![\"Elizabeth](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/kolmstetter_2401.jpg\" "\\"Elizabeth")
<\/a>\n\u201cContinuous discovery.\u201d That was Elizabeth Brownlee Kolmstetter<\/strong>\u2019s wish for Hollins\u2019 newest graduates during her commencement speech in May. Kolmstetter is deputy associate director of national intelligence for human capital within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Previously, she served as the director for human capital development at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the Department of Homeland Security. An industrial-organizational psychologist, she was one of the first federal employees chosen in 2002 to be part of the creation of the TSA in the aftermath of 9\/11.<\/p>\n
Following Kolmstetter\u2019s address, Suzanne Smith Whitmore \u201960, chair of the Board of Trustees, awarded her with the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa in recognition of her personal and career achievements.
\nIn her speech, Kolmstetter shared four of her own discoveries:<\/p>\n
- \n
- \u201cBe grateful and show it.\u201d<\/li>\n
- \u201cPlan, prepare, work really hard, and be open to the unexpected in life.\u201d<\/li>\n
- \u201cKnow and keep your real friends, forever.\u201d<\/li>\n
- \u201cDo what\u2019s hardest\u2026even something you don\u2019t think you can do.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In the audience cheering on Kolmstetter were her mother, former Hollins president Paula Pimlott Brownlee; her father, Tom Brownlee; and Hollins classmate Linda Bertorelli Jennings, Parents Council chair and the mother of Catherine \u201cCat\u201d Bertorelli \u201912.<\/p>\n
Read Kolmstetter\u2019s entire address, watch a video, and view photos at www.hollins.edu\/events\/commencement<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
A \u201csmall world\u201d story involving R.H.W. Dillard, an M.F.A. student, and a World War II submarine.<\/h3>\n
![\"R.H.W.](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/RHWD-Ayako_2401.jpg\" "\\"R.H.W.")
<\/a>Professor of English R.H.W. Dillard has a photo of himself as a six-year-old in front of a Japanese submarine in the 1940s. It was being transported from city to city to drum up war bond sales, and Dillard saw it in Roanoke. In one of the delightful small-world coincidences that delight storytellers, it turns out that a graduate student in the creative writing program, Ayako Matsushita M.F.A. \u201912, is the great-niece of the first Japanese POW, captured when his submarine, the one in Dillard\u2019s photo, attacked Pearl Harbor. Matsushita\u2019s thesis, a collection of poems titled Where the Soil Was Bright Red, was inspired by her great-uncle\u2019s memoir. \u201cHe published the book (the one I’m holding in the photo) after he came home in early 1946, and I was inspired and startled by reading it,\u201d she said. \u201cMy poems were based on his experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Natasha](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/trethewey_2401.jpg\" "\\"Natasha")
<\/a>Natasha Trethewey, the daughter of Professor of English Eric Trethewey, was appointed by the Library of Congress as the country\u2019s nineteenth poet laureate. She had been named Mississippi\u2019s poet laureate in January, a four-year appointment she will continue to hold. She is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University and served as the 2012 Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Writer-in-Residence at Hollins.<\/p>\n![\"Sarah](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/sarah-brown-flat_2401.jpg\" "\\"Sarah")
<\/a>![\"Hollins](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/HSC-winners_2401.jpg\" "\\"Hollins")
<\/a>Seniors Sarah Stone, Sarah Jarosinksi, and Kayla Oelhafen won their respective categories (podium, poster, performance) in last spring\u2019s Hollins Student Conference, coordinated by Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Jill Weber and Dean of Students Patty O\u2019Toole. Students from all disciplines were invited to submit scholarly and creative work, which was reviewed by a committee of faculty and staff. The plan is to make this an annual event.![\"Superintendent](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/runawaybunny_2401.jpg\" "\\"Superintendent")
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