campusnews United States Senator Speaks for Commencement
Southwestern Adventist University welcomed Senator Ted Cruz as the commencement speaker Sunday, May 5. Southwestern was honored to be Cruz’s first commencement address as a United States senator. The senator grabbed the attention of the graduates early, filling his speech with humor and personal stories from his life and family. “Today is a tremendous day of celebration,” Cruz began. “I am honored to be here but I fully recognize the most forgettable part of the day is going to be the politician they brought in as your commencement speaker.” Illustrating his five points of counsel for graduates, Cruz advised the seniors to dream big and be idealistic, make a difference, be a servant leader, don’t think of people “who disagree with you as evil or stupid,” and “follow your passions.” “Realism is sufficient for mediocrity, but idealism is necessary for greatness,” Cruz stated. “The blessings we have here in America give us the opportunity and an obligation to reach out and impact the lives of others. As it says in the Book of Luke, to whom much has been given, much
Senator Ted Cru Eric Anderson.
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shall be required. All of us have been given a great, great deal.” “Everyone one of us here today has a story... we are all children of those who risked everything for freedom,” Cruz said as he shared the story of his Cuban immigrant father. “And that is something that unites us powerfully.” He received a standing ovation at the close of his address. The Board of Trustees, on the recommendation of the faculty and presented by Dr. Eric Anderson, conferred on Cruz an honorary doctorate in humane letters. Senator Cruz appeared surprised by the honor. Also recognized in the graduation ceremony was Dr. Steve Jones, professor of history. Dr. Amy Rosenthal, vice president for academic administration, presented Jones with the Educator of the Year award based on classroom performance, relationships with students, professional relationships with colleagues, contributions to their discipline, and spiritual leadership on campus. In recommending Jones, students described him as “engaging, enthusiastic, creative, passionate, awesome, and cool.” The graduating class of 2013, presented by Rosenthal, shared some unique attributes. The class consisted
is congratulated for his honorary doctorate by University resident
of 87 women and 44 men with one certificate, two associate degrees, 117 bachelor degrees, and eleven master’s degrees. The nursing department had the most graduates with 49 seniors, followed by 21 from the department of education and psychology, 13 from the department of business, and 10 graduated from the department of religion.
Theology Students Conduct vangelistic eries
Every spring semester on campus, Southwestern’s homiletics class puts together an evangelistic series where the students preach at a local church. This year, they had the Keene Church’s pastoral staff fully behind them as they cleared their calendars from Feb. 1 to Feb. 9 and attended every meeting held in the Keene Seventh-day Adventist Church. The theme of the series this year was Let the Word Speak. Elder Bill Kilgore, professor of religion, explains: “The idea behind the title is that as Adventist preachers, we want to preach from the Word of God, letting the Word speak for itself.” This year, there were 11 meetings throughout the nine days of the series, covering topics from The Wages of Sin is Death. . . BUT!, to Can We Have Hope When Precious Ones Pass Away?, A Message for a Specific Time, and ending with Drop Your Nets. “We could have never done this without the pastoral staff at the Keene Church, they were the ones that set up the testimonies, specials, and Pastor Teal learned the theme song for the week, they gave us their full support which I really appreciate,” says Kilgore. After it was all said and done, the theology majors involved learned about the inner workings of what it meant to prepare a sermon and deliver it. In this hands-on approach they received the training and experience that can never come from sitting and Southwestern Spirit
6/27/13 4:01 PM