Reflection

On March 18, I will celebrate my 21^st work anniversary at Virginia Tech. As the date approaches, I find myself reflecting on how much Virginia Tech and Student Affairs has changed. This year, I marveled at the early success of exciting new initiatives we designed to best serve our students. We launched a new model for campus living, Residential Well-being. Early signs indicate that centering well-being as part of the residential environment can transform the student experience. The implementation of TimelyCare, expanding our embedded counselors in colleges and residence halls, and proactive mental health and well-being programming demonstrates our commitment to creating a campus culture that promotes and encourages resilience in our students. In almost 21 years on campus, I have observed and participated in many changes to ensure that we are best positioned to serve our students, and in many ways, our current reality is almost unrecognizable compared to my first year on campus.

And yet, I find myself at times when the distance of those many years shrinks to a moment. Just a few short weeks ago, I was at our most recent Aspire! Award celebration for Practice Civility, one of our Aspirations for Student Learning. The stories of our award winners told how in everyday ways, who they are and how they show up in the world exemplifies our greatest aspirations for our students and ourselves. Those exceptional award recipients, and the previous 10 years of award recipients before them, have demonstrated that our Aspirations for Student Learning remain the grounding for the types of learning we hope every student experiences during their time at Virginia Tech.

Sitting at the breakfast, I pondered all the changes that I have observed in students and their experience in over 20 years and the lasting foundation of our long-standing commitment to doing whatever it takes to support the individual success of every student. What an odd sensation – to see a present so vastly different from the past, and yet to still feel grounded in an enduring commitment exemplified in our Aspirations for Student Learning. It reminded me that our express commitment to our Aspirations for Student Learning, and to student success and well-being, require both an unwavering foundation that stands the test of time and the constant push to adapt to the changing needs of our students. Meaningful growth requires both unshakable commitments and a growth mindset. 

This realization made me think, too, of how you may experience your students when you see or talk with them soon, as they approach a much needed and well-deserved spring break. You see the immense change in them as the final half of the spring semester arrives. In many ways, I imagine you see them as vastly different from their early years. They may be almost unrecognizable from the child you remember. And still, they remain the person you have always seen them to be. So much of these formative college years require just that —  to remain true to who we are, and to be open to the change of who we are becoming.

As a parent myself, I often must hold both versions of my children at once; the child and the emerging adult, just as I must hold the immense change needed to best serve our current students while holding fast to the commitments that are foundational to their success. It is a challenging but valuable tension to hold. I often need others to remind me of how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. I also find myself reminding my own children, and many students, of the same truth. I hope during the upcoming break you have a few moments to explore with your students how who they are, who they are becoming, and what they are learning, are foundations of their success.