Dr Alfred L. ParksHave you ever wondered why people do, what they do?  Are you ever curious, what makes people chose the profession they do?  I often get the following question from students that goes something like, “Doc how much can I make?” Immediately I think, you never ask an economist such a loaded question and expect a direct answer.  My response of course is “It depends!”  It depends means that there are many variables to consider and you cannot tell what is inside a person.  You can never know the “make-up” of a person; what drives them.  It’s like asking how many seeds are in an apple?  You don’t know.  It depends.

Making investments that make a difference means that we cannot tell what’s in a person, no more than we can tell how many seeds are in an apple.  Making investments that last means that as we invest in our students we are making investments that will pay dividends for many, many years to come.  Throughout my career in academia I have often been asked these questions, “Why did you choose to be a professor?”, “Couldn’t you have made more money in the corporate sector?”. Maybe so, but at the end of the day what would I have accomplished?  Sowing into the lives of others; our students and making investments that transcends generations, to me that’s an investment that dares to make a difference.

By Alfred L. Parks, Ph.D.
Professor of Agricultural Economics