John Jacob Scherer, founder of the Scherer Leadership Center and a Roanoke College alumnus, delivered the commencement address at his alma mater in 2010. His central message was a radical reframing of self-improvement: rather than trying to become someone different, graduates should return to who they already are at their core. He offered five questions for self-discovery — What confronts you? What are you bringing? What is running you? What is calling you? What will unleash you? — all designed not to transform but to reveal. Scherer illustrated this through a powerful personal story about overcoming his lifelong stutter while serving as a Navy air controller. When two pilots were in the water and lives depended on his communication, he discovered that something bigger than himself called him out of his limitation. For the first time, he not only didn't stutter — he didn't even think about stuttering.