Roche delivers thought-provoking speech

By Jordann Krouse

Thursday, June 4, Michael Roche, a University of South Dakota criminal justice professor, spoke to delegates about the importance of life and finding meaning within oneself. He told anecdotes from personal experiences to further embellish his arguments.

One of the main stories Roche discussed was the time he heard Mother Teresa speak. He was at a football stadium in Massachusetts with his family for a summer program. Mother Teresa was speaking despite facing multiple death threats. Roche said that this was an experience that changed him.

“It wasn’t long into the speech when something happened to me that hardly ever does,” he said. “She’s speaking, not with powerful big complex words, but simple and profound. I noticed I had tears running down my cheeks.”

Roche went deeper into explaining the power of humans, and how Mother Teresa is an example of a force of nature. He said anyone has the potential to be a force of nature, but few ever do.

“Let me make three points on how you can develop the power of presence,” he said. “First, find your gifts…second, turn those gifts in to something larger than yourself…third, live life with integrity and be aware of others.”

Roche finished his speech with another personal story. He told of a time when he was a teenager, and he and a group of his friends were involved in a car wreck that was caused by them misbehaving. Roche explained that he didn’t learn anything at the time. But when he was in a similar situation recently, did he learn something.

“I think I got the message this time…that incident has made a big difference in my life,” Roche said. “The message I took is, on the day each one of us is born an arrow come into the air, it has our name on it.”

Delegates were happy with the personal anecdotes given by Roche.

“I liked how he used his own personal experiences to encourage us,” Layna Darling, Minneapolis, said.

It helped them connect to his message, they said.

“He related to the people,” Madison Grove, Minneapolis, said.

After finishing his speech, Roche and his fellow speakers answered questions from a panel of delegates. He was asked what he believed was the most important aspect of Girls State for the development of women leaders.

He responded with another story of a class he taught that he calls Awareness. In this class students must be willing to discover what matters to them and work toward that goal.

Throughout his speech Roche gave several quotes from famous figures.

The final quote he gave, by Gandhi, was in relation to his message of putting one’s energy into what matters to them: “My life is my message.”

(Photo: Michael Roche is a criminal justice professor at the University of South Dakota. Jordann Krouse / Sacajawea Scroll)