Beyond Access and Affordability: An Education of High Value

You can also read this blog written by President Libby on Huffington Post, posted 10/2/13. 

With such weighty words as access and affordability lingering in the air after President Obama’s bus tour last month, it’s easy to get caught up in the higher education mantra and its vagueness. The phrase paints visions of low unemployment rates and an educated workforce unconstrained by student debt.

But access and affordability are not enough to get the world where it needs to be. For one, it becomes too easy to think we can solve the world’s issues with quick degrees at a low cost, with less consideration for quality of the learning – that is, the deep learning that comes from reflection, application, iteration and rigor.

We devolve into education as transaction; we might as well get the empty calories from a vending machine. Tomorrow’s workforce raised on the educational equivalents of fast food, chips and candy bars. Is this how we will shake up education?

A better strategy is to lead our discussions with a global concern for the substance, purpose and outcomes of education – without which access does not matter.

In contrast, UNESCO’s new Education for All Global Monitoring Report Team analysis focuses on the need for quality education, highlighting the linkages between it and the reduction in mortality rates, increased tolerance for differences, and economic growth. How can we talk about access to higher education when worldwide UNESCO estimates that more than 250 million children still may not be able to read or write by the time they reach fourth grade?

In our own country in particular, one in three public school fourth-graders taking the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test performed at or below the “Basic” level (NAEP).

A Values-Driven Education

In at least the richest nation in the world, literacy in our children cannot be optional, nor can we shrug aside issues of poverty, violence or discrimination in which education and the prospect of “having prospects” so clearly have a role. Embedded in education must be concern for the character of our citizens to combat this indifference, so we make the right and important choices as we care for our sick, teach our children, grow our food and lead our companies.

Quality education is about far more than the 3 Rs and its liberal arts underpinnings that teach valuable skills like critical thinking and problem-solving. Education, at its best, is threaded with values – those shared ideals that champion and protect what’s important to us, and that elicit the finest within us. While values education may happen in the home or community, there is a critical role for schools and universities to play as we impart new knowledge – and with it, provoke the discourse that instills personal and social responsibility.

At Stetson University, our values are the foundation of all we do as we dare our students to live a life of significance. Our values are the expression of who we are and what we believe in; even before our students start classes, they are involved in community service programs. And our Bonner Scholars program is built around leadership experiences and long-term relationships with organizations in need. We are sixth on Washington Monthly’s list of master’s universities that contribute to the public good. Each September we immerse ourselves in Values Day, where we cancel classes and engage in a full slate of workshops for students, faculty and staff across our university.

On Values Day especially, we embrace and espouse the values we’ve agreed on as a community: personal growth, global citizenship, intellectual development, and at the heart of them all, personal and social responsibility. We discuss the evolution of civic engagement, and why it matters, and what our Center for Community Engagement does and how it integrates our curriculum with our community. A session explores Mayan culture, examining their practices and beliefs, which challenges our assumptions and prompts us to look at our own culture with fresh eyes. The world is both a bit bigger and smaller the day after Values Day.

Quality Outcomes

I do firmly suggest that education should lead to a job, but more importantly it should also lead to a life – a personally satisfying life in a society we want to live in. Where all individuals and organizations – as part of their mission and values – devote time, energy and innovation to a cause or entity without even considering ROI, because the benefits are priceless and wide-reaching. I am well aware that this smacks of idealism, but that’s a badge I am comfortable wearing.

Access to a quality, affordable education interwoven with values takes us to this level and beyond ourselves – beyond mere success and into a more meaningful realm: significance. Leadership expert John Maxwell advocates that you “can’t have true success without significance; significance comes when you add value to others.”

Education can be a powerful change agent. In a world where human slavery still exists and clean water is not a universal right, we are in desperate need of reprioritization and a recommitment to values. Our values are, after all, our fallbacks as well as our guideposts, and what unites us in times of crisis when there is no logic or experience to show us the way.

Surely measuring our students’ random acts of kindness and the impact of civic engagement on our communities is just as important as quantifying the number of graduates we send out into the world and the salaries they make. A global, values-driven society – that’s the legacy I’m most interested in seeing education preserve.

By President Wendy B. Libby, Ph.D.

]]> http://www.stetson.edu/portal/stetson-today/2013/10/an-education-of-high-value/feed/ 0 http://www.stetson.edu/portal/stetson-today/2013/10/weapons-of-mass-distraction/ http://www.stetson.edu/portal/stetson-today/2013/10/weapons-of-mass-distraction/#comments Tue, 01 Oct 2013 05:00:33 +0000 Mary Anne Rogers http://www.stetson.edu/portal/stetson-today/?p=8767 “Distracted Driving” is receiving a lot of attention these days, particularly the alarming statistics of death and injury caused by drivers who are talking or texting on cell phones. Forty states have already banned cell phone use while driving and, starting today, Oct. 1, Florida will do the same.

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), over 3,000 people annually are killed as a result of distracted driving. They also cite that teens and young adults are the largest proportion of drivers who are involved with fatalities directly related to cell phone use while behind the wheel: a whopping 21 percent of all car crash fatalities of 15 to 19 year olds can be blamed on driving while using a cell phone.  A recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) showed that someone texting, dialing or grabbing the phone while driving is three times as likely to crash than a driver who is not distracted (www.Distraction.gov).

It could be argued that Florida is slow to jump on board with this initiative and some argue that while passing the law is a good first step, it may not be enough. “It’s important because it is the first step towards creating a primary law,” said Joe Steward, Community Traffic Safety Team Program Coordinator in DeLand (District 5, Florida Department of Transportation). “Honestly, it will not make a big difference. Florida law applies only to secondary violation…and the law also does not even apply to drivers in stopped vehicles. Those of us who grab our iPhones to check an email the minute traffic slows or whenever we stop at a light can still text legally when behind the wheel.” In other words, breaking the law that begins today is a secondary offense, requiring an officer pull over an offender for another traffic infraction (e.g., speeding, running a stop sign) before issuing the $30 fine.  And being able to use your phone while stopped at a signal or in a traffic jam isn’t sitting well with those who wish to enact tougher legislation on the matter.

If the stats and police enforcement don’t scare some “straight” then watching a recent documentary short by Werner Herzog might do the trick. “From One Second to the Next” is a 35-minute film that debuted on YouTube this summer. Four major wireless carriers—AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint—partnered on the film project that stemmed from Herzog’s work on 30-second commercials for anti-texting and driving. It has scored millions of views and made a significant impact on raising awareness about distracted driving. The raw emotion of the film comes from people who have been impacted as the driver at fault, the victims left with shells of their former lives, or the family members who’ve needlessly lost loved ones. They are unified in their message: don’t text and drive.

by Trish Wieland

]]> http://www.stetson.edu/portal/stetson-today/2013/10/weapons-of-mass-distraction/feed/ 0 http://www.stetson.edu/portal/stetson-today/2013/09/bluemner-curator-describes-modernist-artist/ http://www.stetson.edu/portal/stetson-today/2013/09/bluemner-curator-describes-modernist-artist/#comments Fri, 27 Sep 2013 21:09:31 +0000 Mary Anne Rogers http://www.stetson.edu/portal/stetson-today/?p=8757 The exhibition Oscar Bluemner: Color Sketches, featuring works from Stetson University’s Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection, now on display at Stetson’s Hand Art Center, will be the subject of a lecture at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 2, by exhibition curator Dr. Roberta Smith Favis.  (Pictured, from the current exhibit: “Oscar Bluemner, Untitled, Feb. 15, 1911, colored pencil on paper, 5 in. x 7 in., Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection, Stetson University.)

“Most of the pieces on display capture commonplace scenes of the New York and New Jersey suburbs and countryside not far from New York City, where the artist lived at this time,” said Favis, professor emerita of art history and curator of Stetson’s Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection.

“The works were drawn with a new type of particularly vibrant and versatile colored pencils that enabled the artist to combine his interest in the expressive qualities of color with his immediate response to subjects observed from nature.”

Bluemner was born and educated in Germany and came to the United States in 1892 to work as an architect. By the first decades of the twentieth century he became interested in modernist experiments in art and turned his attention and, eventually, his practice to painting.

“The exhibit features colorful artworks from the time when the artist was solidifying his decision to abandon his architectural career in favor of painting,” Favis explains.

Her talk will review the history of Stetson’s extensive collection of works by American Modernist Painter Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938) and discuss the importance of the colored pencil sketches made in 1910-1911 in the evolution of the artist.

This exhibit, which will be shown through Dec. 2, continues the mission of the Hand Art Center to display and interpret works from Stetson’s extensive collection of artwork by Bluemner.

The lecture, which is open to the public, free of charge, will be held in Room 25 of the Instructional Media Center, at Stetson’s duPont Ball Library, 134 E. Minnesota Ave. For more information, please contact the Hand Art Center at Stetson at (386) 822-7270.

After the enlightening coaching session, participants wrote down their own personal vision on a wooden board. Students then had the opportunity to partner with other rising leaders and physically prepare for the ultimate challenge.

“You could feel the Hatter spirit rise along with the energy in the room as students punched through their own barriers. Partners were clapping, hugging and waving their split boards in triumph,” said Ana Maia, assistant director for Leadership and Organization Development.

by Ana Maia

Global Leadership students and participants, above, are thrilled with their accomplishment as they stand next to speaker Marc Wayshak.

Total graduate enrollment is down slightly (7.5 percent), and our law school has instituted a planned decrease to maintain student quality, given that applications at schools nationwide have declined 24 percent over the past two years. While we are seven percent smaller than last year, our entering students’ LSAT scores remained steady and our GPAs increased.

How did we end up celebrating when so many other institutions are cutting back? When headlines and the government proclaim that our non-MOOC business model—students living on campus and interacting with professors and peers in liberal arts classrooms with low faculty-student ratios—is broken?

It is because Stetson University has something significant to offer the world.

Student enrollment is a tricky thing and different year to year. It is often like long-distance running and sometimes like a sprint. Keeping the momentum going is key.

It took us three years (and in a down economy) to refine our data-driven strategy and messaging, and connect with students for whom Stetson resonates. Our university is not for everyone – but it is life changing for the right ones.

It is, as you might expect, about predictive modeling, reallocating resources and constantly monitoring your progress. Most of all it is about adrenalin – the vision, creative thinking and swift efficiency that heightens your senses and motivates you toward the finish line. And it’s also about a mission with heart, and celebrating the collective campus effort when all of it comes together, when the hard work generates solid return.

We have moved our culture and messaging from humility to proud assertion; to thrive, you cannot afford to be a best-kept secret. We are magnifying our strengths while constantly resolving our weaknesses, for universities must look and sound as high quality on the outside as they are within.

To be sure, it is a race against other institutions of higher learning, all competitors vying for the best and brightest students. Competition is motivating, but universities must also look inward – for opportunity, obstacles and the guts to move forward. I am proud to say that we did that this year.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your support of our enrollment efforts at Stetson. It takes the entire community – from our admissions and student financial planning staff to anyone who simply smiles or gives directions to a prospective family. And I want to thank you for your continued support of our amazing students as they navigate Stetson and explore their interests.

At Stetson, we are committed to the marathon as well as the sprint – to preparing our students to lead significant lives, not merely successful ones.

Thank you for being a part of Team Stetson!

Wendy

Wendy B. Libby, Ph.D.

President

Kimbrough’s visit is a natural extension of Stetson’s long-standing and expanding commitment to social justice. Building upon nearly a century of values-shaped education through its ties to the Florida Baptist Convention, the late Stetson President Doug Lee led the university through redefining its values more inclusively and integrating them more fully throughout the institution. Under Lee’s leadership, Stetson began the tradition of Values Day. More recently, President Wendy Libby has reinvigorated these commitments through an action-oriented process primarily directed by Stetson faculty and staff, and informed by students, alumni, administrators and others in the Stetson community.

As a result of Libby’s work, Stetson has taken concrete steps to enhance its commitment to diversity and global citizenship, to encourage our integration of spirituality and healthy living on campus, and to develop the intellectual life of the university. Stetson’s most recent values-oriented work can be viewed at: https://www2.stetson.edu/secure/values-comments/values-working-groups/.

The Values Commitment Steering Team that directs this work continually welcomes recommendations at values@stetson.edu or by directly contacting any of its members:

Michael Branton (mbranton@stetson.edu)

Leila Roach (lroach@stetson.edu)

Joshua Rust (jrust@stetson.edu)

Lynn Schoenberg (lschoenb@stetson.edu)

Robert Sitler (rsitler@stetson.edu)

Rina Tovar (rtovar@stetson.edu)

Our day has three basic phases (www.Stetson.edu/values-day)

• 10:30 a.m. – Dr. Walter Kimbrough, keynote address, Lee Chapel
• 1 p.m. – Lectures, workshops organized by Stetson faculty and staff. All sessions will begin promptly on the hour, beginning at 1:00.
• 4:15 p.m. – Follow-up discussions for recommendations on better integration of Stetson’s values commitments, Stetson Room. Members of the Steering Team will be on hand to assure that suggestions are received for appropriate consideration.

Stetson students can earn three cultural credits by participating in any three sessions throughout the day (the keynote address, any of the workshop sessions, the recommendation session). There are no options for earning one or two credits. Students themselves will be responsible for awarding their own three cultural credits by signing and turning in their program. Such trust is possible since Stetson University has embraced an academic environment that assumes the integrity of its students. The Honors System Council, a student group dedicated to academic honesty, will be directing the distribution and collection of the Values Day programs where student signatures will signify their participation.

Stetson invites all members of the university community to offer their time, passion and energy to help the institution take further practical steps on all Stetson campuses and in university operations to thoughtfully incorporate its values commitments.

By Robert Sitler, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures

Values Commitment Steering Team

Having recently returned from her work in Vietnam with Volunteers in Asia, Wrabel has just begun as a Fellow in the program’s two-year period of work and study in philanthropy and charitable work in the American South. The program is designed to provide practical experience for students interested in careers in the independent sector, either with nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations or philanthropic organizations.

Since fall 2012, Wrabel was based in Vietnam, teaching Cultural Awareness and Intercultural Communication to students with bachelor’s degrees seeking advanced degrees through study abroad at Can Tho University’s Center for Foreign Languages. She partnered with Peacework Development Fund to run an English Club for Can Tho University students in a rural area, and to conduct community assessments of two villages in the Mekong Delta. She also worked as a volunteer for Heifer Vietnam, a branch of Heifer International, a global nonprofit with the goal of ending poverty and hunger.

“Vietnam was an amazing and challenging experience,” said Wrabel after returning recently to the States. “In addition to exploring Vietnam, I got to travel around Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand. You meet an incredible mix of people when living abroad. Of course, being abroad was hard sometimes. It’s not always as glamorous and exciting as people like to think it is. Living in a new culture, getting lost and being unable to ask for directions and being a minority challenges the core of who you are and the foundations of what you think.”

Before accepting the Fellowship, Wrabel was offered the chance to work in Indonesia for another year. She faced the hard decision of choosing whether or not to remain in the United States to work on issues with the Fellowship program, or follow her passion for food security in another country.

“I’ll admit that it was a difficult decision,” she explained. “And I did what I always do—made about ten pro/con lists, talked to anyone who would listen and drowned myself in hypotheticals. In deliberating over my options I also realized that in order to do the kind of work I want to do abroad I needed more professional experience. In Bonner, we talk about something called our “sweet spot”—the position in which doing what you love fulfills what a community needs. My offer in Indonesia was for another year of teaching English which I realized wasn’t my “sweet spot,” and doing that for another year wouldn’t be being true to myself.”

“It is good to have students so talented they are offered multiple opportunities at once,” said D. Gregory Sapp, Ph.D., associate professor of religious studies and Hal S. Marchman chair of Civic and Social Responsibility at Stetson University. “But it is, at the same time, difficult to watch them anguish over such huge decisions.”

During her time at Stetson, Wrabel received numerous recognitions including Outstanding Freshman and Senior in the Bonner Scholars Program and Outstanding Senior in the Honors Program. She was inducted into four honor societies: Phi Beta Kappa; Omicron Delta Epsilon; Alpha Kappa Delta; and Sigma Tau Delta, and was a Truman Scholar Finalist. She tied with another graduating senior for the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, Stetson’s top leadership honor for graduating seniors, whose personal example and influence throughout the campus best exemplify the noblest human qualities and the finest values that Stetson nurtures.

“My participation in Stetson’s Bonner Scholars Program was most important to me,” said Wrabel in an earlier interview shortly before graduating from Stetson. “I was able to get involved in the community since my first day at Stetson in a variety of ways…from tutoring students at Woodward Elementary School, to volunteering at a local homeless shelter, to interning with Feeding Children Everywhere. Being the president of the Oxfam Club was also a highlight, as it gave me the chance to spread my passion for global issues to other members of the Stetson community.”

Fellows of the program are selected from a field of applicants nominated by the academic deans and presidents of the colleges and universities that are eligible for support from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. The Fellows work as members of the staff with exposure to foundation governance, grant making, governmental oversight and industry events. They also participate in a nonprofit certificate course at a university.

by Kim Charles

“I don’t have any plans to make a version available for purchase,” said William “Tandy” Grubbs, professor and chair of the Chemistry Department. “One of the main reasons that the game has been such a big hit in the science education community is because it is free. My father was fond of reminding me ‘you get what you pay for.’ I finally proved him wrong.”

Since the release of the game in fall 2010, new developments of the game now include free app versions for the Android and Apple phones and tablets. However, the online computer version, according to Google Analytics, has been accessed by over 150,000 users from 178 different countries (including all states and territories of the United States) and is still being used worldwide.

Android app downloads total about 5,000 and Apple app downloads total to about 50,000. “The iPhone and iPad numbers are pretty impressive,” said Grubbs.

With a tremendous popularity of users, the idea of promoting Mahjong Chem internationally was long overdue. During the last six months, Grubbs worked with Luciano Violante, a chemistry major at Stetson, as well as a collaborator in Brazil, to create translated versions of the game. Languages include Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian.

by Kim Charles

Born in Sarasota, living in Venice, Fla., and graduating high school in 2009, she had the privilege to travel to Costa Rica with her zoology class during her junior year since she spoke Spanish fluently.

While she had several choices where to attend college, it was both Stetson’s charm and extensive scholarship funds which swayed her to DeLand. “I fell in love with Stetson,” she said. And her decision was the right one.

She took advantage of all it had to offer especially becoming an RA during her sophomore year in Conrad Hall, 2^nd North.  She later became a member of many professional fraternities and honor societies including Alpha Kappa Psi, Beta Gamma Sigma, Phi Eta Sigma, Dobro Slova, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Phi Beta Kappa.

Starting as a business major with a minor in psychology, she decided to take a course which, ultimately, would influence her career and change her major. She tells of her first Russian language course, taught by Michael Denner, Ph.D., head of the Department of Russian Studies, whose teaching style was quite intimidating. “He’d stare right at you, yet he’d be asking a question to a student who was behind him,” she explained.

He quickly became her advisor and it wasn’t long before she decided to study abroad at the School for Russian and Asian Studies (SRAS) in St. Petersburg, Russia, and happened to be the only student from Stetson who participated in that program.

Living with a host family who only spoke Russian, she was ingratiated into the culture from the moment she arrived. At school, she was additionally taught about Russian history, culture, literature, and cuisine. She also had no phone or internet access.

Later she studied at the School of Finance and Economics (FINEC) and was the only American at the entire university.  She enjoyed attending classes with students from England, France, Germany, Checkoslovakia, Finland and Hungary.  While there, she was the only woman who would attend the gym and was actually criticized for being both fit and smart by the Russian men.

After she returned to Stetson and considered her career aspirations, she decided to join the Peace Corps. The process took over 10 months to get approved and to learn where she might be offered a position.

On June 3, Siegrist leaves for Kenya, Africa as a new Community Economic Developer. Her main responsibilities include HIV/AIDS prevention, teaching English and business development, whereby she will assist in getting small businesses off the ground.

She will first travel to Nairobi, stay with a host family, enter training for six weeks to determine her skill strengths before she is given her permanent assignment and exact village location. She is prepared for the probability to have no access to internet, phone or electricity. Her term of service will be 27 months which includes a small stipend enough to afford her basic living expenses and a $6,000 readjustment fee when she returns to the United States.

As she is the first in her family to obtain her bachelor’s degree, she is considering studying for her master’s degree upon her return to the USA. She speaks of the possibility of working with the State Department at that time.

She graduated Stetson May 11, with a major in Russian studies and a minor in international business. With her extensive background in academics as well as practical life lessons of these fields, and her future experience in Africa, there is no doubt Alina will be a shining star in Stetson’s alumni ranks.

by Mary M. McCambridge

Only two of 682 graduates this year chose that difficult and rewarding path.

The double distinction marks the single-minded dedication of Caitlyn Amelia Edwards and Ronald Ethan Wagnon. Gold bars were pinned to their uniforms in a May 10 commissioning ceremony; their degrees were awarded May 11.

Combat tactics, marksmanship, drills and exhausting field exercises were mixed with traditional classroom subjects for the ROTC cadets. The dual life of student and cadet is extremely difficult and extraordinarily demanding, they said.

“No one really understands what we have to do,” said Wagnon, an American studies major from Inverness, Fla. “I had a full day of work before the average student woke up. I rarely had time for anything other than ROTC and school these past four years.”

“It’s such a huge commitment of time. Not many people realize that,” said Edwards, an environmental science major from Chuluota, Fla. “We have to be willing to give up weekends, be up at 0500 every morning, and ready to go at a moment’s notice. We essentially have a fulltime job while keeping up with schoolwork. We’re always tired.”

The double life set them apart, they said, and drove them to be more and do more than what’s expected of other students. Cadets learn to wring every productive moment from every hour of the day.

“We’re already in the professional stage of our lives when most student are still learning how to wake up and go to class,” said Wagnon.

The student/cadets are following different military objectives.

Edwards, who played varsity volleyball, is going into the Army Reserves. After officer training and Corps of Engineers training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., she’ll return and seek a civilian job in engineering and environment. She’ll train one weekend a month and two weeks every summer.

Wagnon, who tutored underprivileged children, is headed for active duty as an airborne infantry officer. He’ll train in officer leadership at Georgia’s Fort Benning and attend Ranger School before Signal Corps deployment. His goal is to lead soldiers in combat. Long term, he’s interested in military chaplaincy or computer technology.

Raised on a Georgia ranch of cattle and horses, Wagnon’s early childhood included rodeos and farm chores. His drive and discipline, he said, comes primarily from his widowed entrepreneurial mother.

“She was the only parent I knew. Her constant hard work and self-sacrifice will always be an example I strive for,” said Wagnon. “My family and friends don’t accept anything less than perfection.”

Born on a Georgia military base into a military family, Edwards has lived and traveled in many countries. Her ROTC choice meant following family tradition and a lifestyle she knows. Her father’s career was army aviation; her brother is an army engineer and her sister is in the Military Intelligence Corps.

“My family had a huge impact on the person I am today,” she said. “Watching my brother, sister, dad and other family members in the military has really prepared me for the outside world. I’ve seen their experiences first-hand and with their help and advice, I know I’ll be able to handle anything. I want to be a good leader.”

Her leadership abilities, self-confidence and time management skills are far stronger because of her Stetson experience, she said. “And I’m a happier person, too.”

Upper level ROTC courses are taught at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. The commute ate away at precious academic time.

“Caitlyn had to juggle classes between Daytona Beach and DeLand every semester. The rigorous schedule demanded a great deal of creative curricular management, but she managed a fine course of study,” said J. Anthony Abbott, Ph.D., geography and environmental science chair.

“Ethan always had insightful comments to make in class and did a great job pulling together knowledge from different courses in a truly interdisciplinary way,” said Emily Mieras, Ph.D., associate professor of history and American studies.

“I’ve learned a surprisingly simple lesson during the last four years,” said Wagnon. “I’ve learned to accept help. There’s been a lot of good people in my four years here who helped pave my success.”

Success for Edwards and Wagnon came when they received their diploma and 2^nd lieutenant’s bars amid pomp and ceremony marking the end of undergraduate studies.

“Stetson has been a great experience,” said Edwards. It has been hard and trying at times, but I just kept telling myself it would all be worth it in the end to pin on my gold bars, and then to walk across that stage to graduate. I’m proud to be one of the less than one percent who serve this country and to follow in my family’s footsteps.”

“I’ve waited for this moment since I was 12,” said Wagnon. “I am stoked to get these bars, but I’m also focused on what’s next, looking forward to my blue infantry cord, and my first platoon. These bars mean a lot, but they’re only the beginning.”

That’s true for both of Stetson’s student-cadet graduates.

By Ronald Williamson