President's message

Like wine, a graduating class is shaped by its terroir. But instead of temperature, sunlight and soil moisture, each year’s class at Augustana College is given its unique qualities by a combination of factors beyond our control.

Consider the Class of 2024, whose 500 members I had occasion to congratulate at last month’s 164th Commencement Convocation. With a few exceptions, none of them had a traditional high school graduation. By the time they arrived on campus in August 2020, Dr. Evelyn Campbell, a former dean of the college, had meticulously marked out six feet of separation between every desk and every chair in every classroom and lab on our campus.

This class blazed Augustana’s trail into the post-pandemic world, and repeatedly taught us lessons in resilience, adaptability and grit. These are lessons that I hope remain with us in Rock Island, even as the Class of 2024 spreads across the globe. They are, after all, the most international class in our history, with representatives from Cameroon and Canada, India and Iran, Nepal and Nicaragua, and no fewer than 29 students representing Ethiopia and Vietnam.

As we move into the activation stage of Bold & Boundless, our new strategic plan, I look to the inspiration of the Class of 2024’s spirit, determination and openness to change. We believe, confidently, that Augustana’s competitive position will be strengthened through creative pursuit of the strategic plan’s three areas of focus: engaged learning, maximized student potential, and mutually rewarding community connections.

Even as important as reinforcing our position in the higher education marketplace is, the plan has a still more vital task. It prioritizes a deeper, missional aspect of our shared work in providing an education that transforms the student and prepares them for leadership, service and engaged citizenship. As it has been for 164 years, this remains Augustana’s calling.

In order for the college to continue to have the impact on students that has been its hallmark for generations, we must find new ways to communicate the value of an education with purpose while delivering on its promise. As you see real examples of these bold aspirations in the pages that follow, I encourage you to consider your place in the remarkable story that is Augustana, and how each of us might help bring into focus for our students this bold and boundless future.