HIAWASSEE – New Young Harris College President Dr. John Wells spelled out his vision for the Enchanted Valley and beyond in the weekly meeting of the Mountain Movers and Shakers on Friday, March 14.
Wells returned to the college this year after having previously served Young Harris as Provost and Interim President from 2005 to 2009, during the institution’s transition from a junior college to a senior college.
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A strong believer that “an institution like Young Harris doesn’t need to just be in the region – it needs to be of the region,” Wells said people need to see and feel that “the college is not contrary to their values.”
“The college is a place that is open for all kinds of intellectual exploration,” Wells continued. “But at the end of the day, our goal is to make the lives of our students better when they graduate so that they can be very successful in life.
“How can we do that? One thing we can do is continue to provide them the traditional education that Young Harris has provided since 1886.”
A key to providing that education, according to Wells, is to diminish the ubiquitous role of screens that have become so commonplace for young folks especially, and re-engage students with books and the free exchange of ideas through civil discourse about what they’re learning.
This is important because many of the jobs graduates will be entering in the decades to come “haven’t even been invented yet,” so the college must prepare students for the unknown by teaching them how to be “problem-solvers” capable of communicating and collaborating with others.
Wells said another key to improving the preparedness of students for joining the world after graduation is “making certain our students get outdoors,” which is something he will be championing as college president.
“Nature itself creates a sense of humility, doesn’t it,” Wells said. “When you get out there on a trail, when you get out there in God’s creation, you begin to see how small you are in comparison with the whole connectivity of everything else.
“You look at the secularization patterns in America, where America, at its peril, has moved away from its faith commitment, and as you look at those areas that have really made that move away, they tend to be urban areas.
“And I’m convinced it’s because people are living in spaces where all they see are manmade things all the time. But we have an opportunity of living in a space where we see God’s creation every single day.”
Another big part of his vision for the college is “getting students all together to feel more connected.” Wells said that, according to a 2021 study from Boston University, the No. 1 adjective college-bound 18-year-olds use to describe their lives is “lonely.”
And he wants to do something about that “heartbreaking” condition by fostering a campus environment that provides “a robust student experience so they are able to connect with other students their age, really explore life together, and have a long history.”
“A college like Young Harris – it’s not just transactional,” Wells said. “It’s a place where you come and live and be part of a community. You get to know people, and these are the people you’re going to walk with decade after decade.
“I want to make sure that we fulfill the promise of Young Harris, and when a student graduates from our college, that they never walk alone in life – that they have developed the relationships and the friendships that they need.”
Branching outward, Wells turned to his desire to “see Young Harris continue to engage the community,” partly by growing the college’s commitment to intercollegiate athletics, fine arts and lab sciences, all of which “really engage students in things where they have to be present.”
“You can’t do them through a screen,” Wells said. “You’ve got to actually be here and be present. But I want to make certain that we are continuing to reach out to the community so that everybody knows that they are welcome on campus.
“I want you to feel like this is your place; I want you to feel like it’s home. When you come to the concerts and (the athletic events and various other events) that are hosted by Young Harris, I want people to see it as a great resource in the region.
“We intend to be a great and respectful institutional citizen of Towns County, and we’ve got a long history of that, but we want to lean into that and do even more of it.”
Highlighting a major aspect of intercollegiate athletics in particular, Wells said that, “for students today, many of them do need direction.”
In a time when young people are receiving so many mixed messages from popular culture, Wells said it is important to provide students opportunities to participate in teams where they are “pushing toward excellence and not mediocrity, attempting to achieve a shared goal together.”
Speaking to a “paradigm shift” for the college, Wells said it is an absolute must that he and the college “prepare our students – their habits of mind – for the world of work.”
“Work is an honorable thing,” Wells said. “Work is a good thing. It’s what builds character. Work is what allows us to really take control of our own future and to be able to have the wherewithal to make decisions for ourselves.”
Toward that end, Wells said he is committed to instilling the notion of liberty as personal responsibility “and making certain that the curriculum at Young Harris really reflects what it means to help a student transition in life into the world of work.”
Among other goals, Wells will be implementing a college-wide personal finance curriculum to keep students from “spending their 20s and 30s chasing useless debt,” and he plans to increase the college’s presence in area high schools and communities to boost local student enrollment.
The Movers and Shakers welcome a new guest speaker every Friday morning at 8 a.m. inside the Sundance Grill in Hiawassee.
