Here are more ‘commencement’ address ‘pearls of wisdom’

Sometimes it rains during commencement ceremonies. 

Not to worry, no big deal, said Dr. Alison Morrison-Shetlar, president of the University of Lynchburg (Va.).

 

“In Scotland, we call this ‘liquid sunshine,’” she told 345 students assembled on the university’s outdoor soccer field to receive their undergraduate degrees earlier this spring.

A Scottish native from the Isle of Bute in the Firth of Clyde, Dr. Morrison-Shetlar grew up in a place where it rains more than half the time – about 190 days out of the year.

 

Her remarks to the graduates and their families were quite compelling, as the university’s Marketing and Communications office reported online. Here are excerpts:

President Morrison-Shetlar, who will be retiring in June, told the graduates: “You are, without question, awesome. And it has been the honor of my life to be your president.”

 

“Today is my last commencement as your president. After six years at the helm of this incredible institution (2020-26), I am stepping into my own next chapter, right alongside you. We are both walking off a stage we know well and stepping into a future that isn’t entirely written yet.”

Dr. Morrison-Shetlar told the graduates she wanted to share some of the lessons she had learned “not just as your president, but as a human being who’s spent a lifetime navigating a world that rarely goes according to plan.”

 

“You can transform anything, if you have the courage to face change.”

 She recalled the events and challenges the students had lived through in the past few years – the aftermath of a pandemic, global economic uncertainty and a rapidly changing world. But the people who transform the world are those who “looked at an uncertain moment and said, ‘I will figure this out.’”

“You have been learning to do exactly that. You were never just memorizing facts. You were learning how to think, to ask better questions and sit with a problem until it gives way. You’ve been learning to collaborate with people who see the world differently than you do.”

 

“That, dear graduates, is what makes your degree from the University of Lynchburg something more than a credential. It is a toolkit. It has equipped you for a world that will ask you to change direction, sometimes without much warning. And you are ready.”

She also encouraged them to “carry your values like armor,” saying that the world “needs you.”

 

“It needs your authenticity in a world that is becoming increasingly synthetic. It needs your human judgment in a world that is increasingly automated. It needs your courage in a world that sometimes feels short on it. You are not walking out of here underprepared.”

 

Dr. Morrison-Shetlar was trained as a scientist at Dundee (Scotland) Institute of Technology (now Abertay University). She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry and a doctorate in biomedical science. She began her career as a research scientist in England and later became an academician in Germany.

She and her husband relocated to the United States in 1993. Dr. Morrison-Shetlar has North Carolina connections. She served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Elon University from 2010-14. After that, she spent six years at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee as Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs as well as Professor of Biology.

During the recessional to close out the 2026 graduation event at the University of Lynchburg, alumnus James Robertson, the university’s official bagpiper, played “Scotland the Brave,” the country’s traditional anthem, to honor the legacy of Dr. Morrison-Shetlar.

Lyrics include: “Yearning to feel the Kiss / Of sweet Scottish rain.”