Virginia Tech Authors Recognition Event celebrates campus-wide scholarship

Everyone in this room understands this simple truth. Behind every turn of the page exists a story of resilience. Your contributions to humanity are edged in your books. Your work is a testament to the transformative power of scholarship. Books take a long time, most any field, it's not like a book comes out in six months or 12 months. These are usually multi year efforts to put these together. So I think it's special, I think, to be able to just recognize this particular type of scholarship. And the authors, I brought my students because honestly I wrote the book because of them. They were my inspiration and motivation behind writing the book. I look to inspire them. I look to motivate them to get them to believe in themselves. And if they can believe in themselves, I believe in them. And it truly is because of them that I do what I do. A lot of people react, especially those who are newer. They'll comment about previous institutions they've been at, haven't done this kind of recognition and celebration. You know, we're not trying to, you know, how do other institutions, it's just recognizing the authors and authorship here in Virginia. Text, this accomplishment that you see in front of you is absolutely essential. While we celebrate the individual endeavors of the wonderful authors and creators, we recognize, I hope that this really undergirds our commitment to Virginia Tech's commitment to moving forward in terms of our reputational excellence nationally and internationally. And by so doing, accomplish our mission. So congratulations to you all.