The momentum from this past year is palpable across the University of Kentucky campus.
We are educating and graduating more students than at any other time in our university’s history.
We are making life-changing discoveries in our $476 million research and development enterprise, generating $873 million in economic activity across Kentucky.
We are breaking ground on the new Michael D. Rankin M.D. Health Education Building, which will boost our state’s healthcare workforce and ultimately help create a healthier Commonwealth.
And we have been called upon by the Board of Trustees to continue this momentum to advance Kentucky by providing more graduates from across our campus who will lead lives of meaning and purpose.
But beyond the numbers and accolades are stories – stories of our people who feel the impact of this place and who want to pay it forward.
Deidra White, an MFA graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, wrote and performed a piece to help us celebrate the completion of the Kentucky Can fundraising campaign.
Please watch this video of her performance of the piece she wrote, with the support of her creative writing faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences, called “Here in Kentucky.”
Her piece tells the story of what this university, including UK’s Markey Cancer Center, means to her, her family and her community.
It is a very personal story, but it is also reflective of what this university is all about and the impact we collectively have on our state.
Eli Capilouto is president of the University of Kentucky.
