Kristi Wilkum
Kristi Wilkum is an associate professor in the communications studies department at UW Oshkosh, Fond du Lac campus. She earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees at St. Cloud State University and UW-Milwaukee, respectively, and her doctorate from Purdue University. Wilkum’s research interests include: understanding how people help each other in times of need and the integration of technology in high school and college classrooms. In 2020, Wilkum was awarded the Alliant Energy James R. Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Award. Wilkum said she has stayed at UWO Fond du Lac because she has a front-row seat to individual stories of transformation.
The following are her prepared remarks from the morning ceremony during UWO’s 57th midyear commencement:
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Chancellor Leavitt, Provost Koker, Regents, distinguished faculty, graduates and honored guests: It is my pleasure to speak to you today, on this day of celebration. I would like to start by celebrating our ability to physically share space as we come together in community today.
Today is an inflection point, a moment of transition. Certainly, it is a transition for our graduates, but all of us could use today to notice our own transitions. Personally, I became a Titan late fall of 2017 when the Fond du Lac campus joined with the Oshkosh campus to build ourselves into becoming the One University we are today. There are points of connection between your UW Oshkosh journey and my own.
Students, you have succeeded in accomplishing a major life goal. We are here to celebrate you, but you have not done it alone! As you sit with your friends, family and University community I hope you can appreciate the support and guidance that led to this day. We, your friends and family, will continue to cheer you on as you step forward in new roles and in new organizations. Perhaps adventures in a new city or state loom. And, we hope that you build on Quest 3, and give back in your community now that you will not be reading all those textbooks or finishing those problem sets we, your professors, have been assigning for years. Before you move forward into this wished for future, I implore you to also look back.
Take a moment to notice and reflect. Think about the strides that you have made and the people who were central to your time as a student. You have changed. You are more skilled, more knowledgeable. You are stronger. You are not the same student who became a Titan. For some, you became aware of your growth in a specific moment in the recent past – at your thesis defense, as you walked out of the locker room, lab, or studio, as you passed the reigns of leadership on to those next in line for your club, or sorority, or in those final conversations this week with your adviser or mentor. But more often change is ephemeral, difficult to notice or grasp, because it is built out of daily practice, micro decisions we do not recall making.
I would assert that every graduate here is a stronger reader, writer, scientist and citizen than you were at Titan Takeoff. Certainly, the faculty deserve some credit for this change! After inviting (um… badgering) you to excel in your assignments, they—together with the UWO staff, role modeled the human and industry specific skills you have attained. But the growth, the attainment of those skills, is your own. It is reflection of the seeming insignificant, unmemorable choice to read, write, speak, listen, calculate, observe, analyze, report out, collaborate, help and problem solve – completing those to-do list items that got you to this day. Each time you failed, or succeeded, you built another layer of skill, day-in and day-out, hour-by-hour – you changed. We tend not to notice those 1% improvements in ourselves without a big event or someone else noticing our skills. It takes a day like graduation to realize just how far we have come.
What makes this last class of 2021 Titan alums – which you are about to become! – so incredibly special is that you have improved yourself while living through an unprecedented period of change. Our world has been changed by Covid-19, and our country is changing to be more inclusive. Circumstances have upended our norms and traditions. Our resources are stretched. Together – our losses, isolation, collective stress and sacrifice have forged you as an extraordinary group. While you have individually worked hard to change yourself for the better in the ways that all college students do, the time in which you have done this is unlike anything that the alum who have gone before you have navigated.
You are the proof that everyone here should look forward with hope. You persisted. You got creative. You formed community. You did not give up. You found light in darkness. You laughed and cried. You kept going. You showed up to online classes and watched your professors’ struggle with Zoom and Teams. You met your classmate’s pets and saw into your teacher’s home offices. You continued to set and achieve goals. You recognized difference as strength. Today, you are looking forward to the future – these small, daily acts – these are what gives me confidence that the world and our country can depend on you to make a stronger and better place for all people.
The professor in me will not dismiss you from this lecture without homework! Here is your assignment, I challenge you to actively create your future. We both know that you can manage a long-term project. Use those skills to intentionally record your priorities. Then align your stated goals with your daily habits.
Instead of feeling unsatisfied by the perpetual numbing chase for a hit of dopamine on the hedonic wheel that is social media consumption, create a daily streak that results in happiness. Intentionally cultivate 1-, 5-, or 10-minute habits that align to your goals. As you brush your teeth, think of three things you are grateful for or an intention you have for the day. Do this every day and see if you experience a change. When you reach for your phone five minutes before a meeting – type a text to yourself that adds words to the song you are working – or sketch the design for the next thing you want to build. In the 10 minutes each morning when you are tempted to scroll social media – move your body, meditate, plan a healthy menu for your family, or read. You know from your time here at UWO that you can change and will change as you walk into the future. You get to set your own goals. But I hope you will pick joy. Make time to rest. Build relationships that last. Your priorities aligned with small, inconsequential, daily choices – this the easiest and hardest work of your life, and they pay the greatest dividends.
Congratulations.
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