NPCA President Theresa Pierno charges Maryville College graduates to make an impact during 2024 Commencement address
May 4, 2024
The 233 graduates of Maryville College who took part in Saturday’s Commencement exercises may not soon forget the torrential rain and peals of thunder that drove their graduation ceremony indoors, but Theresa Pierno wanted to ensure they remember it for another reason as well.
MC administrators made a last-minute decision to move the event from Humphreys Court, on the campus lawn between Fayerweather and Anderson Halls, to the Clayton Center for the Arts after pre-dawn forecasts called for clearing skies around the scheduled 10 a.m. start. However, the Great Smoky Mountains, as Student Government Association President Kelton Bloxham ’24 pointed out in his remarks, are a temperate rainforest, and East Tennessee’s spring weather ultimately proved too unpredictable.
Still, Pierno — president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association who was chosen to deliver the 2024 Commencement Address last winter — encouraged the assembled crowd in the Clayton Center’s Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre to seize upon other moments instead.
“A memory researcher was interviewed by New York Times Magazine earlier this year about how memories are formed,” Pierno said. “He said it’s not only the sights but also the sounds and smells that imprint these moments in our brains. It’s this rich detail that will capture the scene, not like a photograph but more like a painting. Our interpretation of the moment (is) like an artist’s.
“So, I invite you to be present for this ceremony and everything that comes with this graduation experience. Because I want this memory to last a lifetime for you. You earned it with hard work and sacrifice, and with the support of your family, friends and professors (who are) gathered here today and who have … encouraged and even challenged you at times. They’re here for you today — and will continue to be here for you on your journey through life. And in this journey, you’re at the starting line.”
Graduates charged with protecting the land
Commencement capped a week of events built around celebrating the Class of 2024, from Friday morning’s Senior Brunch to that afternoon’s Baccalaureate service. Throughout the weekend, heavy clouds buffeted the nearby peaks of the Smokies, which Pierno celebrated in her remarks, pointing out that the relationship between the mountains and the people who have long lived in their shadows predates the creation of the National Park System in 1916.
“Not one of the other 428 national park sites can match the number and variety of animals, plants, fungi and other organisms that can be found in the 800 square miles of the Smokies,” she said. “But the park is also full of incredible history — some of which is only just now being uncovered. There is no doubt the Smokies is an incredibly special place, and it’s no doubt left an impression on you in your time here.
“But it’s just one park in the system that needs your protection. Every day these places face threats: threats of shopping centers at their borders. Threats of mining roads tearing through delicate ecosystems. Threads of polluted air and water harming wildlife and nearby communities. And the most dangerous of them all: the threat of climate change.”
Those threats to the existence of the country’s wild places make her initial point all the more salient: Take nothing for granted, she urged the audience, which consisted of graduating students and those performing as part of the Maryville College Concert Choir; their family members and loved ones, many of whom watched a simulcast of the proceedings in the College’s Alumni Gym; and a coterie of MC faculty and staff, including a delegation representing the Maryville College Alumni Association and the MC Board of Directors.
“An arrowhead on an entrance sign doesn’t make the threats go away,” Pierno said. “It just gives us a powerful platform to launch our fight. And I ask each and every one of you to join me on that platform. It takes all of us staying vigilant and using our voices to ensure our parks, this legacy, is inherited by your kids and your grandkids.”
Pierno detailed a watershed moment from her own childhood that launched her conservation journey. Growing up in New Jersey, she said, the woods close to her family’s home were a playground, and exploring “the freedom and magic of those woods” fomented a love of nature … and greed on the part of local developers, who one day sent bulldozers in to clear the wooded area for development.
“I’ll never forget the searing images and heartbreaking sounds of the trees toppling over to make way for new homes,” she said. “As the animals literally ran for their lives, my mother and I found a lost baby duckling. I begged her to save it. And so we did. We took it to a nearby rescue and even went to visit it from time to time. It wasn’t until I was an adult that mom finally broke the news to me that our duckling hadn’t actually survived.
“All those times I thought we were visiting the saved duck? Turns out it was a replacement duck at the rescue! But still, I thought we had rescued that duckling, and that I had made some kind of difference amid the devastation. Of course I had no way of knowing at the time, but the loss of those woods that meant so much to me would come to define the difference I would make in this world. That patch of woods, in the scheme of things, was quite small.
“In fact, my whole world was small,” she added. “But the impact that event had was monumental.”
A generational handoff
Several years later, a local newspaper in Maryland, where she was living as a young adult, ran a photo of Pierno sitting atop a bulldozer to stop it from clearcutting another patch of woods. Ever since, she said, her work has been designed to protect natural habitats from encroachment and development, and while not every Scot who claimed a diploma on Saturday is destined for conservation work, the smallest of acts can make the biggest of differences, as her own experiences taught her.
“I challenge each of you to be independent problem solvers and critical thinkers. Be willing to question whether there’s a better way or a different ending than what you’ve been told,” she said. “The art of debate and importance of expressing new ideas is more critical now than ever before. And while we should do so respectfully, never shy from speaking your mind and from trusting your instincts.
“You received an incredible education here at Maryville. In the classrooms, yes, absolutely. But also this ecosystem that’s as diverse as any place in America. The deep connections you’ve made here to the land and to each other will take root in you and impact you in ways you can only imagine. The question is: What will you do with that impact?”
Armed with the Maryville College ideals of scholarship, respect and integrity, members of the Class of 2024 will embark on the next leg of their respective journeys of self-actualization, she said. Remaining mindful of that question, she added, will shape their narratives, and the application of solutions discovered along the way will make that impact in ways great and small.
“When you leave the safety of this campus, this faculty (and) this community, keep hoping, keep dreaming, keep striving, keep giving, keep failing, and keep fighting,” she said. “The future of this small world rests on your shoulders, just as it rested on mine, and on my parents’, and their parents’.
“Each generation is challenged to be great by the one that came before. And with your time at Maryville College, you’ve been given every opportunity to fulfill this mission. And you will!”
Maryville College Faculty Recognized
Pierno’s keynote address was the linchpin of a Commencement ceremony that brought the 2023-24 academic year to a close, and for some members of the MC faculty, it marked the last time they’ll attend as active professors. It was only fitting, then, that Art Professor Dr. Carl Gombert, who retires this month, was honored for his service to the College with the Outstanding Teacher Award.
“Students praise this professor for his attentiveness, for the way he gets them to think outside the box, fort his kindness, for his good humor, and for his steady stream of jokes,” said Dr. Dan Klingensmith, vice president and dean of the College who will step down from that role at the close of the academic year in order to return to the classroom.
“One of his students said that he’s ‘the most kind man in the world, and he is such a light and positive energy in a room!’” Klingensmith continued. “‘I always felt like he truly cared about me and wanted me to have a successful first year. You can tell he loves Maryville College, which I really loved. He was just the best ever.’”
Overcome by emotion, Gombert — who was one of two speakers at the previous evening’s Baccalaureate service — took a bow before returning to his seat, and upon retirement, Klingensmith noted, he’ll hold the title of professor emeritus. And while it may be a few years before Dr. Gabie Kerr, assistant professor of management, earns such a distinction herself, the respect she’s earned from members of the Maryville College student body was enough to earn her the runner-up honors for Outstanding Teacher of the Year.
“Truly, it is hard to miss her openness to student concerns and her zealous advocacy for them,” Klingensmith said. “Said yet another student, ‘She truly cares about the material and her students. She goes above and beyond what would normally be asked of a professor to make sure each one of her students succeeds after leaving Maryville College. She will continue to develop future generations of students that will create a positive impact on the world.”
Charge to the Class of 2024
The opening of the Commencement ceremony included an invocation by Interim Campus Minister Jamie Webster and remarks from two members of the graduating class: Mackenzie Wright ’24, senior class president; and Bloxham, president of the MC Student Government Association. Both students took the time to sing the praises of individuals whose roles of support helped them make it to the graduation stage.
For Wright, a shout-out to faculty and staff members (“whether it was the Admissions counselors who helped us get here, the dining services in Pearsons and Isaac’s Café that filled our late-night cravings, the facilities crew who cleaned up after us more times than they should have, or the security team who kept us safe and secure throughout the night”) drew plenty of applause, and a nod to her mother’s attendance echoed the gratitude felt by dozens of her peers for the support of their families.
“I want to say a special thank you to my mom, who is here today,” Wright said. “Without her, I would not be standing up here speaking to you at all. Her sacrifice and selflessness have given me opportunities to live a life that I will never be able to pay back, and today, I’m celebrating for both of us.”
Those “unsung heroes,” as Bloxham referred to them, taught him and his classmates “undeniable lessons that I carry with me to this day.”
“Yes, Maryville College prepares us academically, and this might be a hot take, but in my opinion, academics is far from the most important thing we have gained at Maryville College,” he added. “We have truly gained a culture, community and family.”
For proof, members of the audience needed to look no further than a certain graduate who earned a bachelor of science in Exercise Science: Caroline Coker ’24, daughter of Maryville College President Dr. Bryan F. Coker. When her name was read aloud as she crossed the stage, her father embraced her warmly before turning to greet the next senior with tear-filled eyes.
As Commencement 2024 came to a close, Coker delivered the traditional Charge to the Senior Class, pointing out their new membership into the Maryville College Alumni Association, and reminding them of their place in a continuing legacy that’s 205 years strong.
“I often say that our greatest responsibility here, as a College, is to help you each find your voices,” he said. “I hope you each have found your voices here — your voices for what is true, what is right, what is beautiful, what is kind, and what is just. I hope and pray that you will go forth into the world, raising those voices — because our world certainly needs your voices now, more than ever before.
“Go forth from our campus gates, knowing that you will always have a home here … (and) 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.”
