Panther Scholars bring inspirational speaker Roger Crawford to campus

Published: February 16, 2022

Students in the leadership scholarship programs at Greenville University are tasked with planning a program each year that inspires their fellow students. 

This spring semester, the Panther Scholars group, recipients of the scholarship focused on character and service, brought inspirational speaker Roger Crawford to campus.

Born with shrunken and deformed forearms and hands; three toes on his right foot and a partially developed lower right leg, Crawford was unable to walk until he was 10 years old and granted a prosthetic limb. His remarkable life story is a powerful example that "Challenges are inevitable, defeat is optional!" Not only did Crawford find a way to play tennis, despite his physical challenges, he learned how to defeat able-bodied tennis players. Since then, he's become an NCAA Division I Hall of Fame athlete, been inducted to the International Speakers Hall of Fame, and has since inspired more than 3,000 audiences worldwide. 

Jaime Quesada, a Panther Scholar and a senior at GU, heard Crawford speak at a camp when he was a young boy. When Jaime had the opportunity to bring someone to campus to inspire his fellow students, he chose the man whose words stuck with him and inspired him when he was young.

Crawford shared how, as an adolescent, he so desired to be like other kids but was so ashamed of how he looked. He went out for the track team and the coach told him he’d never reach any higher with his hands in his pockets. Good coaches in his early years in athletics helped him believe he could reach higher and become the best version of himself. His challenge to the students was the same: How do we reach a little higher to become the best version of ourselves God calls us to be?

He discussed with students some of the things that stop them from reaching higher. The room nodded in quiet agreement as he discussed the pressures of comparison through social media, widespread anxiety, and automatic thoughts.

• “Comparison is the thief of joy. Just be yourself. That’s plenty good enough.”
• “Evaluate your automatic thoughts: Add: “and that’s the way I want it.” Try using those words at the end of thoughts to evaluate automatic thinking. It will help you realize how absurd some of the automatic thoughts are.
• Anxiety is the anticipation of a negative event whether it occurs or not. The negative rehearsal of coming attractions.
• Delineate between fear and anxiety with 3 questions:

1. What are the facts
2. Can I live with it?
3. Am I the only person who has ever gone through this challenge?

Crawford shared the story of being a young married man and wanting so desperately to father a child yet being so fearful that this disease would be passed on. He discussed living a life of faith over fear. His daughter was born with fully formed limbs with ten fingers and ten toes. Today he enjoys time with his granddaughter as well and gives God credit for the pleasures of his life.

Roger Crawford and GU Panther Scholar Jaime Quesada.

Crawford challenged the group with 3 Questions: 

1. Where are you coming from?

Don’t live in the past but learn from the past. Forget what you should be remembering and remember what you should forget. Discouragement comes from rehearsing past hurts. Remember the refrigerator moments - those worth putting on the family fridge when you were a kid. They reaffirm our mindset.

2. How long have you been there?

Change is inevitable. You have experienced and exercised your own resiliency through challenges. Scars are a symbol that you got busted up, but you didn’t give up. We’re going forward to normal. Something new and great is ahead of us. People who become the best version of themselves never let acceptable get in the way of exceptional. 

3. Where are you going?

Tap into your “Why.” Your why is what you wrap your heart around.

Finally, he shared with the students that finding real significance for oneself is about others. He challenged the students to make a difference in the lives of others they encounter on this campus and out in the world.

Panther Scholars is a donor-funded leadership scholarship program of Greenville University. New this academic year, recipients of that scholarship, as well as the Women in Leadership Scholarship, McAllaster Honors Scholarship, and Mosaic Diversity Scholarship gain leadership training as part of their scholarship experience.