Civil Discourse Symposiums<\/a> across our universities this spring.<\/p>\nThis is not about politics. It is about preparation.<\/p>\n
We asked students to do something harder than what the world around them rewards. To listen. To engage. To question. To disagree without tearing someone else down. That is what leadership requires.<\/p>\n
I have been connected to Texas A&M for more than 50 years, as a student, as a parent, as a grandparent and now as a regent. The most important thing I took from that experience was not a classroom lesson, but a set of values that have guided me ever since: respect, excellence, leadership, integrity, selfless service and loyalty.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe world makes it easy to choose division,\u201d writes Torn. \u201cIt is faster, louder, and it gets attention. But it does not build anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ishika Samant\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n
Those values shaped how I think, how I work and how I handle disagreement. They gave me something steady to come back to when things got complicated. They gave me a North Star.<\/p>\n
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Those values are not limited to one campus or owned by one institution. They are principles that matter anywhere people are trying to learn, lead and build something worthwhile. That was what these symposiums were designed to reinforce.<\/p>\n
Across our campuses, students engaged with one another and with leaders from different backgrounds and perspectives. They practiced something that has become too rare: how to have hard conversations in a way that leads somewhere better. The goal was not to win an argument, but to have one that moves people forward.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because nothing meaningful gets done alone. Not building a university, not building a business, not building a family, and certainly not building a better society. It takes people working together, sometimes imperfectly and often with disagreement, but with a shared commitment to move forward. That requires discipline, humility and a foundation.<\/p>\n
I have spent more than four decades working with young people through Camp Ozark and Camp OTX, and I have seen this up close. Talent will take you only so far. What determines the outcome is character. The ability to listen. The willingness to engage. The discipline to act on what you believe.<\/p>\n
The answer to our current moment is not more noise. It is character.<\/p>\n
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Texas A&M has always focused on developing leaders of character. That is our strength, and it is our responsibility. The Civil Discourse Symposium built on that foundation by helping students develop skills that will serve them for the rest of their lives: the ability to engage, to listen, to think, and yes, to disagree with respect.<\/p>\n
The world makes it easy to choose division. It is faster, louder, and it gets attention. But it does not build anything.<\/p>\n
What it takes to build something is more than noise. It takes discipline. It takes humility. It takes people who know what they believe and are willing to live it out.<\/p>\n
That is what we expect of Aggies. It is what Texas needs.<\/p>\n
Find your North Star. Hold to it. And lead.<\/p>\n
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Sam Torn serves on the Texas A&M Board of Regents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas A&M, writes Regent Sam Torn, \u201chas always focused on developing leaders of character.\u201d Brett Coomer\/Staff photographer When…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-259376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}