By Dr. J.D. Rottweiler
An ad hoc group of Cochise College employees has spent about a day per month for the last year and a half dreaming about the future. The Strategic Think Tank includes a variety of personnel and doesn’t intend to create a document so much as to engage in ongoing discussions about ideas to strengthen the organization.
The think tank started with a question. What word describes or defines Cochise College? An ice-breaking question for which each participant provided a different answer. My word is hope.
Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Students come to Cochise College for that very reason. They’re working on a plan. They crave career advancement, financial security, intellectual stimulation, self-improvement, opportunity. Sometimes the path, or even the goal, is unclear. To them, the college is a medium to assist in making their dreams come true.
As an educator, nothing makes me feel better than when that happens. Case in point are the students and alumni who represented Cochise at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) conference this fall. The presentation of their personal stories of transformation – growing up in working families and realizing that higher education and career success are as possible for them as they are for anyone else – brought the HACU audience to tears. After networking with their peers and seeing the opportunities for themselves, they came home with a whole new perspective on life, a realization that success is within reach, a sharper focus, and an outlook of intense hope.
A movie character once said, “Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.” (That character’s thinking was influenced by decades in prison.) Indeed, having your sights set on something can become an obsession. But it also drives progress, inspires people to explore ideas, and motivates them to improve upon their endeavors. Without hope, there would be no progress!
The movie character who described hope as dangerous appeared in the popular film “The Shawshank Redemption.” The story is told in a prison, but it’s not about prison. It’s about hope. Wrongfully accused Andy Dufresne befriends Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding and essentially teaches him that it’s OK to dream. Upon earning parole and making arrangements for a trip into Mexico, Red says,
“I find I’m so excited that I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at a start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”
I’m not sure there is a better gift than hope. As you experience this wondrous season and anticipate the New Year, and maybe even some resolutions, consider what you can do for yourself or someone else with the concept of hope. Cochise College is honored to facilitate hope, because as the late Christopher Reeve once said, “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.”
Happy holidays.
J.D. Rottweiler is president of Cochise College. Contact him at jdr@cochise.edu.