DPS Day Speech
Kayden Diodati, ASUPS President
April 16th, 2021
Thank you Eliana.
As Eliana shared, my name is Kayden Diodati, and I serve as the President of the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound, or as we call it, ASUPS: our student government. It is an honor to welcome you to campus on behalf of the student body. A student body that, as I am sure you will experience today talking with my peers or just walking through campus, is extremely excited to share this amazing and uplifting community with you – even if it is just for today.
I do have to say, I am very thankful that we are able to gather in-person. Last year, I engaged in this event online, holding my computer above my head trying to show the prospective students on zoom the wonderful campus and community I get to participate in. But, as we all know, nothing compares to this: the physical, emotional connection to space and environment. Nothing compares to the real experience.
Because, as you will see, on these beautiful 97 acres, students, faculty, staff members, and administrators, work, play, learn, grow, and live together. It is in this space where we discover who we are—our passions, our values, our community, and, through our community, a desire and willpower to make the world a better place. Today, you will surround yourself with people just like you: the self-starters, leaders, advocates, visionaries, entrepreneurs, and yes, a few procrastinators; I know there might be a few in the room this morning, but we are all working on it.
But what unites the highly achieving, forward thinking student body at the University of Puget Sound? We are willing to test, probe, and examine our self-knowledge as we pursue our goals. We apply ourselves outside of our comfort zones, take classes outside of our majors, and find lessons in our failures. We are here not just to learn about the world around us, but to learn about ourselves. That is why we chose a place where theory is not just learned in the classroom, but applied and challenged in a student’s everyday experience.
Here, you can spend a week learning to flip pizzas in the cellar, share your top hits on our radio station KUPS, publish a poem, learn to invest using a clubs money, discover a new species during class and spend 8 months debating what to call it, which my best friend is struggling with right now. I keep telling her to name it after me, but she won’t. Practice interpreting binding documents and setting precedence as a Justice on our Honor Court. Publish an op-ed in our student newspaper, The Trail, or learn to garden - all in the name of building self-knowledge. And what better place to explore self-knowledge than Tacoma? The City of Destiny – a vibrant and wholesome section of the Pacific Northwest.
There is something for everyone. Point Defiance Park, a 10-minute drive north from here, is a 760-acre park including a Zoo & Aquarium, beaches, trails, a boardwalk, Fort Nisqually, which my peers often drive to to make sure is still there, and the Washington State Ferry dock to Vashon Island. This offers a space for student researchers to explore and quite literally discover the unknown.
Mount Rainier, the head of the waterways, an icon in the state of Washington and visible from campus on a sunny day, standing at 14,000 feet above sea level and scaring all the geology majors as it will erupt one day, but nobody can figure out when, gives my peers the opportunity of adventure and expedition.
And Seattle, home to the headquarters of 10 fortune 500 companies: Amazon, Costco, Microsoft, Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Weyerhaeuser, which last time I checked has an academic building named after them, sits 25 miles north of us offering endless possibility and opportunity.
But let’s be honest, as prospective students, and just humans, we always look for that open window, or door, depending on the story we tell, that will offer the best opportunity in life. The decision that will take us a step forward as a person or scholar. The last thing I want you to take away from my remarks is that Puget Sound is the best offer you have to match your story or goals. I am a lame-duck President, I am out of office in 5 days, so I can say whatever I want. So, what I will say is this: The Puget Sound experience provides support, self growth, and connections.
I have experienced those qualities every step along the way as I continue to grow in this community. And growth does not always mean success. Even after I made a fool of myself a few weeks ago on this stage, and just forgot a pretty important part of my remarks in front of a crowd about this size, my professors embraced my failure and structured it as a lesson. I brought notes this time.
The friends I have made here, even while living at home during the pandemic, have continued to challenge me intellectually, forced me to consider alternative perspectives, but most importantly, never failed to be my support system.
And the staff, while navigating the complications of returning to in-person work, continue to do so with a smile on their face and a strong, unwavering desire to make this place the best possible environment for communal learning and personal growth.
So, after all that pomp and circumstance, what makes the University of Puget Sound, Puget Sound? It is the intentional community where a professor knows you by name, the peers that encourage and push-back on ideas, and friends supporting you through the long days and nights. It is finding your voice, your passions, and your weaknesses.
The motto, “To the heights,” synthesizes the ways in which we, as a united student body, strive for excellence in every facet of life. The classroom does not limit the expansion of knowledge that is the cornerstone of our community; rather, it develops our path forward. From those lessons, the students of the University of Puget Sound are ready to make good change to the world we live in, and I hope you will join us.
So, that’s enough from me, please join me in welcoming our next speaker this morning: a supportive and inspiring campus leader, the 14th President of the University of Puget Sound: President Crawford.