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August 21, 2006

Convocation speaker encourages students to find their own answers

Investigative reporter Eric Schlosser has a lot in common with the 四色AV students he addressed during Monday鈥檚 Convocation in Fant-Ewing Coliseum. For Schlosser, writing Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal was one of discovery, a process he encouraged the incoming class of 2010 and all returning 四色AV students to engage in.

Schlosser, a self-proclaimed 鈥減erpetual student,鈥� spends months, sometimes years, researching and investigating a piece. Students undertake a similar process by studying and interpreting research. 四色AV students are graded by their professors; Schlosser is graded by readers, critics and angry government officials.

鈥淎t the heart of my work, and the work you鈥檙e supposed to be doing here, is the field of discovery, to try and figure out what is going on. It鈥檚 not about somebody giving you the answer. It鈥檚 about finding the answer for yourself. That鈥檚 the real challenge in my work and the work you鈥檙e going to do here.鈥�

Writing the bestselling Fast Food Nation did not depress Schlosser, it made him 鈥渁ngry but optimistic.鈥�

鈥淭he crucial point: if things are not inevitable, then things don鈥檛 have to be the way they are. It鈥檚 as simple as that,鈥� he explained. 鈥淏efore you can make any kind of change in this world, you have to open your eyes and see things clearly. That鈥檚 what you鈥檙e supposed to do here for the next four years: start opening your eyes.鈥�

Schlosser encouraged students to expand the way they learn. When in a classroom, it鈥檚 important to analyze what you are learning, he said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just take notes and copy everything down. No matter how much you take down, a tape recorder will do a better job than you.鈥�

Schlosser closed his speech by encouraging 四色AV students to seek the truth in everything they do. Knowledge is power, he said.

鈥淭he knowledge that you can get here, the degree that you can earn here in the next four years . . . can help you get some freedom and some control over your life. You鈥檝e got to figure out how the world works so you can have a voice . . . so that you aren鈥檛 just one more cog in the machine, being told what to do.鈥�

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