Learning: The Engine of Lifelong Transformation
It is with a profound mix of emotions that I announce the next step in my professional journey.
In August, I will become the provost and vice chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While I am excited about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead, I am deeply saddened to be leaving Weinberg College, a place that embodies the arts and sciences at their best.
I am so proud to be able to share with you this issue of Weinberg magazine, and to have had the opportunity these past six years to share in the College’s successes.
We are proud to recognize two Marshall Scholars from Weinberg College this year, Rhaina Cohen ’14 and recent graduate Chelsea Glenn ’13. Chelsea was also among 14 alumni and students who received Fulbright fellowships. I have always been impressed by the variety of ways our students excel at learning: solving global health problems at the 2014 Global Health Case Competition, researching osteoporosis in the NASA Reduced Gravity Flight Opportunities Program, or writing a play and performing it 24 hours later at the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.
It has been my hope that during their years at the College, our students will deepen their understanding of the world and the variety of ways they might engage it — socially, culturally, intellectually and professionally. Weinberg College should be the start of a lifelong journey through which our future alumni develop into the people they aspire to be. Learning is the engine that drives this transformation in college and throughout life.
As lifelong educator Mel George ’56 observes in “The Thirst for Knowledge,” this issue’s cover story: “If you want people to learn, you have to stimulate their curiosity, get them asking penetrating questions. Make them wonder.” As I prepare to say farewell to faculty, staff, students and alumni who have become treasured friends, I know that all of you share my intention that the College remain a community full of learning, discovery and wonder. As the heart of one of the world’s great research universities, we should do no less.
Cheers,
Sarah C. Mangelsdorf
Dean, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences