Though she has spoken at multiple commencement ceremonies in the past, Hattie Kauffman spoke to new University of Idaho students Friday as a first-time convocation speaker.
“This is a chance to say, ‘Come on, seize those four years,’” Kauffman said. “It’s not ‘seize the day,’ it’s ‘seize this time on campus.’”
Kauffman, a four-time Emmy award winning broadcast journalist, was the main speaker for UI’s fifth convocation ceremony. In her decades of work as a reporter, she served as a correspondent for the major network news programs ABC and CBS.
Aside from her career, Kauffman was born in Grangeville and grew up both in Idaho and in Washington as a member of the Nez Perce tribe. Her upbringing was not the best, she said, which led her to the main point she gave to the new UI students who heard her speak.
“I challenge you to do a little bit more,” she said.
Kauffman said it is not enough to do the minimum anymore, and yet so many people only do the minimum that is asked of them or even less. There is a small portion of people in the world who are willing to put the extra effort into what they do, and they are the people who will see a bigger payoff, she said.
Her career in journalism began when Kauffman volunteered to take a radio show at her college when she was a freshman. She said the student media program offered the opportunity to a larger group of students, and she figured one of the seniors or more experienced students would snatch it. When no one raised their hand to volunteer, however, Kauffman’s hand shot into the air.
That instance, she said, showed how she was willing to do a little bit more, and working at her school’s radio opened the doors she needed to advance in the journalism field. Kauffman said she was able to take as many assignments as she did because she never said no.
But the journalism field isn’t the only place where people can do a little bit more, she said.
She told her audience a story of her third grade teacher, Mrs. Huntington. When Kauffman was in the third grade, she was very poor and she was responsible for getting herself ready for school every morning because her parents were rarely there.
One day at the start of class, Mrs. Huntington was calling roll, but stopped when she saw Kauffman. Mrs. Huntington took her out of the classroom, and Kauffman said she thought she was in trouble for some reason. Instead, her teacher took her into the girls bathroom and started cleaning her up — she washed her face, brushed her hair, even buttoned up her dress correctly.
While she was telling the story, Kauffman began to tear up. Later, she said she wasn’t surprised that she started to cry while reliving the memory.
“I can’t tell that story without feeling the embarrassment and the gratitude of that day,” she said.
Mrs. Huntington served as an example that anyone can do a little bit more, and she challenged her audience of new students to do a little bit more in their lives — in their classes, at work and for their families.
This wasn’t the first time Kauffman has visited the Palouse. She has traveled to Moscow multiple times in the past decade, and has met with students in UI’s School of Journalism and Mass Media. Kauffman said she appreciates the quality of UI’s journalism program.
She also appreciates the picturesque nature of the Palouse. Kauffman said she loves to watch the sunrise and sunset when she visits the area, and has seen some astonishing scenery while driving past the rolling hills.
“I was driving up from Lewiston to Spokane, and there were little white puffy clouds casting little round shadows on the little round hills,” Kauffman said. “And it was just one of these moments.”
Erin Bamer
can be reached at
or on Twitter @ErinBamer