Three select professors presented the final lectures of their careers in the inaugural Student Government Final Lecture series Wednesday evening in Talley Student Union, sharing advice they learned along the way.
Speakers included Ed Funkhouser, professor of communication, Susan Katz, professor of English, and Larry Nielsen, professor of natural resources. The Student Government Traditions Department, a group of students who deal with student traditions past and present, created the event. To be chosen to present, the three speakers were nominated by their respective deans and later selected from over 500 student votes.
With the variety of professors came a variety of presentation styles, ranging from historical commentary from Funkhouser, to critical biographical narrative from Katz and clever puns and maxims from Nielsen. Katz and Nielsen both took time during their lectures to address the namesake of the event.
“It’s a little ominous to talk about your last lecture,” Nielsen said. “I was talking to a faculty member today who said, ‘are you just going to fall over dead after you’re done?’ … No, that’s not my intention at all.”
Katz, unlike the two other professors, drew her primary inspiration from the event itself, being inspired to base her lecture on a similar biographical narrative as the famous last lecture by Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch. Rather than mirror Pausch’s long-term ascent to a singular goal, Katz illustrated the individual opportunities she took to reach her current, fulfilling position.
“I have to confess that when I was nominated for this, I was a little intimidated by it because I don’t lecture,” Katz said. “[Pausch] talked about his childhood dreams and how he achieved them; unfortunately, I don’t remember anything at all about what the childhood me thought that I would want to be.”
During her lecture, Katz was certain to include her best-known opportunity that brought her to become an English professor at NC State. On the day of her interview at the university, she was trapped on the coldest day in 1996 with no means of transportation to the nearby airport.
“I was standing at the cashier’s counter at the Shoney’s across from the hotel with $20 in hand,” Katz said. “I waited by a couple with some kids, and I say, ‘if you take this $20, will you drive me to the airport?’ I had the first plane to Raleigh, a flight practically to myself, and I made it to my interview.”
In retrospect, Katz said that the most important thing for anyone to do was to value and thank those who helped them to achieve their goals and to take opportunity whenever it appeared.
“I think it was really powerful to hear the last words that these professors have to say to the students in the room,” said Ben Laramee, a junior studying nuclear engineering. “I felt that it was awesome to see how important every opportunity is, especially at this time in our lives.”
Funkhouser and Nielsen both described their favorite maxims through small quotes and works of literature around them. Nielsen, in particular, cited various works by Dr. Seuss.
“Don’t ever give up, someone told me that once, that Jim Valvano,” Nielsen said. “Dr. Seuss persevered and changed the world for all of us. Twenty-six rejections came before his first book got published.”
Regardless of the way that they conveyed their lectures, all of the professors emphasized that students should hold fast to determination and intrinsic drives.
“You should go forth in your life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face,” Funkhouser said. “But you should always have a strong sense of purpose in your heart.”
*Editor’s Note: this article originally misspelled Nielsen’s name.
Professor of natural resources Larry Nielsen delivers his final lecture Wednesday in the Piedmont Ballroom in Talley Student Union. Nielsen used the story of Dr. Seuss and the books Seuss wrote to deliver a number of the lessons included in the talk — one of which was perseverance. Nielsen said, "He [Seuss] persevered, and he ended up changing the world for all of us ... and you should persevere too. Maybe you can change the world, a little or a lot."
