Tradition is important.

We just celebrated our 125th anniversary last year.

And our founders, B.B.

Deedy and Lily Shull-Doherty really believed in providing access to education to what was once known as the Lost Province of the state of North Carolina.

And so that is true to today.

And being part of the Lost Province of North Carolina means that there were adversities that that part of the state faced.

There were innovations and resilience that were necessary to survive.

And so as part of that culture that our founders established in 1899, that carries through to today.

So we're very much a blend of that traditional culture of discovery, of resilience, of innovation.

We recently attained R2 status as an institution.

And that's due to the work of our faculty and their innovative problem-solving spirit.

We have a lot of applied research happening on our campus.

Our undergraduate students are involved in that.

Our graduate students are involved in that.

And we're developing academic programs that speak to the needs of the future.

We don't know what those industries are going to be five, 10, 20 years from now, but we do know that we need to be offering educational programming in areas like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and many things related to health and wellness.