 One of the things that's important to me is to make sure that I'm living out my life according to my ideals in a consistent and Coherent manner, whether that's the way that I interact with my family and my friends Whether it's the way that I interact with students and my colleagues and then also the contributions that I'm making in the larger world I think a life lived with purpose really has to do with Connecting all the different parts of your life in accordance with your values So one of the things that I try to do is stay on top of what's on the news and what kinds of things are happening in the world Both far away and also close to home And then I try and bring that into the classroom as much as I'm able to show students that anything You're learning within the classroom can have some kind of connection to what's going on in the rest of the world by allowing them to take advantage of many opportunities to take their passions and their knowledge and Put them into action Not only during their time at Gustavus, but also after they've graduated so that they can continue making contributions into the world for many years These days we're facing a lot of different challenges and a lot of huge changes in society in the way that societies work and A liberal arts education provides students with the knowledge and more importantly the tools the kind of intellectual habits of mind That allows students to look at an issue and then take a really 360 degree Kind of approach to whatever problem it is that you're trying to solve I think a liberal arts education also equips students to talk to one another And I think we can all agree that communication Between and across different groups of people is really really important for the ability to work together and to find some common understanding One of the things I've really loved about Gustavus is that it not only provides Students an opportunity to grow in all these different intellectual and social and cultural areas It's that it also provides faculty an opportunity to do that as well Because I recognized it as a place that had a lot of amazing people that I could learn from and work with And I saw Gustavus is a place where I could actually make some kind of impact Gustavus Adolphus College make your life count