Undiscovered Geniuses
I
recently attended the celebration for four of our students that won national
awards from the TRIO Quest program. Lisa
Napier, Kayla Cormier, Melissa Majors, and Wade Browne were honored for their
prose and poetry submissions. Each
submission was accompanied by a picture by the students. Respectively they received an honorable
mention, a bronze medal, and two gold medals.
Keep in mind this is a national competition meaning submissions came in
from all across the U.S. I had the
opportunity to read each of the submissions and they were excellent. The students wrote about things they knew,
things they loved and cared about, things about which they were passionately
interested. My gauge of good writing is
if I can personally connect and I surely did so with these four works.
Congratulations
are also in order for our TRIO program here at the college. TRIO is a Federal grant funded project for student
support services. Our program is directed by Andrea Boddie with
the very effective staff of Shannon Freeman, Carol Bazenet, Mary Malone, and
Jean Colello. Not only did these folks
have the joy of seeing the students succeed, our program was acknowledged as
the Top TRIO Quest program for 2012 and Shannon received the TRIO Quest coach
award.
The
dictionary defines genius as exceptional intellectual or creative power. These four students exhibited their genius
for writing. Mark Twain said, “Thousands
of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others. “
How sad it would have been if these students had never discovered their power
to use the written word to touch other lives.
They would have been the poorer and so would we.
But
they did discover their genius. They
came to Volunteer State and they learned and explored. They were encouraged by faculty and staff and
by the folks in the TRIO center and we are all the richer for it. Isn’t that what we are all about – helping
students discover their genius? Whether
it is writing or science, art or business, math or health care, or any of
multiple other disciplines, we give students the chance to find the place where
they can succeed and where they can shine – where they can be a genius.
Everyone
get one genius.
-Dr. Jerry Faulkner