Contributed by: Ross Lenhart
Senior Vice President, Stein Communications
It was a magical career. I was indeed fortunate. After 42 years and working directly with 142 different colleges, universities, and prep schools, it’s time for me to settle in, do some reading, play some golf and tennis, and enjoy the fine attributes of Pawleys Island in the lowcountry of South Carolina. It was a wonderful journey from my graduation day at Marietta College in 1966 into the world of college admission and then further into the realm of college and university marketing in 1976. It was challenging, fun, and interesting, and throughout my career, the magic for me has always been in the people.
What other career would have brought me into contact with great minds that value perhaps our greatest calling — the betterment of our world through the education of youth? Traveling from one college to another to discuss their missions that were often wide and varied and how best to represent them to their publics introduced me to men and women who care about society and its future — men and women of a higher calling. Faculty, admission folks, advancement and public relations professionals, presidents, college counselors, coaches, students, maintenance personnel and so many others — the magic on campus for me was always in the people.
I was allowed to coordinate and discuss ideas with my colleagues who are blessed with highly creative minds that can conceptualize and coordinate information into what amounts to a work of art that is effective in communicating an institution to the marketplace. They will always have my respect and, yes, envy. Art directors, writers, photographers, and web managers and designers — you always made life so interesting and worthwhile. You provided the coordination and camaraderie to make me look good. Yours is such a special type of magic –- found only in the stars.
My close colleagues whether in support or with whom I worked or traveled, and thus who had to listen to my boring stories over and over and over again — you all were brothers and sisters in this effort –- your support, your ideas, and your dreams with mine are cherished and are indeed magic and always will be.
I have always saluted my competitors. It is only logical to me that those who have chosen a career path similar to mine have never known my disdain but rather my respect. I have watched many of them with admiration when they have found new and wonderful ways of doing things, and thus I have often said, “I wish I would have thought of that.” The magic of competition is that it only makes all of us stronger.
But the real magic comes from the students that all of us — the college administrators, faculty, and we on the outside — serve. We must never forget our altruism in dealing with the education of young minds. During the privilege of my membership on the board of trustees of my alma mater, I found that oftentimes, I had to remind my peer board members from the commercial world that “education is different” – simply put, education isn’t soap. I firmly believe in that or I wouldn’t have stayed around so long. The young people in those countless focus groups tended to educate me, to give me hope, to invigorate me, to provide ideas in different strokes with different colors, to keep me young. Talk about magic – that was always magic. The education of our young people must be about honor, integrity, and character. Those who continue to work in the arena of educating our young people and of communicating such values must never lose sight of them and what our world is about – and our world has never been complicated; it’s been very simple – it’s merely the magic that transpires with a professor on one end of a log and a student on the other.
It was a wonderful journey, a magical journey. There are so many – oh, so many who helped me along the way. You will forever have my gratitude. As Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo wrote, “In the end the great truth will have been learned, that the quest is greater than what is sought, the effort finer than the prize, or rather that the effort is the prize, the victory cheap and hollow were it not for the rigor of the game.” And the game for me was all about the magic of people.
And Kathy, save the last dance for me.
“I hope that we find ways to rise to the challenges of keeping higher education equitably accessible for all socioeconomic groups. I have the same hopes for equitable affordability for all of the same groups. We need to do our share to keep our American values of justice and fairness in place for the next generation.”
