 I know that some of you think that Thrive is jive, right? And maybe that's been your experience, but tonight we're gonna have a little bit of a special event. My name is Michael Miller. I am a graduate of the class of 1987 at Fairfield. I know I'm an old guy, but I got a lot of energy to share some thoughts with you about what it means to be part of our community as you move forward through your first year at the university. I was really involved as a student on campus. I lived in Campion in Gonzaga. I was the RA on Jokes Four, and I was the, and I lived in the townhouses, my senior year in townhouse 82. I was also the FUSA president. So I was really involved, both with the kind of activism part of FUSA and also the programming piece with that. I am a leadership trainer and a consultant. So what I'm doing with you tonight is what I do for a living. I was an English major and a secondary education minor, but I never taught in a classroom. But what I do every day of my life, when we're not in the virus, I travel 300 days a year to colleges and companies all around the United States. Now I do it virtually. I am traveling still a little bit, but not as much, but I still get to do what I do online. I credit so much of my success, both personally and professionally, to my English major and to all of my experiences at Fairfield. Currently, I serve on the alumni board of directors. So I come to you also as an alumni rep, but that's just a little bit about me that I want you to know about. And I love Fairfield and I'm excited to have this moment with you. So what we're gonna do tonight, like I said, is we're gonna talk a little bit about our experiences, right? We're gonna talk about some things that are distinctive about Fairfield. Why? Not just to be rah-rah and public relations about Fairfield, right? But because you, new students, right? Coming to drive, you have a shot to shape your next three and a half years here with maybe some information that would be helpful to you in moving forward. So that's what this is all about. Gonna give you a sense a little bit, hopefully of your experience at Fairfield and what you might wanna make is some goals as you move through both personally and professionally. So without further ado, I'm gonna introduce to you in a moment, Chloe and Caroline. Chloe and Caroline are two students at the university, but they're important for many reasons, not only because of what they offer in their involvement on campus and what they do in class, but they're important because they're gonna illustrate something that I call a distinction. It's something about Fairfield that we don't talk about a lot. And I know, I know for you new students, the virus maybe hasn't facilitated as much the thing we're gonna talk about. But one of the thing that's important about Fairfield is this notion of friendship and friendship born of being part of a beautiful and special community. And I know I'm not letting, I'm not marginalizing you. I know that even beyond the virus, you've made friends and you've made connections, but we're gonna talk a little bit to Caroline and Chloe and Caroline and Chloe, thank you so much for being with us and helping me be able to point out some things that are important during this. So would you mind introducing yourself, share your deets' name, hometown, major, where you live on campus? Yeah, of course. Hi guys, I'm Chloe and I'm from Williamth, Massachusetts, south of Austin. I am a bio-engineering major. I'm a junior and I'm sorry. Hi everyone, my name is Caroline Ken and I am a junior also. I am a mechanical engineering major and I'm from Cheshire, Connecticut. Awesome, that's great. Thank you, you guys. So would you share with us just a little bit about how, now are you kind of BFFs? Would you tell, would you say? Yeah, we're the best of friends, absolutely. Right, that is an understatement. Yeah. Good, good, good. I'm glad you correct me, correct me because I don't wanna overstate anything but I'm glad you make it real good. So you're like BFFs and I know it's not just you guys, you have like a core group of friends, but talk about, tell us how and when you met, like when did you meet each other? What's the story of your friendship? Tell us. Okay, so freshman year orientation, obviously it's a little different than what you guys experienced. We had in person, it was overnight and Caroline and I were in the first session and we are in the same, well, we're in the same FYE group because of our major, they had engineering, I don't know if they still do that, but they had engineering kind of be our core group and you know. Oh yeah, basically, I remember just being super nervous about orientation in general, but super nervous once I found out like I was gonna be in like an engineering group and I was like, oh no, like, oh no, I don't know. And then I remember seeing Chloe and she was wearing her like a lily polter top and I was like, she seems kind of cool. So I was like, I don't know, I feel like she's gonna be like my best friend. So then we obviously just kind of clicked through orientation and stuff and then obviously all the different like events and everything we like would kind of stick together like in the rest is just history, I guess. I remember like literally sitting in a circle for FYE and we were going around like saying like favorite ice cream or something like that, but I literally remember like looking at Caroline across and being like, okay, I need to like be friends with her. Like she seems like she's like a decent human being and like, and it's majority of boys in our group. Right, yes, right, with all those engineers, right? You were fighting your girl, right? That's good. Exactly. Okay, so wait, all right, so that's good. So now, so tell us, was there a moment that, like so first impression was good. Like you're like, she's cool. I want to get to know her. She might be a BFF someday, because she might be a friend, but was there a moment like, and by the way, maybe it was the after orientation, like was there a moment when you're like, oh my God. Yeah, like she's my girl. She's one of my people. Was there a moment for either of you or both of you different or the same? Could you tell us? Let's see. Well, you said yours was probably orientation. Yeah, it probably was. But I also, I do remember like after orientation and after we met, like obviously you do what like people do when they first meet each other, like exchange phone numbers, exchange. Like, follow each other on Instagram. Instagrams and all that stuff. And I remember like over the summer, like I had posted something and then Chloe commented and I was like, oh, like she actually likes me. So when you came back to school for the fall and welcome week and all that kind of stuff, did you look each other up right away? Oh yeah, we met up on the first day, like move in, like we were like, all right, once our parents go, like let's get, like let's get Jenna out, hang out, let's literally stick together. I mean, we were actually like, we were two doors down entire freshman year. We were on the third floor of Gonzaga, so. Oh wait, you lived on G3? Yes, G3. That's where I lived. Really? My sophomore year. Yeah, yeah, I loved it, I loved it. Oh, I love Gonzaga. I love jokes too. Campion not so much. Sorry to any of you that are coming from campion, but I love Gonzaga jokes. Share, share with us. Okay, so now you guys had that moment. You both had that moment when you met. Is there any advice, now you're juniors, you know the university, you've experienced both sides, kind of normal times and the virus, what if somebody didn't have that experience, your experience, like that immediate connection and then it worked, it was first impression and then it was real. What advice would you give somebody at Fairfield who maybe hasn't found their BFF yet, given the virus, given just what you know as juniors, is there anything that you would tell somebody if they haven't found their person or their people yet, what would you do? How should they handle it? Because before you all came on the webinar, their roommates were in the room, there was a lot going on around us. Yeah! Yeah, there they are, shout out. Our roommates were, yeah, literally eating dinner. Shout out to Dallas, what is it, 75? 74. Come by each other's side. Do you have any thoughts for them? Do you have any thoughts? For advice, like first of all, if you haven't found your best friend, you haven't found your core group, literally do not stress about it whatsoever, you will filter through people. I mean, even though, yeah, like some of these girls, like they're my best friends, there's been people already that we both kind of cycled through, like, yeah, you're close with one person for one minute and that's really it, like it's totally okay to go through friend groups and not have that, like, best best friend at the time, but you'll find them, whether that is through, you know, like, whether you have them with Zoom and like in class and then maybe you guys go and get a coffee or like maybe, you know, you go in, like pick up lunch or whatever, like, you'll kind of feel your way out, I feel like, or if it is something as simple as Instagram, I mean, some of my friends, like we met through Instagram too, like it's, I feel like it's like, don't stress yourself out because you just have four, you do have four full years. Right, I was gonna say, like, obviously me and Chloe, we met like very early on, like over the summer, like before we even moved in and like the rest of my friends like met at like orientation or at least within like the first, like a few months of freshman year, but this year we have like a whole other group of girlfriends that we were never close with until this year and so it's kind of, yeah, so it's kind of just like, always keep your like mind open, like when people like want to hang out, like obviously hang out, like don't be like, oh, sorry, like I already have my best friend, like obviously it's great to have your best friend, but like- No, you can always have more friends and I feel like too, like we always jokingly say, like, oh, there's no one in our grade, we don't like at least kind of like know their face or like have ever heard their name once, like there's plenty of people we've met this year already where we're like, oh my God, it's so good to meet you, like you're awesome and like I'm glad that we were able to cross paths. You, I need the both of you to know like, I'm nodding because like that is exactly my experience and I'm like 99 years older than you, right? I graduated, you weren't even a thought when I graduated from Fairfield, right? But that's why we're talking about this, that's why we're talking about this and that advice is such good advice. You know, don't forget both Caroline and Chloe are also members of the Student Alumni Association. So they, that's one of their activities on campus. So you also have that in common, you also have like involvement out of class in common. So that's another way to find people, to connect with people who are interested in doing the same things as you. And by the way, again, it's not as easy or it's virtual, but so what? We're gonna come out of this thing and we're gonna be able to then to just be normal again. So remember that last thing I'm gonna do, and this is the moment, I don't wanna put you on the spot, but new students who are watching this, this is the emotional moment, the heart-rending time of this call. Chloe, I want you to tell Caroline, I want you to look at her and tell her just what, like how has she impacted your Fairfield experience? How has she maybe shaped what college has been for you? Share that with her. So basically, you're my best friend. But seriously, I have scream, cried, laughed. We've eaten dinner together, eaten breakfast together, we've gone trips together, like you have literally been there for me no matter what. And I feel like I would not have loved my Fairfield experience if you weren't a part of it. And you are such a rock, you're such a great person. You make me a better person. I feel like we're a couple sometimes. But seriously, I love you, you're such an amazing person. Wow, that is so beautiful to hear. So fighting, crying right now, hearing that. Can you, can you now, Caroline, will you do it? Tell Chloe. Oh, of course, I would love to do it. Okay, Chloe, Chloe, you were, and still, you were not only my best friend of Fairfield, but also my first friend. And that means so much because ever since, before we even moved in, like freshman year, and that you've always been there for me. And through, like you said, the good times, the bad times, the happy times, the sad times, like fun, school, but we also have so many classes together. So just like in that sense, but also just like when you can come back at home and just kind of like know that you're always there. And thanks for always being there for me. Of course. Well, I cannot thank the both of you enough. I need all of you to know that they did not rehearse this. They knew maybe 15 minutes ago what we were gonna talk about. And you couldn't have been more articulate and you make me proud as an alum to see my students be so wonderful and articulate and thoughtful. And I appreciate that so much. Thank you both for being with us today. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for having us. Thank you for being here. You know, new students, Caroline and Chloe's experience is not uncommon. And I wanna tell you quickly how I learned about this distinction of Fairfield. And I wanted to keep in mind that the reason that we're talking about this is because... These are all the girls that we have. I love it. The reason that we're talking about this is that it's something that Fairfield people, us, we stags, have in common regardless of when we went through our Fairfield experience. So whether you're really old or you're just starting out like my drive participants are, this is a common experience. And I learned this in a really weird way. I was at a conference. I was at a higher education conference and a woman that I knew pretty well came up to me and she said, hey, Michael, you went to Fairfield, right? And I said, yeah. I said, I did. And she said, you know, my husband went to Fairfield. She did not go to Fairfield. And she said, are your friends a thing? Now keep in mind that this point I graduated 20 years earlier. And I said, what do you mean? She goes like, are your friends, are you tight with your friends from Fairfield? And I said, yeah, I'm really tight with them. She goes, that explains it. She goes, I have to tell you my husband isn't a funk right now. And I realize it's because he hasn't seen his quotes, Fairfield boys in a while, right? Now he'd been out of Fairfield for about 10 years at this point. They were younger than I am. And I thought to myself, oh my God, it's like the same exact thing. Like I always need a dose of my people, my Fairfield people. And I keep them close. And I thought, this is something that's part of our story. And by the way, again, why am I telling you this? Because I want you to think about this kind of legacy that you're a part of. And given the virus, given the tough time of connecting, you have a chance to find these people, right? And it's really a great opportunity. And I guess the real way to talk about this is that these relationships are not just feel good. They're not just, they're really about support. Support in so many ways. And I need to tell you just a quick story. I was working at a college in Connecticut. I won't say the name of it, Quinnipiac. And I was working there and I got a phone call from one of my sisters in law. The phone had rang and it was my sister and she was crying when I picked up the phone. And I said, you know, Donna, what is it? What's the matter? And she says, it's not good, Michael, we need you to come home, okay? And where my family was was about, you know, about two hours from where I was working. You know, I started New Haven. And I said, okay, I'll come home, but what is it Donna? What's the matter? She goes, no, Michael, it's bad. We just need you to come home, okay? I said, Donna, I will come home, but what happened? And she went, I don't want to say it over the phone. I said, you're freaking me out. Like, what happened? And she said, I'm so sorry to tell you this. She said, Michael, but your brother died. My brother, my big brother, my oldest brother, I need you to know. I don't remember leaving, you know, my office. I don't remember like going to my place to pick up a suit for the wake or the funeral. But what I do remember is arriving to my brother's house to see my sister-in-law. They had a little baby. My nephew was at the time, he was about seven months old and he was there. And I thought he's never gonna know his daddy, you know, his father. And this obviously is a sad and devastating moment at the time for me. This is a while back now. But what I need you to know is I had no friends where I grew up. When I had left for Fairfield, I never lived back at home and all of my best friends moved away, right? So as you can imagine, when a young person, and he was about 40 years old, when he passed away, the wake and the funeral was full of people. There was a lot of work to do. So, you know, at this point in my life, I'm single. I have nobody. I'm, what's my job here? You know, my job is to take care of my other brother, my sisters-in-law, we have nieces and nephews. Take care of my mother, my mom, who lost her eldest child at that point, right? And I need you to know, at one point, there was silence, some quiet in the funeral home. And I thought to myself, man, this doesn't make sense. I'm upset about this. Like I'm lost a little bit. You know, I lost my big brother and he was such a classic big brother, you know? He was more fun than anybody else and he beat me up like nobody else, right? And I really want to make sense of this. I'd love to talk to somebody about it, but who am I going to talk to? None of my friends live here. They all moved away. There's nobody there. I could talk to my brother about it, but he's devastated too. You know, we're going to bother my mother. My mother lost her child, right? And I'm sitting there and I need you and I'm feeling like the biggest loser in the world. And I swear to you, at that moment, my best friend from Fairfield, my next door neighbor in the townhouses walks through the door with his wife. He came all the way from Fort Worth, Texas. And it's not because he knew my brother. He was there for me. And I thought to myself, man, am I just blessed? Am I the luckiest guy in the world? A few moments later, an older man and woman came over. And when I looked up, I realized who they were. They were my two of my best friends who were married. They couldn't make it. They had just had a baby and they couldn't fly for my brother's wake to New York. So they sent their parents to me and I thought to myself in my darkest hour when I'm feeling like the most alone, who's there for me, right? Who's there for me? My Fairfield people are there for me in my darkest moments, right? Of course they're there for the happy times too. But when you most need it and push comes to shove, your Fairfield people are going to be there for you. And if you haven't found them yet, that's why we're talking about it because just give it a moment and you're going to find them, right? And I want to tell you, support from Fairfield means so many things and not just that kind of sad moment in my life. Support means lifetime career placement. Do you know that, right? I graduated in 1987 and I can come back and somebody will help me if I want a career change or I want someone to look at my resume, right? Forever you are, you know, wants to stag literally, always a stag, right? I am, you know, we have alumni clubs all over the country. At one point I moved to Chicago. Fortunately, I had friends in Chicago from Fairfield, right? Chicago people at Fairfield had all moved back to the Midwest and when I got there, there they were, right? But if I didn't, we had a Fairfield alumni club in Chicago. Lots of events and activities that connect that our alumni office runs through the alumni board. Clubs in San Francisco and in Washington, in Philadelphia, in Boston, right? So you can always keep connected to Fairfield. There's so many opportunities for support that I want you to think about and I want you to know that as you make your way through to know these things, that this, what you started, you know, just a couple of months ago is gonna continue forever. And the more you engage with it, the more you're gonna get back from it, right? The second part, and obviously this is an acronym, it's spelled stags, this is about what it needs to be stags is that we're totally on top, right? And I want you to look at me. If you're having FOMO now, right? Oh, I wanted to be at X college, you know, in this next state over, well, you're not there and you're at Fairfield, right? And by the way, we're not, we don't brag a lot about our stuff at Fairfield. We don't really put it out there as probably as much as we should, but you know, all of the rankings, right? Always in the top three in the US News and World Report, right? The nursing schools always talked about being number one. Dolan is ranked nationally in a million of its programs, right? We, Georgetown University did a study on return on investment from colleges, right? Fairfield's in the top 1% 10 years after graduation based on job satisfaction and earnings, right? That's what we're about, right? But let's not even talk about that. Let's just talk about my experience. Look at the screen, you see that elephant? That elephant's really important because I want to tell you about one of my dearest friends from Fairfield, her name is Caitlin. Caitlin, Annie and I took a course called Russian History. It was part of the core requirement for history. We signed up for that, it was an elective, but it met our core in history. And you know how it is. I'm sure you've experienced this already. When you should be studying, you get with other people and you end up talking about everything that else but what you should be talking about, which is this material that's gonna be on the test the next day. Well, Annie, my friend, she was from Texas and Caitlin, who was from New Jersey. We got together in the Gonzaga Three Lounge. We were studying for this Russian History test and this was such a hard class. We would study literally all night for the quizzes that this professor offered. He's no longer a teacher at the university, but he was an amazing teacher, but it was really hard, right? So at this point, Annie and I decide that we're gonna let Caitlin have it. Caitlin was a bio major and how to say this in a polite way. She sucked at biology or so we thought because our grades weren't really good in biology. So we decided in this late night study session with a coffee pot in the wall, we told Caitlin that she sucked at biology. I said, Caitlin, you stink. You should not be a biology major. You're not good at it. And she goes, but I like it. And Annie said, yeah, but so what? You can't do it. You're not really good. And she goes, no, no, I like it. She goes, the faculty doesn't really get me I love it when we get bad grades and we blame it on the faculty. She goes, no, no, no, I really like it. See, we thought that Caitlin should be a biology major, an art major. Caitlin could sculpt, she could paint, she could draw, she was amazingly talented. She could ace our history. She was fantastic, right? Well, I need you to know that when we get to graduation, Caitlin really only gets to go to one graduate school. She ends up at the University of Hawaii and she's studying large animals, which is what she's interested. Nope, she's studying the smallest of animals. She goes into a biology program studying entomology, studying insects. Long story short, Caitlin is invited to go on a trip to the bush in Africa. She gets to go with some faculty. She is the low person in the group. So she has to do the overnight canvassing of the elephants, right? So it's pretty cool. She's wearing the night goggles. She's watching the elephants. It's completely pitch, right? No electric in Nairobi, in the bush of Africa. So she's watching the elephants. She's noticing something that the elephants are doing. Apparently elephants communicate by stamping on the pads of their feet. She's noticing a pose that one of the elephants taking and it reminds her of the insects that she's working with. Do you know that this woman came up with this theory that elephants and insects can communicate in the same way? Do you know that she went on to get her PhD in biology? Do you know that Caitlin is now one of the world's foremost researchers on elephants? She has written three popular books about her time with elephants. She hosts a TV series on Animal Planet dealing with these elephants. And who told her not to do that? Who told her she sucks? She's totally on top. And you know who she was? One of my dearest friends whose beach house I went to all the time, right? And she's not the only one just from my class. Peter Pranavost, he's a physician. He was named a couple of years ago, one of the 100 most influential people in the world. This was one of my paths that I went to parties at the townhouses with. This is someone that we hung out with. You don't realize this right now, that that lump head in one of your classes has a brain that you're not aware of. We are totally on top, right? So I'm asking you, if you wanted to be somewhere else, or you really haven't committed fully, given what's going on to Fairfield, cut it out. Find out who these people are. Because let me tell you, you don't realize it. But at this moment, you're walking among greatness. You're walking among it. And that's just two stories from people from my class. We can repeat it all, governors, mayors, presidents of colleges, all of them, right? People on television, right? Can you hear me now? Went to Fairfield, seriously. Think about it. So we have everything we need to make our way in the world. And best of all, we do it in the context of those sustaining relationships. I need you to know that the actual cost of Fairfield is important. Listen, I know you're dirt poor, right? I know that you're dirt poor some of you right now. And by the way, college is the time when even some of the wealthiest of us are the most poor we've been. But I do need you to know something. The actual cost of all of this is more than what most of you pay for it, right? And that's important because I need you to know the gratitude that we owe to that is to alums, largely alums who give, right? There's a thing in higher education called the discount rate, right? And what that is is basically the difference between what it actually costs and what the average student pays, right? So I need you to know all that beauty, all the stuff that was done to kind of make the campus COVID ready, it's not a couple of thousand here and there. It's like 50,000 here and there. Probably ended up costing university a couple of million bucks, right? Now, why do you have to know that, right? That you may say, well, why do I care about that? That's not so important to me, right? It's expensive enough, and that's true. No argument here, right? Here's the thing. The reason that this is important is because that giving matters. And I'm going to ask you to tap yourself on the shoulder. Tap yourself on the shoulder if any of these apply to you. Have you ever seen Rafferty Stadium on campus? Have you ever been in the Egan School of Nursing or the Egan Chapel? Have you ever passed through or have you heard of the Domenna Nicelius Library? Have you ever gotten a scholarship, right? Some of you tapped yourself five times, right? Five questions, right? What I need you to know is that giving matters. And you need to know it now because each and every one of us, each of us stags has benefited from the generosity and the giving of alumni. All of those buildings that I mentioned, the Rafferty Stadium, the library, parts of the Tully, the Egan School of Nursing, the Egan Chapel, the Quick Center, all of them were students at Fairfield, all of them. And all of them donated to give back to our alma mater. Why is that important to you? Let me tell you why. Maybe you don't care about that. Maybe you're like, well, that's their thing. They gave their money and that's their business. Do you care about Fairfield's reputation? Fairfield's reputation matters, right? It matters to all of us. And I'm proud of our reputation. I'm proud that we're a younger school that plays with the big boys, the old schools in this country, right? But here's the deal. The rating services, like US News and World Report, like Forbes, like Time, like Money Magazine, right? They all look at a measure by which alums donate, right? How, by the way, why would that be important? Why would they think that was a measure of an institution, a university's value? Well, because if the alums don't give back, who's going to give to it, right? So I'm inviting you to think about giving. Your class, your Student Alumni Association is going to create opportunities for you, even if it's not money, but to give your time, to give your experience to the university. And we want you to think about that now. We want you to think about that our beautiful Fairfield experience, right? And by the way, again, the virus sucks, right? Put the virus aside. That beautiful campus, our beautiful buildings, right? It costs a lot. And a lot of that expense is defrayed by generous alums. And we want you to be part of that. We want you to be thinking about that. Not to give anything right now, but to think about that. We're the benefactors of generosity of people who are just like us, right? People who had nothing, maybe, when they were in school and now are able to give and give big or give small or give some. I'm proud to tell you that we recently were in our cohort in the US News and World Report. We're the number one with donors. More than Providence, more than all those other schools, we, our alums, are loyal. And that's a growing number, too. And we want that number to grow so that our precious Fairfield stays as it is, right? The last of these is just about sustaining relationships and kind of takes us back full circle to what it means to be a stag. And in the end, that picture is kind of funny to me. I made those shirts for my friends. And that's just a small snapshot of a bunch of us that got together at a classmates' house in Arizona for our 40th birthday. And when I look at those people, they were my people. I was in RA with some of them. I was, they were all in FUSA with me, almost all the people in that picture were in FUSA with me. And I remember realizing one day that when we were students, I never thought that we would be together when we were old, right? Because I'm at least as old as most of your parents, maybe older, right? And I never thought, oh, we're really going to be lifelong friends. We're going to be together forever. But we are. And I have four nieces and nephews of my own. By the way, two of my three nieces went to Fairfield, by the way, they graduated two years ago. I couldn't be more proud of that. But more than my own four nieces and nephews, whom I love deeply, I have six other children in my life that call me Uncle. And they are the children of my dearest friends, my top six friends from Fairfield. I'm the godfather of two of them. I'm the confirmation sponsor of another two of them. These are relationships that last forever. So what's your job? What's your job, right? Your job is to think about making Fairfield forever, right? Being a stag forever, whether you like it or not, you're part of the herd, right? But what I'm going to ask you to do is think about who you're walking among. And if you haven't found your place, you haven't found your way, there are ways to find it by getting involved, right? By reaching out, right? By using resource, reach out to your RA, look for connections through student life and student activities in the campus center. I want you to find your ways to connect because if you do that, it will be as natural for you to have your crowd, to have your circle, to have your support as it was for Caroline and for Chloe and as it is for me and Andrew and it was for my niece and her best friend Joyce. It's what we're part of and it's what you are part of. And there's 42,000 alumni who stand ready to help you during the virus and after to help position you, to help you get where you want to be in your life. And by the way, I'm talking right now. You don't know what you want to do with your major. You haven't found your way. You came and you were studying business and now you don't think that's for you. There are 42,000 alums that want to help you and I'm one of them, right? And by the way, I'm gonna give you my contact information. You can see it there. If you want to reach out, I am a die-hard fan of our university obviously but more than that I'm a die-hard fan of Fairfield students and if you want to reach out, I may not be able to help you directly but I'll hook you into our alumni network and I'll get you to people that can help you figure things out. I promise you, there are so many people wanting to interact with you and help you find your way. You know why? Because people do that for us. The only difference between when I was a new student and you is no one told us this in a session. So I know it drives sucks sometimes, right? But it doesn't because this is what we want you to know. So don't sit there and say there's nobody to help, nobody to reach out. There's an email right there and if the email doesn't work after we connect, I'll give you my phone number and we can talk and I'll get you to somebody who can get you into our curating or can get you to finance at a Wall Street firm or who can help you find your way as a PhD student in history. I have contacts in all of it. You know why? Cause I went to Fairfield and I wish you the best as you navigate through what are difficult times. Please know the alums are thinking about you, wondering how you're doing on our alumni board. We talk about this a lot. Should you need anything or should you think of a ways that we can support you? Feel free to send an email. I hope that this session was helpful to you. I hope you enjoyed thinking about what you're gonna do with the next three and a half years but I know this, it's gonna go really fast virus or not. So I need you to get on it and you have the power to shape what will be, I promise you, the most powerful educational experience of your life. I don't care where you go or how you move on through your education for a master's degree, a PhD, a law degree, medical school. I don't care. This is gonna be what you will go back to because it's gonna be the thing that sets you up for all those great successes. So with that, on behalf of everybody and on the alumni board and also on behalf of our beautiful staff that works in alumni house in the office of alumni relations and Colleen McGinn who's quiet on this call but she's here. Thank you for letting me into your life for just this short time. And as you move through to Thanksgiving and getting through your first finals, I wish you nothing but the best of success and that you use everything Fairfield offers you to achieve those things that you want. Thank you for your time tonight and I wish you the best.