At the New Student Convocation on August 23, Dr. Richard Rector, associate professor of psychology, gave a speech from the faculty to the class of 2026. He spoke about the importance of finding a sense of purpose, which is one of the key words for the Year of the Ginkgo, a yearlong celebration of what the ginkgo symbolizes, both worldwide and on the Hilltop. He encouraged students to avail themselves of the many resources that Birmingham-Southern offers, such as mentoring, internships, job shadowing, and studies abroad, opportunities and experiences that will guide students as they pursue work that is meaningful for them. Read Rector’s speech, below.

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It is my pleasure to be one of the first to officially welcome you to the Hilltop. I was thrilled to get to talk with you today. Just a couple of weeks ago, I dropped off my oldest child at Auburn to start her freshman year, so this class of 2026 will always have a soft spot in my heart. As I was trying to figure out what to discuss, I went through several ideas. I started writing this speech on multiple occasions, and it just came across as a time-killer, like eating cotton candy, tasty but with no real substance. It was not until early July, when my daughter began to gear-up for college, that I got a little inspiration. It was a Saturday morning, and she came down the stairs, but instead of immediately going to rummage around in the kitchen, she came into my and my wife’s bedroom. This was very unlike her, because Ava, my daughter, had created a strict “no chatting with Ava” policy for the first hour upon waking. But, this morning, something was on her mind. She said that she had just had a nightmare about being on campus. She knew she had an exam, but she could not find the room, and she spent her entire time running from building to building. And very earnestly, she then looked at us and asked, “What do you think it means?” I tried not to giggle and explained that what she had just experienced was her first stress dream (one of many to come I am sure). And when I asked her what she was most concerned about, without hesitation she told me that she was concerned that she did not know what she wanted her major to be. At orientation earlier in June, they had made her pick a career path and she had been fretting about that ever since. Ava said simply, “I do not know what my passion is, and everyone else I know seems to be so certain.”

So, when faced with a difficult topic like this, I went where everyone goes for answers, TikTok. While watching one of several videos (enough to where eventually some nice influencer came on and suggested that I put down my phone for a while), this self-proclaimed career specialist was telling me that I had to find my “motivation.” I thought back to when I got my first job out of school and my motivation was simply I did not want to starve to death. Telling someone to find their motivation without any directions on how to do so is pointless.

I am reminded of a story from my childhood. Paul Harvey was a successful radio broadcaster for decades and he was famous for ending his program with some tale presented as little-known or forgotten facts or a story with some key element held back until the end. One afternoon, I caught his “the rest of the story” anecdote on the way back from middle school football practice with my dad. It began with the discussion of Barbara Williams. Barbara was an 83-year-old woman living halfway between San Jose and San Francisco. At least three times a week, Barbara drove her 1972 four-door Chevy Malibu on Interstate 280 (one of only two interstates with the same number used on both the east and west coasts) to run errands. For the past several months, Barbara had been pulled over by State Trooper Highsmith on at least nine occasions for driving 35 miles an hour or less on the interstate. The minimum safe speed limit was posted as 45. She had been asked politely to speed up, then she was given several warnings, then finally Trooper Highsmith had given her a ticket. But so far, nothing had motivated her enough to increase her speed. Then one afternoon, after the lunch crowd had dispersed and before the 5 o’clock traffic started being an issue, the state troopers received a distress signal from a small aircraft. The pilot needed to make an emergency landing and the only place he might be able to make it too, was Interstate 280. The troopers rallied and quickly were able to block the interstate for a 2-mile stretch. As they waited for the plane to land, Trooper Highsmith saw what appeared to be a 1972 Metallic Green Malibu just coming up over the horizon. Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything, the plane was on its descent, so, all he could do was sit, watch, and hope. When Barbara Williams passed the trooper’s car, she was clocked at 119 miles an hour with a Cessna 150 right on her tail! Barbara finally found her motivation.

Now, hopefully it does not take a near death experience for you to find your purpose. That is where we come in.

This has been dubbed by Virginia Loftin, our VP of Advancement and Communications, as the Year of the Ginkgo. And for each month, we will be concentrating on a specific area of student development. I am sure that most of you have noticed the light pole banners that represent each of these topics. For the month of September, our focus is fittingly on Purpose. You will be hearing about a lot of great resources over the next four weeks, but let me introduce you to some important ones to remember. Our Krulak Institute is where your journey should begin. Go over there and introduce yourselves to people like Katy Smith, director of internships, or Kristin Harper, director of service learning, or Anne Ledvina, director of international programs. Gaining experience through internships, shadowing, volunteer work, etc., not only will help build up your resume, but will also allow you to figure out what you enjoy. What your purpose might be. And it may take several of these experiences to find it.

And on that note, I will finish with this last story. I had an advisee that came to me early on in his freshman year and he was sure that he wanted to be a counselor of some type. So, he had decided to be a psychology major. He also had told me that he would like to see what a counselor actually does. During the summer before his sophomore year, he got an opportunity to shadow a grief counselor at Children’s Hospital. He came to me immediately following this experience and announced that he was not cut out for that “emotional stuff” and that he needed a different path. He then told me that he wanted to work for the Drug Enforcement Agency. This was quite a change, and while I told him that grief counseling was not the only type of counselor, he was sure that he wanted a career in law enforcement. So, over the next three years, we worked to get him an internship with Birmingham City Police, the Jefferson County Police, and finally the Alabama DEA. It was at that last one that I received one of the more interesting updates from a student that I have ever gotten. It is customary for a student to check in with their internship sponsor and let them know what is going on. For this particular update, he sent me a picture. I could see the small attachment and it looked like he was standing in front of a bush or something. When I clicked the attachment to enlarge the image, he was actually standing in front of a huge pile of recently cut marijuana plants. So, two thoughts immediately went through my mind. First, “I sure hope he was not on some kind of drug raid,” (fortunately he came for the aftermath). And second, I thought, “Well, that is not a picture that will be in the recruiting materials for next year!” Anyway, the point is that the student found his purpose. Through the contacts he made on his three internships, he was offered a job with a police department immediately following graduation, and he loves what he is doing.

You can have the same type of outcome. Talk to your advisor, a faculty member that you like, and the previously mentioned people at the Krulak Institute, and we can help you get where you need to be. Hopefully, we can limit the stress dreams over the next four years. Again, class of 2026, welcome to BSC, and Forward, Ever!