And Now What? Dedicate Your Life to Helping the Students and Citizens of This World

And now what? Dedicate your Life to Helping the Students and Citizens of this World.

The hard decisions for faculty members come after tenure. What do I do now? Do I continue my research? Do I teach and mentor students? Both? Do I spend more time with my family? Do I start preparing for administration? ÒTenureÓ is a mark only in terms of security of life. But tenure should not change your goals in life. In my career I have found that helping young students, helping people and my community, developing new products and new processes that improve the quality of life of our patients are the most rewarding and satisfying goals. I have dedicated my post-tenure life to helping students, to becoming a catalyst for their successful lives, to addressing their major decisions in life (see also The Peppas Factor: Educating Future Leaders http://www.engr.utexas.edu/features/peppas-2013-teaching-award). At the same time I have dedicated my life to doing what I like to do best (teaching and research) but doing it to improve the quality of life of our patients around the world. I believe you can do the same and I will give examples how you can achieve this most rewarding experience.