Senior address
by Balin Anderson ‘06
May 22, 2006
Good morning. I’d like to thank all of you in attendance for the varied and important roles that you have played in the lives of the members of the class of 2006. Thank you to the faculty and staff members that have guided and challenged us, and pushed us to produce work we thought beyond our grasp. Thank you to our family members who have supported us throughout our lives. Most of all, thank you to the members of the class of 2006 for allowing me to speak on your behalf. It is an honor.
Behind the college slogan — that CC is a unique intellectual adventure — is the reality of exceptional undergraduate experiences. While Colorado College fosters and facilitates creative endeavors and expression, students generate and channel that creativity. The legacy of the Class of 2006 is our creativity and activism. We were actively involved in statewide campaigns for Amendments C and D, and provided critical support for District 11 school board candidates. The film fest and fashion show demonstrated the expansion of social and artistic life at the college. Dance Workshop and senior shows displayed the performative genius of our class members. Campus publications reflected our engagement with the college, city, state, and world. We learned the discipline and freedom that come from academic engagement, and in return, we contributed advocacy and ingenuity to our community.
When we are asked how our CC educations prepared us for life after college, we cling to the familiar phrase: a liberal arts education teaches us how to think. David Foster Wallace, an accomplished fiction writer and visitor to C last month, revised this concept:
“Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and how you construct meaning from experience.”
By choosing to control the content of our own thoughts and perceptions, we live our liberal arts educations. Additionally, the Block Plan facilitates this mindfulness. We began each block as tentative amateurs, with unformed or uninformed opinions and predilections. Slowly, through discussion and reflection, we consciously chose to see problems, issues, and arguments differently. Outside the structure of the Block Plan, we must continue to pick and choose how and what our experiences mean.
As we graduate, we reflect on the meaning of our educations. We are privileged to graduate from Colorado College. According to federal poverty guidelines, it costs more for us to attend CC for one year than it does to support a family of eight in Hawaii. We’d be remiss if we didn’t thank the parents and relatives, philanthropists, and lending institutions that have deemed us worthy of such a substantial investment. However, our privilege is more profound than many people think. We are privileged to be graduates of Colorado College because our experiences at CC have empowered us to explore and understand complex social, political, and economic issues. Our true privilege is that we are uniquely poised to rectify injustice.
The AppreCCiate Scholarship Fund, founded by our own Robin Dunn and Ari Stiller-Shulman, epitomizes this ability to create change. The AppreCCiate fund simultaneously makes CC more accessible to students with financial need and raises awareness about the relationship of income disparity to education and economic diversity at CC. It comes as no surprise that children in low-income communities are seven times less likely to graduate from colleges than their high-income peers. More than ten of our classmates are bound for Teach for America and other teaching fellowship programs, demonstrating their commitment to improving equity in education. Colorado College has shown us the value of living in a progressive, engaged, and active community. In the future, rather than abdicating our responsibility in favor of some elusive and narcissistic concept of personal fulfillment, we must continue to work to create just and equitable communities.
As neophytes, how can we simultaneously build these communities and build meaningful lives? Moreover, how should we live? Over a third of our class attended Senior-Year Experience events, ostensibly attempting to answer these questions. At Opening Convocation several years ago, Thom Shanker, an alumnus of Colorado College and the New York Times’ Pentagon correspondent, spoke profoundly on this same topic. He identified courage as the foundation for meaningful, valuable life.
“Courage? To get up and go to work every day, and try to make a contribution to society, despite the manifest frustrations of the modern workplace. Courage? To ask questions of those in authority and do what is right, even though you risk severe repercussions from those in authority. What takes courage? To love, even when that love is not returned. And just as the courage of your convictions, have the courage to listen to your doubts.”
I leave you with these questions: How will you exhibit courage in the face of the unknown? What will you choose to pay attention to? How will you construct meaning from your experiences?
I wish you all the best. Thank you.