“I'm not one to let opportunities pass me by. I feel like I've taken every opportunity at Union seriously,” said Sarah Bills, who graduated today with a bachelor of arts in German and Music. “It's been a really great run.”
Bills, the daughter of Robert and Caryl Bills of Granby, Conn., was this year's student speaker. She was the winner of the Hollander Convocation Musician Prize and the Victor Herbert Prize for students who show the most promise of making a contribution to American music.
“Life isn't measured in standardized testing and high school rankings, but in experiences and by the people and community that surround you,” Bills told those gathered in Hull Plaza this morning. “I feel incredibly lucky to have been a part of this intelligent, witty, outgoing and fun-loving group of people who are as driven to learn and succeed as they are to enjoy themselves in the process.”
For Bills, Union's tight-knit community was a constant marker of College life, whether dealing with such changes as a new president and Minerva system to such traditions as campus crawls and naked Nott runs.
Citing academic events, lectures, research grants and student activities, Bills said she and her classmates “were given just about every opportunity to gain knowledge through experience. As Mark Twain once said, ‘Knowledge is nothing without experience.' For me, Union was the perfect blend of both.”
Bills was director of the Garnet Minstrelles a capella group, assistant for the Union College Choir, a member of the German Honor Society, an orientation advisor and former president of Delta Delta Delta.
Once fearful of what the future might hold, she said that in her waning days as an undergraduate, “I came to realize that the skills I have gained at Union both in and outside the classroom have prepared me for whatever lies ahead. What's more, the people I have lived and learned with for the past four years make up a network that can never be replicated.”
Musing on life at Union the week before Commencement, Bills cited Music faculty, staff members and others who have been teachers, mentors and friends, including Professor Dianne McMullen, who supervised her during junior year Steinmetz research, “Philosophy and Performance: A Study of Songs by Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf”; Professor Hilary Tann; Administrative Program Director Kathie Herrington; and voice teacher Judy Avitabile.
Bills also had warm words for German Professor Karin Hamm-Ehsani. “I appreciate all her time and effort. I didn't speak German before I came to college, and she helped me through writing a thesis, in German, on music in the concentration camps.
“I gained so much in the classroom, in and outside, but it's the people who have really affected me the most here,” Bills said.