So, I got this unusual email today:
Dear Dale,
Dr. and Mrs. Herzing would like to invite you to join us on March 1, 2012 for a Celebration of Alumni in Milwaukee, WI.
The Herzing Family and the Herzing University Alumni Association are planning a gathering of graduates from the Wisconsin School of Electronics, Herzing Institute, Herzing College and Herzing University to celebrate where life has taken you since graduation. We understand that this event will be most convenient for alumni in the area, but all alums are invited. Later in the year Celebration of Alumni events will be held in Atlanta and New Orleans.
Herzing University understands the importance of its alumni to its future success. Going full circle, the success and growth of the University in quality and size enhances the value of the credential that each alumnus/alumna has earned at Herzing. In the last few years we, as an organization, have thought more about the role the alumni can play in supporting and improving the University as well as how we can sponsor functions and communications considered of value by the alumni.
Dr. and Mrs. Herzing will be in attendance as well as current president, Renée Herzing, and some of our employees with longevity dating back to the 1970s including Bev Faga (retired), Marion Duren, Edward Walstead and Wally Henry (retired).
Please join us for dinner, wine tasting, networking and visiting with old friends. You are welcome to bring your significant other and encouraged to share this invitation with your fellow alums. There is no charge for the event and the dress is business casual.
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Plus there was a side note asking if I wanted to speak at the event, I would more than welcome as a “successful Wisconsin Graduate.” I doubt I would have the guts to speak… but, I don’t know…lately, I’m kinda growing tired of the status-quo in my life. Well, If I would speak… and I would prepare a speech… this is what I would say:
(An apology... and a note: Mr. Rick Bell sent me a really great list of improvements on this speech, which I shall include in the next installment. But, let me just say that I do not believe for a second that the only path to success is gained through college. I've known many people that have gone through years of college and be damned if they don't know a friggin' thing... and some of the most skilled and educated people I've ever known, never learned anything from a book. This is just my experience... one I'm surprised and rather grateful for... okay?)
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Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen, esteemed colleagues, and well-dressed alumni:
My name is Dale Glaudell and I am a 2006 graduate of Herzing and very grateful to be here. Grateful because I once failed at the very same college in which I find myself celebrating our common success. Without a doubt, I should not be here, on account that I am a total failure, both in life and as a student.
I blame my parents.
My mother wanted me to be just like my father, a television repair man. We always had electronic stuff around my house that my dad was working on: TV’s, Radios, and record players. Yes, they were called record players because once upon a time these machines actually played what were called “records”… little pieces of vinyl with a lot of scratches on them.
Well, my dad spent hours and money on these little projects in our home, in our basement, in our garage… it drove my mom absolutely nuts. Still, my mother wanted me to be a carbon copy of my dad… Television repair man. And when he died while I was not yet even in High School, it prompted her to really get on my case to “do something with my life.”
So, I did what all 18 year old kids would do in 1977; I grew my hair long, and played guitar in a rock n’ roll band. Which of course, sent my mother in months of non-stop brow-beating, nagging and withholding of the fried chicken. Still, I wanted nothing to do with the electronics world. And when an unmovable object meets an stoppable force, what happens? Well, my mother won out… of course.
Right about the same week that Elvis Presley died, I saw a commercial on TV that was about The Wisconsin School of Electronics. Just to get my mother off my back, her and I sojourned from my home in Reedsburg to Madison.
There we met Mr. Henry and he was an excellent salesman! They gave me an “aptitude test” and said I would be perfect to start school right away. He had us believing that in as little as 2 years, I would be happily employed (showed me charts that proved that 92 percent of the graduates had jobs within a year of graduating), and making a ton of money. We were sold!
I was the only one (even at age 18, I was pretty cheap) that had the temerity to ask about the money. You see, I hated high school. Never liked it at all. And I had no intentions of going to college. In fact, I never really thought about going to college. I was going to make it big as a rock and roll star, ya know? So, I never saved any money for college. And my family was not poor, but certainly not well off either. And certainly not well-apportioned to put me through a college.
Well, Mr. Henry put his arm around me and said these words: “Now, Dale. You should never let money impede your path to a better education, ever! You don’t worry about a thing. We’ll just work through all of that later…. “
And with that, I signed some papers and quit my regular job and moved to an apartment with my girlfriend on Commercial Avenue on Madison’s East side.
College! Wow. I was totally expecting “Animal House.” You know frat parties and sorority girls with skimpy nighties having pillow fights and a never-ending supply of beer kegger parties. Well, who knew? Someone actually had to study. And study hard.
I never did.
I was put on “academic probation” after six short months, and subsequently dropped out of school. It took me fifteen long years to pay off the school loan….
I worked in a factory after that. I got married. Had a son. Divorced. Claimed bankruptcy. And it’s all because of the lady with the stop watch that I finally re-started my march towards furthering my education.
I worked in a plastics factory in Baraboo, Wisconsin. It wasn’t really a bad job… but it wasn’t really great either. 2nd shift… not bad money and for the most part, the folks I worked with were friendly and decent. Execpt the lady with the stopwatch.
She was one of those ladies…you know the type. Been with the company probably since the beginning. A queen of the plastic extrusion. She knew everyone and everything. Nothing got by her. Well, I was working at a machine across from her, and just so happened I was having some medical problems… kidney-type issues.
I won’t go into details, but lets just say I had to run to the bathroom many times a day. The extrusion queen had noted this and with her trusty stop watch, actually clocked my time in the rest room. I was quickly called into the office by my supervisor and was written up for (and I’m quoting here): Peeing too much.
Well, the very next day I signed up for some classes and soon got into a program at MATC in Madison. I talked to my supervisor’s supervisor… and asked for some help with me getting through school. He, being the super guy he is, agreed to let me work almost full time on 2nd/3rd shift while going to school full time.
It was a really hard two years… working full (nearly) full time, and going to school in Madison full time… also trying to be a good dad to my young son… and yes, even playing in that rock and roll band on the weekends. It sure wasn’t easy… toughest two years of my life. But worth every second of misery and lost sleep.
Talk about your “distracted driver”? I remember putting my shirt on, shaving and stuffing breakfast in my big mouth….all whilst speeding along the Interstate to the MATC Truax campus.
Well, I graduated with an associate’s degree in Electronics (finally making my mother a happy woman), and before long I left the plastics factory….and with no regrets.
Well, after a climbing the long ladder of better jobs…. And after 10 years, I decided to get my bachelor’s degree… and that’s when I again turned to (what was now called) Herzing College. As I was working full-time, and recovering from cancer… I found the online classes to fit very well with my lifestyle.
I will admit, it was again a tough 2 years… but, I graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor’s degree in technology management.
I have been lucky to land a good job at a technology expert in a school district. Of course, now days, these jobs like many are being threatened. But I am confident that the education I have received will lead me down whatever path is best for me.
You know, when my dad passed away (I was barely 13 years old), he was working for GIBBS manufacturing in Janesville… they were a subsidy of NASA. They made the first generation of digital timers for the Apollo space program. We now have these timers in everything from your ovens to your cell phones.
I always dreamed that someday I might work for NASA and the space program. Though my life hasn’t turned out quite the way I envisioned… I couldn’t have done any of the good things without Herzing and the great instructors within. I realize that I’m very lucky because the education I have gotten, has made me grow in many ways that can never really be quantized or calculated.
I thank you for allowing me to become a better person and a much more positive force for good in the universe. Thank you so much!
