fromthepresident
“When we combine our individual competencies, we create a larger beauty, achieve a greater accomplishment.” —President Tim Summerlin
Dear friends of Schreiner, Late this spring, at that time of the semester when our students are staging senior exhibits and reporting on internships or projects, I had the pleasure of attending the senior cello recital of Ms. Sovreyne Chadwick. Among the pieces in
her performance was Mozart’s “Divertimento in D,” which she and fellow members of our Schreiner Student Quartet performed together. Let me say that listening to a string quartet or other chamber ensemble is among my favorite pleasures. The music is at the core of that pleasure, of course, but there is something more that any regular attendee will acknowledge. It is the communication and shared delight of the musicians. It is a function of individuals in concert becoming more than they are as individuals alone. Watch the players and you see their subtle cues by eyebrow, the leaning in as one takes a momentary lead and the relinquishing of that lead to the next part. You can tell how intently they are listening to one another and the deep respect they all have for their collective blend. Best of all, perhaps, are the smiles that speak so eloquently to their common sense of success in creating beauty. As Sovreyne, Jennifer, Kristoffer and Katy interpreted Mozart for us, they seemed to offer a lovely
2 Summer 2013 SCENE
metaphor for learning of all kinds. It begins with one’s own responsibility: I must have my own part down cold and be prepared to deliver, to execute with precision and passion. But in this experience I am not a soloist; rather, I do my work in relationship to others. When we combine our individual competencies, we create a larger beauty, achieve a greater accomplishment. And those smiles are proof enough that we feel the results! Thus it is, students with one another in search of learning; students with faculty, growing through the mentoring experience; faculty among themselves, critiquing the curriculum to shape it to agreed-upon ends; and every person who is a part of the campus community engaged in doing his or her part, fully committed to its importance for the whole mission and fully aware that the work of any one of us finds its full value in concert with the accomplishments of the whole. And all of that helps explain why working at a place like Schreiner is one of the blessings of life!
Tim Summerlin President