Convocation Speaker Praises Influence of Mentors

Students attending Opening Academic Convocation on Sept. 9 were encouraged to seek out mentors among the college community in order to expand their knowledge and experience.

Introducing keynote speaker Robert G. Williams, Voehringer Professor of Economics, Academic Dean Adrienne Israel told the students, faculty and staff assembled in Dana Auditorium that “I know Robert G. as one who walks in many places and seems comfortable in them all.”

Williams, beginning his 31st year on Guilford’s faculty, is the recipient of one of last year’s Bruce B. Stewart Teaching Excellence Awards and the Excellence in Teaching Award in 1986. He is author of Export Agriculture and the Crisis in Central America, used as a text at more than 50 college and universities, and the 2006 book The Moneychangers: Guided Tour through Global Currency Markets.

In his remarks, Williams used examples from his childhood in the Deep South learning to train horses on a family farm, and befriending a local horseman who shared his accumulated knowledge with Williams. He urged students to identify possible mentors in the same way.

“None of the major discoveries I’ve made came just from reading scholarly manuscripts, spending time in archives or crunching data,” Williams said. “All of the original discoveries came from fresh insights I had in one-on-one conversations. The biggest jumps came, not from books, but from one-on-one relationships with mentors.”

President Kent Chabotar touched on similar themes in his remarks, in which he described the things that produce a strong community, such as respect for differences of experience and opinion, listening to and engaging with others and a positive attitude.

“Just like good music demands harmony, or the combination of contrasting notes, a good community thrives on a diversity of backgrounds and talents, origins and destinations,” he said. “We can have adult and traditional students, athletes and non-athletes, gay and straight, accountants and philosophers, Goths and preppies, and still have a community that works because, among other things, we see God in each of us.”

The ceremony also included Dean Israel’s introduction of the record-breaking Class of 2013. More than 450 traditional students are enrolled in the first-year class, part of a record-size student body of more than 2,800.

Additionally, Dean of Students Aaron Fetrow introduced Nancy Klosteridis ’10, president of the traditional student Community Senate, who encouraged students to seek out opportunities for leadership on campus.

Read President Chabotar’s full remarks here.