President's message.

• Author: Qubein, Nido
• Position: High Point University

Dear HPU Friend:

Here's what I tell both freshmen and seniors in the two Life Skills classes I teach annually on campus: God breathed in your nostrils and gave you life. Celebrate it, be grateful for it, and commit yourself to a journey of excellence, purpose and service. I believe that very few things in life are truly 'impossible." Add an apostrophe to that word and it becomes 'I'm possible."

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You should see the piles of letters and emails we receive regularly from students, parents, alumni and employers. They are filled with comments like:

"My education at HPU prepared me for the demanding work I am doing in my first-choice graduate school;" "We gave you a boy--you gave us a mature and skilled young man;" "The values HPU models help me excel in my job;" and "We recruit on your campus twice a year because your students are educated well for practical and productive careers."

HOW VS. WHY

At High Point University, we make a distinction between training and education. The former teaches the "how" and the latter teaches the "why." Both are necessary. But education focuses on growing and changing from within. It's a process, not a program. It values the cultivation of thoughtful belief and wisdom over the rote repetition of behaviors and the accumulation of facts. To be successful in today's challenging and competitive environment, students must be equipped with refined skills in solution finding (not just problem solving), deep inquiry (not merely superficial thinking), and in building relational capital (not only financial capital).

Our students' future, in any field or sector, depends on their ability to build bridges of understanding with diverse groups and to construct a life founded on values and reason. As the number of our stellar faculty grows (33 new ones this year) and our academic programs continue to be resourced in generous and productive ways, students find themselves immersed in a learning and growing environment in which these abilities are nurtured every day.

PLANT SEEDS OF GREATNESS

At HPU, we say: Every student receives an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment with caring people. We deliver on all three with commitment and tenacity. It's not easy. And we may not succeed with every student, every time. Yet, every day we reap the fruits of our opportunities to "plant seeds of greatness in the minds, hearts, and souls of our students." Exceptional faculty serve as models and mentors to their...