2018 MATC Scholars Program: Chancellor Ronnie Green

Mid-America Transportation Center Author

02/25/2019 Added

7 Plays

Description

Chancellor Ronnie Green leaves the MATC Scholars Program participants with inspiring words.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.210]It's not on our schedule
[00:00:01.100]but Dr. Green was able to
[00:00:03.600]make it to our lunch today
[00:00:04.880]and Ronnie I don't know if you wanted
[00:00:06.230]to say any words or not.
[00:00:12.221]Well, like Dr. Larry Rilett said,
[00:00:16.152]I wasn't scheduled to be here today,
[00:00:19.150]I usually travel with our football team
[00:00:21.220]to go to our football games
[00:00:23.060]and they were leaving about now,
[00:00:25.210]but I'm not going.
[00:00:26.954]I'm not able to go this weekend
[00:00:28.290]so at the last minute I had the opportunity
[00:00:31.010]to still join you for lunch
[00:00:32.680]and be part of this
[00:00:33.560]and I'm really glad that I did,
[00:00:35.093]because I got the opportunity to sit
[00:00:37.410]and listen to this table of people
[00:00:40.510]talk about dreams and hopes and aspirations.
[00:00:44.051]So, that touched me.
[00:00:46.117]And I was very glad I got the chance to be here.
[00:00:49.840]I'm just going to tell you a couple of things.
[00:00:54.150]Or say a couple of things to you.
[00:00:56.759]Don't ever let anyone tell you
[00:01:00.300]that you can't.
[00:01:02.610]Don't ever let anyone tell you
[00:01:04.870]that it's not possible.
[00:01:08.230]Don't let any anyone,
[00:01:09.490]don't ever let anyone tell you
[00:01:11.470]that you can't aspire to
[00:01:15.658]and go a different direction,
[00:01:18.860]or you'll go to be educated.
[00:01:22.110]I'm gonna tell you my personal story
[00:01:23.623]and I don't do this very often.
[00:01:25.490]But listening to the conversation
[00:01:27.403]at our table, I just felt compelled to do it.
[00:01:30.726]I talked at our table during lunch
[00:01:35.008]about how lots of people don't think
[00:01:38.520]or automatically associate that this university,
[00:01:42.780]you know it's a big place
[00:01:44.260]like Dr. Wilhelm mentioned.
[00:01:46.660]It's a big small place
[00:01:48.560]we like to refer to it as.
[00:01:51.096]But, a lot of people don't realize
[00:01:53.450]that at this university today
[00:01:56.227]almost a quarter of our students here
[00:01:59.130]are the first person in their family
[00:02:00.984]to be at a university.
[00:02:04.499]You know, that might have been
[00:02:05.590]a expectation 50 years ago,
[00:02:08.240]people might have thought most of the people
[00:02:10.800]at the university,
[00:02:11.633]or a lot of people at the university
[00:02:13.330]would be the first in their family
[00:02:15.530]to be at university.
[00:02:17.310]Today we have 25% of that number growing
[00:02:20.600]of our percentage of our students
[00:02:21.893]who are first gen.
[00:02:23.380]I'm one of those.
[00:02:25.070]So you mentioned that we shared a common
[00:02:29.580]place in Virginia where you lived
[00:02:31.691]earlier in your life.
[00:02:34.016]I grew up in Virginia on the east coast
[00:02:37.660]of the country.
[00:02:39.130]I'm from a family that has 42 first cousins
[00:02:43.450]in my family.
[00:02:45.040]I'm the first person in my family
[00:02:46.950]to ever have the opportunity
[00:02:48.490]to go to a university.
[00:02:53.206]And I was told when I was 10, 11 years old
[00:02:57.630]by everyone around me
[00:02:59.380]that I didn't belong in a university
[00:03:02.440]or it wasn't for me,
[00:03:04.240]or that I didn't have the path
[00:03:07.050]for that opportunity.
[00:03:09.190]And, you know 30 years ago
[00:03:12.590]I finished my doctorate
[00:03:13.939]at this great university.
[00:03:15.860]And two years ago
[00:03:17.874]I became the chancellor of this university.
[00:03:21.464]So dream big.
[00:03:25.137]Don't ever accept
[00:03:27.105]that it's not possible.
[00:03:29.370]The transformative power of education is huge,
[00:03:33.250]it is a huge opportunity.
[00:03:35.980]I don't really, I'm not one to say
[00:03:39.160]I don't care if you come to Nebraska,
[00:03:41.155]but I do.
[00:03:42.829]I would love to see every one of you
[00:03:43.673]here at Nebraska
[00:03:44.860]but as Dr. Wilhelm said,
[00:03:47.690]if you choose to pursue your education
[00:03:50.120]beyond where you are today,
[00:03:53.210]and for some of you
[00:03:54.420]you may say that
[00:03:55.450]that's not the right thing for you.
[00:03:56.820]And that's great and that's fine,
[00:03:59.170]but if you choose beyond where you are today,
[00:04:02.435]wherever you end up,
[00:04:05.417]wherever you end up,
[00:04:06.884]you know, believe that you can.
[00:04:09.305]You know, and believe that you
[00:04:10.138]have that opportunity to do that.
[00:04:12.420]You wanna get your PhD, you get your PhD, right?
[00:04:17.434]If you want to change the world,
[00:04:19.364]you change the world
[00:04:20.540]with that education that you receive.
[00:04:23.350]And that's all I've got to say.
[00:04:25.170]Thanks for being here.
[00:04:26.133](audience clapping)

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Tags:
ntc
matc
nebraska transportation center
mid-america transportation center
matc scholars program
scholars program
ronnie green

Comments

0 Comments

2018 MATC Scholars Program: Chancellor Ronnie Green

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments