University of the Virgin Islands President Safiya George describes the job as both an immense privilege and a relentless spotlight. She stresses that leadership at this level is not about personal recognition but about shaping lives and communities for decades to come. Her reflections include the weight of deliberate decision-making, the necessity of constant communication with stakeholders, and the joy she finds in collaborating directly with students through initiatives like the Presidential Scholars program, which taps into their creativity and vision.
In today's time, people don't are not flocking toward university presidencies. They are hot seats. They are, you're under a spotlight and then microscope, but you also have an amazing opportunity to affect the lives of young people, affect the future of cities, communities, states, regions and beyond. Right. And I see that as a huge responsibility.
And so, I would only encourage someone to consider a presidency if they can transcend themselves. And if and transcendence is a concept that one can embrace that it's not about you. Although people will give you the attention, it's not about you. And so it's not about me. It's about how can I improve the territory, and I can improve the territory by improving individual student lives, responding to the needs of the territory and region in terms of workforce, in terms of, looking at the issues that exist and how can we play a part in the think tank kinds of strategies and solutions that we can offer?
But how can we shape the next generation of leaders? Because I think, the societies outcomes are a result of the kinds of leaders it has had at all levels, whether it's elected officials, whether it's private sector leaders. It's a result of the decisions that we've made in the previous ten, 20, 30 years. And so if we can prepare better leaders over time, we'll see better outcomes.
And and people who are willing to be collaborative. And I'm the only way we see change in our world is to collaboration. Deliberate collaboration. Mutually beneficial collaboration.
Right? Our population of students, our community or territory's faculties, we think of policy decision. Every decision affects hundreds and thousands of people. And so that's why every decision has to be very deliberate, very intentional, has to weigh a lot of pros, cons. And then, you know, there's not too much time for waffling. You know, you make an informed decision, you move forward, you communicate it.
And of course you engage in constant communication. That's something you do on a daily basis, communicating with a plethora of stakeholders, right? Students, employees, parents, grandparents, you know, media, elected officials, other universities. The most exciting thing for me as the president is, collaboration. To be honest, collaborating with students. I love it to start a new Presidential Scholars program.
I have three students who are working as presidential scholars, working in my office, working with members of my leadership team, working with media, working with people on the strategic plan, the different teams, those leading different teams.
I mean, so creative, passionate, outside the box. Amazing. Our students are talented and we just have to give them the space, give them a platform to just show what they can do with just raw talent. And imagine if you really hone that, the possibilities are limitless.