Where the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains
meet the fields of the bluegrass region in the heart
of Lexington, Kentucky, stands one of the United States of America's
historic public universities, The University of Kentucky.
Established in 1865, The University of Kentucky is proud
to be an original land grant institution.
The first classes started in 1867
with 190 students and 10 faculty members
who taught courses like sacred literature, mental
and moral philosophy, zoology and botany.
UK has a proud tradition of providing quality education
to students and fostering scientific breakthroughs.
Two scientists who studied here went on to win Nobel Prizes.
Thomas Hunt Morgan and William Lipscomb.
Today, faculty, staff and students are fulfilling the promises
of those early days.
Home to more than 31,000 students and with an annual operating budget
of more than five billion US dollars.
The university is now among the top
public universities in the United States.
Sixteen degree granting colleges and professional schools
are part of the University of Kentucky.
UK also operates in extensive health care enterprise on its campus
with a main hospital that is nationally ranked.
Faculty, staff and students work together
to advance life changing research.
The University of Kentucky attracts students, faculty and visiting scholars
from more than 100 countries around the world united in the desire
to do more and be more for this
community, state and world.
To teach a population of students where you know that every degree they get
will be transformative in their lives,
in the lives of their family is incredibly important.
So what's the purpose of of a university?
It's to turn out people who know how to do a job.
Just check the box.
I cleared the class. They learned this material.
We met the criteria for accreditation.
That's not what it's about.
But what's the real objective of what we're doing
so that when these people go out into the workplace, they know what they're doing
and they contribute to society and they're well-trained.
I think there's just something rewarding, right, with being able to,
you know, pass on little bits of knowledge that you can
to students and and watch them grow and flourish as they make their way
through a course or make their way through years and the discipline.
This was such an opportunity, especially for someone in my field
to come somewhere that would just be a game changer for the
to really accomplish the goals that I want to do to help
improve people's health in the long run.
Any time that we get into health care.
So regardless of your profession. Right.
There's a desire to help others or to be a part of healing and in community.
And I think one of the things for me is that we get the chance
to to both model that for our students and then really facilitate it,
give them the opportunity to care for patients in the same way that we would.
And it's really special and unique opportunity
get to straddle that line of both being a health care provider yourself,
but on the same time
watching students
grow from when they show up here as a first year professional student.
Where I was, I would have been a very, very good scientists,
but likely not had a direct impact on people's lives. Here I do.
Part of it is selfish, right?
Because there's just this sense of pride in accomplishment,
but not necessarily for yourself, but for being able to see
the students go out and do do some really great things.
I always tell my students it's not what I want you to be.
It's my job to get you to the places you want to be and that is a form
of freedom. So everything we do here should be about liberating
our students to be the people who they want to be;
the best version of those people.