‘Dear Ms. Future’: UVA President Jim Ryan on Where We Are, Where We’re Going

 

 

October 12, 2019 

Dear Miss Future.

I write with deference and hope to introduce myself and the rather large community of which I am immensely fortunate to be a part of. We are all eagerly looking forward to meeting you in person.

In the meantime, I thought you might be interested knowing a bit about us, who we were, who we are, and who we hope to become by the time we meet.

We are explorers of everything from galaxies to microbiomes.

We are caregivers.

We are discoverers.

We are adventurers.

We are champions.

We are thinkers.

We are doers.

We are artists, athletes, and musicians.

We are leaders.

We are writers.

We are officers.

We are streakers.

We are funny.

We are curious.

We are fierce, and we are friendly.

We are skeptical.

We are Jefferson, Echols, Roads, Marshall, and Fulbright scholars.

We are singing groups.

We have famous dropouts.

We are Greek life.

We are secret societies, one of whom just pledged $1 million to support student health and the library. To protect its secrecy, I will identify the society only by an initial.

We are the Blue Ridge Mountains and Bodo's Bagels.

We are Madison House and Mad Bowl.

We have been to outer space, and we have been to Antarctica.

We have scaled mountains, and we have explored the depths of the sea.

We are resilient.

We are path breakers.

We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.

We are Cavaliers.

We are, in a word, Miss Future, Wahoos.