President Connie Ledoux Book reflects on the pandemic and finding inspiration in the individual journeys of members of the Elon community and the university's communal sense of purpose.
On a beautiful evening in September, under one of Elon’s newly installed instructional tents, I met with 12 of our Lumen Scholars and the program’s director, T.E. Powell Jr. Professor and Professor of Physics Ben Evans. We were socially distanced and wearing masks, as students shared the deep-dive topics they are undertaking with faculty mentors as part of this still relatively new scholarship program. Research ranged from global economics to cancer research, choreography and much more. While the environment for our event had changed to respond to the pandemic, the learning and challenges students described undertaking had a similar tone to it. It was the disposition of the students and Professor Evans that struck me — A realistic tone of acceptance in their voices, along with a resolve to continue to press forward.
One student described working in the lab and managing delayed supplies that caused adjustments to her schedule. Another described working virtually with a global partner in India to conduct interviews that she could no longer do in person as planned. Several described revisions to hypotheses and timelines.
In this moment, with a steeper climb than we have encountered in our previous travels, we are experiencing new learning and new awareness. We can now see more clearly, and this new view is calling each of us to action in unique ways.
While one might at first think the learning goals established would be delayed or absent, what I heard from the students instead was amplified learning, critical thinking through adjustments, new insights gained and deeper relationships formed through collaborative problem-solving. Rich with learning, but simultaneously exhausting, these adjustments had become the unanticipated centerpieces of their Lumen Prize scholarship.
Evans closed the discussion with the observation, “I’m waiting for the beginning of the end.” He then asked me, “Do you think we are at the beginning of the end of the pandemic?”
If you consider this pandemic journey along a bell-shaped curve or liken it to climbing a mountain, unanimously we want to know, “Is the most difficult part over or are we on the downward slope?”
Like a child in the backseat during a long drive, “Are we almost there yet?”
As the university’s president, in that moment I wish I could have said “yes” and to “hang in there because we are just about done.” I wish I could have said that I was confident it was almost over and we would soon be free of the challenges the pandemic had and is creating. But that is not a possibility. Instead, what I can offer is the comforting reminder that journeys in life are perpetual and that we are here together, Elon. We are on a life journey together that has curves and hills and may even offer flattened landscapes for a little while before we begin to climb again. In this moment, with a steeper climb than we have encountered in our previous travels, we are experiencing new learning and new awareness. We can now see more clearly, and this new view is calling each of us to action in unique ways.
The hope forming in this new world as we continue the forward climb up the steepest part, with each step a new view and new understanding, is the power of the combination of your Elon education and the intersection of life. We are together as a community of learners. While our individual actions — the “liberty of conscience” articulated in our mission statement — define our journeys as our own, we are together in our learning and sense of purpose.
As you read the pages of this fall 2020 issue of The Magazine of Elon, you will find inspiration in the individual journeys of members of the Elon community, the vibrancy of their Elon education helping to establish our new world. In these stories, the action of our mission to provide an education the world needs is compelling and clear. We are here together, Elon, at a time when our journey is steep, and the beginning of the end is not yet in sight.
Connie Ledoux Book
President