David Howell ’82, who now sits on our Board of Trustees and is the Vice Chair for the Geneva College Foundation Board, began his journey with Geneva as an incoming freshman in the fall of 1978. David grew up on a dairy farm in a small farming community. Growing up David did not have much exposure outside of life on the farm, so the decision to come to Geneva was a big deal for him and his family. He was in search of a Christian school within 4-5 hours of home that offered a degree in mechanical engineering.
Attending Geneva was an extremely positive experience for David, but he encountered a lot of things he didn’t expect.
“I expected a mechanical engineering degree, but I did not expect all the other things in the core curriculum- classes like political science, humanities, and psychology. At the time I had seemingly no use for them. I would ask myself, how is this going to help me in engineering?”
While initially Geneva’s liberal arts core seemed pointless to him, as David continued his education and career, his sentiment shifted greatly.
“The liberal arts core ended up being the biggest impact on my life. Most of my career has not really been in engineering, but in management. For me, I was an engineer for about 7-8 years, the other 30 have been in management and leadership. The core prepares you for all other situations you will have in life. In my career, I have used the core curriculum a lot more than my engineering classes.”
David explained how in any career or position you must be able to work with others well and be able to problem-solve, be creative, and think critically. These skills are exactly what the core curriculum develops in students.
“There are no answers in the back of the book in your career. You must be able to be creative and critically think. This is the area where I see the core having a huge impact on students.”
In addition to the core, of the biggest differences David sees between Geneva and other institutions is faith integration. At Geneva this is talked about often, but what does it actually mean?
“My first engineering class started out by reading Genesis 1:26, Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ My professor went on to say this verse is the basis for what God wants us to do as engineers. It is our job to take the resources, materials, abilities, and laws God has given us to make the world a better place for us to live; to have dominion. This was so impactful on my life.
What makes the Geneva difference is that the primary concern is not success, money, or employment, although Geneva does set you up for these things, the primary concern is a true biblical foundation. This was the basis for all of our engineering classes.”
Geneva’s core curriculum and individual major classes, all rooted in a Christ-centered worldview, prepare students for their careers and their life beyond college. By taking time to look at the larger picture, students become deeper thinkers and more successful workers.
“You never know where God is going to lead you. If you are just walking out with a technical degree, you are limited. Without the core, in my opinion, you are at a disadvantage. I saw this throughout my career. People who had great technical degrees and skills were often not given as much opportunity as people who had a wider worldview and more transferable skills. You can get an engineering degree anywhere, but you cannot get what Geneva offers anywhere.”
Even today, David explains how he is still using and applying what he learned at Geneva to his life. After a long, successful career with Westinghouse, David is now doing executive coaching in his retirement.
“Advice I always give in my executive coaching is this, ‘There are things you can do that you don’t know you can do. It is important to take advantage of all the learning you can and use that to help others. Executive leadership is more about what your people do and how they are, it is about bringing your people to the next level, it is not about you. Good leaders are servant leaders.
Geneva taught me this. It is not all about you, it is about the community. Even post-retirement I am taking what I learned at Geneva and applying it to what I do and what I tell others.”
Beyond what David learned at Geneva, he also remarks that he found many life-long friendships, Christian community, and his wife, Kelly (Dailey) Howell '80, of 42 years at Geneva. David left Geneva with lasting impacts both in and out of the classroom.
“That is the biggest reason the core is so important: it gives you the basis for other opportunities and prepares students well for their entire lives.”
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