Congressman visits Garrett College students
Credit: The Garrett County Republican
McHENRY — U.S. Rep. David Trone, D-Md., recently visited Garrett County with a special request to meet with students at Garrett College.
More than 50 students attended the lecture in which Trone shared his personal story, which began in rural Adams County, Pa., growing up on his family’s farm.
Trone strongly emphasized the importance of learning from failures and challenges in one’s life, something he himself was quite familiar with while both growing up and working on the farm.
“Try not to think about life as a series of wins and losses or successes and failures,” he said. “Think about what you take away from the times you don’t quite get it right, because these experiences are really important. You realize through each of these failures that you can come out on the other end and see what went wrong.”
The congressman praised Garrett County’s commitment in offering residents two years of college tuition for free, through the Garrett County Scholarship Program, while recognizing the ever-increasing burden that student loans place on today’s students.
“The long-term success of America is about education,” Trone said. “If we can build on education, we will have a workforce that can win for the next several decades.”
Trone said he learned early on that giving back to the community is one key to being successful, a concept in which he strongly encouraged students to take part, even if it’s just giving of one’s time to a friend in need.
“Always think about giving and how you can give back to your community. It’s so hard in your 20s to not only look inward, but it’s important to look outward and see how you can make a difference in your own community,” he said.
After the lecture, students in attendance had the opportunity to ask Trone their questions, many of which involved business, criminal justice, philanthropy and public service.
