When I moved back to Iowa two years ago this July, I was excited to have a true fall season again. I love the tangible shift we experience: the drop in temperatures, the process of unpacking favorite sweaters, the changing of the leaves. You may be thinking right about now, OK great, but it’s mid-summer: why are you waxing poetic about fall? And the answer is because seasons, and fall, represent to me the positives that can come from change, and the word “change” felt ever-present in this issue.
Iowa State University Translational AI Center Director Soumik Sarkar shares plenty of insight around artificial intelligence on pg. 11; one takeaway that I got from our conversation — and I’m taking liberty to paraphrase — was adapt and change with the new technology, or someone else will. In our collaboration piece on pg. 10, the Tiefenthaler family shares the many ways they’ve been able to change and grow their small business thanks to support from Iowa State resources. In our cover story, you’ll learn that in 1956, C.G. “Turk” Therkildsen and Joyce McEwen had their first date at the Memorial Union for Coca-Colas. Today, Iowa State is a Pepsi campus. Change!
Change is constant, for better or worse. Personally, I like to focus on the better — to see the new opportunities change can bring. And that brings me to the most significant changes you’ll learn about in this issue: an update to ISU leadership (pg. 6) and a message from Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen (’88) regarding the future of the ISU Alumni Association and ISU Foundation — and what opportunities are on the horizon (pg. 30).
And two months from now, summer will change to fall — and fall on the Iowa State campus is a wonder to behold.