As a nation we face widespread poverty, low wages, unemployment,  low high school graduation rates, increasing levels of obesity, rampant drug and alcohol use, and other associated social problems.   Proposed solutions abound for each of those issues.

Yet one common consequence of many social ills is hopelessness.   The governor of West Virginia recently set a day in September as the West Virginia “Day of Hope.”   That’s a good start, but we need more than just one day.

One reason I’m involved in higher education is because it encourages hopefulness.  Studies of college graduates reveal that they tend to have these qualities:

• Higher moral standards
• Intellectual ability
• Artistic interests
• Perspectives that show creativity and innovation
• Critical thinking skills
• Higher incomes
• More savings
• Civic-mindedness
• Marital stability
• Greater self-esteem
• Successful children
• Tolerance
• Willingness to offer public service
• Low crime rates
• Leadership abilities
• Acceptance
• Civility
• Responsibility

Generally, secular educational institutions seek to provide graduates with a degree that leads to a job and career. Christian higher education does all that, plus produces people of character who seek to accomplish the purposes for which they were created. The difference between the two can be described with one word: HOPE.