St. Mary's College: A Laboratory for Change
- jared2766
- May 21
- 25 min read
Introduction
In an ever-evolving world teeming with complex challenges, higher education institutions play a pivotal role in equipping future leaders with the necessary tools to address global issues. St. Mary's College stands out as an exemplary "ultimate laboratory," offering students the chance to engage with a range of global problems, regardless of their field of study. For the full podcast episode on your favorite app type in "Capstone Conversation" or go directly to www.capstonegov.com/podcast
The Ultimate Laboratory Experience
If you're eager to delve into any of the world's pressing challenges, St. Mary's is the place to be. The college proudly stands within the top 5% of U.S. schools for earning potential. It isn't merely their academic reputation that sets them apart; it's the tangible value they provide to their graduates. According to data from pay scale surveys, a graduate of St. Mary’s sees significant returns on their educational investment, backed by the impressive earning power of alumni.
Maximizing Return on Investment
For prospective students concerned with financial viability, St. Mary's offers a compelling picture. The value of a college degree from this institution is clear: a graduate can expect to earn approximately 1.3 million dollars more over their lifetime compared to only completing high school. This statistic is not just a number but a testament to the life-enhancing potential of higher education. For those majoring in fields such as business, the scales tip even further in favor of long-term financial benefits, highlighting the college’s ability to provide a solid return on investment.
Conclusion
Choosing the right college is about more than just academics; it’s about finding a community where you're empowered to tackle real-world problems and grow personally and professionally. St. Mary's stands as a beacon of hope and potential, ready to equip the next generation with the skills they need to make a difference.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Capstone conversation where you learn about what's happening in the Greater East Bay. I am your host, Jared Asch.
Today we are looking at higher education in the East Bay with St. Mary's President Roger Thompson. Roger has been on for about 10 months now,
I've heard from people in Moraga and throughout the area, students and former students, that they've noticed a rapid change in the university and the vibe there. Can you talk a little bit about what is that atmospheric change at the school that people are talking about?
I'm glad they're telling you that, Jared Asch and I want to thank you for having me on. I really have looked forward to this, so thanks for the invitation. I think there's a few things happening at St. Mary's that are pretty exciting. Yes, I'm new, I'm in my, first year and I've tried to bring the energy that I think St. Mary's needs. This is a great place. It's a fantastic college, great academics. Outstanding out of classroom experiences in a beautiful part of the country. You can't beat the East Bay. Contra Costa County's spectacular.
What I've tried to do is encourage our team and build a team across St. Mary's that goes out and starts to spread. Spread the message of all the good things that are happening here. And one of the things that I felt really strongly about when I came was so many people would say to me St.
Mary's is a hidden gem. I'd always say the same thing to 'em. I'd always say it's a gem, but it doesn't need to be hidden. And we've gotta get out and tell our story a little bit better. and I think we're doing that. We had a record number of applications, the most applications to St. Mary's College.
In our 160 plus year history. I'm really proud of the team for that. I think we just, we got out and we started talking about things in a much more proactive kind of way. Now we're just getting started and so there's, a long way to go. I also got out and tried to meet a lot of alumni all over the state of California.
we called it the Golden State Gale Tour. And I was all over the Golden State from San Diego to. I guess the furthest north I went was Napa, but the Bay Area, Southern California, Sacramento, Fresno, Clovis a lot of different places. the goal of that was just to get out and start meeting our alums, meeting people that care about St.
Mary's and trying to build some energy of people talking about our campus. Must be resonating if you're hearing a few things. So that's good.
We are and what are alums saying about their experience?
It's been one of the most rewarding things of the first nine months of my job.
When I meet alumni from St. Mary's across the board. They've had a fantastic experience. Their love for the place is deep. I've said to folks in my career I've been around a lot of big alumni bases that are. Pretty enthusiastic about their school. But I'm not sure I've run into a alumni group that's more passionate than this one.
It may not be as big as some of the other places I've worked as an alumni base, but boy, the energy is high and people are really proud of St. Mary's, proud of the GA's. We had a great run in basketball this year. Just as a side note really proud of the team 29 and six. Advancing to the second round of the NCAA's.
It's fun to be part of March Madness, only 60. Some schools get to do that, and so I'm really proud of them. And, rugby and, softball's doing great. And that doesn't even count all the student events that are happening on campus with music and theater and all the rest.
But back to your original question, I think our alumni loves St. Mary's. They had good experiences when they were here, and it's built that a affinity that's really deep and that's a great place from where to build.
And tell us more about your background. How did you arrive here at St.
Mary's?
Yeah for the last 14 years of my career I was at the University of Oregon where I served as the vice President for Student Services and enrollment management. And had the second largest organization on that entire campus. So pretty big division. And, we.
were responsible for growing enrollment, which we did massively. 14 of the 15 largest classes in the history of that school came under my watch. Team effort wasn't just me. We built new residence halls, we expanded the student experience. We did a lot of things. And I remember the day that the search firm called me about St.
Mary's. And, you get these calls periodically, and I remember the person saying to me, Roger, you're exactly what St. Mary's needs and wants. I laughed and I said, I. Come on. Really? You gotta be, I'm what they want.
They normally like to hire deans. More people that have come up through the academic side. I've come up through the administrative side, said no. You fundraised, you did. Okay, sure. Send me the information. And I did it as a, just to get off the phone really. And when I got the information about St.
Mary's and I started reading through the leadership profile, I remember saying to my wife, they might really want me for this, like this is me. They're talking about me as I read this. And you throw your hat in the ring and as the old joke goes, four interviews later, here I am.
I was very excited. when you go through a number of different rounds like that I was really enthusiastic about St. Mary's at the beginning. As I went through the process, I only became more enthusiastic. by the time we got down to that last set of interviews and the campus visit and all that, I don't know what I would've done if I weren't selected.
I really wanted to be here. I really thought this could be a, an opportunity a community that I would enjoy being part of, and a place that could use some of the skills that I've developed over my 35 years in higher ed. So here I am.
No that's good.
When you started, you talked about the gem that is St. Mary's, a lot of people even in here, in the East Bay, don't know St.
Mary's. So give us an overview of the school, its focus, its mission, and what makes it stand out here.
Yeah, our mission is to serve students, put the student at the center of everything that we do. As a Lasallian Catholic institution, we focus much of our efforts on students that are first generation or maybe have been dealt a tough hand economically.
And then of course we serve all students, right? There's some things that are really distinctive about St. Mary's. If you look at us in education, we're the only teacher education program in the state that you can complete in four years and then be in a classroom.
In fact, we have a partnership with Diablo School District right here in the East Bay. To help with training teachers and a clinical practicum kind of setting which is, I think, pretty unique. So that, that's a really distinctive program. Our business school offers a wide variety of majors and minors.
Lots of good internship opportunities. Career development we're strong in the natural sciences. So if you look at both life science, earth science, physical science. Any of those three broad categories. Were pretty strong there. And then across the core of humanities and social science same kind of thing.
And we're getting into health professions now. We're starting a nursing program, which is exciting for us. So I think we bring. A really strong academic core that's well respected nationally. And I'm really proud of the fact that we're one of the few colleges in the country, the only school in California and the only Catholic school that's recognized as a college that changes lives.
That's a very select group. when you look at US news, they measure what your freshmen look like when they enter. If you look at the colleges that change lives group, they look at what do you do with your students while they're there. And so I'd much rather be in that collection than maybe the other.
The other thing I'd say is we offer a lot to the East Bay. We have the only accredited museum in all of Contra Costa County. The whole county. We're the only accredited museum is our museum here at St. Mary's, and it's an amazing collection. We're the number one place for the William Keith collection.
And if your listeners aren't familiar with Keith, he was the premier California landscape artist in the late 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds. In fact he went around with John Muir, John Muir's out looking at the California wilderness. And Keith is basically painting what they see. His collection is amazing.
You look at the, paintings of Mount De La Diablo from the late 18 hundreds or Marin County in 1905 or whatever. It's amazing. I'm very fortunate sitting in my office, I'm looking at Yosemite Falls and his oil painting on canvas of that. So we house. A lot of William Keith paintings.
Unfortunately we can't exhibit all of them. That's how many we have. We don't have a big enough museum to have 'em all on display. But anyway, I digress. I think we bring a lot to the East Bay and. Not just what we do academically for our students. I think we enhance the community with the athletics and music.
And I went to a concert around Christmas time where we had two high schools in from the East Bay performing with our award-winning gold medalist choir that was in the world competition in New Zealand. What a thrill for those high school students to come do that in front of a giant audience.
There's a lot to be proud of with St. Mary's. You can probably tell I'm very proud to leave it. No, I
think that's great and I'm looking forward that we should host a reception at this museum and get. Some community leaders, nonprofit leaders, business leaders out there and promoting it.
It's a great idea, Jared Asch, and I tell people because, we're open most days of the week. We're not open Mondays and Tuesdays, Wednesday through Sunday. I'll run into people that have visited the museum and they're just blown away at the collection.
They just don't know that this even exists at St. Mary's. And having gotten involved a little bit with the Walnut Creek Chamber and the Visitors Bureau, there's a lot of people that come and stay in Walnut Creek. There's six or seven hotels there.
They do great business and I want St. Mary's to be on the list if you're here with a family for a swim meet, right? Which I see a lot of in the summer. I want you to come by and check out St. Mary's, pop into the museum look around a little bit. Have a picnic lunch out on the lawn.
it's a beautiful campus and actually I've I have three daughters, 10, eight, and five. And I've been saying to my wife like, we should get a group of their friends together and take them to go see the women's softball team or volleyball and inspire them in sports and academics at the same time.
Interesting. You mentioned softball. And just a few weeks ago, your alma mater, Florida State was here playing St. Mary's.
I didn't know that.
Yeah. Florida state's, they're a pretty consistent Oklahoma City, college World Series.
I was proud of the Gales. We lost that game. Either two, nothing or three nothing. But we hung with 'em the whole way.
I wish I had that haw chopped
it. The whole thing.
They, I gotta get more, I gotta pay more attention.
Now that you've got you've got two Pacific Ocean Colleges on the Atlantic Coast Conference,
right?
Talk about capacity at the university, and what is your vision for the future? Because you talked about more applications, but you have a small campus. Do you have capacity to expand and increase number of students or what?
Yeah, we actually do. COVID hit St. Mary's kind of tough as it did all universities. But, smaller schools got hit a little harder than the bigger ones. The Florida states of the world, let's say. And so for us, we went from over 4,000 students to just under 3000 students.
and that's what we're building back. And so yes, we have capacity, as nursing begins to ramp up we think that's a real opportunity for us to move from looking just at nursing into. Physical therapy, occupational therapy a number of health professions that we think could be really good.
We're excited about what the possibilities might be out at Shadelands in Walnut Creek. We recently toured that facility and saw all the different things that are offered there. I think there's potential to. Really provide a valuable service here in the East Bay. You take nursing as an example.
California has a massive nursing shortage. It's crazy. Jared Asch, it was in either the San Francisco Chronicle or the LA Times, I don't remember which. And it said something like, if I remember it right, 30,000 nurses, we, we need that many across the state of California. it was in the tens of thousand.
And I sent that article around to people. 'cause I just found it shocking, and we had some colleagues that had a meeting down at UCLA and they received about, I think it was 9,000, maybe 10,000 applications for 120 spots in nursing.
people, you just need capacity.
And we are willing, unlike some of the other schools, we want to grow some of these programs. Sutter and John Muir have big investments in the East Bay. The population's getting older, so they're gonna need health professionals. And what better place to train those health professionals than St.
Mary's where we have a strong science background to begin with. You add on that our curriculum encourages creativity, collaboration, innovation, and we do that while teaching our students about ethics and how to make a difference in the world. I think there's a lot of industries that need St.
Mary's graduates, but healthcare is a really nice fit. lot opportunity.
it definitely comes up and there's a growing workforce initiative and a lot of the medicals say, yes, everybody knows there's a doctor, a nurse, but how do you start working with those high schools like you're talking about and others to say.
Hey, we need techs, techs to do, x-rays, and that's a good paying job that you don't necessarily need the four year degree on, but we need people to go through those medical. Physical therapist shortage, right Big here in the East Bay. And I've had ER visits where nurses have flown in from Arizona because they get paid better here.
So they'll come in their Airbnb for three to five days at a time, work 12 hour, 16 hour shifts, and then go home for two weeks.
It's, the profession needs more people and so I think we'll be filling a need there that will be helpful to the broader Contra Costa County community.
And talk about hospitality, because you mentioned work with Visit Walnut Creek and the hotels, but you're also launching a hospitality program, right?
We've got our business school dean looking into, we haven't quite got to that stage. Okay.
You are investigating the opportunity to. Expand business majors and provide them with hospitality,
We know a couple things, We know that today's students, if you look at what they indicate when they take A-P-S-A-T or a CT, hospitality management is an emerging field.
And the best program in the country is Cornell. The big one out on the west coast is UNLV, which makes sense. that's a tourist town, if you will. And so we know that there's a couple big programs, around our area, not quite as much.
We know that student demand is high. We have an outstanding business school. So what we did was we have our business school dean and some others looking into, because we think that's an area that would fit nicely with what we do in management anyway. and could be a nice side project, but we're not quite ready to say we've got it yet.
With nursing and some other things starting in the fall of 25, I think that's something we're looking at for potentially fall of 26. we just wanna do a little more research on it, make sure we understand it all right. But, it's the same kind of thing that we're looking at in many different areas.
We want to be a school that is grounded in strong academic traditions, but is also. Looking forward and determining, what it is that our community, our society needs, and what is it our students are interested in?
Okay. Let's talk about academics and technology and the advent of ai, which I can't read a newspaper without reading ai. I don't think I can get through a day anymore as a professional without using some sort of AI tool. The most known chat, GBTI remember in talking to the chancellor of the Contra Costa Community College District, she said about two years ago when chat GBT just became a topic, all the professors laughed at it.
Now they're struggling to keep up and incorporate it, knowing teachers are writing papers with it. Just talk in general. How does the college, your college, how do other colleges embrace ai? Yeah. And student use, and how do, how does learning shift it?
It's a great question. And I, similar to the chancellor as someone who's taught graduate students for a long time, I watched the debate evolve from, we can't have this anywhere in our curriculum.
To, let's make sure they cite it like a source, same way you would a reference book that you're using. I think higher education needs to embrace this technology, right? Because I. If not we're not preparing our students for the future in which they're gonna live. And I'd rather have strong St.
Mary's graduates with excellent ethics thinking about how AI is gonna impact our world. And one of the things that we're talking about, very preliminary, but I imagine we're gonna head down this road, is I like the idea of data analytics across Every major not just the scientists, not just the business people.
I want the history major the Shakespeare major the students that are in humanities and social science, learning about data analytics and how we analyze big data. What role does AI play in that? I have a daughter who's A PhD candidate scientist back at Syracuse University.
She said to me the other day, she studies earth science here in California, even though she's in Syracuse. And she was telling me how using AI she could process it. It was something like, I don't know, I don't want to overstate it, but it was millions of, it was so much data. And she could just run it overnight and come in the next day and then she could start analyzing it.
And it was incredible to me. And she said, dad, that would've taken me, four months before, and now I can just, and I come in and, she's still the one who's putting her brains behind what all the data says. But the way she can process it. She can get the results, she can get some, analysis if she wants to, out of ai.
It, I just think it it's the future and it would be like higher education saying, yeah, we don't really need, lights in the classrooms, let's stick with the candles. It just, it would make no sense to me. But it's a debate that's emerging across college campuses and it's a debate about, how are we gonna use this?
How are we gonna use this new tool? You think about the applications in science, the applications in medicine the applications in economic development and business. We need to educate our students on how to use these tools because that's what they're gonna need to be able to do.
I think the part that the part of the conversation that we. Need to engage more deeply in at St. Mary's is, what does that look like when we try to put it across all majors? Like I'm, it's a conversation. I haven't had enough depth with our faculty on, but I keep coming back to the idea that data analytics, utilization of ai how we process big data, how we analyze big data.
I just think that's applicable across any academic discipline and I think when you get out in the employment space, when our graduates leave St. Mary's, much of the world is interdisciplinary. You don't end up with a job that's just biology. There's some out there like that, but it might be more biotechnology or bioengineering or things that are cutting across different disciplines.
And so I think that's something we need to do as good a job as we possibly can for our students, because that's what they're gonna need. I think Jared Asch, the smart institutions and I like to think St. Mary's is one of those, are gonna get ahead of this and begin to think about how do we maximize our students' learning capability in this space?
Because that's what they're gonna need to know.
yeah, we just had a K to 12 tech episode and the former superintendent on there, Dr. Michael Connors, was talking about just how the ethics, which you mentioned, and teaching them ethical uses of it,
He's now if you're using it to write your paper, write by itself and handing that in, no. But if you're using it for ideas and to further your research, there's ways that we could start teaching students how to use these research tools and this technology. as you said, a long answer, but it's a complicated question that academic is trying to keep up with.
Yeah. I, think that the smart institutions there's two ways you can go about it. And I think sometimes in higher ed, the easy way is we just do this, right? We say we'll see how it all plays out, and we don't quite want to go there. I remember when I worked at a different institution than St.
Mary's and there was a big discussion about should we let laptops. In the classroom because students might use the laptop to surf the web, and I remember saying in those meetings if they're surfing the web, then we need to look at the instructor and say to the instructor, what kind of value are you adding to this class?
If they're sitting in there on their laptop surfing the web, I might suggest that they're not getting a lot out of the course. But the idea that we would say to students, or you can't bring a, you can't bring an iPad in. You can't, what are we talking about here?
And so I, I think we can end up in a trap where AI becomes a little bit like that. And I don't think that's wise.
Let's talk about how does this school work with the community college is here. I know you talked about working with the high school district.
How do you attract some of those students and partner with the local community colleges on your programs?
It's a great question. We've tried to create, memos of understanding and articulation agreements so that students coming from a Diablo Valley know exactly how things are gonna look when they come to St.
Mary's. One of the things that I think we at St. Mary's need to do a better job of is. Talk about why you'd pick St. Mary's over maybe a Cal State or a uc, right? California has probably the most developed community college program in the country, right? And you can go from a California community college to a Cal State School, but there's gonna be programs impacted.
You're not guaranteed that you're gonna complete. In two years, three years after you make the transfer. Sometimes it can run six years to get through some of our public institutions. That's a different problem. I'm not charged with fixing that one. but, we need to do a better job of telling our story of, what it looks like to come from Diablo Valley.
To St. Mary's College and make it a two plus two program so that you're done, you're earning the money to pay back whatever student loans you might have needed to take out. And one of the great crimes, here in America is we have many students who enter higher education, take on a significant amount of loans.
They don't earn their degree, Jared Asch. And in that case we've done the worst possible service to those students. We've encouraged them, they've taken on debt and now they don't have the degree, which will help them pay back the debt. And that's what I worry about with community college students in particular.
And I think as a private institution, people think, oh, the price makes us prohibitive. We'll never be able to afford to go to St. Mary's. We have great programs for community colleges. Is it gonna be more expensive than. A CSU? Yes. Will you get done quicker? Yes. Does that mean you start your earning power sooner?
Yes. I think if people actually looked at the economics of it two years at St. Mary's versus three and a half or four at a public institution and you add in the earning power, I've done the math, you're gonna come out ahead at St. Mary's, but that's not what the state, that's not what we've told people.
They think you go to a community college, you transfer to a four year school. I think we're a great option and we're starting to pursue that more and more, particularly around the Bay Area. Because we know that our academic quality is solid. We're highly ranked in many different programs, and so I want to make the case that if you selected a community college at a high school, most people, the data tells us do that because of cost.
They're maybe gonna live at home and save some money. Heck, Bart will take you pretty close to St. Mary's. And we're gonna have you a great academic experience for you and we're gonna ensure that you complete and we're not gonna have impacted programs that create blockages where you can't get through.
But we need to grow it better. Jared Asch, and what I just said to you. We need to be saying at the College of Marin, Mount Diablo, all these different places. Because that's I don't think we've positioned ourselves as a very good option for community college students. And we are and we've created some nice scholarship programs that go along with that.
We've done some things that make us more affordable I think we've fallen short on telling our story as well as we should.
you talked a little bit about earning potential and coming out of the school.
Where do you see St. Mary's ranking in the Bay Area in terms of people coming out, getting good jobs? How does St. Mary's work with employers to get their attention to say, Hey, we're a good program. You wanna be looking at students here?
Yeah, the Bay area's taken it on the chin, so to speak for a while. I think it's San Francisco has been beat up in the media and we've had some tougher days, I guess is what I would say. And I still believe there's so much that is offered.
To students who want to study in this area. if we don't talk about all the advantages of being in this part of the country and the types of internships you can connect with, we are, I don't know, 40 minutes, 50 minutes from the innovation capital of the world.
That's what Silicon Valley is, that's where things are created and imagined. and it doesn't just happen in the Silicon Valley. We have that happening in the East Bay. So if you're a student that wants to be involved in innovation, technology shaping the future, my goodness, why wouldn't you come to a place like St.
Mary's where you're gonna get the personalized attention while you're in the class? You are gonna get career advisement and guidance from basically the time you enter. And we can connect you with, just about any company in the world, and many of 'em are headquartered right here in this area.
We I think that's the piece that we are, we're just, again I don't think we've told our story very well. And if I was a young person I think about my own kids.
The opportunity to study in a, we're a gorgeous campus in a beautiful part of the country. The weather's spectacular. You've got all the world's problems and all the world's opportunities right in this area.
If you wanna work on any of the world's problems we've got 'em. They're all right here. You can't pick a bigger laboratory no matter what your field is than here. We're in the top 5% in the United States. For earning potential among all schools and colleges.
And that's according to, to pay scale. They're using data of our graduates in their paychecks. Your initial question that you asked we're a great return on investment. Yes.
And as a parent, I'll ask this 'cause you just referenced it. What advice do you have for parents with young children out there preparing their kids for college in the future?
I think the first piece of advice I have for parents is it will be here quicker than you imagine. And I say that as a parent, right? I think about how quickly my daughter went from trudging out to the school bus with her little lunchbox to now we're going on college visits and it seems like it was just an overnight and that happened.
So first thing I'd say is soak it all in because they grow up quick. Be at those moments the whole time, every chance you can. Second thing I'd say is college remains the best investment you can make in yourself. If we look at the national data we know that a college graduate is gonna earn about 1.3 million more dollars over their lifetime than a high school graduate would.
That's just for a basic college graduate to a basic high school graduate. If you're a business major, you say hey if I'm gonna take out $30,000 in loans to make 1.2 million, if I take out 60,000, can I make 2.5 million? It doesn't work quite like that, but the higher you go up a master's just only increases that number, so it's a great investment.
Expose them to many different kinds of schools. That's the great thing about our country, right? You can go to big schools, small schools, you can go to schools that are inner city suburban, rural. Religious affiliated, not public, private.
There's so many different options in America. And that's the other thing I say, start your college search when your kids get into their sophomore year. Don't let it go past that. But the biggest thing, the biggest reason I say that is you want students to have the time to find what's the right fit for them.
And to find the place. Florida State must have been the right fit for you, did you grow up in Florida? Maybe you knew it from growing up. I don't know how you ended up at Florida State.
I finished high school. I grew up in the northeast and finished high school my junior and senior year in Florida.
So there you go. Florida schools made sense I was new to the state and I work in government and politics and so being in a state capital and a small city made a lot of sense.
Exactly.
right
where was the right place.
And that's the part that I, this is particularly fresh on my mind. 'cause we're, Coming out of this whole season with students deciding where they wanna go to college and I see the stress and anxiety on their faces, and it's usually because they have too many choices, right?
They didn't do the winnowing down, so they started with maybe 15 schools and they got up to 12, and they applied to those 12 and they got into 10. Now you have 10 choices, right? Where if you can start that search early, you begin to winnow it down. I think it makes it easier in the end to decide like anything, if you're going out to buy any kind of product, if you have 10 options as opposed to three, it can make the decision a little tougher.
Do that education piece to figure out what type of school, what type of place. And then of course, visit that's one of the most important things you can do is get out and. see places, 'cause that more than anything else, gives a student a sense of what it's like, walk around, kick the tires a little bit, see what it's gonna be like to go to school there.
And inspire them to what they're working for. Hit subscribe and leave us a review we have new episodes on the East Bay every week.
I have great respect for people that, do hard manual labor every day. I have tremendous respect for 'em because I went through college, working in a pest control company to help pay the bills and my job's hard as president of St.
Mary's. But I'll tell you, hauling tarps up on top of a roof to termite a house, that's hard work. and it helped me understand why I probably wanted to be in college and why I might want to do something different.
And I don't mean that in any way to be passing judgment on those that, that do that kind of work every day. I admire 'em. It's hard. My uncle was a, worked for a garbage company, his whole life. That's hard work. Getting out on a cold morning and hauling cans and doing all that.
I have it pretty easy compared to that. But yeah, college offers those opportunities, right? The chance to really invest in yourself and plan a future that sometimes you can't imagine when you start college, you don't know where it's gonna lead. But that process is really important. That was a very long answer, but it's a big moment when students go off to college, it's a big moment for them.
It's a big moment for their families, for everybody involved. Get on it.
Before we head out, any final thoughts, anything I haven't asked that you wanna share?
The only thing I would add or share is, I'm really proud of the team here at St.
Mary's. We have a lot of great people that work at this institution, and I would be remiss if I ended our time together without expressing my appreciation for everyone who is on our campus and who makes a difference and makes this place really magical for the students who come. It's an amazing place.
if you come and visit St. Mary's. It's, it must be something in the water. 'cause it'll just get into you, and this community is really supportive and tight knit. And I think that's what college is about. In big schools, people have to find their people, right?
You find your group, you find your niche, if you will. And we do that at St. Mary's too. But I think there's much more comradery and it's a little more collaborative. It's a place that's very supportive. And so I'm thankful for the faculty and staff and all the people that have been here that have created that kind of community.
if you're a prospective student or a family out there, give us a look. I think you'll like what you find.
It's easy to do, Jared Asch. It's a good place. And yeah, so when you talk about St. Mary's I'm really honored and humbled to lead this institution and it is an incredible place and I think people see that when they come. It's a reason we're 15 percentage points above the national average on retention.
Students come here and they like it, and they graduate in four years, I think that's what we have to offer.
Thank you St. Mary's, President Roger Thompson
It's been great chatting with you, Jared Asch.
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