Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Blank your mind and turn inward. Feel the slowing of your pulse, your heart, and your breathing. You are at rest, and yet you are also poised for the next burst of activity.

You are just like the Ithaca College campus today. 

I often focus on how an Ithaca College education transforms our students. But the opposite is also true: our students transform the College. Though we have students in residence year round taking courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level, the campus is fundamentally at rest and we are counting our pulse rate while waiting to burst back into life in mid-August. 

In less than three weeks, approximately 4,000 returning students will be joined by 2,000 freshmen in the Class of 2013. They are a remarkably diverse and talented group whose experiences, abilities, and enthusiasms will galvanize and challenge the campus. They are people like Haley Meadows of Calabasas CA, who was diagnosed with skin cancer at age 10, underwent surgery to remove part of her back, later in life was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and was told to stay away from sports … and who nonetheless led her high school basketball team in scoring and was named second team all-league.

They are Emily Miles, of Prospect KY, who founded the Dream Weavers Mentoring Program at a local homeless shelter, and whom I met this summer, along with her mother and her aunt, during a trip to the area. They are Elizabeth Stoltz of York PA, who founded a 501(c)(3) organization called Food for Thought that is dedicated to eliminating childhood malnutrition. They are Zack Turner, who grew up in a family that traveled up and down the east coast with the carnival, and who along the way discovered a love for photography as well as becoming a certified elephant trainer. 

The Class of 2013 includes Yanna Lantz of Tyngsborough MA, who has narrated children’s audio books and is a non-fiction book illustrator, who has received state-wide acting awards, and who found enough additional time to be valedictorian. It includes Emma Walker of Waitsfield VT, who created a rap video promoting sustainability and the use of public transportation. It includes Matthew Pappadia of Bay Shore NY, who was selected from among 500 auditioners to play the lead role in an independent film, Just Like Joe, which won the award for Best Feature Film at the Long Island Independent Film Festival. The freshman class includes MollyRose Mendell of St. George VT, who performs with the Vermont Children’s Theater on Ice, a competitive theatrical skating troupe that placed second in international competitions held in France and Spain. It includes Jeremy Coman of Tulsa OK, who broke barriers as the first male cheerleader at his school. It includes Lauren Mateer of Richboro PA, a weekly columnist in the teen section of the Bucks County Courier Times. 

The freshman class includes Jessica Burrell of Owego NY, who was captain of her softball team until a car accident caused severe spinal injuries. Her determined commitment to recovery enabled her to cheer on her teammates during her senior year, graduate on time, and graduate first in her class. And it includes Chloe van Alstine, who saved a life this summer when she dove into the cold waters of northern Cayuga Lake, near her home in Wells NY, to rescue a man who had driven his van off a bridge and into the lake. Chloe is trained as a lifeguard, but noted in an interview with NPR that “It’s just human instinct to want to help another person.”

The Class of 2013 also includes nearly two thousand other sparkling individuals. You can see why we are excited to welcome them to campus and why we believe they will have a huge impact on Ithaca College! 

Our freshman class will bring with them to Ithaca their TVs, fish tanks, iPod docking stations, and favorite pillows. They will also bring with them their hopes and dreams, their external bravado and their internal doubts. Most of them will be aware that the transition to college is one of the most significant moments of their lives. It is a voyage whose destination cannot be known. It is a voyage from which there is no coming home (figuratively speaking, of course).  It is a voyage that we at IC cannot wait to begin.

Zach Turner, the incoming freshman who grew up with the circus, concluded his application essay with the following thought: “For my next journey [in college], I want to be around beautiful, open-minded people who want to explore, read, discuss, argue, think, create, and always, always play. Although I may now be far from my carnival roots … I am ready for my next creative endeavor, and I can’t wait to see what the next sideshow will be.” 

You speak for all of us, Zach. 

Dear Mr. Rochon,

I am in 7^th grade at Sacred Heart Parish School in Coronado. California.  The reason I have sent you this PowerPoint is because my computer teacher had us do a PowerPoint on a college out of the top 200 colleges.  I was so glad to pick Ithaca as my college.  I went right to work and had a lot of fun doing it. 

I learned a lot of things while doing research on Ithaca.  I will narrow it down to five.  First, there are five schools within the college.  Second, the percent of men at Ithaca is 44% and the percent of women is 56%.  Third, the college started with $50 in a rented space.  Fourth, 48 states in the United States are represented and 78 other countries.  Fifth, the president, Thomas R. Rochon, has received a whole lot of awards and grants at a high level.  In all I learned a lot more than I had known before.

Thank you again for taking the time to read my e-mail.  I am sure that Ihaca is an awesome college to go to.  I will always consider Ithaca for my college education.  I appreciate your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Laurel H.

I have come to think of the unexpected email as one of the greatest pleasures of daily life.  The possibilities of connection created by the internet are endless, whether from an old high school friend who has just found you again or from a seventh grade student writing in fulfillment of a class assignment.

Laurel's email to me presents a vivid picture of how junior high school students are taught to use the internet to do research and to organize information.  I opened the powerpoint slides Laurel attached to her email and saw a beautifully formatted presentation of key facts about Ithaca College.

The technology is new but the pedagogy being used by Laurel's teacher is not.  I flashed back to when I was in seventh grade, assigned to write a paper on Brazil.  I put together a few facts gleaned from the nearest encyclopedia and then wrote a letter to the Brazilian embassy in Washington requesting more information.  I still remember the day when a package arrived at my house, containing pamphlets and a ten pound block of rubber, Brazil's leading export at the time.  I still had that block of rubber when I went off to college.  (Note to dad:  did you throw it out?)

These are examples of active learning, a strategy we also use extensively at Ithaca College.  This approach involves learning by interacting with your environment and then observing the results.  It may mean doing an experiment in the laboratory, or applying your knowledge in an internship or in community service.  It means clinical internships for our doctor of physical therapy students, ensemble performances for music students, studio work for those majoring in TV/radio, and trading room experience for students of finance.  Active learning may also mean showing your work to a college president or to an embassy official and getting feedback.  Active learning is effective because it happens in a context -- you are able to internalize new information and at the same time understand how to use that information.

When I wrote back to Laurel, I did so with the memory of how much the response from the Brazilian embassy meant to me.  I maintained a lifelong interest in Brazil and much later as a faculty member published an article on democratization in that country.  That is the kind of result active learning tends to produce.  As I wrote back to Laurel, I found myself hoping that my letter to an embassy official had made him or her as happy as Laurel's letter made me.  

Mr. Rochon,

Thank you so much for the Ithaca t-shirt.  it is the perfect size and is very cool.  My whole class thinks it is so cool.

Laurel H.

You are welcome, Laurel.  I hope to meet you as part of the Class of 2018.

I am devoting a series of summer blog posts to some dominant impressions from my first year as president.  One area that has struck me anew this year is the unique value of international study as part of a student's preparation for life-long success.  Our mission statement commits us to preparing students "to share the responsibilities of citizenship and service in the global economy."  I have learned that we truly live that mission.

Our freshmen certainly get it -- over 60 percent of them say they want to have a study abroad experience.  About half that number, 30 percent of all students, actually will study abroad by the time they graduate.  These experiences range from one week to a full semester.  Some students take courses, some do volunteer work, some do both.  Professor Hongwei Guan sponsored the participation of 23 students as interns during the 2008 Beijing Olympics last summer, and returned this summer with another group of 12 students looking at health care practices in China.  In the year just ended, five students accompanied Professor Ryan Parkhurst to study travel writing in England.  Professor Alicia Swords of the Sociology Department went to the Dominican Republic with 18 students.  Professor Nick Muellner is taking 10 students to Rome with a focus on photography.  Mary Taylor and Erica Weiss, both on staff of the Hammond Health Center, organized a service learning experience in Malawi with 7 students.

These international experiences are reinforced on the Ithaca campus through the curriculum and through residential life options.  Many of our majors have an international dimension to them, and students may also choose to minor in the langauges, cultures and histories of various parts of the world.  Some students live in themed residence halls that bring international experiences home in the form of language communities, faculty talks, and other programs with an international theme.

Ithaca College's London Center is a special resource that enables about 150 students per year to live and study in London, nearly all of them for a full semester.  Though students take courses with faculty drawn both from Ithaca College and from London, the real classroom (as our program brochures like to say) is London itself.

I have not yet visited our London Center, but when I do it will be a homecoming of sorts.  Exactly forty years ago, my family moved to center city London for one year as a result of my father's assignment to Ford of England.  From one day to the next, my world of suburban space and a tight circle of friends who were all pretty much like me became instead a world of urban neighborhoods, knowing no one, class-stratified accents, and putting milk in your tea.

Everything was strange, and that is the perfect recipe for personal growth.  The year we lived in London, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, the dollar was the strongest currency in the world, and the Viet Nam war was at its height.  Yet I was unprepared for the intensity of respect, envy, and/or anger that could be provoked simply by someone hearing my accent.  I was unprepared for the religious and territorial passions associated with the violence in Northern Ireland, or for the extent to which everyday customs and interests were completely different from what I was used to.  I learned from each of those contrasts, and came to understand my own country in a more complex way.  

Today, of course, London is one of the world's truly international cities, an even richer potpourri of global culture than it was forty years ago.  As globalization has advanced more generally, higher education leaders are ever more aware of the value of study abroad.  Research shows that international study is rated by students as among the most significant experiences of their college years, and that participants become more globally engaged for the rest of their lives.  We can be proud that Ithaca College rankes 3rd nationally among master's level institutions in the number of students going abroad for a semester-long program.  And yet the gap between the 63 percent of freshmen who want to study abroad and the 30 percent who actually do so tells us that we can and should do more. 

I am often asked what the most surprising discovery or insight has been during my first year as college president. In a place as rich in surprise as Ithaca College, I would hesitate to single out just one thing. But, as my first year at IC winds down, I'd like to devote my next few posts to identifying some of my "aha!" moments from the past nine months. 

One of the revelations of my inaugural year has been how central sports competition is to the lives of many of our students. Well over half of Ithaca students participate in recreational sports, and our men's and women's intercollegiate teams excel across the board.

The first inkling of this "aha!" moment came at the annual hall of fame induction ceremony and dinner this past fall. Alumni athletes spoke in vivid and moving detail about their coaches, their teammates, and the discipline required to excel both in their studies and in their sport. Each inductee attributed his or her success in later life to lessons and habits learned on the practice field and in competition. 

Our alumni athletes still follow the Bombers, and smile with approval at our continued tradition of sports excellence. The list of accomplishments from this year alone is dizzying:

• Ithaca won 12 Empire 8 titles, including a clean sweep in men's and women's cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field.
• Of our 24 teams eligible for national playoff competition, 16 reached the playoffs this year. The gymnastics team placed fifth in its championship meet, women's crew was fourth in the NCAA national championship, and the women's swimming and diving team placed 13th in the NCAA championships.
• The women's soccer team reached the NCAA quarterfinals, the men's basketball team won a school-record 24 games, and the men's tennis team won a school-record 17 matches. 
• Individually, Sean Burton was an All-American men's basketball player and Lauren Botterbusch was an All-American swimmer in four different events.  

It's been enough to send me home hoarse from cheering on more than one occasion. And, while winning is fun, I cheer all the harder because I know our student-athletes are able to keep balance in their lives. Last fall, 136 student athletes gained Empire 8 Presidents' List honors, maintaining a GPA of 3.75 or better. (The spring semester Presidents' List will be released in a few weeks.) Seventeen of our 26 intercollegiate teams gained Presidents' List distinction by maintaining a team GPA of 3.2 or better. Excellence in sports and excellence in academics go hand in hand: Frances Ente was not only an All-American gymnast, but she was also named an academic All-American. 

This morning Ithaca College announced completion of over $50 million in fund-raising for a new athletics and events center, on which we will break ground next week. The A&E center will offer a state-of-the-art facility for many of our teams as well as the largest venue in the region for community events. When the building is completed, two years from now, our athletes will be able to practice and compete in a facility that is nationally recognized, just as their own performances are.   

College sports is sometimes criticized as being overly commercialized or as diluting the educational mission of higher education. At Ithaca College, we have a holistic approach to education that stresses intellect, creativity, and character. We also believe that learning is effectively accomplished in many venues in addition to the classroom and laboratory. Our students develop their commitment to excellence and to lifelong learning in the studio and on stage, in the business school's trading room and in service to community organizations, through internships and through leadership in student groups. And, to a greater degree than I had appreciated at the beginning of the year, they learn through sports competition. Just ask our hall of fame alumni!

I had an opportunity last Sunday to address the undergraduate and graduate students in Ithaca College's class of 2009.  They compiled a remarkable record of scholarship and service while at IC, and I expect great things from them in the future.  In my remarks, I noted the seeming irony that the ceremony held to mark completion of their degree programs is called a "Commencement," or beginning.  However, receiving a higher education degree is simultaneously a completion and a beginning, just like every other major life transition. 

I mentioned in my brief speech that I had a different kind of commencement less than two weeks ago, when my wife Amber and I experienced the birth of our first child.  Liam's arrival most definitely marked the end of one phase of our family life and the beginning of another, and so I offered the graduates a few observations baed on my experience of the last two weeks.  Specifically, how can you know if your commencement is going well?

If you look at the sky and the trees and everything around you, and you feel as if you are seeing these things for the first time, then you are having a successful commencement.

If you find yourself intellectually and emotionally drawn to subjects that never held much interest for you before, then you are probably having a very good commencement.

If you find new meaning and deep value in all your relationships with other people, then you just might be having an excellent commencement.

If you realize that great things come in little packages, and that beauty is found in the smallest of details, then you are on track for a revelatory commencement.

If you find yourself getting less sleep, but you still feel more alive than ever before, then congratulations. Your commencement is everything a commencement can and should be.

As I did at our graduation ceremony, I would like to take this opportunity as well to wish each member of the Ithaca College class of 2009 a wonderful commencement into the next phase of their lives.  We know that an Ithaca College education tranforms our students; this particular group of graduates also had a huge impact on Ithaca College.  I am sure that our graduates will have many transformative commencements to come.