For those of you that attended the University Welcome on Sunday, I believe you received a great introduction to the University and the exciting things that take place here. However, WVU is so much more than a scripted event and a stage. The welcome was only a window into what goes on here daily and what has taken place for over 140 years. Those people on stage probably appeared really important and somewhat intangible, but meeting them face to face and getting to know them in daily life is what WVU is all about. I hope that was communicated to you.

Visit that professor in his or her office, go to the RFL house and get to know the family that lives there for your residence hall, come into the SGA office and talk to me face to face, look over at the person sitting in the desk next to you in class and introduce yourself, e-mail President McGrath and let him know what your are thinking and what is important to you, go the Villanova game on August 30th and cheer on the Mountaineers. REACH OUT. BE ACTIVE. It makes all the difference.

The same goes for Fall Fest. What an incredible event! Thousands of our fellow students at a concert. A huge event with a huge stage. Loud music and big graphics. A marketer’s dream. Even consider the SGA meeting tonight. A bunch of students around a wooden table talking about all the important issues they are working on. Staged events. WVU is pretty good at this kind of thing. Again, this is only an image and just one part of what we really are about.

I must ask when looking at events like the University Welcome, Fall Fest and even the SGA meetings…is this what WVU really has meant to me? Is this really where the meaningful things and change have been brought into my life? I must confess that the answer is no. Change has happened to me in the classroom. In the residence hall. In the dining hall. In my advising meetings. In one on one meetings with other students. In working in the field on my SGA initiatives. With my friends. WVU is PERSONAL. PEOPLE make up the University. REAL LIVE PEOPLE. People who care. People who want to see you do well. A COMMUNITY. It is the most wonderful part of WVU. A big university brought down to the personal level. That is what WVU is even better at. Our University is great because we have great people.

How do you make this a personal place? By getting to know your professors and advisor. By getting to know the students on your residence hall floor. By getting to know the manager of your dining hall. By getting to know students you may never have met at campus activities and in student orgs.

For me the names just roll off my tongue. Dr. Hammock, my advisor for four years. Dr. Peterson who challenged my world view and created a fire in me related to international relations and affairs. Cookie Schultz who inspires me to understand and love the Italian Renaissance. Marilyn at Stalnaker Dining Hall who manages, what I believe to be, the best dining hall on campus and gives me a big hug when I come by. JoAnn Evans and Lisa DeFrank-Cole in the Honors College who have helped me immeasurably semester after semester. Jason Staples who challenges my ideas about diversity and understanding with the passion in his poems and about oneWVU. Erica Rogers in SGA who continues to challenge me to work on student issues and care about them deeply. My close friends Andy, Christina and Jamie, at the International House, who always remind me to take it easy, never to take myself too seriously, and laugh hysterically at their jokes.

My sincere hope for you is that you will find people like this in your own lives. Professors, students, co-leaders, friends. People that will make WVU REAL to you. To make WVU a COMMUNITY. I truly believe that is what we have here. So BE A PART OF IT!!!