We're here at the home of 
Paul Holland an alum of
The university who owns what 
Is now called the greenest house
In America and it was a thrill 
For us to see what you can do with
Sustainability when you are really
Very deliberate and thoughtful about 
It every feature of the house has been
So thoughtfully designed to reflect 
Those values and it's a learning 
Environment right here and so it's a 
Great setting for us and reflects 
One of the great core values
Of JMU of sustainability and I just
Wish we could have brought 
All our students here with us 
To experience this tonight and to 
Be here this is where innovation
Is king and this is where people
Come to change the world and 
Have done it in so many ways
In recent years for the United States
and for the world  and so our
graduates our alumni are very
much a part of that and what's 
exciting is that they are constantly 
thinking ahead looking towards
the future what's the next big thing
how do we not just identify
problems but how do solve problems
and how do we create those new
innovations that'll make the world
a better place so immediately this 
group started to turn to that 
as they talked about things like
the financial support of the university
and the need for more alumni
engagement very deliberately cultivating 
intergenerational relationships and 
mentorships are right t the heart 
of that and we heard people mention
how important it was for people to have
mentors and how JMU and the JMU
community could be a source of
mentors so that's something I think 
we need to be much more intentional
about and we had a lot of great examples
here that we can emulate and build upon
we were hearing very specific suggestions 
and ideas about how we could communicate
with people and how we could help 
develop our alumni networks more 
strongly and it was very thoughtful 
and very intriguing and we were all 
taking a lot of notes because this 
is what we need and this is an 
important part of the listening tour
to get those concrete suggestions. 
