My dad was the first person in his family to graduate high school, and he went on and became a dentist. He always explained to my three brothers and me how it made a big difference in his life; just by going to school changed his life. Nobody in his family had ever even graduated high school. Everyone went to work at the factory in his town. When he went to college, he broke that barrier and made it easier for us to go. You work hard, you get this degree, and it pays off forever. Your degree is good forever. To be part of that process for someone as a physical therapist and now a professor here at Santa Fe—part of that transfer of knowledge that helps people get better—is really neat. My dad was a professor, too. He didn’t have a lot of money, and he was always proud that he could provide more for us than he had. That’s one thing he always told us: I want you to be able to do this for your kids, too. And education’s a good way to make it happen. Now, it’s cool to be able to tell my own students the same thing.
– Chad Caswell, Assistant Professor, Anatomy and Physiology