Rachel Austin, assistant professor of chemistry and winner of the 2001 Kroepsch Award for Teaching at Bates, greeted the Class of 2005 at its Matriculation Dinner in September with some inspirational thoughts about the next four years.

Along with presenting nuts and bolts about attendance and note-taking habits, she urged audience members to assume responsibility for their own educations by becoming ardent students. "You are here to develop a lifelong passion," she told them. "Take comfort in the fact that native ability or inclination towards a particular subject plays, in my experience, a very small role in whether you will ultimately succeed in it."

"Get comfortable with discomfort. Accept not knowing," she said. "Real transformations take time."

"I keep an image in my mind of a college education as rock climbing training," Austin said. "At first you start off at a low level with lots of ropes and pulleys and assistance. Over time, you, the apprentice rock climber, learn how to use your muscles and your mind in such a way that you can climb increasingly more difficult rocks with less and less assistance."

"Hopefully four years from now, when we come together again for the senior banquet in this space," Austin continued, "you will be able to find and engage in intellectual challenges without a homework assignment. In the intervening time, we the faculty will be here to help you climb — but the more you challenge yourself, the more you dig in, the stronger and more capable you will become."

Remember this above all else, concluded Austin: "Cynicism is boring. Boredom is boring. Not caring is boring. Loving what you do isn't boring."