Dressed in their caps and gowns, warmed by the brilliant May sunshine on Saturday morning, more than 400 Fort Lewis College students waited to walk through the doors of the Whalen Gymnasium and turn their tassels as the graduating class of spring 2014.
Divided into two ceremonies, the building roared throughout campus, as a crowd of family and friends, alumni and future graduates rubbed shoulders to find seats, hug their peers and shake some hands. There were tears of joy, lots of high-fives and even a few bear hugs.
Serae Mele said she loves Durango and its mountains, but it’s time to move on.
“I’m excited and looking forward to the future,” she said.
She plans to begin applying to graduate programs in physical therapy this summer.
Patrick Yarbrough wants to pursue physics in a graduate program, continuing the education he started here. He said he’ll take with him that he was allowed to discover who he was while at FLC.
“It was finding out what I like,” he said. “Growing as an individual.”
FLC President Dene Kay Thomas told students in her address to accept an applause “from all of those in the room that love you,” saying, “College changes you, as one of the most significant accomplishments in your life.”
She asked that graduates consider the moment: the room, filled with heartfelt smiles, proud loved ones and flashing cameras.
“Look around you,” she said. “These are the people that helped you come this far. Now it’s your turn to applaud them.”
The group rose to show their appreciation.
Rex Lee Jim, vice president of the Navajo Nation, said he knew what it was like to be them.
After saying a few words in Navajo, he said, “I know what it means to improve yourself. Improve your community. Improve your family.”
He challenged the class to “be bold.”
“Dare to be yourself,” he said.
But it was a former FLC quarterback, a business major from the class of 1976, who delivered words that rang. A man that, to some, stirred the pot.
After a month with student marches, protests and petitions that the Fort Lewis College Foundation, the college’s fundraising chapter, cease its investments in fossil fuels during the next five years, about $150,000, the foundation declined, citing the ineffectiveness of such a move, as well as depending on the industry’s contributions.
Instead of changing investment policy, board members said, the foundation decided to closely monitor fossil-fuel investments annually.
So when John Chisholm took the stage and addressed the class of 2014, it wasn’t lost on graduates or many others in the auditorium that he is the CEO of Flotek Industries, a company largely involved, and prolific, in the removal of fossil fuels and a developer of new technologies to do so.
While Flotek is synonymous with hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, it may also be lost to many that it is recognized for developing environmentally sensitive practices and technologies in the method, which uses water, sand and other chemicals to fracture rock layers trapping fossil fuels.
He had his work cut out for him, and, quoting the musically gifted and lyrically provocative Canadian rock band Rush, he seemed to pull it off.
He spoke of his repeated failures, how he overcame them and brought a company from the back of his pickup truck to a one worth $1.5 billion.
He advised graduates to share their knowledge to solve problems.
“Knowledge, to me, is no longer power,” he said. “It is the responsibility to help.”
In closing, he told graduates to use their lives wisely.
“The future disappears into memory, with only a moment in between,” he said, quoting what he called his favorite song. “Make sure you enjoy the moments of your life.”
bmathis@durangoherald.com
