The campus community hosted over two hundred prospective students and their families this spring who were making visits that will have a major impact on their decision to choose Jewell for their college experience.  Every one of these students has qualified for a significant academic scholarship.  These were exciting days to be on campus as the intellectual energy was almost palpable.

I told our visitors that spring is a stimulating time to be on campus because it is a time when great things happen.  Our seniors are admitted to outstanding graduate schools; they get great jobs; they receive prestigious fellowships and scholarships.  Just as important, the next class of Jewell students takes shape.  That class, the one that will graduate in 2010 (amazing!), will bring a mixture of experiences and abilities and beliefs that will shape this place for years to come.  Students have as much impact on the college as the college has on them.  So the excitement I feel as I see them choosing Jewell as their college home grows each week.

The message we have been sharing with these prospective students is that a great college is about great thinking.  Thinking within their discipline, thinking that connects disciplines, thinking that is stimulated by exciting opportunities, thinking that is stimulated by difficult challenge—all of these contribute to one’s intellectual development.  We have tried to help them see that great thinking, while focused in the classroom, is not limited to the academic realm, and that great thinkers engage far beyond the classroom. 

We introduce them to some of our great thinkers who

• Serve at inner city schools and homeless shelters
• Learn leadership in the Everglades
• Engage in research at the Stowers Institute
• Lead Bible studies
• Struggle with difficult bioethics issues
• Study abroad
• Excel in athletics

Great thinkers working side by side (whether they are students or faculty) yield great thinking, and great thinking will shape a better world in which to live. 

That is our role: to provide an environment in which great thinking prevails, knowing that it is the foundation for a better life.  Thank you for all that you do to help us succeed in this vital undertaking.