THE SCHOLARS' SCOOP

On the march from Franklin Hall to the CFSB Center, three hundred and fifty scholars filed into the building for one of our last convocations at Murray State. Presenting this convocation was the President of Murray State University, Dr. Bob Jackson.

  His speech encompassed the meaning of community in relation to our responsibilities as Governor’s Scholars. Essentially he told us as the next leaders in Kentucky we have the ability to change our government, infrastructure, and educational experiences for the better. He told us that as leaders our guidance matters and that we must continue to become the best versions of ourselves.

Additionally he also detailed to us the history of the Murray Campus, and the generations of leaders who built up this wonderful school. All this led to his main point of seizing opportunities and creating change in our communities.

 After this point he opened the floor up to discussion. While his convocation speech was inspiring, it also brought up several conservational topics happening in our commonwealth. For example our public school system, infrastructure, and politics.

 I had the chance to contact Eileen Thacker, a scholar who has strong and intriguing opinions in regards to these comments. 

Her response to my guiding question of, “What were your opinions on Dr. Bob Jackson’s Convocation?” was, “The infrastructure problems we discussed with Bob Jackson do not only apply to Eastern or Western Kentucky but are state-wide issues. Eastern KY certainly has infrastructure and other issues, but they are not exclusive to or the fault of that region.” Jackson mentioned this topic several times and used both Eastern and Western Kentucky as the example of the effect of poor infrastructure and support on the parts of his state. But again it is nor exclusive to those regions.

After his speech I had the opportunity to have a brief interview with Jackson.  I asked him the single question of, “What is your biggest advice to give to young scholars?” 

In Jackson’s response he told me to, “Go out into the world, seek and find your passions in life, dedicate yourself and work hard. Do something meaningful. Understand that you can make a change in the world, so run for public office, vote, and be the change in the world that you want to see.” He also stated that we will be successful in our lives because of passion and drive for future achievements..  Truly inspiring words for us scholars, who have extremely diverse and complicated desires and pathways we wish to accomplish within our lives. But we should remember that nothing happens without motivation. 

Thank you to the Scholar Youssif, who assisted me in my interview with Bob Jackson. Thanks for your transcribing skills as I would not have been able to finish this article without your help. He has been fairly compensated in strawberry applesauce.

We thank Dr. Bob Jackson for hosting us here on the Murray Campus, this summer has helped shape us into who we are and will be in our futures.