This post  is from one of our GetREAL advisors, Mark Clatterbaugh.  It highlights one of our GetREAL students and shows that  we need not look further than our own backyard to find gems.  Thanks, Mark

The BCC Diamond Mine

Russell Conwell, the first President of my Alma Mater, Temple University, gave a lecture called “Acres of Diamonds” over 6,000 times around the world and it later became widely published due to its popularity.

The gist of the original lecture centers on the legend of a Persian farmer who sells his farm and travels the world hoping to find a diamond mine and his fortune. To make a long story short, after years of searching and much despair and futility the farmer in some versions of the lecture casts himself into the sea. Meanwhile a priest, the farmer encountered during his long journey returns to the farmer’s original home and the new owner has a shiny gem sitting on the mantle. The two go into the yard and explore in a small stream and discover many of the shiny rocks. The site becomes one of the largest diamond mines in the world.

I had heard snip-its’ of this story throughout my college days and upon retiring to the Berkshires, I spent some time taking in the full story. It has been for me an inspiration.

And, so, at BCC, I find myself mining diamonds in the GetREAL program. This program is designed to help get students off to a good start during their first year here. So imagine our delight when several of the faculty mentors stumbled upon a real diamond, when we were asked to help look over an English assignment for Samantha Lincoln. Samantha’s short essay about her grandmother entitled “Wait Until You Get a Load of This” bowled us over.  Our first reaction was to submit this to NPR and have them read it on Selected Shorts but that seemed a bit ambitious, so we forwarded the story to the Zine publication team.

Well Sam’s story was accepted and won the inaugural “Dr. Andrew Howitt Award For Best Humor”.  We continue to encourage Sam with her writing. We actually have found several other pieces that we think are of similar caliber. It is nice to see our mine producing gems.