92 learning. Fully appreciating the charge that comes with my office, I pledge to work with each of you every day to advance the principles upon which Valdosta State has been built and to live up to the mission with which our Blazer family has been tasked.” Carvajal shared stories of his past — growing up poor in Oklahoma, learning to love the taste of commodity cheese, and helping his dad pick up trash, strip and wax floors, and clean toilets at an elementary school at night in the hope of keeping the lights on at home. “Later, when our finances hit rock bottom, I called the back seat of a 1973 Ford Thunderbird my home,” he said. “That’s right, I am the university president who was once homeless. But, you see, as tough as things were, I was always an optimist about the future. Clearly, sleeping in a car was scary, and most who knew me then never would have even suggested that better was coming. After all, too many who grow up in such poverty never find their way out.” With the help of a friend — who was among those in attendance at the investiture ceremony — Carvajal was able to finish high school. Financial aid and a strong work ethic afforded him the opportunity to attend college at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma. Carvajal knew that higher education “was my best, and maybe only, shot at earning the kind of life I dreamed of.” He graduated in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in mass communication/sociology, marking a time of great personal growth. “… the people there saw something in me that so many would have overlooked, and they reminded me again and again that, if I never stopped trying to live