Happy New Year to the entire Brenau community. Classes for the spring semester are underway, and I hope all of our students, faculty and staff are off to a great start!
This month, I will be making two very significant trips to talk about the good work of Brenau, starting with the Council of Independent Colleges’ President Institute Jan. 4-7 in San Antonio. At this meeting, we explore ways to reinvigorate campus and community partnerships that ultimately elevate both. Brenau also is holding an alumni gathering while I am there for those who live in that area. Alumni can find details about this and future gatherings online at Brenau.edu/alumni.
Later this month, there is great potential for partnerships to develop from a 10-day trip to India with our enrollment team. Brenau is collaborating with four other private colleges in Georgia to launch a program called Study Private – Study Georgia. We hope to introduce Brenau programs to that growing region of the world.
I will be back for the Jan. 23 convocation as Brenau honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with an event featuring student performances and guest speaker Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center. I anticipate that Ms. Huang’s comments will support Brenau’s mission of preparing for a lifetime of fulfillment by becoming leaders in their communities.
Dr. King’s beliefs have much in common with one of the most quoted lines of the Brenau Ideal: “To love deeply, fear nothing, hate never.” He is quoted as saying, “Foster critical thinking; develop character; and train students how to integrate those two together in order to be effective for the betterment of their career and society.”
As we begin a new semester, I hope faculty, staff and students will find inspiration in his words to foster our critical work in continuation of our legacy of applying the knowledge we have gained to the service of the communities where we live, work and learn.
For more about what’s happening at Brenau, be sure to check out the January episode of my podcast, Brenau Insight: Conversations with the President. Previous episodes can be found on SoundCloud.
