It is a great pleasure to see you. I only wish I had time to go through the university and see a little more of you intimately. I believe there should go hand in hand two schemes of education; first, the education for all, the education that the public schools give, and then, that higher training, not merely technical, but often academic, which, of the utmost concern to the Nation as a whole, should be enjoyed by a certain portion of its citizens.
Remember that there is only one way in which the ordinary college graduate can benefit his alma mater. He can benefit her only by doing such work in the world at large that a reflected honor will come upon her. Train yourselves specially in some one direction to do some bit of technical work better than it can be done by any one who has not had your training. Most of the students who are going to achieve success will achieve it by just working out to the best possible advantage some special course. You must show that you have in you the right stuff and what your college education has done for you is not to make you feel excused from effort, but to give you the ability to use your effort to greater advantage than you could otherwise have used it.
Theodore Roosevelt, Remarks at the State University in Austin, Texas Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/343728