1. Sarah Noack
WIU Honors Convocation Speech
Delivered 5/11/2012
A Love for Learning
Learning has many practical benefits, but it provides much more value than tangible rewards.
An affinity for learning has helped us get the most from our education, as evidenced by our
presence here at Honors Convocation today. Our love of learning will also help us succeed in
our careers and become contributing members of society. However, the joy of learning would be
worth celebrating, even without these benefits. I believe that we are hardwired to enjoy learning.
For example, infants’ brains work on overtime, absorbing as much information as they can. It
isn’t because they want a head start on someday improving their ACT or GRE scores. They
simply want to learn. People are born with curiosity and continue to seek out information in
order to avoid curiosity’s counterpart, boredom. If we continue to indulge our love of learning, it
will continue to reward us for the rest of our lives. This curiosity, and the way we satisfy it, is
such a large part of who we are that I cannot fathom how we can live without learning. Learning
is a joy that should be celebrated. We need to take this weekend to celebrate with those who
have helped guide us down our path of learning, including our family, teachers, advisors, and of
course, our professors here at Western who have all been invaluable to our journey.
Not everything we learned here at Western took place in the classroom. Our first couple of years
here may have included a few trials that our parents and mentors referred to as “learning
experiences.” I commend anyone who leaves here without having accidentally overslept and
missed a class, overscheduled their time, asked their parents for money, or clashed with someone
during a group project. Nonetheless, we have emerged from these experiences triumphant, with
new skills, such as self-discipline, flexibility, frugality, and tolerance.
As honors students, we are not here simply because of our GPA. We are here because of our
commitment to and love of learning, and our desire to exceed expectations. This has served us
well in our formal education. What is perhaps even more important is the way in which we’ve
displayed our ambition and love of learning by taking ownership of our education. Our passion
for learning has led us to extend our own studies beyond the traditional curriculum to projects,
research, and writing. As Honors students we have used this remarkable opportunity to take
what we have learned from our professors and apply it to our personal and professional interests.
We have in turn contributed to a pool of knowledge with our own discoveries and perspectives.
We have worked diligently to complete senior projects and theses of our own design, and in this
way we have even made learning an expression of ourselves.
I have had the pleasure of studying nonverbal communication in music performance for my
honors thesis. After two semesters of research, writing, working with participants, and
incomparable guidance from Dr. Lisa Miczo, I am finally able to see answers to questions that I
posed one year ago. I learned that a performer’s complementary expressions and behaviors
meant to help connect with the audience are perceived positively by audience members. To
some, that may not seem terribly interesting, but it is helpful to musicians because there is data to
support the fact that they must consider the possibility of movements other than what is required

2. to play their instrument or sing so that they may communicate and connect with their audience.
It is hard to describe our feelings of joy at following our innate human curiosity and witnessing a
study from concept to conclusion. There is no denying the satisfaction of searching out and
discovering information for ourselves.
So what will happen when there aren’t professors to give us assignments? How do we keep
learning after we graduate? Fortunately, our appetite for learning will continue to reward us as
we begin our next journey in life. Therefore we must welcome every opportunity to learn. We
will be faced with choices of how to address challenges at work or in grad school. Some may
take a passive approach to the situation, feeling that their degree entitles them to their dream job.
However, the insightful employee or grad student will not take any learning opportunity for
granted, using every interaction and experience to learn valuable skills and life lessons to help
progress professionally.
If we take anything from our schooling it is not just facts or theories it is how to learn. Learning
is an innate desire that drives us through our own journeys of exploration. We need to embrace
this longing for knowledge and let it lead us, as it will guide us to success in so many areas of
our lives. We have shown ourselves to be successful students, now we will prove our success in
careers and as members of society. Whether we go on to grad school, begin a career, or forge
our own path, it is the thirst for knowledge that will help us to adapt to our changing world. I am
certain that as we graduate from WIU, we will see that our journey in education is not ending, it
has only just begun.