Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have President Hawkinson with me from Kutztown University. Welcome.
President Hawkinson: Hi. Thank you so much, Toni.
Toni: This is the moment to just tell us a little bit about yourself.
President Hawkinson: Alright. Well, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and I was on my own shortly before my 18th birthday. I was first generation college. I was inspired by my teachers in high school, so went to a community college and worked full-time at a factory, and was able to get an ROTC scholarship to a four-year institution at Western Illinois University. I received my Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from there. Then I went into the Army for three years and served in Germany. Then I went on to earn a doctorate degree at Southern Illinois University, after which I went into the Peace Corps and spent two years in Mali as a Peace Corps volunteer. Then, I returned to Western Illinois University and spent about 27 years there going through the ranks of a professor and through various levels of administration.
About three years ago, my wife and I decided that we would pursue the possibility of becoming a president of a university, and the rest is history. I managed to get the position at Kutztown University, and started July 1, 2015. About two-and-a-half years now I’ve been in this role.
Toni: Congratulations, and thank you so much for being part of this really cool project.
President Hawkinson: It’s a very inspiring project.
Toni: Thank you.
President Hawkinson: I’m delighted to share my ideas or thoughts with you.
Toni: Let’s go into the project. What does inspiration mean to you?
President Hawkinson: I think it means to go outside of your box, to take chances, to take risks, to try things or go to places that you didn’t think were possible. As a young person, no one in my family had gone to college, my extended family, but I was very much inspired to give that a try and to see the world. I was very inspired to travel in my life. I’ve been to about 30 different countries, living in a number of different countries for extended periods of time, for years at a time. I think that it’s to go that extra step, that extra mile, and to seek out new ideas and new experiences.
Toni: Do you know when you’re inspired?
President Hawkinson: Yes. I think it’s when you get that grin on your face. It’s when you have “ah-ha” moments. It’s where you feel grounded into the present, and in that presence, that’s when you really experience joy. I think that’s where inspiration ultimately leads. It leads to joy.
Toni: I have been doing this project a really long time, as we have talked about earlier. I haven’t heard it put quite that way before, so I just want to touch on that. It’s when it grounds you into the present.
President Hawkinson: Yes. Yes.
Toni: What do you mean by that?
President Hawkinson: Well, I think most of us live our lives in a horizontal timeline. We’re either reflecting on things that have occurred in the past, or projecting into the future. With that often comes regret or worry, depending on which direction you’re going. I think through art, through literature, through special moments in our relationships, we stop in that horizontal timeline, and we shoot vertical where we’re able to be fully engulfed by the present; in which case, no regrets, no worries. You’re able to just kind of sit back and enjoy the moment fully with the people that you’re with, or with the book you’re reading, or in the concert that you’re hearing. That’s where I think the true joy of life comes, is when you can let go of past and future and be fully, fully present.
Toni: How do you take that mindset, that thinking, when you are inspired liked that, and put that into practice in Berks County?
President Hawkinson: I mean, this is one of the reasons I’ve gone into the profession that I’m in. I’ve been given the gift of being allowed to be president of a medium-sized university. We recently celebrated our sesquicentennial, our 150th anniversary. When you reach these milestones, they’re times for reflection on all the things that happened that bring you to where you’re at up until that milestone. It made us examine again what the purpose of college is, and I was lucky that my inauguration coincided with this big event.
In my speech, I talked about what I think the purpose of college is, and that’s to awaken and inspire young people; to make them curious to go to places they’ve never been before, to read that new book, to take their bodies further than they normally would, their minds further than they normally would, to build character, and as a result of awakening, making them curious, and helping them to build their character, to instill in them a humility and a gratefulness that will serve them the rest of their lives.
I think that in Berks County and beyond, when young people are inspired, they go through that five-step process I just explained, and they indeed will live lives that are more in the present, and lives wherein they indeed are showing gratefulness and humility through the course of their day-to-day existence.
Toni: What wonderful characteristics to carry forward. Who in Berks County inspires you?
President Hawkinson: Well, there’s a gentleman that I’ve gotten to know quite well. His name is Guido Pichini. He’s a graduate of Kutztown University, and he owns a very successful security company in this area. He and his wife, Sue, have spent their lives serving others. He’s not only provided employment for many thousands of people over the years and given them a good income and a good working environment, but far beyond that, he has served in so many capacities and has been so generous with his own wealth.
Guido has spent many years on the Board of Governors for the State System of Pennsylvania. He was Chair and is now Chair Emeritus of the Board of Governors. He was Chair for five years. He’s been on the Kutztown Council of Trustees for many, many years. He’s on Berks Encore. He’s Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Reading Community College, and many, many other organizations and boards that he has generously given of his time and his resources. I think he is truly, truly someone who has made a difference in this region.
Toni: Wonderful. Alright, President Hawkinson, what would you like your legacy to be?
President Hawkinson: Well, as a part of that sesquicentennial event that we celebrated about a year-and-a-half ago, I wrote a letter to the President of Kutztown University when they celebrate the bicentennial of the university, so 50 years, 48 years on into the future. I spoke of current events, but I also spoke of the various aspirations that I had. I think the greatest aspiration was there would be some early 70-year-old people sitting in audience that will have been my students when I was leading the University.
I’ve asked many of my students to attend the bicentennial 50 years from now, and as I project to the year 2066; it is my hope that those people now at the climax of their life will reflect back on their education, and indeed look back on it and say, “Yes, it was because of Kutztown University, and perhaps a little bit because of President Hawkinson,” that they were indeed awakened and made curious and developed a strong character, and indeed lived a life of humility and gratefulness. If that is the case, I will have felt that my life was well lived.
Toni: I can only imagine, sir, that there are people that are living and working that legacy as we speak. For that I commend you, and I also thank you for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
President Hawkinson: Thanks so much.
