A legacy of student success
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending one of VCU’s Open House events for prospective students who are considering attending our university. I spoke to about 2,500 young scholars — mostly high school juniors from around the nation — about the opportunities they would find here if they chose to join the VCU team.
I reminded them that VCU is nationally recognized as an “Up and Coming” university, in part because our nationally competitive students are leaders in their fields and in their community and are focused on using what they discover here to make a difference in the lives of others.
This is what VCU students do, in every major and at every level, from first semester to first professional. You commit to always being your very best and using every tool you have to catalyze the human experience. Like Kate Pearson, an M4 in our School of Medicine, who travels to impoverished nations and sets up clinics to care for people who have little or no access to the health care that we take for granted. And Erin Trimble, a student in our School of Education, who helps special-needs elementary students learn to read.
I love telling these stories. Erin, Kate and more than 31,000 other VCU students motivate me every day and inspire our VCU students-to-be to continue this rich legacy. That is why I am fully committed to ensuring that the VCU student experience is full, rich and completely smothered with critical thinking.
I know that many of the young students from Saturday’s Open House will join us at VCU in the coming years. And, more than anything, it’s because of the great legacy of our current students — and the nationally premier faculty members who mentor them.
Thank you for setting this example and laying a foundation upon which we are building the nation’s premier urban, public research university.
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