- Graduates take next step in personal journey
Photo by: Jon L. Hendricks Photography LLC Dec. 14, 2010 – More than 220 Valparaiso University students are beginning a new stage in their personal journeys, paths that will take them to leadership roles in business, science, law, visual and performing arts, public service, engineering and other pursuits.
During mid-year commencement ceremonies at the Chapel of the Resurrection on Dec. 12, President Mark A. Heckler commended each graduate for pursuing his or her own educational path at Valpo. He cited the stories of two graduates: Ellen Orner, an honors graduate in English literature, and Russell Brown, a law graduate who will begin work at a Northwest Indiana law firm after graduation.
Inspired by an English professor to explore her love for writing about places, Orner wrote for her honors thesis the play “My Name Was William,” the story of her grandfather and his life in Gary, Ind., after moving to the city in 1950. Orner will enter a master’s program in creative writing next year as she pursues her goal of teaching creative writing at a university.
Brown served as president of the Sports and Entertainment Law Association, was a research assistant for one of his law professors and served as a teaching assistant in legal writing at Valpo. His time at the University’s School of Law led him to put down roots in the Valparaiso community with his wife and 10-year-old son.
“The relationships I’ve built with my peers, professors and the support staff at the School of Law and Valparaiso University have been the most meaningful part of my Valpo experience,” Brown said.
“Thank you, Ellen and Russell, for sharing your passion with the Valparaiso University community and with the world,” Heckler said. “I also thank all of today’s graduates who have pursued their own educational path at Valpo, developing the knowledge, character, integrity, and wisdom our world needs.”
Thomas Madden, president of the Valparaiso University Alumni Association, also welcomed the new graduates into an active community of 50,000 alumni living throughout the world.
“You’ve conquered classes, discovered new passions, made lifelong friends and formed memories you will never forget,” Madden said. “Yet this is just the beginning of your Valpo relationship. Never forget that the footsteps you have left here, like all those who came before you and those who are yet to come, make you forever a part of the Valpo community, which reaches across generations and many miles.”
Brown and the University’s other graduates heard from John P. “Jody” Kretzmann, a former Valpo faculty member and internally respected community building advocate and scholar. During his commencement address, Kretzmann encouraged graduates to create community by recognizing and fostering the gifts in others.
“Think of the times when you felt most valued, most included in community,” said Kretzmann. “It was probably when someone recognized your gifts and opened up the opportunity for you to contribute those gifts.
“Go out now and spread that view into the wider world. Let loose an aura of giftedness in your family, congregation, workplace, neighborhood.”