Using a mixture of humor, storytelling and life lessons, novelist N. Scott Momaday addressed an audience of around 500 students, faculty and community members as part of the Chancellor's Convocation at the Wisconsin Union Theater, Thursday night.
The convocation serves as a welcome to new students at the university. However, there were less than 200 students attending the speech and only around 40 freshmen.
As a welcome to the students and an introduction to Momaday, UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley addressed what he called the epresentatives of the largest generation of college students.""
""You have the power to achieve the loftiest goals and [the university's] job to help you get there,"" he said.
Speakers coming to campus is one of many opportunities that are available to students and contribute to the atmosphere of campus, Wiley said.
""I want our students to know the type of community they have become a part of,"" he said.
As an acclaimed novelist, poet, playwright, storyteller, painter and professor, Momaday told stories of his life experiences and read poems and short plays from his books. He emphasized the importance of language.
""The power of language is very great. There is nothing more dangerous,"" he said. ""Words create things before your very eyes.""
The role of a storyteller is to make a ""quantum leap into the imagination,"" Momaday said.
As a member of the Kiowa Nation, Momaday was raised on reservations in the southwest United States. He serves as the president of the American Indian Hall of Fame and the founder and chairman of the Buffalo Trust, a nonprofit foundation for the preservation and restoration of Native American Culture and Heritage.
Momaday has also served as a professor at many institutions around the country and said he loved to teach.
""I teach because I want to pass something of my experience to my students,"" he said.
Some students said Momaday was one of the most powerful speakers they had heard.
""It was neat to come here and experience traditional storytelling,"" UW-Madison junior Meghan Kelly said.
UW-Madison junior Rebekah Kepple called Momaday's voice ""captivating.""
""He broadcast a feeling of serenity to the audience,"" UW-Madison junior Rebekah Kepple said. ""It was more than what he said. It was how he said it.\
