The story we will tell.

Dear students, faculty, and staff,

Warm Naz greetings! I am excited that we will come together on campus again soon with the hope and possibility that change inevitably brings. 

I have been thinking of you often these past few weeks. With hope and expectation, we welcomed the new year. As a friend cleverly said to me, the year 2021 is the only time we will truly be able to say that hindsight is 2020! And so quickly into the new year, we were faced with clear evidence of continued social turmoil in the collision of four major challenges — pernicious systemic racism, a virulent pandemic, economic strife and growing inequity, and damaging tests of our democracy.

It is all too easy to feel overwhelmed by so much swirling unrest. Especially as our instincts to draw together are made more challenging by the health precautions we must take. 

Thinking about you and our Naz learning community gives me other lenses on our times. As an educator, I know the benefits of challenge — even though it can be uncomfortable. The most powerful learning results from challenge. Breakthrough innovations result from challenge. Social progress results from challenge. And at Naz, we make it so!

The other reason thinking of you inspires me is that I know each of you brings your own strengths, interests, questions, and ideas to enrich our community and our world. 

At the beginning of each new year, I choose a word to guide my reflection on the coming year. This year, my word is emergence. This year, we will emerge from a time of many unprecedented experiences. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to write the story of how we will emerge from this unprecedented time. 

I invite you to join me in thinking about the story we will write as we emerge by sharing a six-word story that captures your hopes for how we will emerge. We are so fortunate to be part of a thriving, fully engaged, sophisticated learning community: a place where you belong, where your voice is heard and sought, where — together — we create the future. And your unique contribution is needed. 

I will be out and about on campus as we start the spring semester. Please say hello and I look forward to reading your six-word stories.

Sincerely,

Beth Paul, Ph.D.
President, Nazareth College