From Sonya Davis, one of our instructors in the core curriculum, to David Chapman and Rosemary Fisk:
Indulge me a moment, please, while I crow about one of our students.
Yesterday I received an email from my former student Jenn Debrecht (she won second place in last spring's speech contest) telling me she needed to speak with me urgently to tell me how she used her CA skills this summer. She arrived at my office today at 12:30 p.m., grinning from ear to ear and obviously excited about her news. She relayed the following story to me:
This summer she was asked to speak at a community-wide ceremony dedicating the city's new firehouse named in honor of her father, a firefighter killed in the line of duty five years ago. She was one of four speakers (one of whom was the mayor) at the event which was held in her hometown. Jenn was quite pleased with the fact that she wrote her own speech about this emotional topic and confidently delivered it to such a large audience. She was most proud of the fact that the reporter covering the event for the local paper wrote in his news story that her speech was the most poised and compelling of the event. I believe her exact words were "Mrs. Davis, they said I was better than the MAYOR!" She was positively ecstatic.
Of course, I can take no credit for Jenn's considerable talent, but the fact that she credited her CA classes for her oratorical success made me so proud of our program and its objectives. Should any member of the Samford community ever doubt the importance of what we in the Core are doing, feel free to enlighten him/her with Jenn's story. And smirk for added emphasis.
Wow. This is why I love my job.
-Sonya
The world is better because of gifted faculty members, gifted students, and an enduring commitment to the core curriculum.