One things that attracted me to Virginia Tech was "Ut Prosim," meaning "That I May Serve," which is a motto that reflects my outlook on how I want to fit into the world.

A lot of this outlook comes from my prior experience being involved with wildlife rehabilitation which is a constant lesson in putting your ego aside to serve the community in regards to both the people and wildlife that live in it. Whether I am waking up throughout the night to feed baby squirrels for weeks on end, gently comforting a distraught citizen who brought an injured hawk to the center,  or advising animal control officers what to do with wildlife situations I know the importance of working to serve the people around you. It is often not about doing what you want to do but doing what should to be done for the greater good when you can. It means stepping up and doing the kind thing, the right thing, the thing that makes the world a little bit better. There is so much suffering that is accompanied by the bold act of living and we should all strive to make things better despite our imperfect selves.  

Ut Prosim can mean a lot of things to different people. It can be an act of charity, of service, of change. It can manifest itself in an infinitive number of ways. For me, it is the conscious choice of trying to do what is kind in a world that is at times very cruel. Everyone is hurting in their own way—if through my actions I can momentarily be a small light to help guide people down the path of self-development then I think my life will have been well worth living. I can only hope that others value the same thing: that I too will be guided by tiny lights in the form of tiny actions that will lead me to my never-ending destination.

John Donne once said that no man is an island. It is only through the company of others that we develop and change—isolation is a vacuum that feeds off our mistakes and we are doomed to repeat them if we don't reach out to others. To value Ut Prosim is to understand that responsibility and to take actions that strive to bring others out of the dark.