HPU Gives Teddy Bears to Encourage Gratitude

HIGH POINT, N.C., Nov. 17, 2023 – High Point University President Nido Qubein shared a meaningful lesson on gratitude on Nov. 16. During his First-Year Seminar on Life Skills for freshmen, he gave each of them a teddy bear and challenged them to give it to someone who has helped them.

“You can keep the teddy bear. However, before Christmas arrives, you must give the teddy bear to someone who affected your life in a big way and you must tell them why you are giving them the teddy bear,” Qubein said. “Maybe it’s your first-grade teacher. Maybe it’s a coach who said, ‘Stay with it. You’ll make it happen.’ Maybe it’s a boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe it’s mom or dad. That’s an assignment: You get the teddy bear to give it away.”

Student volunteers inside the Nido and Mariana Qubein Arena gave every freshman in attendance one of approximately 1,500 teddy bears, which were purchased from the American Red Cross. Qubein has been giving teddy bears to the freshman class for more than 15 years.

Before the distribution, Qubein shared with students the Top 10 skills employers seek in employees and five steps to success. He told personal stories about a woman of limited means at his college who helped him buy his first car and an anonymous doctor who helped pay for his college education. Because Qubein couldn’t personally thank that doctor, he worked to create a scholarship foundation that has helped more than 800 students with college expenses.

He also related stories of how a teddy bear gift helped a student reunite with a homeless brother she hadn’t seen in years and how a student shared her teddy bear with the nurse at the Mayo Clinic who cared for her grandfather as he battled cancer. That simple act of kindness became Mayo Clinic’s symbol of giving.

“Compassion is an amazing thing,” said Qubein. “I guarantee not a single one of you arrived here today without someone doing something for you – sometimes you know about it, sometimes you don’t. Someday you will wake up and realize someone will cross your path who will change your life forever. Somebody will impact your life in such a way you will never forget it.”

As students exited the arena, they were asked to consider a person who has changed their life for the better who they may give the bear to and express their thanks.

“My mom, for sure,” said John Murphy, an electrical engineering major from Charlotte, North Carolina. “I haven’t given her much in the past. I need to give her something, and this is something she’ll hang onto.”

“I’m probably going to give it to my mom because I owe so much to her,” said Ethan Boufahreddin, an undecided major from Charlotte, North Carolina. “She has raised me to be the best person I can be.”

“I might give it to either my little brother or my mom because they both played a big part in my life,” said Nadalie Bejarano, a biochemistry major from Mount Airy, North Carolina. “Me and my brother are four years apart, and we’ve always been close. This would give him some encouragement.”