While a modern Thanksgiving often turns on football, family, and food, it is also a time to be grateful. So this month’s edition of A Day in the Life is about gratitude.
I am grateful for good people doing good work at ACC. Today I met with Grant Potts and Estrella Barrera, who have led the roll-out of our faculty student mentoring program. They are two very good people who have done very good work.
I am grateful for colleagues who drop into my office and distract me – or who let me drop into their offices to help me think something through. This one is always a long list (!), but today the list includes Gretchen Riehl, Charles Cook, Rich Griffiths, and Tammy Chalermpued.
I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the mission of Austin Community College and help change the trajectory of our students’ lives. We make the difference for students who find their paths into a career or program of study that fits their interests and talents. We make the difference for students who need to learn English, or pass a high school equivalency exam, or change careers, or upgrade their skills, or learn how to read, or pass their math class. We make the difference for students who are the first in their families to go to college and who discover that ACC is, indeed, for everyone.
I am grateful for challenging projects, and bosses with high expectations, and friends and colleagues across the college who help me, brainstorm with me, listen to me, and support me. Our work matters, and if we do it well, then we are doing it together.
My thanks to each and every one of you. We get to come to work every day knowing the impact we can have – and it’s a wonderful thing to be grateful for.