Values,
Vision, Ventures
Inaugural Address
President Barbara Gellman-Danley, Ph.D
I am very honored and humbled
by the gift of today. Before acknowledging any one individual, allow me
to recognize the McGregor students and those attending from the College.
Everything we do is for you, and having you here today makes it all the
more special to me.
I want to extend my appreciation
to Chairman Krinsky and the Antioch University Board of Trustees for selecting
me to lead this wonderful institution. I want to offer special thanks to
the McGregor Committee chaired by Barbara Winslow with trustees Bruce Bedford
and Jessica Lipnack. I am blessed with a wonderful committee and your support
for today. Each of you helped make these inaugural events possible. Bruce,
your support of McGregor in the past two years shows our faculty and staff
how much you believe in their initiatives and our campus.
Thank
you to Chancellor James Hall for your leadership, your colleagueship
and ongoing support.
My family and I appreciate both you and Liz for constantly making us feel
so welcome. To the University Leadership Council, and my fellow presidents,
you have been my greatest source of support, and to you Toni, I am so grateful
for your kind words, your leadership and your friendship. Glenn, Lois and
Laurien, you have been in my corner from the beginning, and Paul and members
of the Chancellor’s office, thank you each for helping McGregor many,
many times. Bob, thanks for your personal support for today’s events,
and for McGregor.
I also want to thank the
members of the platform party, so many of you who have welcomed me hear
today with your kind words and good wishes. Thank you Dr. Crowe for taking
the time to be with us today, and for bringing us your important message.
McGregor has a wonderful,
and new Board of Visitors. Thanks to each of you for your intellectual,
professional and personal generosity. You will provide the counsel that
will move us from a strong institution to a truly great one. I am also
grateful for my professional colleagues here from the Miami Valley, especially
those representing the Miami Valley Competency Profiling System board,
the Greater Dayton IT Alliance and the Chamber of Commerce.
I
have many mentors to thank. First and foremost, Dr. Thurman White of
Oklahoma for being my guide
and friend (and surrogate father) since 1981. You would have been here
if possible, and I know you are in spirit. My love to you and Corrine who
will watch this on tape. I also am grateful for the guidance of the Oklahoma
Chancellors, and the many presidents of the League for Innovation in the
Community College – especially Peter Spina, Vernon Crawley and our
own David Ponitz and Ned Sifferlin.
I
want to thank the McGregor Community. The faculty, administrators and
staff are as talented as any
in this country. To the President’s Council, you have been exemplary
team players, living up to the very tenets of Douglas McGregor. To Steve
Brzezinski, your class and style today, coupled with your hard work and
commitment, have allowed me to lead as a team, not as a solo flyer. And
to Steve’s wife, Mary, you are a fabulous member of the executive
team’s spouse advocacy group! To Vikki thank you for your comments
today and for helping us find our way to good financial health.
And
to the incredible inauguration committee, your work is nearly finished,
but my gratitude is endless. Let’s
recognize Katy Rhodes, Vicky Cook, Terri Haney Tom Bordenkircher, Christine
Coates, Jamie Schoening, Jon Saari, Rebecca Kuder, Rhonda McArthur, Tom
McNichol, Tom Brown, Julie Hatton, Darlene Robertson, Tom Blessing and
Marge Mott. Thanks to David Manley for all your technical assistance, Marsha
Terry for your creativity and Steve Spencer of WYSO for your help with
the Nimoy video news release. And I would also like to thank the College’s
facilities and maintenance staff for their efforts in making the campus
so beautiful for us today. Thanks to Bingenheimer Design, and especially
Nick Gaskin for working with our team to prepare all the print materials
for today. And let’s show our appreciation to our musicians today,
(Swan Chamber, Puzzle of Light and Sam McCoy Trio). The inauguration committee
would not accede to my request to play only disco, Disney or Broadway musical
tunes, and I guess I’m seeing the wisdom of their ways.
And
my friends. Please recognize two special groups attending today. Those
from Monroe Community
College in Rochester, New York (who get special appreciation for bringing
me real bagels) and those from Moraine Valley Community College in Chicago
southland. I have friends here today from the Chamber’s Executive
Leadership Group of which I am a member, from my Temple (or the coffee
klatch as I call them) and many others. And to my very good friend Bryan
Nadeau who is here today from San Francisco; he is the producer and editor
of the Nimoy tape.
In this community where
we celebrate the innovation of flight, we all know very well a successful
journey takes many players. No pilot is solely responsible for reaching
this kind of destination. To that end, may I ask you to recognize that
there are three empty chairs today, an idea I borrowed from my favorite
musical, Les Miserables. One chair is for my late parents who taught me
education is a requisite, not an option. For my mother, in particular,
who taught me women must be able to take care of themselves and reach their
own potential, if they are to be good partners and members of the world
community.
This first chair is also
for my Uncle Jack, Aunt Betty and Uncle Sam who all encouraged my pursuits
of learning.
The
second chair is for friends, who have gone before their time – Pam, Kay and Karen, all
Oklahomans who I met through my first college-level teaching experience.
For the losses felt in this past year at any of Antioch’s campuses,
and in our families. And for friends of our institution, especially our
namesake Douglas McGregor a great social scientist and management theorist
who taught us that every employee makes a valuable contribution, and democracy
in an organization exceeds autocracy.
The final chair is for
two mentors of mine, and to some of you, as well. The first is Dr. Richard
(Dick Millard) former head of the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation,
with whom I held many discussions on the importance of integrating technology
into teacher education programs, as early as the mid-eighties. And this
third chair is also in memory of the late Carolyn Desjardins whose program
on leadership development changed the face of American higher education.
I
am graced with a committed extended family, two incredible sisters (Vicki
and Gail) and my brother-in-law
Michael who has known me since the first time I could vote and he could
argue with my choice. To my husband’s family (and now mine) Charla,
Charlie, Janetta, Rob, Karen and Rob, thank you for being here today.
I am especially proud of
my children. Our merged family brings me the joy of Janelle Danley and
Andrea Danley, lovely, promising and warm young women. And finally, to
my two boys. Samuel, who lived through my pursuit of many degrees and positions
that often, took time away from us. You have grown into such a promising
young man, for which I am very proud. And to Kory, my chorus; you, my child,
make my heart sing.
Anyone
in a leadership role recognizes the important role of a partner. Someone
with whom you
can share ideas, vent frustrations, practice the angry speeches you dare
never deliver, keep up all night as you edit strategic plans on your bed
and in general, bring a lot more work into your lives that any spouse deserves.
I have the perfect partner for this journey we call McGregor, my husband
Bill. Bill’s a retired police sergeant whom I quite sure never expected
he’d end up at Antioch University. But he has embraced it fully, and
is currently a student in our teacher certification program. Bill, you
free my heart so I may give it to others, and graciously never position
that as a loss. We are many years away from "Lucy I’m home, and
what’s for dinner?" You never knew you’d become a feminist,
but by your actions, you could be inducted into the Women’s Hall of
Fame. You support me because you love me, and in many ways, you believe
in what we are doing here. For that and for many reasons, I love you deeply.
And if Al Gore could get away with it, so can I.
We
have come here today to celebrate not a person, but an institution. No
leader leads in isolation.
At Antioch University we have five campuses, governed through a Chancellor
and a Board of Trustees. Each of the adult campuses has a Board of Visitors,
and we all have as our core focus, indeed our main customer, students.
At the local level, we provide faculty, administrators and staff. At the
external level, we must answer to many organizations – within the
state, regionally and nationally. Most are represented here this afternoon.
Today we speak of the McGregor
strategic plan, Values, Vision, Ventures. Our values are embedded in social
justice and whole person education. Our vision is unfolding, and we will
announce several ventures. But for any of these to succeed, it is imperative
that we have the full support and commitment of all the individuals and
groups I mentioned previously.
Today
marks the beginning of a new era. Effective at this morning’s board
meeting, we approved changing our name to Antioch University McGregor.
This reflects our beginnings
and foundation, in the right and proper order. We ARE Antioch University
and although that conjures up a wide array of images and perceptions, we
embrace them fully. We have been mistaken as a business school, or a charter
school. Of course, we are neither. There are two Antioch campuses in this
town, and sometimes we are confused with Antioch College.
If I were to casually clarify
our differences, I would tell you to approach our two Yellow Springs campuses
by driving down Livermore Street from downtown, and therefore, Antioch
College would be to your LEFT . . . But let me be quite clear in saying
we are the child of Antioch College and while all children grow into their
own unique identities, our parental influence and conditioning are not
without consequences. They give us the strength to be free thinkers, to
speak freely, to challenge ideas and sometimes authority, and to take risks.
We
need our colleagues and our continued support from Antioch College. Understand
we are members of
the same family, but that we have rights and needs that differentiate us,
at times greatly. We also need to feel the continuous support of our Board
of Trustees. Know that Antioch University McGregor will not be ordinary
and we will come to you with ideas that may be seemingly risky, divergent
from the past, and in some cases outright challenging to the entire University
structure. But not to this would be irresponsible, and I personally, would
not be excited to be a maintenance president. We have things that must
be done to meet the changing needs of our learners. It will not help us
if you are reticent, or afraid, or withhold change due to histories of
other campuses. We will not be asking for the small things, for in small
thinking, higher education is non-responsive and stagnant. McGregor, on
the other hand, cannot rest on the values and laurels of past Antioch revolutions,
those that literally changed people’s lives, as well as colleges and
universities throughout this country. We, now, must make our own legacies.
Allow me to paraphrase briefly
from Les Miserables, the scene in which the rebels charge themselves up
to go into battle:
Do you hear the people
sing?
Singing of times of way back then?
It is the music of a people who
Will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
None of us can be slaves
to the past if we are to discover the possibilities of our future.
The rebels go on to ask,
as I do, Will you join in our crusade? Will be strong and stand with me?
They entice by saying, Will you give all you can give so that our banners
will advance? And with great assertion, they raise their banners and chant;
will you come and take your chance? These are the words of men and women
of principle, who know what it will take to win some victory for humanity
before they die, the same principle of commitment we learned from our founder
Horace Mann.
There is a rising chant
within the McGregor faculty, administration, staff and yes, students. We
feel that it is imperative not to be held hostage to "this is the
way it has always been" type of thinking. If pedagogy were to follow
that myopia of thought, we would still be teaching with grades, large classrooms,
in a punitive, normative evaluation system. That simply is not who we are.
We need the types of buildings and classrooms that provide appropriate
educational environments for adult learners. And we need to consider reaching
beyond what is called the "edifice complex" and find ways to
deliver our courses and programs to learners all over the world.
This "beating of the
heart" at McGregor is causing a small and steady uprising where our
faculty are demanding the support needed to move us into the next generation
of learners, and our support staff are demanding that our faculty set aside
traditional ways and re-package learning to accommodate the students. This
creative tension is often at the core of a successful university, and it
does not scare me one bit.
Everyone at McGregor is
grateful for the support of Ohio Regents and Department of Education but
we need more. While we are a private university, we still have a considerable
impact on the citizens of this state, and should be recognized accordingly
when it comes to funding through grants and special initiatives. Give us
every opportunity to partner with your public colleges and universities
so we can extend the value-added to creative endeavors for our state’s
learners. For our accrediting bodies, you are doing what is needed to include
us in your own revolution of change.
We will not make your lives
easier as we continue to push against regulations that may need revision
or updating. Rather than find ways to beat the system, we are committed
to help you CHANGE it. I have had many constructive arguments about the
way distance learning is put under a microscope, far greater than traditional
classrooms. I have only one request to North Central Association, be fair
and equitable across delivery systems. The rest will follow.
For our Board of Visitors,
you are part of the new life of Antioch University McGregor. You are our
advisors, our path to the key stakeholders and leaders in Miami Valley.
You have given us your advice and your support, your partnerships and your
ventures. We need this newest infusion of creativity and growth to continue;
we are so grateful for what you are doing; we will need more.
For our faculty, you embrace
the adage that "we live in interesting times." You are giving
all you can give, and on the horizon, this will not change. But if we work
together to examine our curriculum and programs, we can redirect that tireless
effort to the most productive venues, those that will ultimately free you
up to maximize your own time within the professorship and the academy.
I realize it is very difficult to look at programs that have been successful
and may face a downward spiral trend, but market forces are not to be overlooked.
Antioch University McGregor’s faculty have great minds and will turn
to our larger community with new ideas that may be so bold and different
as to revolutionize the way higher learning takes place in the Miami Valley,
and beyond.
To our administrators and
staff, your battle cry is also being heard. You need more structure, and
at the same time, you want the freedom to explore, change, adapt and jettison
ahead. That type of creative tension is also a daily factor at McGregor.
For every problem, there are many solutions. I ask you to be solution-oriented,
because I trust that each of you has the ability and commitment to bring
forth changes that will advance our vision, and our University.
For the Chancellor and the
University Leadership Council, you are beginning to get a sense of what
to expect. When we first met, some of you found me so quiet and reserved
that you wondered if I had the energy to handle the sea change that is
riding waves over our institution. After nearly 18 months, many of you
probably wish for those quieter, more introverted times. Well, they are
gone. That was the interview; this is the real world! I need you, Chancellor
Hall, and the ULC to take risks, to work collaboratively with McGregor
so we can make the changes needed to turn us into a very strong viable
cog in this University’s wheel. I will challenge each of you on behalf
of my campus, and will not settle for any form of complacency, fear or
hesitancy. Great ideas and great universities are not built on silence
or hesitance, but rather on shouting from the rooftops, or as the song
states, "hearing the beating of the drums." You may hesitate,
my colleagues, but our students cannot and will not. If we do not take
major risks, they will go elsewhere.
Imagine now the revolution
of Antioch University McGregor. Our values are deep within the core of
each person associated with this institution. We take these values and
paint for you our vision of tomorrow.
I envision an institution
that is a lifelong learning place for our students. We not only serve them
during their degree matriculation; we provide them lifelong continuing
education. We are not place-dependent or locked into one building, and
are willing to find ways to bring our educational offerings closer to the
learner. Academic integrity is the fuel that energizes our movement. We
are responsive to our learners’ needs, and programmatic development
is based not on our own priorities, but on students’. We are the sage
guides, with the recognition that routes to an education are becoming increasingly
abundant and complex. Of course, at McGregor, we are willing to take that
road less taken.
Antioch University McGregor
is an outstanding institution standing on the promise of the new millennium.
We are built on the strengths of our people, our programs and our learners.
We will continue to offer undergraduate and graduate programs. Some will
change, others will be added. If we are told that continuing education
units or certificate programs are needed, we will respond. We will create
a seamless movement from the undergraduate to the graduate programs. We
will partner with other institutions to provide the first part of the undergraduate
degree and expedite transfer.
We will be state-of-the-art
in facilities and technology. That is my vision. Our learners who come
to a McGregor location must be greeted by an environment suitable for adults – attractive,
well maintained and customer-centered. And for those that come to us on
a limited basis or through distance learning, we will meet their needs
as well.
McGregor will have legacy
programs that will be remembered for many decades to come. Some day, when
Antioch University’s history is replayed, we will be at the forefront.
The co-op program, the transformational education, the McGregor –-
you fill in the blank.
I am proud today to list four new
such initiatives, each with the power to become the legacy program of tomorrow.
Venture
One: M.A. in Management, Community College Track, and Scholarship
Program in the Memory of Dr. Carolyn Desjardins
John F. Kennedy stated
that, there are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far
less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. We will
never be accused of inactivity. We have, for example, a graduate management
program, modeled after the W.K.Kellogg program at Northwestern. But knowing
this program has potential and has done well is not enough for Antioch
University McGregor. I agree with Charles Kettering, a great friend to
Antioch, who said, my interest is in the future because I am going to spend
the rest of my life there. Me too.
To that end, the first
venture comes from the Graduate Management Program, which is establishing
a special track to educate community college leaders. This community college
focus will begin in the fall of 2001. Every student will be required to
take the core management courses, and those in the community college track
will take special courses focused on that field. We are currently surveying
community colleges through our partnership with the League for Innovation
in the Community College, of which Sinclair is a member. We will find out
through this research how many courses should be online versus at cites
across the country. We hope to offer limited residencies in Chicago and
other areas where the nation’s leading community colleges exist.
I am also pleased to announce
a scholarship fund that will be established in concert with this program,
in memory of Dr. Carolyn Desjardins. As I mentioned earlier, Carolyn was
a leadership theory expert, as co-founder of the National Institute for
Leadership Development. This organization began in the 1981; I personally
attended the charter year workshop. The target audience is women who are
upwardly mobile at community colleges, many of whom already have master’s
degrees and are seeking next steps. This past week, the board of NILD discussed
ways Antioch University McGregor can partner with them for possible credit-bearing
transfer courses. This is a very high level organization, whose faculty
includes national management experts such as Margaret Wheatley. The scholarship
fund will begin in the summer of 2001 with an annual gift of $1000 from
an early graduate, with a challenge to participate to Carolyn’s other
graduates, over 3000 of them.
The degree and the partners
in the League, NILD and others will strengthen the existing program and
in a long-term way, impact the leadership cadre at community colleges across
the country. There is no such degree anywhere else.
Venture Two: Program
in Patient Advocacy $12,000
Grant from the Porrath Foundation for Patient Advocacy
Alfred North Whitehead
once noted that ideas won’t keep; something must be done about them.
The next venture I will tell you about is definitely an idea whose time
has come. Antioch University, through McGregor, is studying the possibility
of a graduate level certificate in patient advocacy. We have just received
a $12,000 feasibility grant from the Porrath Foundation for Patient Advocacy.
The goal is to build a program to train professional personal patient advocates
and make them accessible to the public. Dr. Saar Porrath, for whom the
Foundation is named, was a radiation therapist and breast oncologist in
the Los Angeles area who developed a very aggressive cancer and died last
year. When Saar reversed his role and became a patient, his life’s
goal of helping people navigate the health care system was intensified.
Antioch University has three campuses working on this project, McGregor,
Southern California and The New England Graduate School. This is teamwork
at its best and we hope to have the results of this study next spring.
Why Antioch? The cause certainly fits our values. Why McGregor? Saar was
a very intelligent child prodigy who went off to college at age 16. At
that time, he had a very young first cousin who he used to lift up by her
elbows. She grew up to be a college president.
Venture Three: Partnership
with Yale University Regional Training Center for the Comer School Development
Program
Our next venture comes
from our teacher education program. I am announcing today a wonderful partnership
with Yale University. In the spirit of Isaac Newton, let me share his sentiment
in stating, if I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulder of
giants. One giant in teacher education on whose shoulders we are proud
to stand is Dr. James P. Comer (M.D.) who established the School Development
Program at Yale, and is now inviting Antioch University McGregor to become
a Regional Professional Development Center. The Comer Process is a comprehensive
educational reform strategy based on the principles of child, adolescent
and adult development. It mobilizes teachers, administrators, parents and
other concerned adults to support students’ personal, social and academic
growth. It also helps them make better programmatic and curriculum decisions
based on students’ needs and on developmental principles. Yale works
with urban schools, using trained faculty, to form a partnership in making
this happen.
In a recent graduation
speech, President Clinton stated, No American has proven so clearly as
Professor Comer that all children can learn if given the right learning
environment, and I am very grateful to him. The vision of the School Development
Program is to help create a just and fair society in which all children
have the educational and personal opportunities that will allow them to
become successful and satisfied participants in family and civic life.Results
of research on the program yield fascinating findings. School Development
Program researchers have conducted numerous studies of student achievement
in Comer schools over the past 15 years. Some studies have compared student
achievement in Comer schools to that in control schools. A 1985 study,
for example, found that fourth and fifth grade students in Comer schools
received significantly higher reading and math grades than students in
control schools, and that third and fourth grade students in Comer schools
scored significantly higher on CAT reading tests. Other studies have compared
student achievement in Comer schools to that for the district as a whole.
In Prince George's County, Maryland, for example, average percentile gains
on math, reading, and language arts CAT scores for the district's 10 Comer
schools were significantly higher than the average percentile gains for
district schools as a whole.
In order to make Comer
Process training opportunities available closer to home, a very limited
number of Regional Professional Development Centers will be established.
At these centers, Yale forms a partnership with a local university whose
faculty who have received extensive Comer School Development Program training.
We have three such faculty. Thanks to the hard work of Beverly Guterman,
Ann Lowe and Tom Bordenkircher, we were selected as the newest center,
within the past two weeks. Our work will begin soon, and we are already
in discussion with Yale about the needs for the Dayton area.
Venture Four: Classroom for the Future $10,000 Planning Grant from the Dayton Business Committee
The fourth venture is a
personal mission of mine. We call it the Classroom for the Future Project.
The goal is to create a teaching-learning environment that enables Teacher
Education students to become knowledgeable, skilled, practitioner-educators
in an increasingly technological world. Imagine the typical classroom environment
today. While computers and other tools are present for teachers’ use,
we still remain entrenched in a poster-board, post-World War II facility.
Although teachers espouse the importance of multi-culturalism, there remains
one alphabet posted in elementary school rooms – with traditional
Arabic lettering. Poster boards and overhead projectors still abound, remnants
of federal funding from the sixties. Globes are still standardized sizes,
without the ability to update with new countries and focus in on regions.
While many teachers are increasingly comfortable with using projection
equipment that is more modern, far too many exemplify the gap between the
students and themselves. The technologically pervasive world is still a
long ways away from our typical classrooms.
We will seek funding for
a Classroom for the Future, a room in which our teacher education candidates
learn and study in an environment that is so modern it contains software
and hardware that may not even be out on the market place yet. Some of
you may remember the World’s Fair of the sixties, specifically the
General Electric pavilion. Guests were invited to look at a home of the
future – a modernized kitchen, for example, that contained a soon-to-be-introduced
gadget, the microwave oven. Not unlike Epcot at Disney World in Florida,
the GE exhibit enticed attendees to dream about a future, one in which
they would participate and in some cases, help discover.
Now take that idea into
the classroom. Rather than educate Teacher Education students in a staid,
typical university classroom, we want to take our educational foundation
and build that into a technologically rich atmosphere. Note the importance
of building upon our expertise in teaching and learning. This is not Inspector
Gadget for learners, but rather a pedagogically sound learning lab for
future teachers. And it is the teachers who will influence students on
the educational uses of these pervasive tools, not the video game or Internet
vendors.
Students from local schools
will be invited in to participate as a way of bridging the theory to practice,
and in some cases, actual student teaching may take place in the Classroom for the Future.
With appropriate funding,
each year a minimum of five scholarships will be rewarded to the McGregor
Technology Teachers, candidates who will not only participate in the regular
program, but go beyond to become our in-house technology scholars. They
will be expected to conduct research and practitioner projects that inform
all of our students (and alum) about the impact of technology on teaching
and learning. And their work will be available to the discipline and the
field in which they study.
Let’s think big. Eventually,
similar classrooms can be extended to the Dayton Public Schools and one-two
suburban school districts. Through these additional classrooms, our teacher
education students can learn and study, while integrating actual students
from the K-12 arena.
There are several Dayton
area schools that are interested in the project. In the year 2003, the
Dayton area will be sponsoring a celebration of the Wright brothers’ earlier
aviation discoveries, entitled "Inventing Flight." As outsiders
from around the world come to Dayton, we believe our model Classroom for the Future would receive many interested visitors.
We are also very aware of
the shortage of trained information technology (IT) professionals across
the country. If teachers become excited and informed about the educational
applications of technology, they in turn will motivate students from the
earliest grade levels forward. These children are our future IT workers,
and we believe strongly this type of program can begin to impact the shortages.
Today, less than one percent of students entering colleges and universities
major in computer science. Yet there are over a half million jobs unfilled
in IT. Teachers have such an enormous impact on our future leaders and
society; let’s come together to create a legacy program that begin
to change these trends.
As we began preparing to
seek funds for this program, we recognized the need to conduct a study
that will focus our efforts. I am very pleased to announce that we have
received a $10,000 planning grant from the Dayton Business Committee. We
are grateful to our Board of Visitor’s member Doug Mangen for showing
the DBC that supporting teacher education at McGregor can lead to better
schools in the Miami Valley. We believe strongly this seed money will help
us plant revolutionary changes in the future of technology in teaching
and learning.
So there you have it. Building
upon our strengths in the undergraduate program, our graduate programs
in management, teacher and administrator education, conflict resolution,
intercultural relations and the individual liberal and professional studies
degrees, we have new legacies to build. I am a dreamer, my friends, and
Antioch University McGregor is home to those who dream.
There are no singular heroes
in the journey to go this distance although each of us must be heroic in
our commitment. To that end, I would like to invite up here with me, everyone
on stage who is from McGregor, faculty, administrators, staff and students.
Stand by me as I tell you the story of McGregor’s vision, through
the works of Alan Menken:
I have often dreamed
of a far-off place
Where a hero’s welcome will be waiting for me.
Where the crowds will cheer when they see my face,
And a voice keeps saying this is where I’m meant to be.
I’ll be there some
day
I can go the distance
I will find my way
If I can be strong.
I’ll know every mile
Will be worth my while
When I go the distance
I’ll be right where I belong.
Down an unknown road
To embrace my fate
Though that road may wander
It will lead me to you
And the thousand years
Would be worth the wait
It might take a lifetime
But somehow I’ll see it through.
And I won’t look
back
I can go the distance.
And I’ll stay on track,
No I won’t accept defeat
It’s an uphill slope
But I won’t lose hope
Till I go the distance
And my journey is complete.
Thank you for making feel
I have found this place where I belong. You are my heroes. My friends,
watch us at Antioch University McGregor. Together, we will go the distance!
