Wilmington College President Corey Cockerill looks back to Christmas in 2011 when her sister, Erin Balbier, gave her a domino-shaped object, colorfully hand-painted with a cartoonish robot. That was her first bot — short for robot. Specifically, it was a Bilingual YesBot. Cockerill quickly became intrigued with bots, not just the whimsical figures on the JoyBots, LoveBots, GratitudeBots and PeaceBots, but their intrinsic messages centered on connection, delight and creative courage as represented by BotJoy, the global art movement ushered in by Gary Hirsch, WC’s 2026 Commencement speaker.
Hirsch lives in Balbier’s neighborhood of Portland, OR, and each time Cockerill has visited her sister on the West Coast over the past 15 years, they’ve viewed Hirsch’s popular murals and purchased bots for trading, sharing and adding to their collections. “I was hooked,” Cockerill said, noting that BotJoy is but one facet of Hirsch’s outreach as an artist, author and TED Talk presenter. “I began incorporating his ideas about collaboration into my marketing and communication classes.” Students further engaged with Hirsch’s BotJoy work when the Westheimer Peace Symposium at WC featured a PeaceBot-making component about 10 years ago and was reprised during the last week of classes this spring..
With the College’s 150th Commencement looming on the near horizon, the president began the 2025-26 academic year with a “crazy idea”: what if she could convince Hirsch to deliver the keynote address at the institution’s milestone graduation ceremony in May? “Sometimes persistence pays off. Sometimes the universe delivers. This time it did. Gary said yes,” Cockerill said, noting that, on top of that, he agreed to paint a mural while on campus. “I was in absolute disbelief that he would consider such an offer.”
Hirsch countered Cockerill’s amazement by admitting, “I was floored to be asked to be a commencement speaker. I get asked to speak, but it’s never been this much of an honor — it’s a bigger honor than speaking at Nike.” Hirsch gave an enthusiastically received interactive presentation titled “Radical Collaboration with the World Around You.” Complete with a mock snowball fight, his keynote address was a highlight of a memorable ceremony he described as “an incredibly meaningful event, a joyful and moving peek into people’s lives.”
PICTURED: Artist Gary Hirsch paints details on one of the bots.
The two-hour Commencement was only part one of his Wilmington visit. That evening, he began the several-day project of painting a mural on a portion of the south-facing wall of the Scheve Athletic Center. Months in the planning, he and the president finetuned their idea for the installation.
Cockerill shared information about the Scheve Athletic Center (which features new construction and renovation of the greater Hermann Court complex) and building the Jenna Parlette Running Center. These are the centerpieces of the late legendary Coach Jerry Scheve’s vision for fostering athletic excellence at WC, as part of his record $23 million gift. Construction on both facilities will begin this summer. Also, she told Hirsch about Jenna Parlette, the star distance runner who collapsed within sight of winning a cross country race in 2013 and died several days later, and how the College has dreamed of building a much-needed indoor running center as part of the student-athlete’s legacy.
Hirsch learned about Parlette’s favorite color (purple) and her mantra, “Run with Your Legs, Win with Your Heart,” which got his creative juices flowing. Legs, heart, bots, the College’s motto that includes “…by many small steps.” The vision for the mural quickly came together.
Cockerill especially liked the idea of students playing a significant role and “building a connection” in the mural production, but their participation needed to occur before Hirsch’s arrival for Commencement. He suggested that the students’ footprint on the mural be actual footprints, or rather, shoeprints. Scores of students, faculty and staff took time during Community Day on April 23 to roll various pastel paint colors on a selection of discarded shoes and leave their marks on the gray wall. “Gary’s work encourages participation and collaboration, and reminds students that creativity is something we build together. BotJoy invites participation, sparks dialogue and builds community,” Cockerill said.
Hundreds of painted shoeprints awaited Hirsch when, at nightfall on May 9, the president and her husband, Tate, assisted him in projecting bot images onto the wall for them to outline. The next morning, Hirsch and the president started bright and early, painting the images. Others joined throughout the day and subsequent days until the installation was complete in all its eye-popping colors on playful, fanciful, eccentric and quirky images of running bots surrounded by hearts and the question: “What moves you?”
“I like to include a question so people can think a bit,” Hirsch said. “I want to create a piece of art that people are drawn to — hopefully you will look at the question and think about it. That’s art doing its job.”
Hirsch leaves it up to the mural viewer to determine the level at which one is moved, be it emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, athletically, etc. The bots on the bottom tier are viewed running toward the east, while the gait of those on the top-level points to the west, perhaps representing runners on a track. “We move, but it’s also important to pause and think,” he added. “I work very improvisationally, and my one criterion for this mural was, ‘Would it bring joy to people’s faces?’ I wanted to make the most joyful bots possible.”
Hirsch invites viewers to have their photos taken in front of the wall and ponder the question, “What moves you.” Then, he encourages them to share it on social media with the hashtags #botjoy and #botjoyWC.
He praised Cockerill for her essential collaboration with the project. “This is a big, loud, funky mural.” He added. “I love Corey’s attitude to ‘let’s try stuff.’ I love how fearless she is. She’s a great collaborator, and I’ve worked with a lot of people.”
For Cockerill, Commencement weekend and the subsequent days were almost surreal. A hero of hers transformed from a voice on a TED Talk and an image on a computer screen into a flesh-and-blood collaborator on the campus she loves. “He became a real person when he walked into Pyle Center before Commencement!” she said. Indeed, they created art together, something with the potential to inspire thousands of students through the years.
For Cockerill, who is very close to Jenna Parlette’s and Jerry Scheve’s stories, the mural takes on a particularly profound and personal meaning. “Gary’s murals are experiential, and Wilmington College is experiential — we get our hands dirty,” she said. “Here is a chance to honor and symbolically convey things about legs and heart. And what moved Jerry Scheve? Think about that. Even if students don’t know Jerry’s and Jenna’s stories, they can relate to them by their own motivation and inspiration.”
And by answering the question: “What moves you?”
TOP PHOTO: President Corey Cockerill and artist Gary Hirsch mimic the bots in the mural painted on the south side of the Scheve Athletic Center just moments after Hirsch signed the finished work.
PICTURED: The entire mural is featured with bots running to the east and west. The windows are where the back doors to the Scheve Athletic Center will be placed during construction beginning this summer. Viewers of the mural will undoubtedly want to have their photos taken in front of the installation and, ideally, answer the question: "What moves you?"