A thousand years of wise counsel!

Friday, April 18, 2025

Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday! Happy National Volunteer Month.

The lightning round! That was the eagerly anticipated last item on the agenda of our joint meeting of our Board of Trustees and the Kummer Missouri S&T Foundation Board. During this most enlightening part of the meeting, each and every member offers their summary of thoughts and advice on our past progress and future direction. After careful consideration of our work, presentations and reports, the lightning round comments were insightful, direct and effective. It was inspiring to note that with 40 members of our boards present, over 1,000 years of collective wisdom was focused on our students, initiatives and programs. As Coach Phil Jackson famously said, “The strength of a team is each individual member, and the strength of each member is the team.” By that account, we certainly had a mighty team here on campus to guide and to point the way.

The Trustees and Kummer board meetings were followed by campus visits by the University of Missouri Board of Curators, Miner Alumni Association Board of Directors and many hundreds of members of our eight academies. These selfless volunteers met on our campus and provided valuable insights on our programs and functions ranging from research to faculty recruitment, to enrollment management and to the state of higher education — nationally, as well as locally here in the state of Missouri. It is assuring and, frankly, comforting to receive oversight perspectives of so many thoughtful and creative leaders who share their hard-earned organizational experience.

Here at S&T, the spirit of volunteerism is alive and well. Our civic-minded students provide sustained levels of volunteer support to organizations and non-profits in our community. In March, hundreds of our students, faculty and staff rushed to provide relief support for victims of a massive tornado that hit our community. Our chapter of Engineers Without Borders, consisting of both engineering and non-engineering students, routinely volunteers to provide lifesaving support beyond our nation’s borders. Countless other student organizations, athletics teams, fraternities and sororities provide local, national and international assistance as needed. In fact, S&T’s Delta Sigma Phi was appropriately honored with the Chapter of Distinction award from the North American Interfraternity Conference for dedication to community service and active participation in local volunteer efforts. Our cool S&T Design Teams regularly volunteer for various events, including Rolla Middle School STEM nights, the Saint Louis Science Center Engineering Expo, the Project Lead The Way Drone Showcase and Mars Rover nights at Kaleidoscope.

To our students, faculty and staff who volunteer, I say THANK YOU! Thank you for all that you do to help and to bring our communities together. To all our students, I say consider serving as a volunteer and try your hand at volunteerism. You will be delighted to have helped others. And, along the way, you will learn that shared purpose defines us, empathy unites us, and the goodness in you emerges when helping others.

To the members of our many boards and advisory councils, I say, please know that your volunteering efforts make S&T stronger, better and more resilient. In these times of radical disruption in higher education, we consider you — every one of you — a coach in our corner.

After all, in the words of the Welsh philosopher David Thomas, volunteerism is “unselfish, noble and the most radiant epochs in the biography of souls.” 

Warmly,

-Mo.

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Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu