Dear AU Community,

The end of the semester is always a whirlwind. We are all trying to finish things before the holidays, and I hope your “to do’s” are going well. No matter what is still on your list, take a deep breath and know you’ve got this.

I was working on my to do list─and taking my own deep breath─and I thought about how you, the AU community, have “got this” in so many ways. Your purpose shines brightly every day through your scholarship, learning, and community engagement. You care about each other and the world around us.

Since you know I like lists, I wrote down just a few ways the AU community “got this” during the fall semester. I hope these memories from the past few months brighten your holiday spirits, just as they did mine.

The AU Men’s Basketball team are city champs with road wins over Georgetown and GW in the last two weeks!

Thanks to Change Can’t Wait gifts, students are enjoying incredible experiential learning opportunities like providing public relations support to clients like DC Central Kitchen through SOC3 and training to become the educators of the future with scholarships that support equitable access to higher education.

Students also led throughout our community and the broader DC region, meeting with Vice President Harris; conducting cancer research in our Hall of Science and serving as a campus health ambassador; and creating a groundbreaking poll about younger adults views on democracy, public policy, and political discourse.

Our expert faculty scholars are researching challenges to democracy and treatments for veterans suffering from Gulf War Illness, among many critical explorations that will produce vital knowledge and action.

Our staff moves us forward every day, from keeping the lights on and our campus beautiful, to landing our class for next year, to building community in our halls and activities 24/7, to preparing for yesterday’s storm that wasn’t!

And the AU community serves our DC home. Thanks to the dedicated team of journalists, content creators, and engineers, WAMU was #1 in the DC metro in November, with a 12.2 percent market share. One in eight people listening to the radio in the DC region at any given time last month were getting news, information, and entertainment from WAMU, including regular listener Matthew Burwell!

And as we look to 2023, eight sustainability leaders are coming to campus for Kogod’s Gamechangers in Sustainability speaker series and the Sine Institute of Policy and Politics will welcome six dynamic spring 2023 fellows from the arts, business, and public service.

Before you start on those spring to do lists, I hope you get some quality, restful time with family and friends. Find a few moments to reflect on all you have achieved, how far we have come together, and the truly special bond we share as members of this incredible community.

Thank you for a great semester, have a wonderful holiday season, and I will see you in January 2023!

Sincerely,
Sylvia