BUENA VISTA, Virginia — Just weeks after athletes at Southern Virginia University claimed the school’s first NCAA Division III men’s volleyball national title, Sheri Dew reminded the university’s graduates Friday that in sports, and in life, it is important to “stack wins.”
Even in life’s most discouraging moments there are lessons to be learned, perspectives to be gained and stacked victories to celebrate, said Dew, a former member of the Relief Society General Presidency and executive vice president and chief content officer of Deseret Management Corp.
Offering commencement remarks at the university, Dew — who also received an honorary doctorate from SVU — said she learned about stacking wins from BYU’s head basketball coach Kevin Young.
During his first season at BYU, his team lost four of their first six games in the Big 12. Still, without focusing too heavily on the losses, the team won the next nine games in a row before another tough loss in the Big 12 tournament.
How did Young make such an impressive turnaround? questioned Dew. By “stacking games, stacking days, stacking wins.”
BYU finished the season with a run to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. “A season is about growth, it is about getting better every day,” Young explained after the tournament.
The lesson not only works in sports, but also in life, Dew said, asking the graduates to “intentionally, conscientiously” stack some wins.
“I want you to think about all of the things you’ve been stacking here at SVU — the friends you’ve made, the experiences you’ve had, the hard things that you’ve overcome, the things you’ve learned, the things you’re better at today than you were several years ago,” she said. “You’ve already, whether you’re aware of it or not, been stacking wins.”
5 principles to ‘stack wins’
Dew shared principles to help the graduates “stack days.”
Realize that “you have a divine orbit.” Dew quoted the late Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “The same God that placed the star in a precise orbit millennia before it appeared over Bethlehem in celebration of the birth of the Babe has given at least equal attention to placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may, if we will, illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our light may not only lead others but warm them as well.”
Dew told the graduates that even when life is not turning out in the way they expected that they can offer a simple prayer. “Am I where I am supposed to be?”
“The only thing that will stop your potential and stop your influence is if you stop trying to be where God and where the Lord want you to be,” she said.
Make your life be about more than just you. Dew said being raised in Kansas made her a Kansas City Chiefs fan. After losing the Super Bowl this year — when a win that would have made the Chiefs the first NFL team to claim three straight Super Bowls — coach Andy Reid spoke about his experience.
The Super Bowl loss “hurt, and it should hurt when you lose,” he said. “But I tried to teach (the team) that whether you win or lose, there’s something to learn. What’s important is how you handle yourself. … My highest objective is to make 90 men better men.”
Learn how to talk to God and how to get direction from him. Dew quoted President Russell M. Nelson: “In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost. I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation.”
Learning the language of revelation is more difficult than the effort to receive a college degree, Dew said. Learning to hear the voice of the Lord “takes time,” she said. “It takes work.”
Dew told the graduates they can pray for God to teach them what it feels like to receive personal revelation. “One of the highest priorities I can recommend to you is learning to listen to God.”
Learn how to communicate. Most people, Dew explained, are not born with the gift of gab. Learning it takes “intentional practice.”
“God and the Lord Jesus Christ really need their sons and daughters, their servants, to be able to articulate what they believe in a clear, concise manner,” she said.
Put God first. Quoting the Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset, Dew said, “Tell me who you pay attention to, and I’ll tell you who you are.”
Dew said she learned from BYU cross country coach Diljeet Taylor, a member of the Sikh religion. When athletes are not performing as well as Taylor knows they can, she asks them, “How is your relationship with God?”
Focusing on that important relationship, Dew said, “always leads to an improvement in perspective and performance.”
Dew shared a scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 6:34-36: “Fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail. …
“Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”
Every time someone puts God first they “stack another day, another win,” she said.
“I invite you to start intentionally looking for opportunities to stack days — days of helping others, days of cheering others on, days of learning how to communicate with heaven, days of receiving revelation, days of overcoming a difficult moment, days when you can see that you’re growing.”
Stained glass window
SVU president Bonnie H. Cordon, former Young Women general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, centered her remarks around a large stained glass mural representing the “Sermon on the Mount,” which was installed this year in the campus’ Main Hall Ballroom.
She reminded the students that the stained glass is a reminder of their charge to be a light.
“If you’ve ever looked at stained glass, you know, it is designed to shine,” she said. “Its beauty isn’t just glass, it is in the light behind it.”
Without the light, even the most interesting stained glass designs look dull and lifeless, she said. “But when the light shines through, every color comes alive. There’s brilliance, there’s clarity, there’s beauty that wasn’t visible before.”
As each graduate leaves Southern Virginia University, “that image of stained glass glowing with the light offers a powerful metaphor for your life ahead.”

Honorary doctorate
Before offering her commencement remarks, Dew received an honorary degree of humane letters for her “exemplary leadership and service in the workplace, the community and in public scholarship.”
Dew, a native of Ulysses, Kansas, and a graduate of Brigham Young University, has written a number of books, including the biographies of three Latter-day Saint prophets: President Russell M. Nelson, President Gordon B. Hinckley, and President Ezra Taft Benson. She served from 1997 to 2002 in the Relief Society General Presidency and is executive vice president and chief content officer of Deseret Management Corp. SVU leaders praised Dew for her “life of intellectual curiosity, spiritual power, and leadership acumen.”
Universities in Europe began granting degrees honoris causa — a Latin phrase meaning “for the sake of the honor” — in the 15th century, giving the recipient “full privileges” in the university. Lionel Woodville, the future Bishop of Salisbury, received the first such degree from Oxford in the 1470s.
The first honorary degree awarded in the United States was conferred by Harvard University in 1692 on its president, Increase Mather. The practice continued and in 1753, Harvard University granted Benjamin Franklin a Master of Arts degree. The first woman recipient an honorary degree from Harvard was Helen Keller in 1955.
Following is a list of past honorary doctorate recipients at Southern Virginia University: Glade Knight, 2000; Richard I. Winwood, 2001; John H. Groberg, 2002; Jason Wang, 2003; Ron Jones & Richard Marriott, 2004; Merlin W. Sant, 2005; Donald D. Davis, 2006; Wilford Teerlink & Rodney Haws, 2007; Robert Christopher Gay, 2010; Nolan D. Archibald, 2011; David C. Clark, 2012; W. Mitt Romney, 2013; Kathleen Knight, 2015; Bruce L. Olsen, 2017; and Robert W. Goodlatte, 2019.
