Assistant Professor Tracy Rosebrock Explores the Value of Unity at Academic Convocation 2023

Hi everyone! 

I'm so thankful that you are here with us to commemorate the start of Stonehill’s 75th year; to welcome students new to Stonehill, the class of 2027, those joining us from other institutions, and our masters and certificate students; and to celebrate the class of 2024 as they enter their senior year. 

I’m excited to tell you one of my favorite factoids from microbiology in just a few minutes, the number of POUNDS of microbes that live inside your body. But first, please allow me to share a few thoughts. 

Many years ago, when the internet had just become a thing, I was an undergraduate student at a small liberal arts school, called New College of Florida. New College is famous for two things – there are no grades, yes, NO grades, and outrageous graduation ceremonies - students are free to choose to wear, or not to wear, anything they wanted.  

At my graduation, I walked across the stage just after a guy in a full gorilla costume and just before a person wearing absolutely nothing except perfectly placed swirls of blue, pink, and yellow body paint. These defining characteristics of the school are eccentric, but they distract from the true ideals of New College – to foster a love of learning, through engineered academic risk-taking that lessens the fear of failure and instead celebrates the power of experimentation.   

I loved my years at New College - they brought me closer to my life’s purpose and I found ‘my people’ – I sincerely hope that Stonehill is the same for you. In preparing for today, I remembered my first days on campus and my last, as many of you are experiencing - both brought butterflies to my stomach. As an introvert and first-generation student, I was disoriented by the foreign culture of college, convinced that everyone else spoke the language – they didn’t. Then, just when college became a second ‘home,’ people started to ask me ‘What are you going to do after college?” A near daily reminder that I was going to have to figure it all out again – but this time in the ‘real-world.’ 

Today, I can say confidently that you too will figure it all out. I know this, because like me, you have found a college where people lift one another, new friends become lifelong friends, and professors and staff will always be supportive advisors. 

You may have seen New College in the news recently. My quirky alma mater is caught in the crossfire of the culture wars plaguing our news cycle. The state government banned majors, like gender studies, deleted the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and pushed out professors and staff holding ‘threatening’ ideals – essentially, the same ideal we uphold at Stonehill - to respect the inherent dignity of every person. 

I should feel despair. 

I’m powerless to stop my college from undergoing slash and burn. But I don’t. I don’t because of the New College community. Community. A word that seems to me to be just a short way of saying - Come together in unity.  

New College alumni rallied to raise funds for students to afford other schools where they would be assured acceptance and safety; and when ‘new’ graduation protocols were put into place, including ‘cap and gown,’ a grassroots movement pulled off a ‘traditional’ New College graduation, off-campus, costumes, and all. 

I’m not telling you this story to advocate for an ideology. I tell you because like me, you belong, and will forever belong, to a strong community – the Stonehill community, the power of which I hope you can appreciate now, but that I trust you will come to appreciate more and more with time. 

For those of you who don’t know me, I am an infectious disease biologist and a public health practitioner. I think a lot about the darkest parts of our natural and built world – how stealthy microbes make us sick, how disease spreads and pandemics arise, and how our human built social structures influence who lives a healthy life and who lives a life much too-short. Consider us, the United States of America, one of the richest countries in the world where we spend more per person on healthcare than any other country. Here, new mothers pass away at a rate 14x higher than Slovakia and Denmark, an unjust burden that falls on those who identify as Black and/or Indigenous. The worst part – these deaths are all most always preventable.  

I also spend a lot of my time working to find solutions to these problems – hoping my efforts lend support to those on the front lines who add light and hope to our world.  What I’ve come to find is that there is a goal of singular importance, worth everyone’s investment that will improve your health, the health of your family and friends, and the health of strangers across the globe – strong communities. 

Imagine your gut - stay with me for a second - 15 feet of intestines that fit nicely in the space between your belly button and your spine. It keeps you alive by absorbing nutrients from the food you eat. Inside your intestines, live trillions of microbes from every branch of life – bacteria, fungi, archaea, and even trillions more viruses. A few can make you sick, but most make you healthy.  

This gut microbial community is huge. How huge? FIVE pounds huge - 5 pounds of you aren’t you – they are microbes.  

This microbial community is absolutely required for you to exist BUT - it only keeps you alive and healthy if it is alive and healthy, which requires three principles –  

It must be diverse. You need thousands of different types of microbes in your gut, doing a diversity of jobs, to produce a diversity of molecules, like vitamins, to keep you alive. 

It must function with equity. If you skip a meal, and your little microbes are hungry, they will create a timesharing method and alternate feeding periods to share resources equitably for the betterment of all. 

And it must be inclusive.  Even microbes that could make you sick, help to keep you healthy when they are integrated into a diverse gut community  

If we lose any one of these three principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion, we get sick with illnesses like Crohn’s disease or even cancers.   

These principles are also key to strong communities in our visible world too. Consider a winning sports team – thank you, student-athletes. Teams require a diversity of players, with a diversity of skills, playing a diversity of positions, the team must work equitably, shuttling effort and resources to the position that needs more support in that moment, players sacrifice for the team, and the team sacrifices for the individual players, and a team absolutely requires inclusivity – all players in a mutually respectful relationship coming together in unity to reach a goal.  

When researchers ask why Black and Indigenous people in the US are dying disproportionally from childbirth - the answer is the same as it has been for centuries - inequity and exclusion.  What’s most heart-breaking about these causes is that we, human beings, have created them. But this also brings hope because we, human beings, have the power to ‘uncreate’ them.  

Dr. Agnes Binagwaho has made progress on this front. In 1994, her country of Rwanda was devastated by war. The healthcare system was destroyed, and an epidemic of HIV was accelerating with massive mortality. A pediatrician and fierce activist – Dr. Binagwaho led the resurrection of Rwanda’s healthcare system that reversed these tides. She used her voice to challenged world leaders to recognize their shared humanity with the Rwandan people and to supply lifesaving medications, vaccines, and public health education. Then, she created a system of community-based health centers that provide care to every person, even the poorest living in the most remote conditions. Why did she spend 20 years of her life doing this work? As she says, “equity is in the heart.”  

As a Stonehill community, we too lead with heart when we come together is unity in belief that we can create a more just and compassionate, and I’d add healthy, world, just as Dr. Binagwaho has done. 

To the students, please know that your unique perspective and experiences are valued here, that you can and should speak up for what you need to succeed, and that your presence is a welcome addition to the Stonehill community. To the class of 2024, we are so proud of the work you have done to arrive at this important moment. As you enter this last year, remember – we, your Stonehill community, has your back. I urge you to continue to nurture and grow the community you have built and know that you will always be a Skyhawk.  

To everyone, please consider supporting programming hosted by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Social Justice. The events that have altered New College are a reminder of how precious they are and how fortunate we are to be a community that believes in both. 

I wish you all good health. 

Thank you.