As I prepared to part company after dinner last week with one of our most distinguished graduates from the 1950s, he took my hand and said, “When we have the time I want to tell you about the impact of my Howard College—Samford—experience.” With only a little encouragement, he then related a few of the details of his rural background and how his time with faculty at Howard College laid the foundation for his career. “It began with Howard College,” he said. In reality, given this person’s considerable strengths, I think that the raw material was already in place when he arrived on the campus, but I join him in acknowledging the transformational power of higher education.
The world is better because we are engaged in meaningful, life-changing work.