The following is a transcript of remarks I made at a summer prospective student preview event on August 28, 2009.
Good morning. I am guessing that most of today’s attendees are high school seniors and their parents. I know what it feels like to be where you are sitting. My daughter Caroline, our only child, is starting her senior year in just a few days.
We have wandered campuses on college tours, waded through the admissions materials that overwhelm our mailbox on a daily basis, and waited for SAT and AP scores. Now comes the hard part—where is Caroline going to apply?
While that is going to be her decision, last week she asked for my advice. No, I am not making that up. She really asked for her father’s advice. This morning I want to begin by sharing with you what I told her.
Never being one to miss a learning opportunity, I started by suggesting that we do some math together. That idea, of course, was met with an, “Oh Daddy!” but she played along, and I hope you will do the same.
I said, “You graduate from high school in 2010 so you will graduate from college in what year?”
She replied, “2014”
I asked, “Ok, and you will be how old then?”
She was in a groove now and smartly retorted, “22 and gorgeous Daddy.”
I then asked, “Alright beautiful, let’s suppose you retire at age 68, how many years will you work and what year will it be when you retire?”
For all the high school seniors, I’ll give you that one again: “Suppose you retire at age 68, how many years will you work and what year will it be when you retire?”
At this point Caroline’s skepticism was showing and she said, “Dad, I hope this is actually going somewhere. This is starting to sound like an SAT question.” And she gave me ‘the look’.
But she continued to play along and said, “Ok, I’d work 46 years and it would be 2060 when I retire.”
My advice then was this: “Sweetheart, some people go to a college that prepares them for their first job. My hope is that you will go to a college that gives you the tools for a lifetime. A lifetime that includes changes you can’t even imagine.”
So what is my message to the students and parents who are here this morning?
Studying the liberal arts at the University of Richmond is an exceptional opportunity for a young woman or man to prepare for the world they are going to face between now and 2060.
What are these tools for a lifetime that a liberal arts education provides?
First of all, it is not about what you know. Instead it is all about ways of knowing and ways of learning.
Imagine if I gave you a text and told you that you would be tested on that reading.
Some of you would read it and try to memorize as many facts as you possibly could. You would fall into a group that’s called ‘surface learners.’
Others would read the text and try to figure out what you think is going to be on the test. These folks are called ‘strategic learners.’
Now that is not as good as it sounds. Strategic learners are far more interested in getting high grades than actually learning.
Finally, the last group wants to understand the material conceptually. These are ‘deep learners.’
Deep learners want to apply their ideas to important problems. Deep learners eagerly break with traditional paradigms and invent new ones. Deep learners work passionately to find new connections and to achieve the fullest possible understanding.
At Richmond, professors work to make every class and every assignment an opportunity for deep learning. You combine this commitment to teaching with small classes and the range of programs and experiences that you might find at a much larger institution and you have something truly special.
My fondest hope for my daughter, and for each of you, is that you find your passion at college. If you decide to come to Richmond, no matter whether you major in art, music, biology, philosophy, business, or leadership studies you are going to learn to ask important questions, collect the data necessary to answer those questions, critically analyze that data, and learn to present your findings in highly compelling ways.
Those are the tools for life that a liberal arts education provides. You master those skills and you will be ready for your first job, your third career change, and all the other challenges you will face from now to 2060. Today is an opportunity for you to take Richmond on a test drive.
No matter what your area of interest, go look at the science labs, instrumentation, and course offerings. No liberal arts college is any better than the quality of its science programs. Great science education signals high quality across the board.
Ask about study abroad and decide if Richmond will prepare you for the complex and pluralistic world of today and fifty years from now.
Learn about research and internship opportunities, and see the range of hands-on experiences that would be part of your Richmond education.
What you are going to find is that Richmond has the facilities, the faculty, and the commitment to students that is second to none.
What makes Richmond unique is the way that all the pieces come together. At Richmond you have the intimacy of a small liberal arts college and the complexity of a major research university.
The critical difference is that there aren’t any graduate students competing for your professor’s time and attention.
Let me close by giving you a few examples of how we are creating cutting edge learning opportunities by having departments and programs work together in unique ways.
This fall, with the support of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, we launched our new year-long Integrative Quantitative Science course for first-year students.
Imagine another college where ten faculty members from five different departments come together to team-teach a course that combines the first courses in biology, chemistry, computer science, calculus, and physics.
The course includes an entirely new set of integrated laboratory experiences that require deep learning using all five disciplines. If you want to be challenged in the sciences, Richmond is the place for you.
Just as our faculty like students who want to be challenged, these dedicated teacher-scholars challenge themselves. Now I want you to imagine faculty from arts & sciences, business, law, and leadership studies-that’s four different schools-developing a entirely new program that combines the best of each of these areas of study.
Well, the Richmond faculty have done just that. Beginning next year—what would be your first year at Richmond—we will offer a new interdisciplinary major in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law. Let me tell you this major is for deep learners, individuals who want to make a difference between now and 2060.
My last example gives me a chance to make a plug for another session that I am doing this afternoon about majoring in the social sciences and humanities.
You want to come to that session if you are interested in English, history, creative writing, languages, psychology, classics, religion, political science, and sociology. What I think you might be surprised to learn is how many students in these areas of study also do summer research.
Most people think summer research is just in the sciences. Yet last summer one of our classics professors, Elizabeth Vaughan, took five students on an archeological dig in Turkey.
David Salisbury, a geography professor, had four students accompany him to the Peruvian Amazon. They lived with indigenous families and studied fishing practices and trade.
Oh, and did I tell you that the students were all paid for these experiences?
Pretty amazing and it’s just the tip of the iceberg of opportunity at Richmond.
I truly hope you enjoy learning about the unique liberal arts experience that Richmond has to offer and just maybe you will decide Richmond is the right fit for you.
