This video titled, “Annual Senior Celebration,” was held on September 2008 in the Alumni Gym. The video opened with a Student Government Association (SGA) unknown named student who introduced other SGA student leaders that included: Lauren Durr, Secretary, Ryan Weber, Senator, and Ashley Brown, Senator. Elon Alumni Relations provided the senior class tee-shirts. A picnic was held after the senior meeting on West Lawn. The meeting was intended for reflecting on the Class of 2008 Elon experiences, preparing for graduation, and the planning of the future that officially will begin on May 24, 2008. The students applauded. A Class of 2008 video was prepared by Elon Television for this event. The video was shown beginning with Dr. Leo Lambert at the New Student Convocation, “Under the Oaks” on August 28, 2004 welcoming the Class of 2008. Video seen in the video piece included: diverse family moving into Elon University; a student stating “Kids are excited to be leaving home;” a close-up shot of Fonville Fountain with purple pansies; Lambert stating, “All of this will become a part of you (meaning the experience of Elon);” a student riding a bike on the brick sidewalk near the J.H. McEwen Memorial Dining Hall (1955); Lambert stating, “You will leave Elon someday, but Elon will never leave you;” diverse female students walking on campus; John Glenn speaking at the April 14, 2005 Convocation; Glenn speaking of freedom and liberty; Christine Todd Whitman speaking at Elon on March 1, 2005; Whitman speaking of the environmental issues; Anna Quindlen speaking on September 27, 2004; Quindlen talking of the importance of reading; Justice Sandra Day O’Connor speaking on September 19, 2006; O’Connor talking of the type of employee the United States needed; Edmund Morris speaking on October 6, 2005; Morris talking of virtues; Class of 2008 students listening to Lambert at New Student Convocation; more video shots of students walking on campus; acorns being picked up in a basket at New Student Convocation; Lambert saying, “We have a date, all of us, to meet ‘Under the Oaks’ here in four years at Elon’s Commencement;” and Lambert quoting Thad Eure at the New Student Convocation, “LONG, LIVE, ELON.” This was the end of the video and the students applauded the video. An Unknown Elon student spoke of having a diverse student population, the buildings that were built in the three years, national events, speakers, the Virginia Tech University tragedy, 00:006:09 and belonging to Elon’s community. Associate Provost, Nancy Midgette spoke of the resources in the career center. Midgette’s comments included: thinking about life after Elon; working on your career next year; discussing your career thoughts with your Elon advisor or faculty members; assembling a road map for your career; planning for your future; continuing onto graduate school; preparing and taking the graduate tests; taking a preparatory course for graduate tests; finding your first job; creating a successful resume and cover letter; exploring employment opportunities; living life after Elon with the 700 seniors attending the senior class meeting; participating in Elon workshops; and making the mistake of doing nothing will result in fewer opportunities. Susan Patton, Associate Registrar, spoke of the final academic requirements for graduation. Patton’s comments included: this was Patton’s 19th graduation class; known as the graduation queen; as the graduation queen, each senior had to go see Patton; fill out the graduation form for a diploma with specifics; the graduation fee of $70.00; not filling out forms will prevent the senior from graduating from Elon University on Commencement day; at the end of the semester, the line of seniors goes out the door of Patton’s office for being tardy on filling out the forms; Patton stated she “Gets a funny, funny feeling (where she changes tiara to a witch custom) which makes her the graduation witch – ‘This is ‘witch with a W;’” expectation of each senior to set-up a meeting with Patton or she will send out her devil monkeys (Dr. Leo Lambert was sitting behind Patton as she spoke and he was laughing away); and Patton said, “Without an application graduation form – no graduation.” The senior class president, spoke of the Winter Term, “Student Taught, Burst the Bubble program.” The senior class president’s audio cannot be heard from where he sat in the crowd. 00:19:15 Lauren Durr spoke about the Class of 2008’s legacy gift to Elon and its future. A service video was played for the senior audience. The senior video included photographs of students participating in service programs. The senior class gift benefitted the Kernodle Center for Service Learning for student initiative grants. The Class of 2008 had a 90 percent rate of volunteering activity. Durr said, “Leave your Legacy.” Dr. Leo Lambert spoke next. The Elon University Senior Class of 2008 cheered Lambert on as he walked to the podium waving. 00:24:49 Lambert stated, “Hi Guys. Good to be with you. I feel a very special connection to this class because I am currently experiencing with my own daughters many of the joys and challenges that your families share. I am the father of a brand new graduate student and a college student. Callie, our elder daughter just began her medical studies and last week, Laurie and I returned our younger daughter, Molly, for her sophomore year at university. There is always a lot of kidding that goes on at parent orientations about how difficult it is to give new students at Elon the independence that they need in order to avoid the dreaded ‘Moving back home after graduation to live with the folks’ scenario. Please understand this powerful hope that you as students and we as parents both share. You do not want to live in your parents’ basement. And we do not want you there, either (laughter). At least for not very long time. But I want to share a little secret with you. After I graduated from college, I moved back home with mom and dad for the summer until graduate school began. It was not a fate worse than death. It worked, however, because I had a plan to leave in August (laughter). Senior year is, in large, a measure about coming up with your plan and your backup plan. I witnessed this with my daughter, Callie. A year ago she was figuring out what her life after graduation was going to be all about. She spent her senior year waiting to hear from medical schools to which she had applied and thinking about her backup plan. ‘What if I do not get in? Will I apply next year? Will I change my career objective?’ asked Callie. Happily, she is enrolled at Wake Forest School of Medicine. The preparatory work was hard and a big part of becoming an adult. For me personally, I spend much of my career believing that I was going to be a public school teacher. It was not until my junior year that I got a tap on the shoulder and someone encouraged me instead to think about higher education. Those ‘tap on the shoulder’ moments do not necessary come easily. They usually come after lots of conversations with your professors, career center staff, friends, parents, and mentors. Not only about what you want to do, but who you want to be. We are eager to have these conversations with you. And you should begin to have them right now, if you have not begun them already. Now to put this in perspective, you do not have to have a plan for what you are going to be doing 30 years from now. Many of you are going to have five or six or seven or eight careers in your lifetime. And that is a good thing. And a normal thing. But you should be thinking of the immediate next step after Elon. Graduate school, law school, work, and in what kind of environment – the Peace Corp, a corporate setting, another kind of non-profit – in talking with people who care about you, including so many people here at Elon. This is a great time to identify some key areas of growth during your college years – personally, academically, and professionally – to provide clues about the direction ahead in your life. What has made you proud with your time here at Elon? What have you not yet accomplished? Are there some professors and staff members that you have not gotten to know as well as you should? There is still time. Is there an internship or a shadowing experience that you want to have? Perhaps that can be your plan for Winter Term. Lots of folks are going to ask, ‘So what are you going to do after this year?’ You are going to hear that question a lot, I think. Some of you are fortunate to know exactly, right now, what you are going to be doing. 00:29:48 Many of you are still figuring it out. It is more important to have an answer about the question, ‘Who are you going to be after college?’ Thinking about who you are at the core and how you want to express your life is more important than thinking about the narrower question of ‘What you are doing to do.’ Thinking about the doing without thinking about the being really does not make sense – if you think about it. Let me give you a clue about the major change that will happen when you graduate. Yes, you will have to find a place to live – get a job or go to graduate school to start paying for your own bills. The biggest challenge that will be upon you for the first time in your life is that no one else is writing the curriculum for what it is you are to learn. In all of your education so far, school teachers and university professors have been writing that curriculum. But for the rest of your life, you are going to be in charge of what you are going to learn. That is a major life challenge, and a good one, and one that Elon has prepared you for well. I am confident about your chances of success both this year and the years to come. I am so very pleased that you chose Elon as your university. And we are going to be very proud to claim each and every one of you as a member of our distinguished alumni. When you were freshman, ‘Under the Oaks,’ we made a date to be together again in that very spot on May 24, 2008, a little more than eight months away. I will be there. And I will look forward to seeing each and every one of you there too. God Bless you all. ‘LONG LIVE ELON (applause).’” Unknown president of the Class of 2008 stated, “My charge to you is to take advantage of this special year in our lives. Even though we may have driven into different areas of study, service, and recreation throughout our time here at Elon, we have one strong common bond. We are the Class of 2008. Please come to the planned Class of 2008 events and enjoy the remaining time left with classmates so that we will have even more memories to celebrate. The Class of 2008 will lead everyone in the Elon fight song and please join in. The Elon Fight song was sung. A photography slide show ended the senior class meeting.