First Look
On November 7, 1805, the Lewis and Clark expeditionary party sighted the Pacific Ocean for the first time. The vastness of the water and the power of the waves crashing on the shoreline must have been awe inspiring to the expeditionary party. Having navigated the Rocky Mountains, passed over the Continental Divide, and canoed the Snake River, the expeditionary party had seen many extraordinary sights for the first time. The American public was enamored by the detailed stories of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
How many of us have been amazed by the wonders of nature at some point in our lives? Perhaps when we pondered the number of grains of sand on a beach or the number of stars in the night sky, we somehow sensed something larger than ourselves. The breathtaking vistas of the Rocky Mountains, the roar of Niagara Falls, the vast expanse of the Grand Canyon, or the power of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park all left lasting impressions following our first look.
Mankind has been inspired and awestruck by the amazing features of our beautiful world throughout our history. Countless generations of humans have passed on verbal, graphic, and written accounts of their amazing interactions with our natural world. Through the generations, we became familiar with many of these natural treasures. Maps, photographs, paintings, and written accounts took our minds to places and sites that we could not physically visit. Through these mediums, we gained secondhand knowledge of astonishing interactions with our world.
August 23, 1966, brought humankind a first look of our world from an entirely new perspective. A spacecraft near the moon transmitted a photograph of our planet Earth in the background of the moon’s surface. The image from Lunar Orbiter I provided a stunning new perspective on our blue planet. In 1969, American astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin physically stood on the surface of the moon at looked back at Earth for the very first time in human history. Armstrong later famously stated, “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant.”
Weatherford College has a long, distinguished history. But we are now getting a first look at our college from an entirely new perspective. For the first time we are seeing our college offer bachelor’s degrees and high tech workforce programs. We are seeing an institution that enjoys Steinway pianos, premium artificial turf ball fields, and a state-of-the art Emerging Technologies and Workforce Building. We see that our sonography program was ranked the best in Texas, and that our respiratory care program received a national award for excellence. Our women’s rodeo team won the national championship, and our culture of caring is receiving national attention. New educational partnerships and student scholarship opportunities abound.
Through the effective governance of our WC Board of Trustees, the strong leadership of our administrative team, and most importantly, the quality work of our faculty and staff, we are seeing Weatherford College from an entirely new perspective. Collectively, you the donors, stakeholders, students, and employees of Weatherford College have changed how we are perceived by others, and more importantly, how we perceive ourselves.
I have now taken my first look at Weatherford College from this new perspective…and I like what I see. I become even more excited when I think that like Lewis and Clark or Armstrong and Aldrin, we will see even more beautiful things as we collectively continue moving forward I cannot wait until together we share our next first look!
Tod Allen Farmer
President, Weatherford College