 There are some disciplines we must absolutely embrace and foster. One of these is Classics. The study of ancient Greece and Rome stands at the very heart of European understanding, experience of the world. It's the foundations of much of our culture today. I've been fascinated by this since I was a child. It's an adventure puzzle where the reward is to understand these really strange and exotic societies which ultimately have actually fed so much into European civilization that they're really important to us. The Greeks and the Romans were the earliest European civilizations to engage with the broader non-European world and to learn from other cultures. At the same time, my own area of science has been highly influenced by the rationalist Greco-Roman approach to understanding the natural world. It really is at the core of the beginning of scientific inquiry. When I was looking to move into university, I wanted to stay local to be around my family and I heard amazing things about the Classics program here at A&U. The teachers are so personable. They make you have an interest in the subject. They just bring out the best bits of everything. I only really intended to take a class or two of Classics but I fell in love with the community as well as the subjects. Today, Classics continues to track some of our most outstanding students and through our dual degree systems, we're going to be able to have people actually do, for example, science and Classics. And that's what great universities around the world provide. They provide a platform for people not just to learn their little subject, but an institution that provides people the platform to learn about life. Be the first to know the nature of things and the best way to know the nature of things is to have the broadest possible platform to work on.