Sept. 4, 2007

Presbyterian College president Dr. John Griffith declared the formal opening of the 2007-08 academic year on Tuesday - inspiring the college's newest students with a vision of PC's purpose and a challenge to take full advantage of the experience.

In his convocation speech, "Education with a Soul: Opening Doors," Griffith told assembled members of the college community that now is a good time to take part in PC.

"This is a good time to be gathered as a college community," he said. "There is much to celebrate that reflects the hard work, sacrifices, and dedication of the PC family - surpassing $100 million in our $160 million campaign, our endowment reaching $100 million, including significant additions for student scholarships and faculty endowments.

"We are anticipating the first year of Division I athletic competition. We have new and renovated facilities, a host of new internship and intercultural experiences for our students, and, most important of all, people – a community of gifted faculty, promising students, skilled coaches, and professional staff dedicated to the mission of the college; and a freshman class with the strongest academic profile in the history of the college. There is much to celebrate!"

But Griffith said he also found himself "wanting to reach through the accomplishments, the pride, and expressions of gratitude" to ask a question - "What is this all about?"

Looking back more than 300 years earlier to the arrival of the Pilgrims in the New World, Griffith noted their four-year story of hardship, hard work, and a pioneering vision that actually withered.

"Vision comes from understanding the past, present, and potential of a place, a people, of oneself and, based on this, conceiving a plan for action that will maximize results," he said. "More often than not, vision is a result of having spent time absorbing the facts, identifying the resources - people, funding, facilities, and equipment - on which you can call and devising sound and creative strategies for moving forward. Living visions always focus on progress - they are never satisfied with the status quo."

Griffith asked members of the Class of 2011 to examine both the college's vision and their own vision for their educations - adding his hope that PC will do more than prepare a credential to gain employment.

"... The task of a PC education – the total package, the PC experience – is to help you grow up, to learn who you are, to search for and find a larger purpose for your lives, and to leave college prepared to provide leadership for your community," he said. "If you merely prepare yourselves to earn a livelihood, you will miss the whole point. Here, in addition to helping you 'make a living,' the PC experience can help you 'make a life.'

"This is done by opening doors – two types of doors, in fact. One type that initially we open for you and one that you must open on your own."

The door opened for students, said Griffith, is the "door of liberal learning that has been designed and maintained" by faculty – the door that helps student become well-educated people.

"This simple phrase - a well-educated person - is really a rather complicated matter, taking long hours, trial and error, with bumps in the road and great rewards," he said. "These liberal arts make you competitive in the ways that matter most. They make you wise, thoughtful, and appropriately humble."

The second type of door, on the other hand, is one that students must open themselves and is, said Griffith, "the door that helps you make a life out of your PC experience."

"It requires that you open yourself up and pull in matters of value and significance," he said.

These experiences and opportunities, he said, allow students to experiment with their gifts, their personalities, and commitments to helping others.

For members of the Class of 2011 - freshmen that gathered at Opening Convocation to sign the college's Roll of Honor - the four-year college experiment also includes a real experiment established by Griffith and the college’s Board of Trustees. Griffith announced that the college has arranged for a $10,000 investment account to be established for the incoming class. Each member of the class will have a share in the account that is worth $34.48 - and, thus, one vote in the decisions the class will make about the fund.

None of the money, he said, can be spent until 2011 - and each year the class must submit to the president a statement on how the class hopes to spend the money. Griffith said the class may infest the fund or add money to its value, as well.

"There is only one condition on its use," he said. "You cannot spend it on yourselves. It is to be used to benefit others."

Griffith challenged the class once again to become aware of the open doors around them – and the opportunities to become doors also.

"Grasp the knobs, open them and bite down on the substance of this place and fill yourself with excellence," he said. "The PC experience is an education with a soul, an education for the whole person designed to cast a vision for your life and to quench your natural thirst to live in community with meaning and purpose."

Opening convocation also included honors for two outstanding leaders in the college community.

The Martha Anne Green Service to College and Church Award, presented jointly by PC and First Presbyterian Church of Clinton, was given to Ann Shaw Cornelson of Clinton.

Cornelson, the wife of PC trustee emeritus George Cornelson, is both a pioneer in her church and a passionate advocate for Laurens County in general and young people in particular. The first woman to serve as an elder at First Presbyterian, she also is a member of the Women of the Church and a former president of both the Parent-Teachers Association and the Clinton YMCA.

A member of the Laurens County Hospital Foundation Board, and the board of trustees for both Hollins College and St. Catherine's School, she also is the co-founder of the Laurens County Community Foundation and the chair of the CHAMPS board of directors.

"It is a pleasure and overwhelming joy to stand here as a recipient of this award," Cornelson said. "Martha Anne Green set a high example for all of us."

In characteristic fashion, Cornelson said the award should be shared – especially with fellow volunteers in the college's CHAMPS program. She said she hopes new members of the PC community will learn more about the program, join its efforts and "improve your own little acre."

PC also presented an honorary doctorate of commercial science to Ronald W. Allen, who completed seven years of service to PC as chairman of the board of trustees last spring.

Allen, the retired chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president of Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, Ga., served as a PC trustee for two decades - a time period that included unprecedented growth in the college’s physical plant and its endowment, which has reached an all-time high of $100 million.

Allen said he has enjoyed his tenure as a trustee, adding that he believes the college is in great shape for the future. Looking at members of both the senior and freshmen classes, he said it is an "inspiring" time – "the beginning and the beginning of an end."

"Time is really going to fly by," he said, challenging freshmen to enjoy every day at PC - and seniors to enjoy every hour.

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