Future's So Bright, You Gotta Wear Shades

It has been 10 months since I wrote my last article on LinkedIn. It was titled How Do You Find Your Great Adventure?  I have to admit that while I was trying to be positive at the time, on the inside I was wondering if I would ever find a deep sense of purpose and meaning again in my work. Well, I was blessed to have landed in a new adventure nine months ago and it has turned out great. In fact, I would say it has actually turned out to be a bold undertaking, which is one definition for the word ‘adventure’.  

I now find myself in higher education for the first time in 25 years, and it has been an exciting year! We recently finished the strategic planning process and we are focused on a bright future. As a result of a lot of hard work, we are now setting sail on what our President, Dr. Barbara McDonald calls a bold, brave journey as an institution of higher learning that is engaging students and changing lives. We are also on a mission to encourage our alumni, donors and community partners to support this bold, brave journey and embrace a new bold generosity. To begin to share this new boldness with our constituency, we created our 1st Annual BOLD Leadership Summit at North Hennepin Community College with the theme Future’s So Bright, We Gotta Wear Shades.  It was very well received, and there is now a lot of optimism and excitement swirling around our campus, our community and our constituents.

In the last article I wrote, ‘I encourage you to search for your great adventure so that you will feel a sense of deep purpose and meaning that is so amazing it is almost indescribable’.  I am thankful that I have found a new deep purpose and meaning, and I hope you either have that in your life, or will find it soon. And remember to bring your shades, because once you find that deep purpose and meaning, you'll need them to navigate forward through the bold and bright future facing you! :)   

Dale M. Fagre has over 25 years of non-profit sector experience and serves as Executive Director for the North Hennepin Community College Foundation. This institution which was founded in 1966, serves over 10,000 students each year while offering more than 60 different academic programs.