Utah Lt. Governor Spencer Cox Helps Open the Sorenson Legacy Foundation Center for Clinical Excellence
Utah Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox made a return to his alma mater on Thursday to speak at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the Sorenson Legacy Foundation Center for Clinical Excellence, the most recent addition to the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services at USU.
Lt. Governor Cox was joined at the ceremony by his wife, Abby, a proud graduate of the college. “These are her people and this is her thing,” Cox said. “This is a really big deal.”
The new state-of-the-art Sorenson Center includes a number of research labs, service clinics, and classrooms for a unique interdisciplinary and hands-on learning experience for students and researchers, while providing cutting-edge services for the community.
Cox often has the opportunity to be involved in grand opening events all around Utah, but said opening the Sorenson Center is a unique experience. “This building is different,” Cox said. “This building was built to make miracles happen—to improve the human condition.”
At its core, that is what makes the College of Education and Human Services at Utah State University special. The lieutenant governor recalled how exhausted Abby frequently was after a long day of working with the families of children with special needs. But as long as the day was for her, she would tell him, those families don’t get a break. “God bless all of you in this work as we try to improve the lives of the most vulnerable amongst us,” Cox said.
As he concluded, the lieutenant governor referenced what he considered to be the most significant feature of the Sorenson Center. “This building is incredible on every level—the architecture, the art work, the garden space in the middle—all of it from bottom to top is a first-rate building. And that’s great, but that doesn’t really matter,” Lt. Governor Cox said.
He then shared a suggestion he had received earlier in the day from Ross Peterson, a former Utah State faculty member: “‘You need to come back when all the people are gone and all the kids are there,’” Peterson told him. “‘You need to walk through then because there are miracles happening in this building every day.’
“That’s why this building was built,” Cox said.
More information about the Sorenson Center, including a number of videos of the various labs and clinics, can be found at the Center website.