Emily Ann Nolte Jacobstein:	Well that's a tough act to follow. Well good afternoon and on behalf of the alumni association, welcome to Swarthmore. In fact, assuming you survive at least one day of classes, welcome to the alumni association. Technically, all former students are automatically members. You don't even have to graduate. The alumni of the college are an incredible resource for students and I hope you will take advantage of us during the next four years.
	During my time at Swarthmore, I enjoyed many benefits from getting to know alumni including a summer of free housing during an internship in DC. Now as an alum myself, I always enjoy interacting with the students and love nothing more than hiring Swatties to come work for me after graduation, but enough about alumni, today we are here to talk about you and some of the experiences you may face over the next four years and how you will respond to them. While I could tell you about some of the late night conversations or political debates on campus that challenge my core beliefs, I'm instead going to focus on one particular core belief in hopes that y'all can learn from some of my miss-steps in the past. That belief is we are all in this together and so it's okay to ask for some help along the way.
	Having celebrated my tenth college reunion last may, I spent the last May, I spent the past few months thinking back over my time at Swarthmore. In fact, I remember sitting exactly, sort of, where you are today 14 years ago during my new student orientation. I knew no one aside from my room mate and one other person from my high school and I felt incredibly out of place. To make matters worse, I was recovering from major jaw surgery with a still swollen face from the procedure as well as braces and I was on a liquid only diet.
	Not only did I feel nervous and out of place, I didn't even feel like myself. My birthday fell in the middle of new student orientation and my parents had secretly ordered a full sheet cake that said happy birthday Emily Anne and coordinated with my RA for it to be a surprise at a whole dinner. Now, I don't know if y'all know this but I recently planned a wedding and a full sheet cake is intended to serve 120 people. It was massive. I called my mom confused and I reminded her I can't eat anything. She said she knew that. That was the point. The point was for not me to eat the cake, but for everyone else. She suggested that I put up signs throughout the dorm announcing free cake in my room and she promised that I would meet not only all the first years but also all the upperclassmen who are starting to move into the dorm.
	She was of course correct and over the next few days, the cake disappeared and my list of friends of all different years multiplied. During those first few weeks of college, I pretty much dove in head first. Everything sounded interesting. The activities there, I signed up for everything from new sports teams to political clubs and community service activities and only a few months later whittle down my email subscriptions to the clubs I would really stay involved in. Shout out to women's rugby.
	Campus jobs; I was on the babysitting list and [inaudible 00:29:31] caller for the annual giving form the get go. Academics; I'd never taken a film class, so of course I had to sign up for Patty White's intro to film and media studies, which next thing you know, became one of my minors. First year seminars, I couldn't wait to get started on the reading list for Marge Murphy's course on gender in America. To this day, one of the best classes I've ever taken.
	Pretty much the only thing I avoided was the swim test. It ends up that the only perk of having major surgery right before you start college is you are allowed to differ the swim test for one semester. I found myself well prepared for the rigorous course work at Swarthmore and didn't face any academic struggles that fall.
	I'd heard about SAMs, writing associates and other resources available to help you if you were struggling but I knew those were not for me. I was doing just fine. At the same time, I was heavily involved with campus life and I didn't beat myself up if I didn't always get an A. In fact, looking back recently on my transcript, there were a lot of times I didn't always get an A. I was a solid B to B+ student and that was just fine. I spent my first and my second and then my third and my fourth semesters exploring any and every course that caught my fancy. Along the way, I distilled three key areas that I found of particular interest and thus kept taking more courses in them. Film and media studies, Women's studies, now gender and sexuality studies, and biology. I originally took Bio two to complete my science requirement.
	I liked it so much that sophomore folly took bio one and then in the spring I took a two credit biology seminar in ecology. All signs pointed to a biology major. This was great, except for one thing: chemistry. I'd always had a bad relationship with chemistry. It started way back sophomore year in high school and now I was facing the fact that at the time, to be a biology major, you were required to not just take chem ten general chemistry but you also had to take organic chemistry. Seriously.
	I was also planning on studying abroad the spring of my junior year in Prague. Thus, I made the decision to take chem 10 the fall of my junior year and organic, which is only, or at least at the time, was only offered once a year in the spring, the spring of my senior year. The chemistry faculty here are fabulous. I don't want to deter anyone from chemistry. I actually warned the provost who was my gen chem professor before I got up here. That this was coming. And I was convinced that I could pull off this master plan without a hitch, still have a fabulous junior and senior year and after all, aside from the time I slept through a statistics mid term, I'd never really struggled too much. So junior year general chemistry started and was going well enough. Not great, but okay, until I got tired.
	Instead of my afternoon of rugby practice or my late night of homework, I was lying in bed exhausted. Then came the sore throat. I'd never felt anything like this but stubbornly knew that the only option was just to keep chugging along. My best friend whos now a pediatrician, had been through this before, saw the symptoms and finally convinced me to go to the Worth Health Center and get checked out. Mono, AKA the kissing disease. To this day I don't know how I got it but I can tell you with full certainty I wasn't kissing anyone that fall.
	Mono knocked me out. I spent days in the health center, often unable to go to class. If I hadn't been open to asking for help, I wouldn't have survived that semester. To this day, I'm thankful for the nurses at Worth, my friends who reviewed lecture notes with me, my best friends [inaudible 00:33:26] who helped me figure out how to set up my computer for the wifi because this was back in the olden days, and the professors who were generous with assignment extensions. After catching up on problem sets, papers and exams, I survived the semester and headed off to Prague with a so-so grade in chemistry.
	After an amazing semester abroad, side note, if you have the chance to go abroad, do it, I came back to campus for my senior spring. While some friends were taking easy classes to enjoy their last spring on campus and others were cramming for honors exams, I was simply terrified of [inaudible 00:34:05]. I was one of three seniors in the course and we all needed to pass the class to graduate. Most of the other students were first years. They all wanted to go to medical school and I felt a little out of my league. I went to every lecture, never skipped a day. I did every problem set. I even tried to do all the reading and yet, I was lost. Completely, absolutely lost. I eventually gave up on the textbook because it was so over my head and I switched to a copy of organic chemistry for dummies.
	I went to office hours and worked with the professor after class. My best friend was a chemistry major and tried helping. One thing I kept holding out on was a tutor. I knew the dean's office had them. They would pay for them, but I just felt that if I asked for a tutor, it was a sign that I shouldn't be here, I wasn't smart enough. I'd survived three and a half years just fine without one, I certainly didn't need one now. Fortunately, common sense prevailed along with the fear of not graduating and a wonderful sophomore who also happened to be a rugby teammate worked tirelessly with me as my tutor to get me through the semester. She was happy for a campus job that she thought was really easy, and I was just thankful to be making some progress. After the first few minutes of our initial session, any silly fears of looking stupid for asking for help went away. It became obvious the only bad decision I made was waiting so long to ask.
	The night before the final, my mom called with some words of encouragement. From her advice with the giant cake, that first week on campus, to four years later, she'd always been full of helpful wisdom. Her advice that night has always stuck with me. She said "Just remember D is for diploma." Well, I didn't get that D. I got a C-. I had never been so proud of another grade in my life, but getting there wasn't something I did on my own. Getting there took the help of the staff at Worth, my professors, my tutor, my friends and many many others along the way. I may not use my organic chemistry skills, or what's left of them, in my dat to day life ten years post Swarthmore but I have never forgotten the lesson that course taught me.
	Today in my job, working with nonprofit hospitals to help them navigate difficult business and financial decisions, I'm often the one standing up and presenting to the CFO, CEO or the hospital board, but I'm never in it all on my own. I always have a team that help me prepare for that meeting, built the slides or ran the statistical analysis and who supported me along the way. Even last night wen I was thinking about what to say to y'all today, I didn't learn to stop pulling all nighters.
	I called up my friend, who years ago, had intervened and given me her copy of organic chemistry for dummies. She's now a successful periodontist and my go to for second opinions on any oral surgery procedures. She didn't remember giving me the book but she certainly remembered the number of times she had to ask for help when she was on campus. By the way, she also wanted me to tell you quote "drink plenty of water, wear sunscreen, find your friends after paces parties and don't date anyone on your hall."
	As you start your adventure at Swarthmore, dive in. Explore it all. Join those clubs, try new a sport, and take on the new challenges. Enroll in those classes you had never even heard of until you took a look at the catalog. This is your chance to do exactly that and don't be afraid. You have an entire community here to support you and help you through it. All you have to do is ask. Thank you.