Discovering your Superpower
A special guest greeted the campers Thursday night when they returned from dinner. Terrance Brown, Dean of the Potter College of Arts and Letters at WKU, inspired the campers with a talk about their potential to change the world through their passion, education, and ability to collaborate with others.
He remarked: “Your job in life is not only to ignite your own light, but to ignite lights in others when they may be dim or out.”
Dean Brown wanted to learn about his audience– he frequently called on his engaged listeners, asking them to tell him about their passions and to discuss them with each other.
By calling on each table and asking one person to report on the group’s passions, Dean Brown illuminated the remarkable diversity of our campers’ interests. “Music!” one proclaimed. At another table: “psychology!” Particularly enthusiastically: “astrophysics!”
Another topic Dean Brown addressed was the value of failure. “Our education system often doesn’t give you room to fail” he admitted, but he reminded the kids that it is important to be able to deal with failure as they pursue their interests. “Your passions and your ideas may fail, but you have to be resilient and you have to be persistent.”
He finished his speech by asking everyone to gather around the podium for a selfie.
Alysa Jones said the talk made her day. “It made me feel inspired” she remarked. “I left feeling happier.”
