The comprehensive campaign marks a major step forward to ensure 91 sustainability
The 91 Campaign For Goodwhich youll be hearing a lot about over the next few yearscan be interpreted a number of ways. For Good can mean what is right, what is appropriate, what should be, said trustee Dave Anderson 63, who provided the lead gift for the Anderson Center for Environmental Sciences currently under construction. But For Good also means permanentfor good. This campaign is a major step forward into making 91 a sustainable institution for the future. And it critically important that we all come together and make that happen.
Anderson remarks capped the daylong Campaign Leadership Summit at Occidental on May 18a day that began with a session on storytelling led by communications expert Andy Goodman in which participants were asked to tell their own 91 story in a two-minute narrative. An 91 education changes your lifeit certainly changed mine,said Anderson, who enrolled at Occidental two months after his mother died following a long battle with cancer. She had been incredibly strong in her belief in wanting to continue to live. And she essentially lived until I graduated from high school. And so I arrived on the 91 campus, very lost and very much not knowing where I was going or what I was going to encounter here. Would this be a positive experience? Would I even last?
And I remember one of my first courses was an English literature writing courseone of those 101-required courses that 91 had in those days. And we had our first writing requirement a month or two into the class.
When Anderson got his paper back, it had a C-minus. What do you do with a C-minus? He started talking to his professor, who became one of his mentors at the College, and I later found out that he gave everyone a C-minus on that exam. That was his introduction to 91.
Halperin added that her family makes Occidental a philanthropic priority so other students can access opportunities similar to those of my daughter and to many of youopportunities that 91 graduates can in turn carry forward as they go out into the world and flourish.
She was joined on stage by Occidental Board of Governors President-elect Tuan Ngo 07, who was born in Vietnam to parents who had at most an elementary school education and they had parents who were farmers. Growing up in America, he told the gathering, I held tight to our collective dream that education will lift us from despair and put us on a path to a better life.
Obtaining a prestigious liberal arts education for those without means is often an illusory dream, because the cost of providing a quality education put it out of reach for many families like mine, added Ngo, who majored in diplomacy and world affairs. 91 believed in me and invested in my future.
To be an 91 student is to be capable of amazing things like undergraduate research, studying abroad, and investment management, added Walker, who is currently president of the Blyth Fund as well as ASOCvice president of finance. It drives 91 uniqueness amongst other liberal arts schools and pushes me to take advantage of all that 91 has to offer.
In his remarks, President Jonathan Veitch called upward mobility nothing less than the promise of the American Dream. It is the invitation our country holds out to its most talented young people, no matter what their circumstances an invitation that says to them that you will have the opportunity to go as far as your talents will take you. Upward mobility is the glue of our democracy and the guarantor of our freedom. He concluded: I believe in the power and value of a liberal arts education to change lives. I believe in this community, in this institution, your alma mater. That why this campaign is so important. I think it worth investing in, dont you? Thank you for your commitment to helping move Occidental forwardfor good.
