I am delighted to be here today among so many friends and supporters of Ball State University, the members of our Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students, and administrators who are in attendance.

I also want to say a special "hello" to those who will be watching this via streaming video provided over the Ball State Web site. It is exciting to see how we can use technology to bring people together.

While an Internet video stream and the staging of this event may lack the grandeur typically associated with a formal inauguration ceremony, I don't believe we have compromised the spirit behind such a ceremony. An inauguration typically celebrates community, new beginnings, and the promise of opportunity, and we are doing that today. And, I doubt a larger, more formal event could match the sheer joy I am witnessing on this occasion, as evidenced by the smiles I see on so many faces—of the students we honor today, their parents, brothers and sisters. The joy is also shown on the faces of our Medallion Benefactors who have sent such a strong message about their belief in the value of higher education and in the power of philanthropy. It's a message, I believe, that can be summed up by the timeless adage—actions speak louder than words. 

At Ball State, we hope that through our actions we will always demonstrate that we put students first. By forgoing a formal inauguration ceremony and raising money for scholarships, we demonstrate vividly our eagerness to support students and to recruit the best and brightest to Ball State.

But it's not enough just to recruit the best and brightest, we must provide them with an educational experience that stretches them intellectually and creatively and prepares them to meet the challenges of a technology-driven global economy.

We are committed to helping our students succeed, and that begins in their first year, with our freshman programs, designed to help students transition from home and high school to college. Last August, our freshman programs were named among 42 programs to watch by U.S. News & World Report.

And a book released earlier this month by the Policy Center on the First College Year names our freshman programs among the top 13 in the country.

The singer and composer Pete Seeger once said "Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't." His belief that experience is an important part of personal growth is reflected in Ball State's philosophy of offering an education enriched with experiences.

In addition to putting students first, one of my top priorities is to find ways to guarantee that all academically qualified students take part in an intense experiential learning activity. We offer these kinds of opportunities through each of our seven academic colleges and a number of our centers of excellence.

For instance, our Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry allows a team of students under the guidance of a faculty member to work on a single, interdisciplinary project for one semester. The group must produce a product that has value to the community at large and exhibit this product in public. The students receive 15 credit hours for their work.

In our chemistry department, 80 percent of the students perform research with a faculty mentor.   The department's summer research program has developed into a model for other universities. Again, students working with a faculty member perform research, attend research group meetings, and have the opportunity to present their findings at a research symposium at the end of the program. Many students receive financial assistance through faculty research grants.

Our College of Communication, Information, and Media offers NewsLink, a semester-long experience in which students are trained in media convergence. They produce news reports that air on our PBS station, WIPB, on Indiana Public Radio and on NewsLink's own Web site. Currently, NewsLink is running a test with Muncie's local newspaper, the Star Press, in which you can view NewsLink's news briefs on the Star Press Web site. They hope to determine if this is a service Star Press.com readers will use and if it should become a permanent fixture on the site.

Our College of Architecture and Planning boasts a long history of community-based projects that give students practical experience. The college's Indianapolis Center, located just a few blocks east of here, also provides opportunities for students to be involved in planning efforts for the Circle City. And some of our students on an annual architecture field study trip to Asia recently helped rebuild a tiny fishing village destroyed by the December tsunami.

In the Miller College of Business, more than 150 students annually earn credit and experience in paid internships at corporations as diverse as Ernst and Young, Eli Lilly and Company, and Liz Claiborne designs. The benefits of internships are many.

• 60 percent of students doing internships are offered jobs by those employers
• Internships and other hands-on experiences help students land jobs and help them get better starting salaries
• Employers and communities benefit from educated and enthusiastic workers and volunteers

Whether students take part in one of these experiences, or one of our other offerings such as a semester abroad or a service-learning project, we know these experiences add a dimension of depth and breadth to their educations. These experiences crystallize what students learn in the classroom and add value to their Ball State degrees. We are committed to exploring new ways to fund immersion experiences because of the positive impact they have on students.

I hope some of our Inauguration Scholars will seek out these opportunities during their time at Ball State. You've shown through your academic achievements and extracurricular activities that you are doers and that you create opportunities through your hard work. The Inauguration Scholarship you have been awarded is an example of that.

In receiving this scholarship, you are receiving a gift, and like a Russian Matryoshka doll, it is a gift that reveals another gift and yet another as you take it apart. The largest gift is that of an education. Education shapes lives, creates opportunities, and changes perceptions. Your education will reveal itself in many ways as you progress through life, which is why education is so precious — you realize its benefits more with each passing year.

And as you go through life, you will be able to reveal to people that your education was truly a gift because of the gift of this scholarship. It is a gift from Ball State University, and more importantly, from your Medallion Benefactors. I know many of you had a chance to meet the benefactors who funded your scholarship and to get to know a bit about them. But in general, some of you may ask, "Who are these people, who would each provide a $10,000 gift to help a student attend Ball State."

They are our friends and alumni—giving singly, in couples, as business partners, and collectively through our alumni association. They are a faculty member and his wife who is on our professional staff. They are educators, attorneys, business owners, corporate executives, a journalist, and a former Ball State president. They are a Muncie industrialist and his wife who served 15 years as president of the Ball State University Foundation board of directors. They are a financial adviser, a graduate of our nationally ranked entrepreneurship program, and two descendants of the Ball brothers, whose initial act of philanthropy established Ball State.

These are people who have the means, desire, and caring to give. I know the joy they feel in being able to support you. You know, John Wooden, the Indiana native and college basketball coaching legend, described a perfect day. He said, "You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you." I'd say our Medallion Benefactors are living a perfect day today.

I also know they are not asking you to repay them, short of making the most of the gift they have provided you. However, I would challenge you to consider how you can best say "thank you" for the gift you have received, and I would encourage you to pay it forward.

Those three words are the title of a book by Catherine Ryan Hyde that was made into a movie five years ago. "Pay it Forward" is the story of Trevor, a pre-teen boy, who comes up with an ingenious idea for a class project. Asked to think of an idea for world change and to put it into action, Trevor devises "Pay it Forward." In essence, he would do nice things for three people. When they would ask how they could repay him, he would reply that they should each help three people. The nine people they helped would then help 27 people. The numbers grows quickly to 81, to 243, to 729, to 2,187, and so on.

Interest in the idea generated by the book and movie has spawned the Pay it Forward Foundation, dedicated to educating and inspiring students to realize they can change the world and to providing them with opportunities to do so.

I'm not suggesting you set a goal of providing three college scholarships for students once you have the financial means to do so—though that would be a great achievement. But I do believe that you could change the world by passing on the gift of education, by helping another student, promoting a social good, or assisting the needy. The specifics are not important; what matters is helping someone else learn and grow in a new and exciting way.

The tagline of the movie is, "Sometimes the simplest idea can make the biggest difference." I think the Inauguration Scholarships are an example of a simple idea that is making a big difference. The support this initiative generated is indicative of the can-do attitude of the Ball State University Community—a community of which you are now members. Let's all leave here today committed to searching for ways, whether big or small, to work together for the success of all our students, for the betterment of the state of Indiana, and for a brighter future for Ball State University.