Tech officially dedicated a memorial to the victims of April 16th. It was sad but also inspiring. I thought what President Steger said was perfect for the occasion. And I also really loved what he said about the hokie stone. It's such a big tradition here at VT. In the bylaws it says that 80% of every building on campus must be covered in this stone. There's a huge piece of hokie stone right above the entrance to the football field that the football players jump up and touch in a high-fiving motion before every single game. It's tradition. And it's a tradition that we all have come to love. When we graduate and walk on that field, we too as students get to come through the stadium the same way the players do and one by one we all jump up and touch the stone. And if we're lucky/smart we'll know where and how to acquire a piece of it to take with us when we graduate. Generally when they are building something on campus and the hokie stone comes in, by the next morning, most of it is missing. Why? The students steal it because it's the building block of our school and our community. It's a weird bond that only a hokie could understand. The architecture students, when building their homes always tell me that they have to get a piece of this stone to incoroporate into the structure of their homes somehow. I love that the memorial is made with these stones, it's just so fitting.

Read/listen to President Steger's speech here: http://www.vt.edu/remember/memorial_dedication/speech_steger.php