Chris Waddell to Give Middlebury Commencement Speech
The College announced today that National Ski and Paralympic Hall of Famer Chris Waddell will be giving the Middlebury commencement speech for the Class of 2011 on Sunday, May 22. Waddell is a Midd Grad of the Class of 1991 and the founder of the nonprofit organization One Revolution, whose mission is to educate people worldwide about the range of human capability. Waddell was left paralyzed from the waist down after a skiing accident in 1988. A year later, he was back on the slopes and has since become the most decorated male skier in Paralympic history. In addition to his work with One Revolution, Waddell has worked with the International Paralympic Committee and has also had a successful career as a motivational speaker, addressing the topic of human resilience. He has inspired many with his overall motto of “It’s not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.”
In addition to Waddell the College will also be honoring Padma Desai, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Dorothy Bigelow Neuberger, Edward M. Rubin and Maxine Atkins Smith with honorary degrees.
For more details, especially concerning this year’s honored guests, check out The Middlebury Campus article.
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Waddell is an awesome speaker, but isn’t is a bit of a cop out that the commencement speaker has already come to speak at Middlebury this year? He spoke at TEDx in October in BiHall. Where are the new voices???
Midd’11 — how many of us in the senior class got to attend TEDx? Not many, I would guess, and his message, no doubt, will be inspiring. In addition, seniors and their families, for the first time, will be able to engage the honorary degree recipients in discussions on Saturday afternoon, which should provide a different kind of experience than a TEDx event.
blah. a guy who is chosen as just good enough to give a speech at the pretty dismal line up of TEDx speakers in midd this fall should not be the grad speaker.
can we at least get a speaker with his own wikipedia page?
Really? He runs an organization whose mission is “to educate people worldwide about the range of human capability”? Come on Middlebury, is this really the best you could do? What has this guy even done, other than tell other people to do great things?
Dissapointed Senior -
I understand that you are disappointed at the fact that the speaker is not as high-profile as past speakers, but it’s upsetting that you felt the need to deprecate the mission of his organization as well. Though I’ve never heard him speak, he seems like an amazing person in his quest to challenge what it means to be an able-bodied individual in our society.
Norms of ability are deeply ingrained in our daily lives, quite hard to recognize, and extremely painful for those who do not fall under such norms (only through a class I’m taking now am I really starting to realize how important it is). Perhaps, then, there are few more important missions than to “to educate people worldwide about the range of human capability”. I’m proud of Middlebury for choosing a speaker for more than just celebrity status/ hype.
As a 2010 grad, this guy sounds like someone who would give an awesome commencement speech. I didn’t know much about our speakers, and was pleasantly surprised when they gave a nice speech, but I can only imagine what this guy has to say about determination, overcoming odds, etc. The attitudes and ideas that he and his organization hold (from my very limited knowledge about them) seem to be so helpful to living a happy life, regardless of your circumstances. I know that I wanted us to have some super famous graduation speaker when I graduated, but what matters more is what they have to say.
Dear Middlebury, Perhaps we could make a few more buildings handicap accessible before we invite a paraplegic to speak at Commencement?
I think Waddell is a fantastic choice for commencement speaker and look forward to hearing what he has to say when I graduate in May. He’s accomplished some deeply impressive things and will no doubt have an interesting and enlightening perspective. We rightly hear about gender, sexuality, race and other issues on campus but for some reason there doesn’t seem to be much discussion of the equally-important topic of disability. That’s not to say this would be the main focus of Waddell’s speech, but it may inform it. In any case, Jacob says it perfectly–I’m happy the college chose a speaker for what he/she could say to us rather than notoriety. Waddell’s also good match for a college that has a tradition of bringing progressive, ethically-minded speakers to campus.
I second Deb’s remark. And all this stuff about “oh he’ll be so inspirational!” and “look at what odds he’s overcome!” is such disgusting BS. The way to challenge your able-bodiedness is not by celebrating people with disabilities who have performed hyper-bodied feats. (And yes, and unassisted ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro is definitely a hyper-bodied feat.)
Dear Disappointed Students..
Perhaps a first step should be taking a moment to put your elitism in check. From some of these comments, I am left with the impression that “able-bodied” has very little correlation to “able-minded.” Perhaps Chris Waddell’s speech will address the fact that in “real” life, you’re never as special as you think you are.
I think that Waddell will probably give a great speech, and he has certainly accomplished a lot. I also think that Middlebury has made a good economic decision to save tens (hundreds?) of thousands of dollars by not bringing a huge ticket speaker.
Maybe they can use that money to re-open Atwater.
Middlebury does not traditionally pay its commencement speaker anything.