Ask our graduates what really makes Southwestern excellent. From eloquent octogenarians to last May's graduates, they often say "My life was changed in Keene."
Press them for specifics, and they will tell you about a teacher or dean or work supervisor who instilled a dream. Our graduates often talk about decisive encounters, those turning points when they encountered somebody with a quiet knack for getting students to imagine possibilities:
"Those teachers shook me up--at just the right time, in just the right way."
"That second chance has made all the difference in my life."
"I had no idea of the wider world."
"He wouldn't let me coast through life, satisfied with short cuts."
"She prayed with me."
- Eric Anderson, President
Southwestern is dedicated to changing lives. Many of our graduates choose to commit their lives to service. Almost casually, yet with great idealism, they pick difficult and demanding assignments over the lucrative and prestigious ones.
This school has produced few celebrities, but many missionary doctors and nurses, dedicated and underpaid teachers, public-spirited businessmen, and self-sacrificing preachers. For such people, service is not an experiment, but a way of life. It is the appropriate response to the Master who says to us, as he did to a few fishermen long ago, "Follow me."
