Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told University of Mobile (UMobile) students that her Christian faith is inseparable from the decisions she makes and is the source of her optimism in the face of difficulties.
A deeply religious person whose father and grandfather were ministers, faith is “so integral to me that I don’t even think of it as inseparable from anything that I do or any decisions that I make,” Rice told more than 400 students gathered for a Q-and-A session prior to the seventh annual UMobile Leadership Banquet for the school’s scholarship fund Nov. 10.
Students used social media including Twitter and Facebook to ask questions of Rice, a native of Birmingham who became the first black woman to serve as secretary of state. She served during the administration of President George W. Bush.
Rice, now a political science professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., fielded questions ranging from her most embarrassing moments to the one word she would want to be remembered by: “perseverance.”
Responding to a question about how faith factored into her role as secretary of state, Rice said, “It’s not that you say, ‘Well, is this the right thing to do?’ It’s that you ask for guidance, are always aware that you have a higher power to which to appeal.”
‘Continually optimistic’
She said faith makes one recognize how fortunate and blessed he or she is and reminds one to care about people who are not as fortunate or blessed.
“The best part about being a person of faith is that I could be continually optimistic even in hard times. When you go through very difficult times, I don’t know how people who can’t appeal to that Holy Spirit get through those hard times. I know as (Abraham) Lincoln said, ‘There are times when … you have nowhere else to go than your knees.’ That is very deeply engrained in me.”
She encouraged students to use their college years to discover what they are passionate about.
“You have one really important task while you’re in college, and that is to find what you’re passionate about — not what job or career or major you want, but what are you passionate about?”
She told students to keep searching until they discover their passion and “when you find your passion, don’t let someone else define it for you by saying, ‘You ought to be (this) because of your race, color, background or circumstances.’”
Then “once you have found something you love, put your heart and soul into working and being really, really good at it,” she said.
Find a role model and mentor, she said. “Nobody does it completely on their own. … Your role models don’t have to look like you. If I had been waiting for a black female Soviet (expert) role model, I’d still be waiting,” she said.
Later that evening at the banquet, Rice told the audience of nearly 900 that education is the great equalizer and UMobile is developing servant leaders who can be the optimistic leaders of the future.
“That’s what places like this are in the business of doing — transforming lives. Not just giving people a way to get a job, but giving people whole new horizons of who they might be and what they might do. Here at the University of Mobile, and other colleges of faith, (students) are taught to make that transforming leap through both faith and reason, that faith and reason are not enemies of one another. That, indeed, we are called to love the Lord God with our hearts and our minds, by Scripture,” she said.
“Because the students here are taught to bring faith and reason together, they have a firm foundation not just of knowledge but of how to use that knowledge in a way that will advance the human condition,” she said. “That is why the work that is done to make them servant leaders is also so important.”
Rice said the nation is going through difficult times, but she is encouraged because young people at UMobile and across the nation are understanding that they should be devoted to something bigger than themselves.
“Our job is to tell them that it’s alright to want to think of and work for a world not as it is,
but a world as it should be,” she said.
“If you are educating young people in faith and reason, educating them in servant leadership, educating them in the transforming power that that brings, then you are also educating the optimists of the future. The Lord knows we need optimism,” she said.
Rice said the world has been shocked, is chaotic and cries out for leadership.
“Someone will lead. I believe, very strongly. … It had better be the United States of America that does. … It is absolutely critical that this country, which is, after all, the most compassionate, the most generous and the freest on the face of the earth will also be the most powerful. I firmly believe that, once again, we will make the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect,” she said.
Supporting the students
Rice thanked the audience for supporting UMobile and contributing to the school’s scholarship fund on behalf of its students.
“One day, they will show you that they will not accept the world as it is. And having done that, they will remake the world as it should be,” she said.
Mark Foley, president of UMobile, said, “We were very pleased to host Dr. Rice at the University of Mobile and bring to our city and our community a person of such stature who is also a person of such faith.
“It was clear in my reading of Dr. Rice’s two books that there is a very definite stream of faith in her life, and a great dependence upon the influence of Christ in her life and, in particular, in her responsibilities during the most difficult days in our nation’s life,” he said.
“There is a high level of correspondence of thought between the positions articulated by Dr. Rice regarding education, foreign policy, leadership and faith, and that represented by the University of Mobile.”
The banquet included entertainment provided by student ensembles in the Center for Performing Arts and concluded with a special presentation to Rice.
The university commissioned an original musical arrangement of three of Rice’s favorite hymns, arranged and performed by assistant professor of music Duane Plash. The piano solo, titled “Testament of Hymns,” included the hymns “I Need Thee Every Hour,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” and “In the Garden.” Rice was presented with the musical score and a framed copy. (UMobile)
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