BUIES CREEK, North Carolina – In his first spring graduation ceremony as Campbell University president and in his first commencement address, J. Bradley Creed chose to get the cliches out of the way.
“Get out of your comfort zone. Pay it forward. You’re the best and the brightest. Keep your nose to the grindstone. Walk softly and carry a big stick. Put your money where your mouth is. Practice what you preach. Godspeed, God bless and go Camels,” ended the president’s two-minute tongue-in-cheek pre-speech speech.
When the laughs and applause ended, Creed began the real address. And though it barely topped 10 minutes (short in the pantheon of graduation talks), his speech was packed with powerful advice — be grateful in times of success and faithful in the midst of life’s uncertainties.
“Let your gratitude be your path to greatness,” Creed said. “Grateful people sit in the shade of trees they did not plant. Great people plant trees they’ll never sit under, but others will. It’s time for you who sit in the shade of trees to plant some trees yourself. It’s time to do something that will benefit others, even if you don’t get credit for it or take in the benefits.”
More than 450 students from the College of Arts & Sciences, School of Business and School of Education received their degrees at Saturday morning’s service in a packed Pope Convocation Center on a beautiful spring day. The main campus ceremony was Campbell’s fourth of the weekend, with a fifth (adult and online education) scheduled for later in the day. In all, Campbell awarded 950 undergraduate and graduate degrees over the two-day span.
Among the 450 Saturday morning was Claire Carrington, a communication studies major from Holly Springs and this year’s recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, presented annually to one student and one citizen for their service to others. In her four years at Campbell, Carrington volunteered with several organizations and was a founding member of Campbell’s Study Abroad ambassadors program.
“It was an honor of a day,” Carrington said following the ceremony. “I’m excited for the award and just blessed to have this day with my family. Some have flown in from New Mexico and Tennessee to see my graduate, so it’s a pretty emotional day. In the best way possible.”
Bernard McLeod Jr., who attended school in Buies Creek from first grade through junior college in the mid-1940s, received the citizen Sullivan Award for his continued support of Campbell University and his work on the Board of Trustees, on the Presidential Board of Advisors and in recent capital campaigns and academic scholarships. The McLeod Athletic Training Facility at Barker-Lane Stadium and the McLeod Admissions Center (opening in 2017) are named for him.
In his address, Creed challenged the graduates to be faithful when faced with life-changing decisions. He shared the story of the “phone call from a stranger” that led to his decision to come to Campbell and how being a university president was not on his bucket list.
“There is so much ahead of you that you cannot anticipate or control,” he said. “Be open to alternate routes, unplanned passages or excursions whose destinations are unchartered or whose ends are determined by mystery.
“Being a university president was not part of the script I had planned for my life. But life is not about checking things off a bucket list. The most important things are right here in front of you. They will unfold and manifest themselves if you live faithfully with the uncertainties of life. Stop thinking you have to go somewhere exciting to experience the joys of living.”
– by Billy Liggett