2008 Woodie Awards
Congratulations to the graduating class of 2005!
Issue date: 6/2/05 Section: Grad Section
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"The faculty and staff of the University of Washington, Tacoma wish you well as you go forward to your future. We hope during the time that you spent with us that you were transformed to think about ideas, your careers, and your communities in many different ways.
We were transformed by your presence. The University of Washington, Tacoma is made up of students, faculty, staff, and many others, which provides us with a dynamically changing community. The role of a university is to bring new ideas and thoughts to the social fabric of a society and we cannot do that if not for you. Each time you spoke in class, wrote a paper, participated in a campus event or talked to others about your experience, you changed the fabric of the University of Washington community. That is why a diverse population on campus is so important - so we hear from many different voices, and think about the issues that confront us on a daily basis from dialogue rather than isolation.
I congratulate you on your success! I would like to leave you with a few words from bell hooks, one of my favorite authors. In her book, Teaching to Transgress, she explores how the university experience mirrors societal problems of exclusion and privilege but it nonetheless remains a place of hope, freedom, and most importantly, transformation.
"The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom with all its limitations remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labour for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom. "(hooks, 1994, p. 207)
Good luck to you as you leave this metropolitan university! We are confident that you will use your education to transform your lives, your communities, and our global village. "
Christine A. Stevens, PhD, RN
Assistant Professor - Nursing
We were transformed by your presence. The University of Washington, Tacoma is made up of students, faculty, staff, and many others, which provides us with a dynamically changing community. The role of a university is to bring new ideas and thoughts to the social fabric of a society and we cannot do that if not for you. Each time you spoke in class, wrote a paper, participated in a campus event or talked to others about your experience, you changed the fabric of the University of Washington community. That is why a diverse population on campus is so important - so we hear from many different voices, and think about the issues that confront us on a daily basis from dialogue rather than isolation.
I congratulate you on your success! I would like to leave you with a few words from bell hooks, one of my favorite authors. In her book, Teaching to Transgress, she explores how the university experience mirrors societal problems of exclusion and privilege but it nonetheless remains a place of hope, freedom, and most importantly, transformation.
"The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom with all its limitations remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labour for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom. "(hooks, 1994, p. 207)
Good luck to you as you leave this metropolitan university! We are confident that you will use your education to transform your lives, your communities, and our global village. "
Christine A. Stevens, PhD, RN
Assistant Professor - Nursing