Bobcats

Our hometowns and chosen homes shape us with their lessons and memories. They inspire the work of those who transform their communities. This place is filled with people who care about making the world better. The new president, Lori Stewart-Gonzalez, understands that a place is always changing because we are always changing. We are here together to carry and better the legacy of this special place. Our hometowns and chosen homes shape us with their lessons and memories. What's in a place? The places we grow up, the communities we choose to call home, are so much more than dots on a map. Our hometowns and our chosen homes shape us, deposit their fossil records of lessons, sediment layers of memories that we excavate and learn from as we move and grow. Where we're from is the difference between you and y'all. Between your nightlight being streetlights or starlight. Between deep dish and Brooklyn style. Thoreau couldn't have written Walden from the suburbs. And Live From Nebraska, It's Saturday Night doesn't have the same ring. From Martin to Malala, a deeply rooted sense of place has inspired the work of those who've transformed their own communities and every community. This place holds countless stories. You can hear them clacking across the iconic red bricks, swirling along the river rocks of the Hawking, whispered among the cherry blossoms. They're the stories of all who have grown roots here, whether for a season or a lifetime. Each one carrying a piece with them when they leave, while leaving a piece of themselves. That is why this place is magic. Not because we are here, but because we are here. Because this place is filled with all of you. People who care about making our community, our region, our world, the best it can be. People who bring the varied and vibrant lessons of our unique hometowns and journeys together to elevate it. To make it something new each day. Something it could never be without you. Lori Stewart-Gonzalez is no different. She was raised by the warm and hardworking people of this region. And mentored by educators who understand the power of knowledge in our lives and in our world. Her own journey has shaped her values, refined her mission, and powered her goals with relentless drive, curiosity, and compassion. See, our new president understands that while our placement on the globe may not change, a place is always changing, and that's because we're always changing. Creating new connections, gaining new experiences, reaching new summits. Informed by the past, engaged with the present, leaning toward the future. Here together in the heart of it all. Here together, that's what this day is all about. Because carrying and bettering a legacy of a place this special, of committing to getting every lesson from it, lifting, serving, leading a university in a region this beloved, that will take all of us. Luckily, President Gonzalez, every person in this room, every Bobcat around the globe, no matter what place they now call home, is more than up to the task. It's time to move this place forever forward, together. Our hometowns and our chosen homes shape us, deposit their fossil records of lessons, sediment layers of memories that we excavate and learn from as we move and grow. One more time. Our hometowns and our chosen homes shape us, deposit their fossil records of lessons, sediment layers of memories that we excavate and learn from as we move and grow.