College Bound
Birmingham-Southern College stands out in my mind as one of my first palpable experiences of serendipity. I nonchalantly agreed to visit the campus in the western hills of Birmingham, Alabama with my mom, expecting very little from this introductory tour. But from the first meeting with the admissions staff, I was taken with their welcome, sincerity, and warmth. My mind opened to the possibility of envisioning myself there as they shared more about their liberal arts approach to education with its encouragement to survey a variety of academic disciplines and classes before declaring a major.
I was also excited by the notion of a January term or “Interim” in which we could take the whole month to explore a course of study that intrigued us - formal or independent, on or off campus, even abroad. And my heart was tugged, as any good Methodist’s would be, as I discovered that service-learning was a theme of Southern’s mission, ever urging us to give of our time and talents to the broader community and world. Windows and doors seemed to keep opening as the staff walked us through a couple of unique opportunities for financial aid - one of which, the Bicentennial Scholarship, seemed like a very realistic and helpful possibility for me.
I’m not sure I learned of it through official channels on that first visit, but it also seemed noteworthy to me that the sons of the president of Birmingham-Southern were both current students, as well as the son of the president of Millsaps College. If BSC was a persuasive enough fit for each of them, surely this communicated something about the quality of this place. At least it did for me. The deal was essentially sealed and my decision made when later that evening on our return home, the president of the college himself called to speak with me, hear how the visit had gone, and express his hope that I would strongly consider Birmingham-Southern. This intentionality was not lost on me. It felt good to be both known and wanted.
I graduated from Meridian High School in May of nineteen eighty-nine and enrolled at Birmingham-Southern at the end of the summer. I felt a mix of both sadness and gratitude as my family drove away leaving me on “The Hilltop” for the dawn of my college days. Earlier that summer I had attended a gathering of Birmingham-Southern students from Mississippi. And I also had a second cousin from Nashville who was beginning her Sophomore year at BSC. I was assigned a likable roommate and joined a fraternity, so almost like paging, I felt like I had a number of supportive connections and was forming relationships at a reasonable pace.
Although we weren’t required to have a major at the beginning of our college experience, I remember putting pre-law on any form that inquired if I had any inkling at all of an academic focus. I held this vague interest in law mainly because paging and working on The Hill had been such an exhilarating experience and most of the people who worked there seemed to have some educational background in law. I enrolled in a couple of political science classes my freshman year and even chose a course — “Politics in the South” — for the January term which included a trip to Montgomery for a closer look at Alabama government.
I was also surprised to learn that The Walt Disney Company was convening spring interviews on our campus for their summer paid internships deemed, the “Disney College Program”. My childhood dreams were stirred once again.
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These were halcyon days. ❤️