Don't you love that fall "Back to School" feeling? Whether it's parents sending an excited young child off to kindergarten, or a tearful goodbye as a teenage son moves into his dorm room. The air is filled with the brisk aura of changing weather and hope and optimism. For students, parents, and yes... even us teachers.

The beginning of a new academic year signifies a time for each of us to re-dedicate ourselves to learning, accomplishing goals, becoming better than we were before--traveling further in our life's journey to become our best self.

Many times, when talking with students or prospective students about our industry and the career opportunities for a safety, health, and environmental (SH&E) professional, we tend to focus on the benefits that our academic programs and career opportunities can bring to the person. We talk about the availability of jobs and the lucrative salaries, the reliability of benefits, or the possibilities of forward advancement and promotion.  I'd like to focus in a different area by thinking about how an Occupational Safety and Health Professional has the opportunity through this career choice to be of service to others.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson penned, "The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."

Our profession is a true service profession. As we work to protect the people, property, and environment in the organizations we work for, we do so ideally with a servant's heart. We use our skills, knowledge, and abilities to reduce hazards and risk. The product of our efforts directly affects the safety and well-being of not only those exposed, but their loved ones. As we lead others, either directly as supervisors and managers, or indirectly as partners and coaches, we should consider servant leadership as a worthy model for influencing those we interact with.

While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase "servant leadership" was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in "The Servant as Leader", an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said: "The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions... The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"

I would encourage each of you to consider your participation in university functions, internships, and professional organizations as opportunities to serve others. Are you a member of your local student section of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) and American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA)? Have you volunteered to serve as an organization's officer or committee member? Have you participated in service projects or events?

We often begin the school year with optimism, and quickly become stressed by the rigor and demands of classes, assignments, projects, and grades. It's very easy to lose that hopeful spirit in the face of the pressures of college, but let me give you a piece of helpful advice: Serving others is a great stress reliever. Working to serve triggers oxytocin and endorphins in the body, physically altering your mood and making you feel happier and more relaxed. As the sage Buddha wrote, "Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy."

This year, Dream Big, Work Hard, and Help Others.