This is my keynote address for the 2018 Ledyard High School National Honor Society Induction Ceremony (November 19, 2018).
Thank you so much for inviting me here tonight. I am incredibly honored to be asked to speak to you. I want to begin by offering my heartfelt congratulations to the new inductees. You have worked hard to be here this evening and you should be very proud.
I am just a little bit nervous. It was so much easier to talk a large group of students when you were smaller. For those of you who do not know me, this is my third year as the library media specialist at Ledyard High School. I spent 20 years before as the library media specialist at Ledyard Center and Gallup Hill Schools.
I have had the unique opportunity of knowing and working with many of these students since elementary school. And I can say it is an absolute pleasure watching them grow as students, leaders and great people.
One of very few drawbacks of working at the high school is that I do not have regular class - like the weekly library class when you were little. SO GET COMFORTABLE because this keynote is going to be a whole bunch of the life lessons I haven’t had the chance to teach you.
You know, the reason I became a librarian was so that I could teach and inspire students. Education is in my blood, my grandmother and great aunt were elementary school teachers, my father was a history teacher
my mother was a science teacher. My sister and my aunt are school librarians. My cousin - you know that amazing math teacher upstairs? And his father are also teachers.
This brings me to LESSON #1: EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS.
I was not going to let me genes define my occupation and so my career path has been a squiggly line. I entered Providence College undecided and enjoyed Economics and math classes, so I chose them as my major and minor. I began thinking about working in healthcare management. After college I became an insurance underwriter for Blue Cross.
LESSON #2: FOLLOW YOUR HEART.
I quickly learned that sitting in a cubicle and plugging numbers into a computer drained my soul. I thought about how much I loved working at the public library through my high school years, how much I wanted to work with kids so I began applying to graduate school.
Within 6 months I was enrolled in the School Library Media Specialist Program at Southern Ct State University and had found a job closer to home as a financial analyst.
LESSON #3: WORK HARD AND DON’T GIVE UP.
I would work from 7:30-4 (again plugging numbers into a computer but this time with light at the end of the tunnel) and then drove from New London to New Haven to take classes from 5-10pm three nights a week. Sounds exhausting right? IT WAS!
LESSON #4: DON’T BE AFRAID TO TAKE RISKS.
The business I worked for soon downsized and I was laid off. It was extremely scary. How was I going to pay for grad school now? It would have been easy to quit until I found another job but with each class I took the more excited I became to begin my new career. So I made a hard choice, I took out loans, moved to New Haven and got permission to take classes beyond the maximum number of credits allowed so I could graduate as quickly as possible.
After graduation, my path led me to Ledyard Public Schools, which has become my home away from home and my extended family.
My first year as a school librarian was marked by two world changing events. The first was the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone which will always be one of my all time favorite books. That is LESSON #5: READ. READ BOOKS TO LEARN, READ BOOKS THAT ENTERTAIN, READ BOOKS THAT OPEN WINDOWS AND DOORS, READ BOOKS THAT INTRODUCE YOU TO NEW IDEAS AND CHARACTERS AND PLACES. JUST READ.
The second event that occured during my first year as a school librarian was the technological revolution - Google, the first social media sites and the smartphone were introduced to the world.
Technology provided the catalyst for the information explosion. We had at our fingertips the ability to find any piece of information within seconds. There was no need to hunt though card catalogs, flip pages in an dusty encyclopedia or sift through microfiche.
LESSON #6: EMBRACE CHANGE.
Being able to find information and share it globally within seconds on a device you held in the palm of your hand, was revolutionary and has changed life dramatically.
Technology is a powerful tool. And as Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” That responsibility is ours - the users of the Internet, Google, Social Media and all the expanding technologies. Back then, it was completely new territory. My role as a librarian evolved as I educated myself so I could teach students how to evaluate what they saw online, how to find and verify information and how to use technology safely and productively.
LESSON #7: USE TECHNOLOGY WISELY & ALWAYS SEEK TRUTH
Studies show that many people get their news just from social media. We see sites like Facebook creating echo chambers, using algorithms to decide who is going to see conservative or liberal slanted stories. People are quick believe the made up headlines they see in their feeds and hit share without first checking for any truth, increasing the divisiveness in our country.
We live in a world with a million news channels all of which have some political agenda, a world where our leaders engage in online bullying, a world writing fake news is profitable business.
LESSON #8: “BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.” MAHATMA GHANDI
It is easy to become discouraged with the world today. But not me, I have the privilege of working with all of you, our future.
As I look out at all of you I am reminded Brene Brown’s definition of integrity
“Integrity is choosing courage over comfort;
choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy;
and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.”
You are people of integrity.
You are making the right choices.
You courageously stand up for others.
You defend your your values and work for what is right.
Getting to your seat tonight was not a fun, fast or easy journey
but you worked hard, and all the choices you made earned you that seat.
It is your integrity that defines you and that will pave the path for all your future endeavors, no matter how squiggly your path is.
MY FINAL LESSON comes from the great Dumbledore who said to Harry, “It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”
Keep making great choices.
Keep working hard.
Keep choosing what is right!
Congratulations!
I am just a little bit nervous. It was so much easier to talk a large group of students when you were smaller. For those of you who do not know me, this is my third year as the library media specialist at Ledyard High School. I spent 20 years before as the library media specialist at Ledyard Center and Gallup Hill Schools.
I have had the unique opportunity of knowing and working with many of these students since elementary school. And I can say it is an absolute pleasure watching them grow as students, leaders and great people.
One of very few drawbacks of working at the high school is that I do not have regular class - like the weekly library class when you were little. SO GET COMFORTABLE because this keynote is going to be a whole bunch of the life lessons I haven’t had the chance to teach you.
You know, the reason I became a librarian was so that I could teach and inspire students. Education is in my blood, my grandmother and great aunt were elementary school teachers, my father was a history teacher
my mother was a science teacher. My sister and my aunt are school librarians. My cousin - you know that amazing math teacher upstairs? And his father are also teachers.
This brings me to LESSON #1: EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS.
I was not going to let me genes define my occupation and so my career path has been a squiggly line. I entered Providence College undecided and enjoyed Economics and math classes, so I chose them as my major and minor. I began thinking about working in healthcare management. After college I became an insurance underwriter for Blue Cross.
LESSON #2: FOLLOW YOUR HEART.
I quickly learned that sitting in a cubicle and plugging numbers into a computer drained my soul. I thought about how much I loved working at the public library through my high school years, how much I wanted to work with kids so I began applying to graduate school.
Within 6 months I was enrolled in the School Library Media Specialist Program at Southern Ct State University and had found a job closer to home as a financial analyst.
LESSON #3: WORK HARD AND DON’T GIVE UP.
I would work from 7:30-4 (again plugging numbers into a computer but this time with light at the end of the tunnel) and then drove from New London to New Haven to take classes from 5-10pm three nights a week. Sounds exhausting right? IT WAS!
LESSON #4: DON’T BE AFRAID TO TAKE RISKS.
The business I worked for soon downsized and I was laid off. It was extremely scary. How was I going to pay for grad school now? It would have been easy to quit until I found another job but with each class I took the more excited I became to begin my new career. So I made a hard choice, I took out loans, moved to New Haven and got permission to take classes beyond the maximum number of credits allowed so I could graduate as quickly as possible.
After graduation, my path led me to Ledyard Public Schools, which has become my home away from home and my extended family.
My first year as a school librarian was marked by two world changing events. The first was the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone which will always be one of my all time favorite books. That is LESSON #5: READ. READ BOOKS TO LEARN, READ BOOKS THAT ENTERTAIN, READ BOOKS THAT OPEN WINDOWS AND DOORS, READ BOOKS THAT INTRODUCE YOU TO NEW IDEAS AND CHARACTERS AND PLACES. JUST READ.
The second event that occured during my first year as a school librarian was the technological revolution - Google, the first social media sites and the smartphone were introduced to the world.
Technology provided the catalyst for the information explosion. We had at our fingertips the ability to find any piece of information within seconds. There was no need to hunt though card catalogs, flip pages in an dusty encyclopedia or sift through microfiche.
LESSON #6: EMBRACE CHANGE.
Being able to find information and share it globally within seconds on a device you held in the palm of your hand, was revolutionary and has changed life dramatically.
Technology is a powerful tool. And as Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” That responsibility is ours - the users of the Internet, Google, Social Media and all the expanding technologies. Back then, it was completely new territory. My role as a librarian evolved as I educated myself so I could teach students how to evaluate what they saw online, how to find and verify information and how to use technology safely and productively.
LESSON #7: USE TECHNOLOGY WISELY & ALWAYS SEEK TRUTH
Studies show that many people get their news just from social media. We see sites like Facebook creating echo chambers, using algorithms to decide who is going to see conservative or liberal slanted stories. People are quick believe the made up headlines they see in their feeds and hit share without first checking for any truth, increasing the divisiveness in our country.
We live in a world with a million news channels all of which have some political agenda, a world where our leaders engage in online bullying, a world writing fake news is profitable business.
LESSON #8: “BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.” MAHATMA GHANDI
It is easy to become discouraged with the world today. But not me, I have the privilege of working with all of you, our future.
As I look out at all of you I am reminded Brene Brown’s definition of integrity
“Integrity is choosing courage over comfort;
choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy;
and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.”
You are people of integrity.
You are making the right choices.
You courageously stand up for others.
You defend your your values and work for what is right.
Getting to your seat tonight was not a fun, fast or easy journey
but you worked hard, and all the choices you made earned you that seat.
It is your integrity that defines you and that will pave the path for all your future endeavors, no matter how squiggly your path is.
MY FINAL LESSON comes from the great Dumbledore who said to Harry, “It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”
Keep making great choices.
Keep working hard.
Keep choosing what is right!
Congratulations!
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