There was a time six years ago when Regina Biddings-Muro was sure she’d made a grievous mistake.
Biddings-Muro, a former Purdue Northwest vice chancellor of Institutional Advancement and former Chief of Staff to retired Chancellor Howard Cohen, told some 550 spring grads during her commencement keynote on Saturday that she was living a comfortable life in Northwest Indiana when she was convinced to take her current job at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.
After getting her first radio job with WJOB when she was 19, then spending several years as a steel executive before landing in academia, the PNW grad really had no reason to leave; after all, her family came to Northwest Indiana from the south during the Great Migration, and her momma taught her she needed to put down roots
But she and her husband sold their house and car and two months into her new adventure, she found herself “a leader without followers.”
“It was rough,” she said. “I learned my colleagues viewed me as a ‘suspicious stranger’ and there were many nights I cried myself to sleep. I really felt like I might be an impostor.”
It may have taken her a little while, she said, but now, she and her team are “a cohesive unit” responsible for raising millions of dollars for the university. If she hadn’t taken that leap, she may have never known her true capabilities.
“If I may offer some unsolicited advice, it is this: Commit to your impossible dreams because of what your pursuit of them will make you become, and persist, because your dreams will become a reality,” she said. “And third, I leave you with the words of Maya Angelou: ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’”
PNW’s spring cohort boasted 834 graduates, including 685 bachelor’s degrees and 149 master’s degrees, according to spokesman Kale Wilk. Eleven of those students received the Chancellor’s Medallion for having earned the highest grade point average in their respective colleges.
Two of those graduates were the Wheelers, a father-son duo out of Chesterton. Jacob Wheeler Jr. received his bachelor’s in Construction Engineering Management Technology, while Jacob Wheeler Sr. earned his in Organizational Leadership and Supervision through a partnership with the school and his employer, Tonne and Blank, his wife, Megan Wheeler said.
Her husband getting his degree was a ‘huge accomplishment,” Megan Wheeler said.
“This has been 30 years in the making,” she said, beaming. “He joined the trades 30 years ago but always wanted his degree, and it was really a family effort since we now have a 5-year-old and he ended up having to miss quite a few of (their youngest son) Jack’s baseball and basketball games.”
That was a little tough at first, Jack Wheeler said, but the Chesterton High School athlete took it in stride.
“Knowing he got this amazing opportunity to go back and get something he wanted, it’s happy,” he said.
Jacob Wheeler Jr. said he enjoyed sharing the moment with his dad, but what he won’t miss is having to teach him the computer programs they needed to graduate.
“He’s not so patient,” Jacob Wheeler Jr., 22, said. “But hey, he graduated with distinction.”
For his part, dad Jacob said he was tired but because son Jacob is going back for his masters, he “won’t rule it out.”
“It’s a really cool thing,” Jacob Wheeler Sr. Said.
PNW Student Government Association President David Bolton in his last speech said this commencement holds special meaning because the students started during the pandemic.
“We came in during a rupture in our lives and still came out on top, and if that’s not cool, I don’t know what is,” he said. “I invite you to join me in changing the world.”
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
