Contact: Sammy McDavid
Sen. Thad Cochran told Mississippi State graduates Saturday that, while personal ambition and role models are important factors for success in life, honest self-awareness is essential.
"One of the fundamental learning experiences is getting to know yourself," Cochran said. "It can be character building, as well."
The state's senior U.S. senator was featured speaker for the university's morning commencement program. Nearly 1,300 students were candidates for degrees at the conclusion of the university's 2003 fall semester and the land-grant institution's 125th anniversary year.
"Understanding your own strengths and weaknesses is a very important learning experience," Cochran told the packed house of graduates and their family members. "It is good to have ambitions and role models, but you shouldn't give up on yourself if you are not as successful in everything as you want to be."
Since first elected to the Senate in 1978, Cochran has enjoyed a number of successes himself, including four landslide reelections. A Pontotoc native who was raised in Byram, he serves as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee and also is a member of the Appropriations and Rules committees.
As self-awareness is critical for personal success, citizenship is equally important for the continued success of American democracy, Cochran said.
"Basically, citizenship requires us to participate, to do our part, for the betterment of our community and country," he added. "Today, each of us feels a heightened sense of citizen responsibility because of our recent experiences as victims of terrorism. Our efforts to deal with this very serious challenge are paying off and we are improving the security of our homeland."
Continuing his focus on national security, he cited work now under way at MSU's Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory, which has received the first grant awarded by the federal Department of Homeland Security to a Mississippi university.
"A visit to the campus just this week by Dr. Charles McQueary, the department's undersecretary for science and technology, is recognition of the importance of research being conducted by the faculty here at MSU," Cochran said.
He also noted the selection of Jennifer Hughes, who is seeking both doctoral and master's degrees in veterinary medicine. The former Elba, Ala., resident is one of only five students in the Southeast and 50 in the nation to recently be named a Homeland Security Fellow.