Millenials as Slackers? Not most Hokies!

We’ve all heard the stereotypes for your generation of Millennials. One of the top labels for Generation Y is that you're slackers. This semester, I started to really question this label after meeting with so many students who blew me away: the junior, who is an assistant manager at an on-campus dining center, holds an incredibly high GPA and wants to be a doctor. Or, the first year engineering student who is already doing undergraduate research, has a stellar GPA and met with me to talk about finding an internship. I could keep going on with this list, but you get the picture. Want to find some driven Millennials?  Hokies fit the bill.

Our Division of Student Affairs is working on a new initiative to ensure all you Hokies have five key qualities before you complete your undergraduate education. While you follow a curriculum in your majors, a “course plan” is being created for outside your major, that centers around key aspirations for student learning; this new program will go through a test run with some entering students this fall. Although this program is new, these aspirations have been in place for a while. For the past three years, Student Affairs has recognized students who are already embracing these five areas with ASPIRE! Awards.

To give you an idea of what some of your fellow Hokies have been up to, I’ve highlighted a 2013-14 ASPIRE! Award recipient for each aspiration.

Commit to unwavering Curiosity: Virginia Tech students will be inspired to lead lives of curiosity, embracing a life-long commitment to intellectual development. Families with infants in Malawi will be better off thanks to Ashley Taylor’s unwavering curiosity where she is working on a team designing an infant resuscitator to help newborns.

Pursue Self-Understanding and Integrity: Virginia Tech students will form a set of affirmative values and develop the self-understanding to integrate these values into their decision-making. Camryn Sorg has stayed true to her value of building sustainable communities through the ten weeks she spent at a school in Peru and an internship in Virginia Beach’s Environmental and Sustainability Office.  

Practice Civility: Virginia Tech students will understand and commit to civility as a way of life in their interactions with others. After Kelly Berry heard of one student’s plight living out of a gym locker and the library, she pursued creation of 209 Manna Ministry at the Wesley Foundation that provides food for students in need.

Prepare for a life of Courageous Leadership: Virginia Tech students will be courageous leaders who serve as change agents and make the world more humane and just. Wes Williams is a change agent in human trafficking where he invented AboliShop to bring together opponents of human trafficking, and he is continuing his efforts working for change.

Embrace Ut Prosim as a way of life: Virginia Tech students will enrich their lives through service to others. Chris Atkins took being the 2013 Virginia Tech Homecoming King to a whole new level with his “King for a Cause” campaign, raising funds and awareness for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and sharing his crown with seven year old, Nathan Orban, who is battling cancer.

The list above is just a handful of this year’s honorees, as well as the 1000’s of other Hokies who do so much more than get their degrees. Indeed, on the first Saturday in April, maybe you were one of the 7800 Hokies who gave their time to the local community through the 13^th annual Big Event where student participants had a hand in almost 900 community service projects. 

Millennials as slackers? The next time someone says this to you, tell them to come visit Virginia Tech--The Hokie Nation can definitely prove them wrong, can't we?! After all, we're not just driven for ourselves, but also we're doing it for the 32.

My dear friend and former co-worker, Barbara K Tipton wrote a poem after April 16, 2007. Here are Barbara's moving words:

Hokies' Spirits Never Die

Barbara Kregloe Tipton

April 30, 2007

Hokies, Hokies, Hokies Die

Leaving us to wonder why

Victims of a hellish fate

The demon did not hesitate

We saw our sacred hallowed hall

Now shrouded in a deathly pall

Too many injured too few survived

The devil’s carnage had arrived

Those who call this campus home

Though thousands strong felt so alone

Then the world came to us from far and wide

To shoulder the burden and stand by our side

They shared their prayers and gave us strength

They vowed to stay with us at length

To give us peace, comfort and relief

To ease the anger, pain and grief

No reason we have for so many lost

We that remain will pay the cost

Too quickly did they all depart

Now they’ll live within our hearts

Hokie, Hokie, Hokie high

Hokies sailing through the sky

Soaring up to Heaven’s door

Hokie angels forever more

After the shock we sought to blame

Our need was great to judge and shame

One grievous gunman acting alone

But he had demons of his own

With time and courage we will forgive

But we’ll not forget as long as we live

With broken hearts we said goodbye

But Hokie Spirits never die.