President’s Notebook
APEGA
I HAVE LISTENED TO YOU AND ALSO DONE MY BEST TO INSPIRE YOU. I HAVE SHARED INFORMATION AND IDEAS THAT DARE US TO STRETCH OUR IMAGINATIONS BEYOND WHAT, ON CURSORY EXAMINATION, WE THINK CAN ACHIEVE.
Most of us won’t have the opportunity to give millions of dollars to making the world a better place. We still have plenty to offer, though, no matter how much time or money we donate to worthy causes. Coaching your child’s soccer team or serving meals for the local homeless shelter are profoundly important things, small as they may seem on the outside. And remember the APEGA Foundation, which tills the ground for future yields of engineers and geoscientists. But what else? We have a responsibility to offer solutions, and we shouldn’t limit ourselves to professional interpretations of those words. My call to action is not just about building, inventing, and mining things. It’s about the impact and overall purpose of what we create, and it’s about the bigger questions concerning the survivability of our planet, our institutions, and our infrastructure: better power storage, better information technology, affordable alternative energy, less societal disfunction. Add to the list as you see fit. In our quest as professionals to find solutions, we’re often called upon to use our skills in root-cause analysis. When you solve for the root cause, your success rate increases dramatically. This skill is needed everywhere, not just in the sciences. We need it in community development. We need it in education. We need it in business and various industries. We are solution-seekers and solution- finders, and as such our value goes
SPRING 2019 PEG | 5
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