About - Dean - Speeches & Writing - Why We Serve

A few weeks ago, I trekked to the Jefferson Theatre on Charlottesville's famous downtown pedestrian mall to attend the annual Darden Talent Show, one of the many events in our year-long Darden Cup Competition pitting our student sections against one another for glory and bragging rights.

I was greeted at the door by our head of career services and one of our admissions deans, dutifully checking in guests. Both staff and faculty members served as judges. Throughout the theater, students, partners, faculty and staff milled about. A handful of professors even participated in talent show skits and competitions. I entered the juggling competition — and, not surprisingly, lost to a much more skilled student.

While this may sound like a typical Thursday night at Darden, it is not normal at most graduate business schools.

At many schools, faculty are more like magicians than jugglers. They appear in the classroom only to be seen no more. I have visited peer schools where faculty members bragged about a rear entrance that allowed them to enter and exit the building without running into students. At another, faculty proudly pointed out that the faculty building was locked down 24/7, so students couldn't just stop by their offices. At many institutions, the suggestion of having students over for dinner at one's home would elicit a perplexed look.

At Darden, service in our community is more than sitting on a committee or executing the duties of one's office.

We do not just provide service.

We serve.

At Darden, service isn't transactional. It is core to who we are and how we engage. We foster servant leaders who prioritize the needs, growth and well-being of others. Leaders who practice empathy. Leaders who pause to help a student or fellow community member despite a pressing deadline. Leaders who show up on a February evening for a talent show to support our community, even when life and work demand their attention elsewhere.

Ultimately, to serve is to practice humility — to recognize that you have much to learn from others. Often, the best way to serve is to listen and be present.

At some institutions, leaders are lauded for focusing on themselves and exalted for engaging with business leaders and policymakers, while believing it is beneath them to engage with students, staff or even fellow faculty unless there is personal gain. In our current moment, we often foreground confidence while completely misunderstanding what confidence truly entails. The braggart is often the least confident person. Real confidence allows others to shine. Real confidence recognizes one’s limitations and embraces vulnerability in the service of others.

At Darden, I believe we have the most engaging and supportive community among business schools because we serve. We are by no means perfect. We are a constant work in progress. Yet service sits at our core.

Our vibrant community is not an accident. It is a conscious, consistent choice. We believe learning extends beyond the classroom. Our transformational educational experience is built on the totality of engagements across our community. We are intentional about encouraging engagement outside the classroom and inspiring service from all our stakeholders.

We foster service among our students. Students are responsible not only for their own education and advancement but also for their classmates' education and advancement. Each year, we establish classroom norms to ensure collective learning. At Darden, students show up on time, come prepared for class and debate in good faith — not wanting to disappoint their classmates more than to avoid a rebuke from the professor (though that remains effective as well).

We foster service among our alumni. Our alumni are among the most dedicated in business education. They show up to share lessons in our classrooms. They answer calls from students seeking career guidance and networking connections. They give of their time, talent and treasure. We view our alumni as lifelong learners — students for life — who remain vital members of our community long after they graduate.

We foster service by our faculty and staff. We reaffirm norms on engagement through our own participation in school life. We model service to others through daily interactions — lending a helping hand, asking how someone is doing or simply sharing a friendly hello.

Leadership here is not position-dependent. Some of our most powerful servant leaders work behind the scenes to keep Darden running smoothly, whether it is Gerri, who ensures that everyone who walks through our doors feels seen, or Perry, who takes pride in nourishing our community each day. These small, consistent acts shape the character of this place.

Together, our faculty, staff, students and alumni are catalysts for a flourishing community. We serve one another and, in doing so, something larger than ourselves.

In the end, at a longstanding institution like Darden, we are merely stewards. Darden existed long before we arrived and will hopefully thrive long after we are gone. Our legacy is our service to others — our willingness to engage with empathy and humility, taking time out of our busy schedules to meet others' needs or simply showing up at a talent show.

Through that service to one another, we create the Darden community we aspire to.