PROFESSOR & DEAN EMERITA

Students are really trying to form who and who’s they are. Whether they realize it or not. I would talk about a balance between mind, body, and spirit. Even if students come to a university, they would come career driven and focused, but eventually you’ll burn out with just that. We were really about trying to look at the whole student.

CORPORATE EXECUTIVE | business leader and parent

When I think about my own development, the two institutions that influenced me the most were Chikfila and my university, Oglethorpe. In both cases I was given the opportunity to be challenged AND to contribute. Even better when a mentor is involved.

PASTOR & SCHOLAR

It’s not just that I’m trying to figure out who I am. I’m also with other people asking similar questions at this stage - going through self discovery and discernment communally.

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS EXPERT | recent alumni

Coming into college was like entering a bubble, many people in the same stage of life with similar aspirations. Came from Washington, incredible diversity. I was hungry for the reality of life - beauty, complexity, hardship.

SENIOR BUSINESS MANAGER | alumni and business leader

When I was in college, I felt like I was always in the books. It really helped me to have these forums for conversation - Study Center, TH, small groups. Questions like “what’s the purpose of work? How am I caring for those around me?”

PSYCHOLOGIST | mental health and family expert

Any time is a good time to examine your faith. I think the strongest faith is the one that you have examined and made your own. As many diverse backgrounds and friends as you can make, working to understand and not persuade - that’s healthy.

NATIONAL CAMPUS MINISTRY LEADER

Every student generation is shaped by a different moment in culture. They come with different questions, instincts, curiosities, suspicions. But today’s students still have a hunger to know “Is there truth, meaning, justice in the world? Love, beauty or goodness?” There’s certainly plenty of pessimism, but that doesn’t mean the hunger goes away.

STRATEGY CONSULTANT | business leader and parent

When I think about my own children, I think about the world they are going to encounter on the other side of university. I want them to be curious, to learn what they care about and what maybe isn’t worth caring about. If that doesn’t happen at college, I don’t know where else it could happen.

UNIVERSITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Working at a secular university, there can be a perception of antagonism towards faith. What I’ve found is that there are a lot of people at the university that want to talk about their faith, that want to hear talks from a faith perspective, that want to learn.

CLINICAL RESEARCH ASSISTANT | recent alumni

Coming straight from college, there was this added pressure that we had to have everything figured out. Know where we were going next. I’ve since learned that all of that is false. I have a whole life to live, and I’m just getting started!

ATTORNEY | university student parent

As a parent, seeing how much my students want to succeed and the pressures they face. Can’t tell you what it means that there are people welcoming them in to rest and ask important questions.

COLLEGE COUNSELOR

Students are always looking for purpose and meaning in their work. Even if they did a job in finance for a few years, they would make a lot of money and then come back to something that was more meaningful to them.

REGISTERED DIETICIAN | recent alumni

The important thing is to ask questions- “What values make you who you are? Why are they your values? What feeds into them? What genuinely fills your cup?” It needs to be authentic to you. It will count well beyond your time at a university or anywhere.

FILM DIRECTOR & PRODUCES | alumni

Literally all you’re doing all day for school is asking hard questions. So it’s just a natural environment to extend those questions beyond what you’re reading for your history class. These things are also intertwined. I studied the history of the american south, and you can’t do that without asking questions about injustice and terror - without something bigger than yourself.