During his visit to campus to deliver Elon's Commencement address on May 21, Elon alumnus William E. Gortney, director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, talked about issues facing the U.S. military with President Leo M. Lambert.
> Click here to watch a video of President Lambert’s interview with Admiral Gortney.
In his Commencement address, Gortney called on graduates to serve a nation “that provides us the opportunities we far too often take for granted.”
After recounting his own experience as a college graduate, and how men and women in uniform were once treated with less respect by youth than today’s college generation exhibits, Gortney outlined seven attributes for graduates to consider to “live as good a life as anyone”
Integrity. “No one can take your integrity from you. You must give it away,” he said. “The importance of your core values can never be over stated.”
Courage. “There will be times when you will be tested and you will not have the luxury of choosing when that test will occur,” Gortney said, noting that courage is more than physical. It’s also moral. “Therefore, do what you feel is the right course of action, which may not always be the easy, or popular, course of action.”
Judgment. “You can tell a lot about a person by the friends one keeps,” he said, “because you choose your friends, and your friends do the same in return.”
Passion. “Don’t go through life hating what you do,” Gortney said. “Find something that you have a passion for – and do it.”
Excellence. “Make excellence your trademark. Find your passion and do it better than anyone else.”
Balance. With work, family, physical health, mental health and spiritual health all competing for attention, students should “establish a marathon pace, balancing these five elements,” he said. “There will be times when you have to sprint, which will force you to reorder the priority of these elements. It is critical to put balance back into your marathon pace, once the sprint is no longer required.”
Service. “I urge you to volunteer your time to church, school, Scouts or youth sports,” Gortney said. “Give back to the society that defines us, the society that makes us who we are and that gives us the freedoms we cherish.”