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Well, in my role in student government

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I would say we really professionalized the office of student government,

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ran it more like a business, more like a professional office

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and not a bunch of volunteer kids who had this cool assignment.

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We did some things as simple as

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making sure that our materials and the legislation that was considered by the senate and so on

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was prepared in a professional, businesslike way.

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We went downtown and got copies of North Carolina legislation

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and how it was presented and prepared and copied that model,

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modeled our material after that.

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So in those ways I think there was some professionalization of the office.

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I think too that I remember being very consciously aware at the time

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that I, and we, would be taken more seriously if we showed up

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to meetings with administrators with insightful, well-thought-out points of view

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and solution options on the table that we had done some research on

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than just coming and complaining or focusing on,

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gee, we want more tickets at the ballgame. I mean that's maybe important but it's not-. They hear that all the time.

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If we were seen as more of an ally and a partner

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but still an advocate we could probably get more done in a shorter span of time

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that would be more meaningful, so that was a mindset that we really tried to create

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and I think did in that period of time.

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Long term for me, being one of the founders of my chapter of Phi Delta Theta here-which it is a national fraternity,

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it just didn't exist here, so it existed already in other places.

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I've remained involved with that organization now for twenty years.

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I still chair the corporation that owns and operates the fraternity house;

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I'm an advisor as a result to the students; I get to know the student leadership of that chapter every year.

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That's very invigorating because it's a new crop all the time,

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they go through some of the same challenges and have some of the same issues, but it's always impressive what students do

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and how smart they are and how innovative and entrepreneurial they are.

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So that activity has probably been the most constant touch point I've had, or consistent touch point I've had, over the last twenty years,

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but similarly I serve on the Park Scholarship review committee,

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I'm on the board of the college of humanities and social sciences and will be president of that board this coming year and a half,

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and those are other areas where I'm engaged with faculty and staff and students

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in a fresh way all the time and really see amazing things.

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Just today, when I parked near here and walked across half our campus to get to this building,

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as I looked around and saw students and overheard conversations

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and just sort of witnessed what was going on, it's really a refreshing experience

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to come back to the campus because you do get set in your mind's eye what it was like when you were here.

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I have the advantage of being nearby so I can come more often than I do.

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Often now when I have meetings on campus it's at certain regular places, I'm not really walking around the main campus,

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and I should do that more. But all that ties back into,

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in terms of achievements or things I'm most satisfied about,

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it was being very engaged in the campus. For me it became a small place

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and I felt like I had a finger in a lot of different areas on campus

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such that I had a really wholesome and fulfilled experience here,

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a full experience here. As a result ever since then

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I've felt very connected to the campus, I bring with me a lot of relationships, a lot of familiarity with the structure that serves me well in my job,

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it serves me well in areas where I want to volunteer,

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it makes me feel closer to the institution,

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and so in all those ways I think that things I was able to do while here

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allowed all that to happen,

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so it's been an ongoing benefit.