I serve a two-year appointed term with voting privileges. I am assigned to the Student Affairs Committee and the Finance Committee. Essentially, I am the voice of the student and recent graduate in board issues.

There are a great number of resources available to help new board members, and I’ve had mentorship along the way. I’m continually impressed by the exceptional commitment my colleagues have to the college and to each other as a board. Everything they do has the St. Olaf student in mind. It’s about maintaining what we’ve built over time and continuing to build for future generations.

The biggest challenge involved balancing the opinions and desires of so many different groups; exploring their underlying principles and finding the common qualities people value in a college president. Then we had to ask the right questions of candidates to match their message and values with ours. There was a definite learning curve -- personally and professionally -- but I walked away with a great deal of knowledge about the process and about being respectful of the opinions of others while sometimes disagreeing with them. At the same time, I learned how to balance my committee responsibilities with the responsibilities of school.

David Anderson is a wonderful person whose sense of humor was continually on display during the interview process and in his recent visits to campus. He’s a clear match for what we were seeking and what was articulated in the job description. He has a national reputation in higher education for his success at Denison and for his involvement in programs that truly enhance diversity on campus. David is a recognized academic who loves teaching and research, and he has great experience in solidifying a college’s scholastic and financial position through sound leadership. On top of that, he is an Ole, and his passion for leading a college of the church is immediately evident.

As a whole, the college environment is becoming more competitive. St. Olaf offers a unique liberal arts experience that has the potential to shape students’ lives. We envision this tradition being expressed among a broader base of potential students.

Our biggest challenge will be financial stability. It’s important to engage alumni across the board. They have an incredible opportunity to help push the college to new heights, enhancing the value of their own educational experience and that of future Oles. A prime example is the new Science Complex. We’ve had great success placing students in math and science fields, and the new Science Complex will only help to solidify our position among liberal arts colleges. It will help us continue to attract exceptional faculty and students who want to have a broad educational experience and do advanced work in the fields of math and science.

My brother’s experience at St. Olaf helped bring me to the Hill. We’ve always said it remains “home” for both of us. Quite simply, there are few better places to study science in a liberal arts setting, and there’s no better place in which to combine science and music.

The St. Olaf Choir has the amazing ability to shape one’s life by impacting the lives of others. I love to sing, and when I saw the impact that conductor Anton Armstrong ’78 and manager B.J. Johnson had on Aaron, I knew that this was something I wanted to be involved in.

One event in particular continues to resonate. While on tour in Corpus Christi, Texas, during my sophomore year, an elderly woman approached us during intermission. She was a Holocaust survivor, and she told me that the only thing that helped her survive in the concentration camp was her husband’s music. She said that not since then had music had such an impact on her life as it had during our concert. During the concert’s second half I watched her in the audience, crying, and knew that what we were doing was not about us, but about her and our audience.

Stating that we’re a college of the church is more than just being affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It’s about creating a community of people of faith, who are respectful of different religions and cultures, and who are open to explore their own faith and the faiths of others. While our tradition is ELCA-based, creating a diverse environment means recruiting students, faculty and staff who want to be in a community that values people of different religions, races, nationalities and backgrounds. It means challenging yourself to ask questions about how your faith is different from your roommate’s, or why her upbringing shaped her the way it did. To borrow from the Jewish tradition, it primarily means one thing to me: asking why.

I look forward to my visits to Minnesota because they mean seeing my closest friends. I’m continually excited to think about the impact we all can have on St. Olaf so soon after graduation. People paved the way for us, and it becomes our responsibility to do the same for new Oles. For young alums, giving back is not necessarily about the dollar amount, but rather about making a commitment to the act of giving. The rewards are really immeasurable.

I plan to spend a lot of my summer studying for the first part of my medical school boards, and then I will begin clinical clerkships. And I also will go to the weddings of some of my closest friends from St. Olaf.

Two things. First, the people at St. Olaf who shaped a large part of my life. The college is really about people, and I couldn’t have gotten where I am today without the family, friends, professors and staff who helped shape my life through values. Second, the idea of “servant-leadership” becomes increasingly significant as you go out into the world and realize that your peers may not have recognized the importance of this value. The contrast has become quite clear during my time at a large state university. Larger universities are now attempting to incorporate the ideas of servant-leadership and vocation into their teaching, giving credence to what St. Olaf has long considered a core value of its educational experience.