Honoring those who inspire us

I am lucky to have many inspirational people in my life; My gracious, cheerful Mother, my loving siblings, my best friend of 28 years who has crafted a wonderful second life, and my coach/trainer of a father. Of course our families should be inspiring--we must learn from each other in order to live fully. As an educator, I owe much of my professional prowess to those teachers who have shared the best of themselves with me over the years. To that end, I have created a student scholarship at my alma mater, University of Dayton, to honor my greatest mentor, Dr. Teri Thompson. This past Monday, I had the pleasure of awarding this scholarship to the first ever recipient of the Teresa (Teri) Thompson Graduate Scholarship at the Senior Banquet of the department of communication.

Pictured here is, in the middle, Jessica Parker, a senior COM major, who is pursing a Masters degree in Communication. Of note, she's going to complete her bachelors and masters in 5 years. To her right is my mentor, Dr. Teri Thompson. I'm sure many of you have heard me talk about Teri over the years. This is proof that she exists :) I look forward to hearing great things about Jessica as she works through her masters with Teri ably at her side.

The experience of going back to the place of both my bachelors and masters was a delight. I had a lovely lunch with Teri where we waxed about how long we've known each other, our life experiences since then, and our enduring friendship. Then we took a brief trip to campus and I was able to get a glimpse of the classrooms and offices I had spent long hours learning about communication and eventually completing my thesis. Afterwards we attended the banquet and I had the pleasure of seeing students receive various awards for their accomplishments and observe the faculty and parents with pride on their faces at their students' achievements. Indeed, you can go home :)