Presidential Convocation – August 16, 2024
Remarks of President Anthony Leigh
“The Value of Huntingdon Connections”
Madam Chairman, thank you for that kind introduction and the incredible honor of serving Huntingdon College as President. Members of the Board of Trustees, platform party, faculty and staff colleagues, and members of the Huntingdon College student body, I have a question for you. Why are you here? Yes, why are you here? No, the question is not ‘why are you here right now, at this convocation in the 11:00 hour on August 16.’ The question is ‘why are you here, at Huntingdon, and part of the 171st academic year of this storied institution.’
Depending on where you are seated, there is probably a range of answers to that question. To the faculty, yes, you are here to draw a paycheck, but I also believe that you are collectively here, at Huntingdon, because you are passionate about your academic discipline and find joy in sharing your wisdom and expertise with a younger generation.
The members of our Board of trustees have a host of reasons why they are here. Some of them are graduates of Huntingdon and can attest to the life-changing educational experience they received here. Some of them sent their children to Huntingdon and know the value Huntingdon provided their family. Others love Huntingdon because of the College’s intentionality in being a college of the United Methodist Church. Some of them live in the neighborhood and love the vitality and energy that radiates from our campus. These are all great reasons to be here and to serve.
Students, why are you here? I’m convinced that in every one of you there is a measure of ambition, a desire to obtain a great education here at one of the South’s premier pre-professional colleges, and each of you has an aspiration to go forth from Huntingdon to have a life of success as a productive citizen. I also believe you have come here to be involved and participate in the life of the College. I don’t know of another college where it is as easy for the entire student body to find a place of involvement in campus life as it is here at Huntingdon.
Regardless of where you are seated and your general reason for being here at Huntingdon, I believe that all of us have chosen to be here because of an innate desire to be in connection with other people. Our faculty have chosen to teach here where they can personally know and impact the lives of their students. Our trustees give of their time and energy to come to campus to be in community with other believers in the mission of the College. Students, by choosing to be a student at Huntingdon, you made a declaration that you want to be known, to be in a small college environment, to be part of a residential community, and to be a part of teams, music ensembles, leadership groups, and student organizations. You came to Huntingdon to be in connection with others.
In recent weeks, I have given a lot of thought to the value of connections in our lives.
My pastor Jay Cooper at First United Methodist Church of Montgomery, who is also a Huntingdon trustee, recently wrote in our weekly church newsletter, “Of the highest value to God, in my humble opinion, are relationships. Connection is relationship, with God, with others.” Many of us can certainly affirm the life-giving experience of being connected to a church community and to knowing God.
While all of our home structures are different, most of us probably have a deep personal connection to at least one family member. Those bonds of connection are truly special.
All of us can probably point to a time in our life when our connection to someone has opened a door of opportunity for us. Students, I suspect that most part-time jobs you’ve held, a lawn you’ve mowed, or a babysitting gig, have all been born out being connected to someone. When you’ve needed letters of recommendation for scholarships and graduate school opportunities, those have required a personal connection to someone whom you can trust to say something good about you.
The experience of the pandemic caused all of us for a season to be more isolated from others than we ever have before. We lost some personal connectivity to human beings in exchange for the convenience and necessity of meetings by Zoom. Technological advancements in general have made it easier for us to be connected to more people. But is being connected to someone on LinkedIn the same thing as spending thirty minutes having a cup of coffee with someone? Ordering a book on Amazon is easy but there are connections and conversations that can be had when visiting a library or bookstore to peruse a book collection instead.
Conversations can be rich. Relationships are meaningful. Sharing life with others has value. Personal connections matter.
So here we are, at Huntingdon, where each of us receives the value of being connected to those who are here and to those who have come before us at the College. I’m honored to have the two living former Presidents of Huntingdon here with me today, and I cherish my connection to both of them. President West has been a fountain of wisdom for me during my service as his Vice President and in my transition to the presidency, and he continues to use his connections for the benefit of the College. President Bigham who came before him has been a regular source of encouragement and affirmation for me, and I am grateful for her investments of time and wisdom in my life. She, too, is a special connection to me.
Students, while you are here at Huntingdon, I want to challenge all of you in this 171st academic year of the College, to be intentional in forming for yourself three types of connections.
First, commit yourself to expanding your professional network of connections. Is there a faculty or staff member you are regularly meeting with to help you discern next steps in your future? If you know the career field you intend to enter, be intentional in connecting with people in that career field. Freshmen and new students, each of you received an invitation this week to personally connect with a member of the faculty and staff. While this connections program is designed to help welcome you to Huntingdon and connect you to campus life, I’ve heard from faculty and staff all week about the joy they have had in connecting with you. Sophomores, the Center for Career and Vocation has launched a Sophomore Connect program to give you tools for intentionally building your professional network of contacts. Juniors and seniors, you should be eager and willing to attend any and all professional networking events and let your existing network of connections know of your impending graduation date. It’s okay to meet people and connect with them for the selfish purpose of contacting them for opportunities for yourself down the road.
The second type of connection I hope you will make is connection with people who are different from you. Students, use your time at Huntingdon to connect with people who don’t look like you, who come from different places, have different religious views, political perspectives, and socioeconomic backgrounds. When you graduate from Huntingdon, you will enter a global and complex world, and you will likely serve in a role where you will interface with the full diversity of our population. Think about it – if you are a teacher or a coach, a doctor, a pharmacist, a physical therapist, a lawyer, a banker, a preacher, a businessman or woman, an athletic trainer, a nonprofit executive, or a police officer – your students, your patients, your clients, your congregation, your customers, or those you will serve and protect won’t always have your worldview and life perspective. Being able to connect with people who are different from you will better enable you to be effective in your life of service.
Finally, I hope you will be intentional in forming friendships with classmates, teammates, brothers and sisters that will have value and meaning to you long after your time at Huntingdon ends. These types of connections require work and effort, time and energy, authenticity and transparency, but small colleges like Huntingdon create the perfect environment for these connections to form.
This summer I went to three weddings where both the bride and groom were Huntingdon Hawks, and in each wedding the couple was surrounded by Huntingdon bridesmaids and groomsmen and other Huntingdon friends.
In June, twenty brothers of a Huntingdon fraternity who all graduated in the 1990s, got together for a boys weekend for the 30th consecutive summer.
Every third Thursday of the month, here in Montgomery, a group of 10 men who played basketball and baseball at Huntingdon in the 1960s get together for lunch at Chappy’s.
My Facebook feed regularly shows me pictures of reunion trips and weekend gatherings of close, tight-knit groups of Huntingdon alumni from across the generations.
I came to an understanding of the true meaning of the Huntingdon connection in my first year working for the College. When I arrived in 2009, I was quickly introduced to Marie Sinclair, a member of the Huntingdon class of 1944 from Northport, Alabama, who at the time was 87 years old. Marie told me that her circle of friends from Huntingdon from the classes of 1944, 1945, and 1946 were all planning to come to Huntingdon in the spring of 2010 to celebrate the 65th class reunion of the class of 1945. Marie kept telling me that they were going to make this reunion day their biggest ever but that it would also be the last milestone reunion they celebrated. I kept trying to lower her expectations for the day because I knew there weren’t many people left from those classes and many of those who were still living weren’t in a position of being able to easily travel to Montgomery for a day. But there was no stopping Marie Sinclair and her friends in their desire to come to campus.
So in the spring of 2010, Marie and eight of her friends descended upon Flowers Hall for the 65th reunion of the class of ’45. And that morning, Flowers Hall looked more like an assisted living facility than a college with all of their old lady paraphernalia, their walkers, and their canes. We set them up in what is now the admissions conference room and for hours that day, they giggled and gossiped, they cut up and cried, and they sipped and they snacked. Those ladies were living their best life that day.
At the end of the day, I escorted them all to their cars parked in the Smith parking lot but before they got in their vehicles, Marie invited them all in for a group hug and I watched them hold each other, and hold each other, and hold each other, and hold each other. After about ten minutes of watching this loving, emotional embrace, with tears streaming down my own face, I realized that these ladies had not come to Huntingdon to say goodbye to Huntingdon, they had come to Huntingdon to say goodbye to each other. They knew that at their age and stage of life that this would probably be the last time they were together, and after 65 years of celebrating marriages, burying husbands, announcing the births of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, celebrating professional achievements, and making attendance at Huntingdon reunions a priority, they wanted one last visit together to this holy and sacred place where their connection to each other was first established.
My hope for each of you is that every day while you are here at Huntingdon College, you will use this magical season in your life to be intentional in sharing your life with others and to maximize for yourself the value of Huntingdon connections. Regardless of why you are here, I am grateful to be connected to each of you. Thank you for being here today.
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