Taylor Hodge, Major of the Year 2014
This year Taylor Hodge was honored with the "Major of the Year" award at the Kinesiology & Health Sciences department's graduation ceremony. She received a diploma cover, certificate, medal, and will receive a check from the Borgenicht Endowment. Below is the introduction given by the Chair, Michael Deschenes, and Taylor’s speech to the graduating class of 2014.
Michael Deschenes
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We are often asked how we select a major of the year, what are the criteria that we use? Speaking for myself, there are no hard, fast criteria to be used in selecting a major of the year. Some things, some really important things, cannot be easily quantified or measured. This seems like an odd thing for me to say given my training and background as a scientist, but it is true. For example, I deeply love my wife but I didn’t fall in love with her as a result of some quantitative analysis. And when I look at the Mona Lisa – I guess she’s cute enough – but cute enough to be valued at millions of dollars? Not so sure about that! The point is that some things do not lend themselves to precise, easily quantifiable value judgments.
With that in mind, it is my personal belief that the major of the year should be the one graduating senior who best represents what the department does, how it goes about doing it, and what it aspires to become. With that in mind, Taylor Hodge is a most deserving Kinesiology & Health Sciences major of the year. I would be comfortable with her representing us in front of any crowd, whether it would be an alumni group, majors of the year from other departments across campus, administrators of The College, or even our Board of Visitors. All would find Taylor richly deserving of any accolade including this one! Everyone, let’s give a nice round of applause for the 2014 Kinesiology & Health Sciences Major of the Year. Taylor, please come on up to receive your award!!
Taylor Hodge
First, thank you so much to the faculty of the Kinesiology department for this award, I am truly honored to represent this department as the Major of the Year. Before I get into my speech I would like to say Happy Mother’s Day and thank you to my mother and the rest of the mothers here today. None of us would be here without your all’s love and support throughout the years.
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In actuality, I did learn some extremely important lessons over the years. In addition to boundless classroom knowledge, my education extended far beyond the lecture halls, of which Adair Hall has exactly none. Much of what I learned in my Kinesiology courses was highly applicable to everyday life, engaging me in my studies in a way that no other courses have. Each member of the Kinesiology and Health Sciences faculty with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working deserve recognition. All of you have shaped my worldview in some way, and the kindness and compassion with which you treat your students, as well as the enthusiasm with which you approach your craft are traits that I hope to emulate in my future career.
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Once again, thank you for this honor and congratulations and good luck to all of my fellow graduates. One tribe, One Family.
Kinesiology & Health Sciences main webpage
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| Taylor Hodge and Research Advisor Prof. Brennan Harris |
