At Loyola, people are always talking about creativity and expression. Our provost, Ed Kvet, likes to use the phrase “creative campus” to describe this progressive and distinct place.

There are obvious places where one might expect to find expression–in music classes, on the stage, in the art studio. But at Loyola, creativity cannot help itself. It’s infectious. It’s everywhere!

Here it is in the business program in the way executive mentors relate to their students (one mentor, MBA graduate Darryl Glade used a session of paintball to bond with his mentees) and in the quest for responsible entrepreneurship. Here it’s in the School of Mass Communication where Dr. Bob Thomas takes an interdisciplinary approach to teaching environmental communication and approaches to sustainability. It’s in the effort that brought to Loyola an evocative sculpture garden between Marquette and Bobet Halls, a renovation to Thomas Hall, the forward-thinking and student-centered Master Plan of the university, which includes a renovation of our main classroom building on campus, Monroe Hall. Here it is in in the chemistry lab, where Dr. Thomas Spence, associate professor of chemistry and chemistry department chair, leads students to collaboration in a research-rich setting.

Creativity is in our DNA, and in the Jesuit commitment to developing the whole person. At Loyola everyone has the opportunity to tap their fullest potential. The whole person concept allows athletes to be scholars; scholars to be artists; and artists to be accountants.

Despite the irksome tendency of our society to label each of us as one thing or another, the whole person concept tells us to be daring in our attempts at personal growth (you can learn how to play the piano at age 18, for example, as I did). People are not simply the jobs they do, but also how they relate to others, how they harness their potential, and how they dream about…what’s next? What’s that next skill to cultivate? Creative people…just…don’t…stop. They ask what’s the most win-win way to solve a problem? What’s that next cause worth supporting?

Equipped with such zeal to learn, grow, and create, Loyola’s students and graduates do more than just beautify our Uptown New Orleans campus. They change the world.