I first heard of the opportunity to speak at your graduation when Mercer Senior Vice President Emily Myers called. I quickly told Ms. Myers that speaking engagements at university commencements were not usual entries on my calendar. My professional life has been spent admonishing students on the front end and during their undergraduate careers. I have encouraged more students than I can count to study hard, to avoid excesses and to just be and do good!

I assume that Vice President Myers must have been thinking that, surely with all my accumulated decades, I must have something worthwhile to say. She may have thought that from my current position of unemployment without the encumbrances of title, office, desk, place in an institutional pecking order and, in addition, being about 250 miles from where I usually live, I would make some pronouncements that would astound all of you.

For whatever reason, I count it a privilege to be here with you, your family and friends. This day marks the appearance of a significant milestone in your personal and professional life. Congratulations!
 
It was about 49 years ago on a June day in 1958 that I sat in the Roberts Chapel of Tift College in Forsyth, Georgia, waiting to be called to receive my diploma. I must admit to you that I do not remember the speaker. I do not have the grand illusion that you will either! My eye was on the prize. My expressions of gratitude, if spoken at all, were probably awkward. However, I was grateful to a long line of encouragers -- my parents, my school teacher aunts, many "cheerleaders"  from my church and community, past and present teachers, and ,indeed, to the College itself. I was about to be a college graduate. I was about to be a graduate of Tift College.
 
In the language of today, it was not on my radar screen that on May 19, 2007, on the Atlanta Campus of Mercer University of Macon and Atlanta with Academic Centers in Henry County, Douglas County, and Eastman and Macon, I would have the opportunity to greet and honor  the 2007 graduates of the Tift College of Education. You are men and women of diverse backgrounds and high achievements who will, from this day forward, share with me the rich heritage of two institutions. When President Underwood
confers those degrees, you and I and thousands of others are bound together by the glorious heritage, the amazing present and all that is to come of two institutions which together can lay claim to remarkable contributions for  332 years of  combined history. Tift and Mercer marched side-by-side in the family of Baptist institutions from their foundings until 1986. They have marched as one since then.
 
Two prominent characters from the annals of our rich institutional histories summed up the beginnings. Dr. Spright Dowell writing as President Emeritus in his 1958 book, A HISTORY OF MERCER UNIVERSITY 1833  -  1953, said that "the opening of Mercer Institute at Penfield in January 1833 marked the culmination of hopes, dreams, prayers, sacrifices and achievements of imperishable influence and of inestimable worth." Miss Eugenia Stone served many years as the Registrar at Tift College. She wrote in her YESTERDAY AT TIFT of the 1849 chartering of the Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute. "In the beginning was a dream and the dream was in the hearts of Forsyth citizens and the dream became brick and mortar and a spirit that would not die."
 
You and I stand forever thankful for the bequests of our heritage. We are the beneficiaries of the dreams, hopes, and hard work of all who went before us.  We owe many thanks to  all who work daily now to insure the continuing value of so rich a heritage.
 
It is customary for commencement speakers to offer some counsel for success in professional endeavors or more importantly direction for enhancing important qualities of character. I do know from an orientation to membership on the Tift College of Education's Board of Visitors and from the College's web site that your professional education has been organized around the theme of the "transforming practicioner..to know, to do, to be." You are prepared to adapt to and meet the needs of the schools and communities you will serve. I cannot improve upon the instruction, counsel, and challenges presented to you in your professional education.
 
I thought about qualities of character. Courage came to mind. I suspect there is little I can tell you about courage. Many of you are here today because in the midst of raising children and holding jobs you completely changed course and came to the Tift College of Education. You decided to join a profession which, while very rewarding, is very challenging.  I don't think there is much I can tell you about courage.
 
I thought about encouraging the development of tenacity. Like courage, many of you have more tenacity than most of us. You have pursued a first degree or an advanced degree while working full-time, parenting children, taking care of parents and volunteering in your community. You have lived a regular life while living a demanding academic life in order to enter a new profession. Some of you have pursued an advanced degree to become an educational leader with a larger sphere of influence.  Many of you sitting there can tell many of us gathered with you about courage and tenacity. You obviously have a liberal portion of both.
 
Several years ago, a colleague shared with me a small book titled GIFTS HANDED DOWN, the work of Daniel Hess, a professor of Communication at Goshen College in Indiana. Professor Hess shares with his college a Mennonite heritage. Inspired by the title of his book, I spent some time thinking about "gifts" which I hoped accrued to students as they engaged in purposeful educational programs like those of the Tift College of Education. I thought of many and will share two with you.
 
It is my hope that you possess the gift of maladjustment. Some of you have puzzled looks on your faces. You and I have been taught in many courses that "adjustment" is an important goal. It is my hope that as you begin or continue service in schools and communities that you will never be satisfied that "all is well" until all children have access to an education that will help us to be the kind of society that works on every front to reduce injustice, poverty and other problems that plague our communities.

I charge you to initiate and participate in the civic life of our communities. I hope you will be vigilant about seeking changes in our schools which benefit all children and their families.  I challenge you to recognize and support the many faces of our country. It is important to recognize the value of all who come our way.

Your gift of maladjustment must be nurtured if it is to remain with you. My maladjustment was tested recently when I saw the movie AMAZING GRACE.  I left the film determined that if one man could give so much for so long for something so important I could take up a few other causes. You and I must continue to be moved to action.
 
Several weeks ago, I heard President Underwood describe a developing initiative. MERCER ON MISSION will have Mercer students spending periods of time with Baptist missionaries in several developing countries. The students' experiences will include theoretical and practical work on real problems and will include careful attention to preparing the students for the experiences and in thinking about how the experiences will influence their lives. In the various countries, the students will be directed to give careful attention to understanding the history, culture and motivations of the people. Programs like MERCER ON MISSION show great promise as a way to cultivate a healthy uneasiness with our TV culture of consumption. Explore the possibility of similar experiences for yourself. It is never too late!
 
In my town a woman prominent in political circles, including service as an elected official, was very busy with the here and now. She had not taken time for much travel. She was invited by a professor friend to accompany her to Africa where the professor was doing some work with an African university. The African American woman of North Florida who traveled to Africa returned to us a changed woman. She was distressed by the poverty she saw and passionate about the issues of children in Africa. She is working daily now in concrete ways to contribute to improved lives for some of those children.
 
I believe that maladjustment is a legacy of our heritage. For the women of Tift College, one the best known examples of maladjustment to things as they are is found in one Miss Julia Coleman. Miss Coleman graduated from Bessie Tift College in 1908. She was the teacher of one student named Jimmy Carter, who became this country's 39th President. Miss Coleman is credited by President Carter as "the teacher including those at four colleges and universities who has done the most for me and made the most
lasting and beneficial impression on my life."

In his inaugural address, President Carter quoted Miss Coleman, "We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles". She introduced literature, art, music, plays, composition as ways of bringing the world to the rural community of Plains. She was credited with a soup kitchen which was the beginnings of a school lunch program. She was involved in adding the 12th grade to Georgia schools. Many of Miss Coleman's programs were eventually adopted by Georgia's school system. While it is not likely that every son and daughter of Mercer's Tift College of Education will teach a future president of the United States, each of us can nurture our ability and that of our students to see a different world and find some ways to be a part of making it so.
 
It is my hope that you possess the gift of gratitude. A Presbyterian minister friend of mine once wrote to the students in his campus ministry- "It just may be true that our greatest sin against each other is that of ingratitude". (Milton Carrothers)

Several years ago, a high school classmate who became a United Methodist minister of considerable note came to Tallahassee, Florida's Trinity Methodist Church for a series of talks. I went to the church to hear Bill Hinson and, following the service, I proceeded down the aisle to speak to him. His greeting to me was not the traditional "good to see you." It was not even a hello, but a quick and direct inquiry. "Where is Mrs. Ashley? I must find her and thank her."

Mrs. Ashley was our English teacher. She was stern and demanding and she was fair. She was a graduate of Georgia Military Academy. (Girls were apparently allowed in the academic subjects.) One did not pass from Mrs. Ashley's class except though mastery of the subject. Some of us in that rural school in South Georgia were a challenge. On one occasion, this same Mrs. Ashley wrote on my report card "Sherrill is a good student, but she talks too much."

Her assessment has proven true again and again. Dr. Hinson went on to explain that he was pastoring Isle of Hope United Methodist Church down by Savannah and commuting to Atlanta for week-day classes at Candler Seminary. Life was tough but less tough for him than many of his fellow seminarians. Mrs. Ashley's passion for his learning had resulted in excellent writing skills. His delayed thanks were soon on the way to her.
 
Make opportunities to express appreciation to those who have paved the road for you. Many of them are here with you today. Teachers, parents, spouses, children, scholarship donors are among those who deserve a hearty "thank you."

Find ways to express your gratitude to Mercer University. There are many ways including your encouragement of students, your financial support and your good word about the opportunities that exist here for students.

Give me the opportunity for just a moment to "practice what I preach." There are two teachers here today who share our common heritage. They came many years after Miss Julia Coleman and just a little before me. Should I write a book after the pattern of Marian Wright Edelman's MEMOIR OF MENTORS and call it  LANTERNS as she did, each of them and many others would have an important place in the book. Dr. Cathryn Futral, Tift Class of '49, and Miss Ann Black, Mercer Class of '52, are models for us all.

Dr. Futral graced the classrooms of Tift and Mercer. Miss Black graced many classrooms in Baxley, Statesboro and Tallahassee. I have not had a formal class from either of them. However, from each of them, I have learned that teaching is not confined to the classroom where you keep your purse and papers. It extends to the church, the community and, in the talk of my South Georgia roots, "to the highways and byways." In another speech on another day I will tell you more about them. Today, I will just say "thank you."
 
Let me close with good wishes and a few lines from one of my favorite poets Emily Dickinson.

“We never know how high we are
Till we are asked to rise
And then if we are true to plan
Our statures touch the skies"
 
Your personal and professional aspirations have touched the sky and I am confident your achievements will in the days and years to come.  Best wishes!
 
About the Speaker

Sherrill Williams Ragans, Tift – AB ’58

Sherrill W. Ragans began her career at Florida State University (FSU) as a residence hall counselor in 1959. She held a variety of administrative positions and retired from the university in 2003, serving the last 14 years as Associate Vice President for Student Affairs. In 2006, FSU named its newest residence hall the “Sherrill Williams Ragans Hall” in recognition of her outstanding service. She holds degrees from Tift College and the University of Southern Mississippi. She has remained involved with Tift College, serving as the Alumnae Association President from 1976 to 1978. After the college merged with Mercer in 1986, she became active with the University, serving on the Board of Trustees from 1997 to 2001. She is currently a member of the Tift College of Education Board of Visitors.