Widener University graduates over 800 in the rain
CHESTER » As rooms opened in campus buildings for livestreaming to make the commencement more comfortable for guests, Widener University graduated more than 800 on Saturday even as teeming rain made tarps the fashion of choice.
Yet, the day was no less special as friends and families gathered to celebrate their graduates and as words of wisdom were imparted on them as they reached this milestone in their lives.
As they gathered, Maj. Heather “Lucky” Penney told how what began as a regular Tuesday turned into a call for heroism as the Air Force pilot was deployed in an F-16 fighter jet on Sept. 11, 2001 to bring down United Airlines Flight 93.
“I never expected to find myself, a first lieutenant and barely older than you, on a suicide mission to protect our nation’s capital,” she said. “You don’t get to choose to be a hero. You don’t wake up one morning and say to yourself, ‘OK, today’s the day. Hollywood, you ain’t got nothin’ on me!’
“No,” Penney continued, “fate chooses you … (and) when fate comes knocking at your door, you might not expect it, but you must be ready.”
She said that’s what they’ve been doing at Widener – getting ready by building character.
“You see, there is no life hack to character, no shortcut,” Penney said. “Character is built by the daily exercise of our choices. And those choices matter.”
She recalled sitting in a scheduling meeting when they got the call on Sept. 11. There were no weapons, their mission was to find the flight and slam their jet into it. “People have asked me if I was afraid,” she said. “I wasn’t. I knew that if we were successful, I would not be coming back. I had quickly come to peace and acceptance with that.”
And, Penney said, that was because that was her purpose at the time – living out her oath to serve and protect.
In fact, she said she and her co-pilot were mission failures.
“The passengers on Flight 93 were the true heroes,” Penney said.
Yet, she added, “On the dark smoke of that day, comes the realization that character, leadership and courage is there inside each and every one of us.”
She said she saw it in the passengers of Flight 93, in normal people who helped each other before the towers fell, the first responders, the neighbors and strangers who helped each other and those who cleaned up Ground Zero, knowing that work would slowly kill them.
“That’s part of the beauty that we all have the ability to serve,” Penney said. “And you do it one day at a time, one person at a time, one decision at a time, one moment at a time. It might not feel like you’re changing the world, but you’re changing someone’s world. And that’s the first step.”
Audrey Rucker, 23, was among those receiving degrees Saturday. At the start of her collegiate career, she was diagnosed with super ventricular tachycardia arrhythmia, or SVT, a heart rhythm disorder.
It required three surgeries, the most recent in December, and times when she had to Skype classes from her Downingtown home because of the recovery. Only once did she need a medical extension.
She had to quit volleyball, a sport she loved so much – but was invited to coach. And, she did things she wouldn’t have done like a study abroad in Costa Rica last year and traveling to Miami for the Public Relations Society of America.
“I just know that if I went anywhere but Widener, I wouldn’t have been (here),” Rucker said. “They really care about you beyond being a student.”
She shared three lessons from her experience.
“You can’t do it alone,” Rucker said. “If you want something, you’re going to find a way.”
And, thirdly, she said, “It wasn’t how I planned it to be but, sometimes, these bad things in our lives turn out better things.”
As for Saturday, Rucker said, “This isn’t just for me, this is for everyone who helped me along the way.”