A Feast of Words - Fall 2006 - Department of English - Virginia Tech

sional life.
Inquiry, the first navigational tool, can take
many forms and is highly adaptable to infinite
situations. Virginia Tech and the English department
have tried to provide a broad-based
education that helped develop your powers
of critical thinking and problem solving.
These essential skills of inquiry are keys
to leading a productive and fulfilling work
life. An important part of life for humans is
driven by their need to inquire. That is, life
for the engaged individual is about having
good problems to work on. In whatever area
you choose to focus your energy, whether it
is graduate school, professional or creative
writing, teaching, business or any number
of others, the real challenge is framing your
work into an infinite set of good problems.
Human beings are happiest when they are
engaged in problems that are interesting and
important. Each time you teach a class that
your students find useful or write a text that
communicates clearly and effectively, for
example, you are solving
a good problem. Solving
these kinds of problems
increases our self-confidence
and makes us feel
worthwhile.
There is an important
corollary to keep in mind
as you inquire and engage
in solving good problems
throughout your professional
life. That is, the
most interesting and challenging
problems are by
far the most intimidating.
Often your first reaction
to a complex problem
is to step back and tell
yourself that it is too scary
or difficult to engage and
that avoidance is the more
sensible response. From
my own personal experience
I must confess to you
that the problems that I
approached that generated
the most fearful reaction
and self doubt for me initially,
resulted in the most personal growth in
the end because I chose to engage them.
Thus, when you come to junctions on your
journey that represent new opportunities
or problems that seem overwhelming and
raise your levels of fear and self-doubt, fight
your instinct to back away to a safe harbor
– forge ahead, as you too will experience the
greatest reward of all, personal growth. Have
you had that same experience already? Has
an opportunity presented itself to you that
initially intimidated you? Did you engage it?
If so, remember how you felt afterward.
One of the features of good problems is
that they often require that you collaborate
with others. For most of us, undertaking really
important problems can be overwhelming.
We need support in a variety of ways.
Think for a moment about some of the
problems you have engaged. Was there a
time when you were stuck or unsure that your
thinking or work was satisfactory? It is in
this state that collaborations are so essential.
The new graduates join Lucinda Roy in singing her original
composition "Hokie-Vice," sung to the tune of "Edelweiss."
Commencement continued on page 6
Special Awards
Undergraduate
The Creative Writing
Fiction Award
Timothy Edward Johnson
The Creative Writing
Poetry Award
Jane Fuquay
The Emily Morrison Prize
for Poetry
Timothy Lockridge
The Sharon Messer Award
Michael Honchock
The Charles Martin Award
for the Best Writing
by a Graduating
English Major
Virginia Garnett
The Robert H. Dedman, Jr.
Prize for Excellence in Professional
Writing
Christopher Bayne
The Robert Chermside
Award for Outstanding
Work in Linguistics
Samantha Dickerson, Lindsey
Norris, Angela Schulz
Graduate
The Caroline Pace Chermside
Award for the Best Thesis
Edward Andrew Lautenschlager,
Nita Newswander
The Richard L. Hoffman
Award for Superior Teaching by a
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Matthew Beale, Kara Haggard
The Poster Awards
First Prize - Cheri Lemieux-Spiegel
Honorable Mention - Emily Davis
and Mimi McDonald
Fall 2006 5