-: Coming to Virginia Tech for me was great,
because I'd been at a campus,
a much smaller campus,
a regional comprehensive university,
where students loved being there,
but their passion and their identity for the campus
and for the university was not there as much.
Coming to Virginia Tech,
I found that not only students,
but also staff and faculty as well,
they embraced the identity of what it means
to be part of this community,
and as a result, they want to do
as much as they can with their time.
So they are purposefully thinking about
what they're involving themselves in.
So, for my work, that's critical,
because to be able to work with students
that love what they do,
and to work with staff as well, that love what they do,
it typically means that we can expect
more out of them, and we will find that
they are really truly endeared
to the experiences that they're having.
They care deeply; they are taking ownership
in significant ways, and it means that,
when it comes to me working with them,
I'm getting a lot more satisfaction out of it,
and our energy is being put in the right place,
as opposed to working with people
who aren't as really endeared to the place,
and don't have a deep love and care
for what it is that they're doing,
which means the quality of their work
is maybe average, at best,
and certainly people are then
leaving and coming and going,
but it's been great to be at Virginia Tech,
where people come and they wanna stay.
They want to be here,
and they want to find ways to be able
to continue being curious
about what they're doing,
and obviously then improving themselves,
and wanting to continue improving
the experience of our students.