As the Director of the Honors Program and previous President of La Salle, Br. Michael McGinniss, F.S.C., Ph.D., ’70, is one of the first people you’ll meet here at the University. But as you later pass by his office or see him in the halls, don’t be at all surprised when he remembers your name.
Br. Michael humbly chalks up the recognition to his “gift of recall.” But those who are closest to him know the truth: Br. Michael cares. Not just about La Salle, not just about the Honors Program—he cares about each individual student.
“Being the Director of the Honors Program provides me with a deeper insight into getting to know the freshmen from day one,” he says. “These are exceptional students who are adjusting to college. I take it as my job to help guide them and make sure that they’re not just academically prepared and able to juggle their course load, but that they’re also happy. That’s very important to me.”
Br. Michael embodies a true Explorer. His academic and professional career after graduating from La Salle took him around the world as he both learned from and taught some of the brightest minds and scholars. He returned to La Salle to serve as President for 15 years and now as the Director of the Honors Program.
“What the Honors Program does for students is that it provides a learning opportunity that tests all of their human skills. It does this in a very intentionally intense way. Some of that intensity is driven by the cohort of the unique freshman experience and then it continues on each year after. Students develop an intellectual integrity, in themselves, their major, and fellow students.
“What happens in education isn’t just teaching,” Br. Michael says. “It’s seeing the potential in each student. It’s seeing what drives each student and helping to draw that out. But most of all, it’s helping students to see it in themselves.”