By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
In introducing Mizell Stewart III as speaker for the Saturday morning commencement at Bowling Green State University, Provost Joe Whitehead hit all the high points of the journalist’s career, the executive positions and the Pulitzer Prize.
When Stewart took to the podium he referenced that biography. “I made sure to share all the good stuff,” he said, and that included “marrying the smartest and sweetest woman in the world” —Valerie Morgan-Stewart.
The speech to the graduates from the College of Arts and Science and the College of Musical Arts, who themselves were experiencing a peak in their lives, was not about those high points. Just as important, more important even, than those achievements are the valleys the students will have to go through over the course of their lives, Stewart said.
“The trajectory your life is less about what happens to you, but how you respond to whatever the world throws your way.”
Biographies are lies, he said, quoting evangelist TD Jakes. They are lies because they only include the peaks.
Stewart opened by describing a cartoon he has saved on his phone. One side shows a stick figure about to climb a mountain, a flag ready at the top to signify triumph. The path is straight. That’s the plan.
The other side of the drawing, has ups and downs, and detours. That’s reality.
Stewart said as a member of the BGSU Alumni Association Board of Directors, he’s familiar with the challenges many of these graduates have faced.
Many problems were out of their control — financial struggles, naysayers, the “crazy family relationships,” the deaths of loved ones who should be joining them in celebrating, and the “health issues that will dog you well into the future.”
He told the graduates that “time and again you demonstrated perseverance and grit.”
Some just made “lousy life choices.”
Stewart said he knows all about that. He entered BGSU in 1983; he didn’t graduate until 1994. “My GPA was so low it was almost under water.”
And, he said, “while a leader in student media here at Bowling Green State University, I was fired by one of my classmates in front of roomful of people.”
His mother, Stewart said, was a high school principal who was “very, very serious about education.”
He found support, including from the BGSU community, to finally get his undergraduate degree, and years later a graduate degree.
In 2005, his mother died after a long struggle with lung cancer. When he returned to work after the funeral, he was informed the company had been sold. He had 30 days to pack up and leave what he considered his dream job.
“That was one of the most devastating periods of my life,” Stewart said. Yet he’s thankful for it.
Four weeks later he was in the newsroom of the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi, the day after Hurricane Katrina struck. He was put in charge of the news team covering the storm and its aftermath.
Though at the moment he was given the assignment he had no idea what to do next, the work that followed was “the most rewarding event in my career, and a memory I’ll cherish forever” he said.
“I worked beside an amazing team of journalists,” Stewart said. “Many of them set aside concerns for own safety and devastation that they and their families suffered to provide that community with critical news and information.”
Their journalism helped a devastated community to rebuild, and it was recognized with the Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service.
Stewart offered students five pieces of advice to guide them when they had to navigate life’s low points.
“Give yourself a time to regroup. It’s OK to have yourself a little pity party just don’t let it go on too long,” he said
Ask for help. When he got tossed out of student media at BGSU, his first stop was the counseling center. The assistance he got there helped him then, and continues to help him.
Take time to reflect. Professional success or failure is less about talent, and more about “the way you manage your own emotions and the emotions of those around you.”
Take action. That could be volunteering to help others, or taking a class, or joining a support group.
Stay connected. “This is a campus community that encouraged me to finish my degree after I’d moved away and continues to support me every single peak and valley of my career.”
That included some academic redemption when he earned his master’s degree in organizational management and leadership with a 4.0 GPA and was named the top student in his cohort.
“This is what it means when we say Bowling Green State University changes life for the world,” Stewart said echoing the theme of the current comprehensive campaign. “Our association with this institution changes our lives so we, in turn, can change to world for the better.”
