College of Family Life foucses on leadership at ceremony
The College of Family Life kicked off the new school year Sunday with its first annual Matriculation Ceremony in the Eccles Conference Center.
The ceremony, “New Paths” was designed to create a sense of unity among faculty, parents, and students.
The ceremony’s keynote speaker was Gladys Gary Vaughn, National Program Leader for the Human Sciences, United States Department of Agriculture.
One of the stories she shared was a fictional one, though based on factual accounts.
The story was entitled “Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt.”
The story was based during the 18th century in the United States. Sweet Clara was an African girl who was sold into slavery before she was 12 years old.
She worked in the fields all day and never gave up her dream of getting back to her mother.
Aunt Rachel was another slave, a seamstress charged with taking care of Sweet Clara.
Recognizing Clara was overexerting herself in the fields, she decided to teach Clara to sew.
Clara learned the art of sewing and eventually began to work alongside Aunt Rachel in the plantation’s big house.
While there, Clara learned about the Underground Railroad which led slaves to Canada and to freedom.
She devised a way to create a map on a quilt from old clothing scraps and by talking to slaves who knew about the land.
When she finally finished the quilt, she used the information on it to escape to find her mother and secure her freedom.
Since she knew the information on her quilt map, she left the quilt for other slaves to follow.
Vaughn said she used the story to illustrate principles of leadership.
“They wanted the quilt story and I also needed to give examples of ordinary people without power or money who got out of their comfort zone,” Vaughn said.
“The first message from the stories is this,” Vaughn said. “God uses ordinary people to do what must be done, say what must be said and correct man’s inhumanity.”
Other messages derived from these stories are those of courage, trust, collaboration, faith and hope, Vaughn said.
“I was very impressed with the speaker,” said Kristen Prosser, a freshman majoring in Interior Design and Elementary Education. “She was intelligent and well composed.”
Another freshman majoring in Interior Design, Buffy Bollers, enjoyed the story of the freedom quilt.
“She used her talent to help people,” Bollers said. “I hope to use my talent to help people.”
After Vaughn’s speech, the faculty, parents, returning students and new students all engaged in a pledge of commitment. The faculty pledged to “commit to encouraging you, challenging you, preparing you and bringing you to new ideas and new ways of thinking.”
The parents’ pledge was to “commit to supporting you, encouraging you, consoling you, celebrating with you.”
The returning students committed “to honoring knowledge, searching for good ideas, following through to the end, conducting ourselves in ethical and honorable ways and to enjoying the journey together.”
Finally, the new students pledged to “commit ourselves to thinking critically, dreaming, giving as well as receiving, working hard, conducting ourselves in ethical and honorable ways and enjoying the journey together.”
“We’re enjoying this journey togethersaid Kristen Scofield, a freshman majoring in Early Childhood Education said.”
Faculty and students said they hope the ceremony can continue every year.
“We hope this will begin and live on,” said Todd Odell, a senior.
“It’s neat the college does that. I think everyone felt a sense of unity, Odell said.”