begin their St. Lawrence careers together today, and several of you are beginning school without your twin (or triplet) for the first time; one has left triplet brothers at home.
In your class Elizabeth—spelled 2 ways—is one of the most popular women’s names—there are 13—and one Eliza. Six of them prefer nicknames: Beth, Betsy, Ellie, Breezy and 2 are Liz. There are also 13 Kathryn’s—spelled three ways—and five Kathleens. Michael is the most common men’s name—there are 13, spelled two ways. There are also 13 John and Jonathan added together—though two prefer Jack and Ned. Two of you—P.J. and T.J.—use your initials, and six of you prefer to be called by your middle name. The class includes Burgundy and Violet, an Iris and two Jasmines (Jasmin); and a Tiffany and two Crystals (Krystal).
Sixty-three of you were born in December—more than in any other month, and if your birthday is December 19, you have seven classmates who share your birthday—and will have a special reason to celebrate the last day of final exams. Two of you—Chasity Barcomb and Elizabeth Gronlund—are celebrating your birthdays by starting their college careers—today.
In your essays you wrote about your heroes—most often your parents and grandparents and your brothers and sisters. Some of you wrote about the animals in your life—your dogs Jasper and Sunny---whom you showed at the Westminster Dog Show—and your horses: Jackson, Silver and Stormy—and Ollie the camel.
Many of you wrote about your hopes for your future, sharing the source of your inspiration by quoting Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Vince Lombardi; Maya Angelou, Annie Dillard, and Dr. Seuss; Marie Curie and Leonardo Da Vinci; Thomas Paine and Martin Luther King, Jr. You quoted Gandhi and Bruce Springsteen.
Several of you have clearly articulated career goals from green design architect to museum curator, wildlife biologist to professional hockey player, fashion designer to seismologist. You plan to write, edit, produce and direct; teach and consult; and work as veterinarians, stockbrokers, scientists and therapists. All of you will be well-prepared to fulfill these dreams and others because of the liberal arts education that you are pursuing here.
As you have heard, you represent widely varying backgrounds, experiences and interests. You bring to St. Lawrence different perspectives on many issues. As you get to know one another, your goal should be to learn from one another. Keep in mind that a successful discussion is not one where you convince someone else to take your point of view but where, instead, each of you comes to a broader understanding of the issue at hand. What you have in common is that you are all smart, curious, motivated, and ready to meet new people and start the next chapter of your lives.
Of course you come to St. Lawrence with the talents and interests you have already developed. But it is our faith in the future--our great confidence that you will fully engage the St. Lawrence experience and make the most of all of the opportunities that are here--that leads us to welcome you to this community today. As individuals and as a class you will make your mark on St. Lawrence. It starts now. You are responsible for creating your own future. Whether your experience is as rewarding as it can be is entirely up to you.
It is with great pride and anticipation that I present the Class of 2012 to Dean Lehr.
