Dr. Kington shared with me his thoughts on higher education and his vision for Grinnell, a top-ranked, highly selective liberal arts college in Iowa. I shared my thoughts about the things that are happening at Colorado Academy.

Grinnell is grappling with the same types of issues that we are. Dr. Kington noted how the world is changing, and how Grinnell is positioning itself to prepare its students for tomorrow. We spoke of the powerful role of technology in shaping our future, but also of the important role that teachers have to inspire and transform lives.

Dr. Kington talked about this as a very chaotic and stressful time to be in education, but also very exciting. He says now is not the time to retrench in education, but to think courageously and boldly. This forward and ambitious approach echoes the same philosophy we hold at CA.

Dr. Kington is an example of how people today and the students of tomorrow will not hold a single job or career, but many in their lives. Prior to being appointed to Grinnell, he served in a range of positions at the National Institutes of Health, at the Centers for Disease Control, and the RAND Corporation; He was Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA and served at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science; he holds a B.S. with distinction and is an M.D.; additionally, he holds an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. with a concentration in Health Policy from the Wharton School at Penn. “Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would be doing what I am doing today,” he said. “It goes to show the value of having broad skills and to think outside the realm of what everyone has done before you, because it is likely you will do something no one has thought of,” he said.

As educators, and in his role at Grinnell, Dr. Kington says we do our best for students when we “train their brains” to think, and when at the very same time, “they realize it is a big world out there full of possibilities. That’s exciting.”

Grinnell has put a lot of resources behind that philosophy. Dr. Kington described the Grinnell Social Justice Prize, which awards $100,000 to those under 40 years of age who have demonstrated leadership in their fields and show creativity, commitment, and extraordinary accomplishment in effecting positive social change. The winners of those awards come back to teach for a week at Grinnell. “I want our students to look at those prize winners and believe that they, too, can change the world.” But he is careful to point out that there are many ways to do that. Dr. Kington has given a TEDx talk titled “Who is a Hero?” in which he describes two types of people, those standing at the front of the room (exemplified by a man rescuing enslaved children in Ghana and getting them college educations) and those at back of the room (exemplified by educator and civil rights activist Septima Clark.)

No matter what kind of hero we each decide to be, he says, “you still need to be in the room….people must identify their own callings, discover their powers, and use them to help others,” and he says education is the best way to do that.