Editor’s Note: The following was the speech given by 2006-07 Professor of the Year Ann Tuttle, associate professor of management, at academic convocation.

Thank you, Dr. Coombs and welcome to you, the Class of 2011. It is truly my honor to stand before you today to deliver this convocation address. I have to begin by thanking some very important people in my life, beginning with my very first teachers, my parents. I am honored to have them here today, along with my husband, Kyle, and children Haley and Adam. I thank them all very much for filling me with curiosity, spirit and enthusiasm. Thank you also to Debra Dickinson, for her invaluable support as our administrative assistant over the last 11 years. She has been my greatest helping hand at Keuka. I also need to thank those amazing people seated to your left, my fellow faculty members of Keuka College. I was in my 20s when I began my teaching career here at Keuka, and I am now 40, therefore, I feel that they have played a significant role in raising me as a teaching professional. I have learned so much from these intelligent, insightful, wise, and challenging individuals. They have shared their ideas and philosophies with me; they have mentored me, challenged me, argued with me, befriended me, and most importantly, accepted me as their colleague and I am profoundly grateful to each of them.   

I need to thank the administration and staff of Keuka, most notably Dr. Joseph Burke. He has taught me invaluable lessons on leadership, strength, empowerment and commitment. I cannot put into words how much I appreciate the example that he has set for me, and the opportunities he has provided me with in my time at Keuka. We are all very blessed to have him as our president.

To the new students of Keuka College, today is your day. In this, your first academic ceremony, we gather to welcome you to our campus, our community, and our family. I have been asked to share some thoughts on this amazing educational journey that you are about to embark upon. You have made the choice to formally educate yourselves. This is step one in your journey, but there are about 10,000 other steps that you must take to complete your journey. Will you make the commitment necessary to take them? While you ponder that question, ask yourselves, "What would Joe do?" 

Joe is a 38-year-old man who works for the Internal Revenue Service as a collections representative. He is a board member of the National Federation for the Blind, and president of the Jacksonville, Florida, chapter of that federation. He is also the host of a radio call-in show, a homeowner, a taxpayer, a husband, and his most proud accomplishment, an independent human being. Joe is my youngest brother and because he has been my greatest inspiration to learn and expand my mind, I would like to share his gifts of courage, commitment and determination with all of you.

Joe embodies the definition of a life-long learner. He has been dedicated to taking those 10,000 educational steps necessary to becoming as independent a human being as possible. You see, Joe takes these steps in a world of darkness, because he is blind. He was born with severe eye problems that progressed rapidly throughout his childhood, resulting in total blindness by the time he was in high school. As a young boy, Joe wore corrective contact lenses and thick Coke-bottle glasses just to make out large objects and shadows, yet he never complained. He just wanted to be treated the same as all of the other children. Because he never wanted to be treated differently, he always hungered to learn everything he could from those around him. No one can navigate through this world without the help of others, and Joe recognized that he could learn most if he followed the lessons of others and accepted the help that they were willing to give him. 

When he was told that he could not do something because he was blind, it became his greatest desire to prove that theory wrong. If he couldn’t learn something the same way that others did, he would find an alternative way to learn it. Although he couldn’t see, he could touch, smell, hear, taste and think his way to understanding. He was my first introduction to how we all have different learning styles.

When Joe was in the elementary school, he missed an entire year of school, as he had to remain flat in bed to recuperate from one of his many eye surgeries that were attempted to correct his vision.  Although none of these surgeries worked, he was able to make that year up through hard work, sheer will and determination. While I was complaining about having to spend a half hour reading an assignment, Joe was spending several hours trying to learn Braille just so he could feel his way through the same words that I could see. As a child, I could not understand why Joe studied so hard when he could have just lived with my parents for the rest of his life and let them take care of him. When I asked him why he did so, his answer was always the same. He did not want my parents to take care of him, and if he wanted to be independent like everyone else, he would have to know more than they did.  Every time I find myself ready to give up on a difficult task, I think back on that philosophy and ask myself, "What would Joe do?" I know that if he didn’t have the right tool to solve a problem, he would just have to work harder with his other tools to end up with a successful result. This attitude always serves to remind me that if Joe never gives up, then neither should I. 

For obvious reasons, my parents told Joe that he could not ride a bike but undeterred, he found a way to ride a bike. He paced out an open area in a parking lot and figured out how to ride in the area that had no shade. If there was no shade, then there was no object to get in his way and he could ride his bike. He also learned how to water ski, play baseball, basketball, and football and with the help of my older brother, he even learned to drive a car.  (I wouldn’t recommend that one, though) 

Joe joined the wresting team in high school because he heard that you could learn about overcoming obstacles through team sports. Because the sport of wrestling allowed him to be in constant contact with his competitor, a blind person could actually stand a chance to fairly compete. Throughout his wrestling career, he managed to pin some of his competitors and win some of his matches, but he was certainly not one of the best wrestlers on the team. Despite this, he consistently inspired others and embodied what true sportsmanship really meant for both his teammates and his competitors. 

Joe graduated from high school and went on to study at SUNY Binghamton. During the summers he worked (without pay) at the Schuyler County Chamber of Commerce to provide community information to visiting tourists. Can you imagine working 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday from 8 to 5, without making a dime? Joe did it because he knew that if he ever wanted to get a job, he would need to build a resume of experience and because he was blind, no one was willing to give him that experience. The Chamber decided to hire him because it was hard for them to turn down Joe’s proposal to work for free. Joe worked there for four consecutive summers and used that form of experiential education to gain many of the lessons about customer service that he still draws from today. When Joe graduated from College with a B.S. degree, he then went on to a school for the blind in Arkansas. This school was designed to prepare Joe for what he wanted most in the world, independence. Joe truly believes that education leads to independence, and independence has always been his greatest desire. The school taught Joe how to live as a blind man in a sighted world. Upon completion of the program, Joe gained employment with the IRS and realized his dream. 

While in Arkansas, Joe met a girl named Gina and she became the love of his life. Gina was another blind student enrolled in the same program as he. When they graduated, they secured jobs, moved to Jacksonville, and got married. It officially became “the blind leading the blind.”  Having realized his dream of independence, Joe decided to share what he learned about living as a blind man in a sighted world with the other blind citizens of Jacksonville. He began to host a call-in radio show that communicated the services available to the blind of Jacksonville. He was the host and his wife Gina screened the calls; she became known as Gina the call screena. Joe was then asked to join the board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind, and went on to become the Florida chapter president. With Gina always assisting behind the scenes, these selfless individuals donate countless hours of their free time to helping others to realize the same level of independence that they have achieved. 

As you can tell, Joe is my hero and my respect for him has no parallel, but what can you take away from his story? That has to be up to you. One doesn’t have to experience a physical or mental handicap to be plagued by the difficulties and challenges of stretching and growing educationally. We all have strengths, but we also have weaknesses and need a helping hand in those areas of weakness. It is, however, up to us to ask for those helping hands. The members of this college community are committed to providing each of you with those helping hands. If you have difficulty with study skills or have a learning disability, our academic support office is staffed with people ready, willing and able to give you the help you need; you just have to be a willing participant in the process. We also have a faculty dedicated to working with students and using a variety of teaching styles to best meet your learning styles, but you have to be a willing participant in the process. We have a staff that will tirelessly work to make your life at Keuka as successful as possible, but again, you have to be a willing participant in the process. 

You have taken the first step in your educational journey, but if you ever doubt your ability to take those next 10,000 steps of going to class everyday, reading books, writing papers, taking tests, researching theories, testing hypotheses, asking questions, challenging your professors, joining clubs, leading clubs, running for Student Senate, serving your community, or just getting involved, ask yourself, “What would Joe do?” If he could transform a world of darkness into a technicolor life, and find independence through education, there is no doubt in my mind that you also can take those steps and find your own independence.

Thank you for sharing your afternoon with me and welcome to our family.

-- Ann Tuttle