Published November 30, 2016

‘Last Lectures’

New faculty members Damian, Hawthorne to speak on Dec. 7
Damian, Hawthorne to give ‘last lectures’ at Monmouth College

MONMOUTH, Ill. – Two Monmouth College professors in their first year on the faculty will give their “last lectures” in December.

Modeled after “The Last Lecture” made famous by the late Randy Pausch, a popular professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Monmouth College’s Last Lecture Series is sponsored by its chapter of the Mortar Board national honor society.

Michelle Damian (history) and Joshua Hawthorne (communication studies) will speak at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 7 in the Whiteman-McMillan Highlander Room. Their talks, which will each last around 20 minutes and be followed by a short discussion, are free and open to the public. Members of the College community are welcome to bring their dinner tray and eat during the lectures.

During a talk titled “Get Out! (Out of Your Comfort Zone),” Damian will extoll the virtues of travel and experiencing other cultures. Hawthorne will speak about “Stories That Guide” – how the stories that make up our history and culture shape our lives and the decisions we make.

Shortly after learning he had terminal cancer, Pausch gave an upbeat lecture titled “The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” on Sept. 18, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon. He died of complications from cancer less than a year after his lecture, which now has more than 18 million views on YouTube.
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