Dr. Michael Lamb urges Maryville College graduates to ‘err on the side of gratitude’ during May 3 Commencement ceremony
May 3, 2025
Life after college can be challenging, but it’s made less so by erring on the side of gratitude: Such was the message delivered on Saturday by Dr. Michael Lamb, a leading liberal arts scholar from Wake Forest University, to the roughly 230 Maryville College graduates who claimed diplomas during the 2025 Commencement ceremony.
Gratitude, Lamb told the assembled seniors in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre of the Clayton Center for the Arts, is often mistaken for an attitude; a feeling of thankfulness manifested in positivity. Instead, he said, gratitude must be approached as a virtue … something their Maryville College education has taught them to do.
“It is not enough to merely feel appreciation; we must find ways to express it,” he said. “Maryville has taught you this. It has encouraged you to ‘work for justice and dedicate a life of creativity and service to the peoples of the world’ (a line lifted directly from the MC Mission Statement). Gratitude can advance the causes of justice and service.
“By acknowledging the role that others play in our lives, including those who might typically be invisible or unacknowledged, we become better able to offer the respect and recognition they are due. And if we are better able to see others, we are better able — and motivated — to serve them.”
Rain dampens grounds, not hearts
Before the ceremony even began, seniors faced their first challenge: A change in venue, as overnight storms had swept through Humphreys Court, the outdoor area between Anderson and Fayerweather Halls where graduation was to take place, and more rain was predicted for the late-morning hours when it was scheduled to be held. Despite limited seating in the Nutt Theatre, MC administrators sent an early morning email reminding seniors, as Lamb would do a few hours later, that finding the positive in any challenging situation is possible.
“No matter the weather, you graduate today!” wrote Maddie Taylor ’23, executive assistant to MC President Dr. Bryan F. Coker. “We are incredibly proud of you and cannot wait to celebrate with you later this morning.”
In the end, rain could not dampen the enthusiasm of family members and loved ones. Inside the Nutt, shouts of enthusiastic adulation rang out for almost every graduate’s name announced by Dr. Liz Perry-Sizemore, vice president and dean of the College. Across campus inside the Cooper Athletic Center, where overflow seating and a 16-foot-wide, 10-foot-high video board accommodated extended members of large families, the pride was also palpable in the cheers and applause that filled the gymnasium.
Gratitude, it seemed, was present in abundance — both in the hearts of supporters of the Class of 2025 who so fervently expressed it, and in the words of the morning’s Commencement speaker, who before he spoke was given an honorary doctor of humane letters degree by Sizemore, Coker and Maryville College Board of Directors Chair C. Michael Davis.
“We are pleased and grateful that today we will honor an individual who is both a testament to — and a proponent of — the value of liberal arts education,” Coker said. “Dr. Lamb currently serves as the F.M. Kirby Foundation Chair of Leadership and Character, the executive director of the Program for Leadership and Character, and an associate professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“Virtue ethics and leadership and character development are among his broader interests, and he has authored numerous articles and books, including Everyday Ethics: Moral Theology and the Practices of Ordinary Life; A Commonwealth of Hope: Augustine’s Political Thought; and Cultivating Virtue in the University. But it was the 2024 book that he co-edited that, perhaps, makes the best argument for his presence today and his receipt of our honorary degree.
“The Arts of Leading: Perspectives from the Humanities and the Liberal Arts introduces new ways and contexts to look at leading well and has been called ‘essential reading’ for people who are looking for and want to become trustworthy, ethical leaders,” Coker added. “And isn’t that what Maryville College wants for its graduates?”
‘Err on the side of gratitude’
Good leaders, Lamb emphasized, recognize that gratitude is far more than “a hack for self-improvement.” When used as a form of self-aggrandizement, it risks becoming a stagnant feeling — one that fosters self-satisfaction but rarely inspires action or change. He shared a personal lesson in this regard, recalling a moment from his undergraduate days at Rhodes College when he failed to improvise a speech to thank a faculty member who had helped him. The missed opportunity, he admitted, left him with a lingering regret that remains to this day.
“In this life, amidst our distractions and self-focus, it’s easy to overlook the people who’ve shaped and sustained us, and we often have few opportunities to thank them — publicly — for their efforts,” Lamb said. “When we have that opportunity, we should take it — or create it.”
Some of those “people” who have made an impact on the Class of 2025 got shout-outs in Lamb’s speech: Football Coach Ben Fox and the Fighting Scots on the autumn field … Ms. Daisy Martin, the beloved Metz Culinary Management employee who checks students in to Pearsons Dining Hall during lunch hours … and Dolly, Coker’s Basset hound and unofficial MC mascot: All received a mention, and undoubtedly, Lamb pointed out, those individuals, alongside so many others, made a difficult day a little easier and helped find a smile that seemed MIA before those casual encounters.
Those moments might seem small and inconsequential, Lamb said, but they wind up becoming difference-makers during stressful times, and the gratitude felt in hindsight should be acted upon.
“As you remember these people and places (and many others), err on the side of gratitude,” he said. “And not just for the good things but for the hard ones, those moments that tested your strength, stretched your character and deepened your resilience: the mistakes you made, the exams you bombed, the heartbreaks you grieved, the hurtful words you said or the grateful words you left unsaid.
“These experiences can help us become better, if we can have the humility to recognize them and the gratitude to honor their wisdom.”
Gratitude, he added, has even been scientifically studied, and the results demonstrate that daily acknowledgement of gratitude can improve moods, reduce anxieties, deepen friendships and improve sleep patterns. Maintained over time, it can become a virtue that, by birthing humility, helps good leaders stay grounded by realizing that their accomplishments had some help along the way.
Humility and the desire to “do good on the largest possible scale,” a calling laid forth by Maryville College founder the Rev. Isaac Anderson two centuries ago, can be profoundly impactful on the careers, vocations, passions and callings that Saturday’s graduates will discover on the other side of the College’s gates.
“Graduates, as you commence this new chapter of your life, know that you are surrounded by a grateful and proud cloud of witnesses who are here not only to celebrate you but to support you,” he said. “Whenever you encounter uncertainty, disappointment, or despair, as you no doubt will, know that you are not alone. Remember those who’ve helped you along the way.
“With you and within you, you carry the gifts of Maryville College and all those you have known here. May you use those gifts wisely and well to make the world a little kinder and more courageous, a little humbler and more hopeful, a little more just and generous, and a little more grateful.”
Maryville College faculty recognized
Gratitude, no doubt, played a role in the selection of Outstanding Teacher of the Year, an annual Commencement tradition in which members of the student body vote for the faculty member who’s made the biggest difference in their academic careers. This year’s honor went to a professor of mathematics whose tenure dates back almost three decades: Dr. Jeff Bay, who also serves as chair of the Division of Mathematics and Computer Science.
“We don’t have time today to cover all of this person’s contributions to the students of Maryville College,” Perry-Sizemore said in bestowing the honor. “Suffice it to say that this faculty member models the ideals of what we want our professors to embody — excellent teaching, quality mentoring in research, service to the College and the community, and service to the wider world. Students praise this professor for their attentiveness, for the way they get them to think outside the box, their kindness and good humor, and their passion for baseball.
“A perusal of their CV reveals research interests in education, business, politics, sports and the environment, and this work almost always includes students. This faculty member spends every day contributing positively to the life of this College and helping students mature as critically thinking, compassionate humans. This person is described as one of the kindest, gentlest souls you will ever meet. One student simply stated, ‘(This professor) is an ICON.’”
Speaking of icons, it’s a rather iconic distinction to be listed among new full-time faculty members in August as the academic year begins, and be named as the Runner-Up for the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award when the year closes in May … but that’s exactly what Dr. Jeff Kelly, assistant professor of neuroscience, did on Saturday.
“(Kelly) has a contagious enthusiasm for their field and a keen ability to explain complex material in lively and creative ways,” Perry-Sizemore told the crowd. “It is not uncommon for students to find this faculty member after class — to ask questions and to simply extend conversation about the day’s session. One student said, ‘Their passion for the course and … for our learning … is off the charts.’”
Charge to the Class of 2025
The opening of the Commencement ceremony included an invocation by Maryville College Chaplain the Rev. Jessica Kitchens Lewis ’07 and remarks from two members of the graduating class: Hannah Lee ’25, senior class president; and Isabella “Izzy” Wright ’25, president of the MC Student Government Association.
In the spirit of the ceremony’s overall theme, Lee expressed, on behalf of herself and her fellow graduates, appreciation for professors who “answered our emails at 2 a.m., challenged us when we needed a push, and supported us when we needed a lifeline”; staff members who “keep the lights on, the meals hot, the dorms clean, and the Wi-Fi running”; and to family members “for the encouragement when we doubted ourselves, and for being the safety net that caught us when we fell.”
Wright followed suit, but the Biochemistry major also touched on the camaraderie that’s bound the members of the Class of 2025 together since they first spoke the words of the Covenant and touched the stone in the center of campus upon which those words are inscribed.
“College is described as the best time of your life, and that is because even though there is the dedication to our degrees, we also make life-long friendships,” she said. “Look around, because you are surrounded by the people who will attend your major life events, from your weddings to your funerals.”
Growing up, she added, also means learning how to do hard things — like saying goodbye. It’s a surreal feeling for all of those graduating, she pointed out, to leave campus for the final time, to realize that when August arrives, there is no return to College Hill as a Maryville College undergraduate.
There will, however, be many happy returns, during which they will proudly wear new titles: alumni.
“We are eternally Scots, by God! Orange and garnet will float forever, and my heart will always be in the highlands,” she said.
As Commencement 2025 came to a close, the rain outside the Clayton Center swept through campus in cascading sheets of torrential downpour. Inside the Nutt Theatre, however, hearts were ablaze with hope for the future, lit by the spark that was the traditional Charge to the Senior Class, delivered by Coker, who, like Wright, also referenced the Maryville College Alma Mater with his parting words.
“Go forth from our campus gates, knowing that you will always have a home here … here where Chilhowee’s lofty mountains pierce the Southern blue,” he said. “Go forth knowing that good, thoughtful, and loving words have been spoken for you here — here in this place filled with hopes, dreams, teachers, coaches, mentors and friends.
“And as you go forth, we hope you will return often in the years to come — return and share with us your successes and your struggles, just as you have done during your time here.”
