By now we all know who Susan Boyle is, and if you are like me, are not ashamed to admit that you have watched her audition for Britain's Got Talent several times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY The underdog with a mighty gift. Someone from whom we expect nothing, and receive much more than we may be able to give. Someone who reaches and teaches us.
Eastern Michigan University is the Susan Boyle of Universities. Not only that, but we have so many potential Susan Boyles at our university. It is a match made in heaven, but we have not, perhaps, appreciated what we have.
I have always believed we all have a gift. For many of us, most of us, our gift will never be realized as Susan's has. But it does not mean it will not be recognized, only that we may not have that instant success, and we may not want that. Let's hope her notoriety does not fizzle as fast as the firecracker that she sent off.
First a caveat: I just read Mitch Albom's cynical column about Susan. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009904190439 He expresses something that lingered inside me after the initial shock of her talent--what if it was a setup? What is there is a catch? Oh, I do hope this does not turn out to be. Let's hope her talent is real and she is who she says she is. But our world can be so manipulated today that you MUST question everything you see or hear. But for the moment, let us beleive that this is all as it seems, and take the lesson.
That brings me to the title of this blog - The Susan Boyle of Universities - good ole Eastern Michigan University. Downtrodden, maligned, overworked, shabby, antiquated, unfashionable---in a word, dowdy. As dowdy as Miss Boyle appears to be on the outside. But as with Miss Boyle what you see is not what you get. It is easy to be judged as yet another Brittany or Jessica, but not so easy to truly be what that outside package promises.
Eastern has many problems, and perhaps a little shining through of that inner beauty would help us all appreciate the dedication and care that many of the professors lavish on the students who show their Susan Boyle selves to us. We don't get many pretty packages at our school, but instead those who find themselves here for a variety of reasons, often tied to a down turned economy and the unexpected shock of being the first in your family to attend college. In a town where a high school diploma has been more than enough to have the house, the SUV, and a boat, in a town that has little need for college, we have students trying to understand what has happened to the Michigan life their parents lived.
We educate many teachers at EMU. We produce a lot of teachers, more than most schools in America. Many of the students turn to EMU because teaching is something they understand after K-12. They hardly know what other possibilities lie before them, or what their own particular "Susan Boyle" gift is. We all have a gift. Our gift can be something innocuous and seemingly unheralded, but haven't we all known people who have touched our lives, not by their intellect, or their talent, but for their caring, their love, their passion? They may only touch the few in their lives, but they make a difference and if believed in and practiced honestly, it spreads across the world. At EMU, we do produce teachers (some of whom will be wonderful!) but we produce much more. Our faculty often finds the real gems inside of these students and let that shine through - like finding a scruffy treasure and refining it so all can see its worth.
Not everyone is made to be a teacher, but they end up at EMU because they still don't understand who they are. They just know that teaching is something they know, have seen, has been part of their lives. But college can be more than just 4 or 5 years of study along a path set in stone. College is the last time you may get to know who you are and believe in yourself. The last time that you can be your own Susan Boyle and show the world what you are really made of. You may be a great teacher one day, but explore while in college. Experiment. Find your way--YOUR way. Not the way set in stone by some educational matrix.
But be honest in that exploration. This does not mean to make college one long drinking spree or free ride provided by your parents, but as the chance you have to let your passion ride on that roulette of life. Your number can come up at any time. Be ready. Be Susan. When her time came, she was ready. It did not come from nowhere.
Let the Susan Boyle of Universities help you do this. Don't judge this book by its cover. There are untold opportunities if you only allow yourself to actually invest yourself into being the best YOU
can be. Our school may not be much to look at. The classrooms may be frumpy. Our technology antiquated. The faculty overworked. But inside each of us the ember of care still simmers waiting to help that student who will shine through give us that Susan Boyle moment.
So I sign off for this semester. Thank you Don, Doug, Beck, Liz, Robin, Robert for making my last year. Thank you Gerald, Sara, Thomas, Kris, Michael, David, and Tom for teaching me by teaching you, for taking the chance to be you. Thank you Diane, Lynn, Doug, Ross, David for letting me help you continue your search for you.
