WGU Faculty Meetings and Graduation

As most of you know, I only see my co-workers twice a year. Even though our week of faculty meetings is extremely hectic, we always look forward to seeing each other and spending time together.

Last Wednesday, we had a half-day of meetings, and then I had the opportunity to take several of my friends to the Draper Temple open house. I think they all enjoyed learning more about the importance of temples and temple ordinances to us. Even as I was saying good-bye to my friend, Heather (hi Heather!), on Saturday, she said that her head was still spinning. I especially enjoyed walking through the temple with Scarlette. In the 4 ½ years that we have known each other, she has always been comfortable asking me questions about my beliefs. It was fun to experience this culmination of all of those discussions.

For those who may not know, I am one of the “Southern Girls,” as far as many fellow WGU employees are concerned. Since I spend most of my time with Scarlette (formerly Georgia, now Alabama), Blake (Alabama), Cindy (formerly Alabama, now Mississippi), and Debra (Georgia), most people assume that I am also from the South. Some of you know that my grandfather was born and raised in Alabama. We’ve decided that I’m a Southern Girl, both by association and ancestry. Here are the “Southern Girls,” also known as the “Dixie Chicks” at our Thursday night dinner.

And here we are (minus Scarlette who always hobnobs with the VIPs) at Saturday’s graduation. I loved this graduation ceremony. We were lucky enough to have former Governor/former Secretary of Health & Human Services/co-founder of WGU, Mike Leavitt with us. We also enjoyed the speech of Scott McNealy, Chairman and Co-founder of Sun Microsystems, and one of the initial believers in (and contributors to) the WGU model and ideas. His inclusion of “the top ten dumbest interview lines” was a great hit, and was very entertaining.

The four student speakers were also very uplifting and motivating. They all had such amazing stories of how they got to this point. They had us all weepy and teary. I need to remember to take Kleenex to graduation!

A couple of years ago, Ryan and Blake started comparing height. Since Blake is the shortest of our group (but not by much), they thought it would be fun to check Ryan's growth every six months by comparing him to Blake. He's getting there!It was a busy, but very fun week. I look forward to seeing everyone again in July!