Graduate education is an adventure

About eighteen months ago, I set out on a journey walking the islands of the Dodecanese during a sailing trip in Türkiye and Greece with several friends. Along the way, I found winding paths, timeless villages and breathtaking views of sea and sky. That experience got me thinking about how adventure shows up in other parts of life, especially in learning.

Adventure, our bold word of the month, changes the way we see the world. Graduate education does the same, calling us to leave the comfort of certainty and to set out into landscapes defined by inquiry, curiosity and possibility. Graduate education is an adventure that asks both students and faculty to navigate the unknown, take intellectual risks and grow through discovery.

To be adventurous in this context means cultivating curiosity, the feeling that drives us to ask new questions, to explore connections across disciplines and to challenge assumptions. Curiosity becomes the compass guiding scholars toward discovery and innovation.

But curiosity alone is not enough; adventure also requires courage. Graduate students continually confront ambiguity, critique and the possibility of failure. A courageous approach to graduate education reframes these challenges as essential parts of the scholarly journey. 

I am now traveling in South Africa for a symposium that brings together scholars from around the world to explore new perspectives on spatial thinking, like how data and design can help us understand the complex relationships between cities, oceans and the planet we share. 

In conversations here, I’m reminded that growth often emerges from encounters across boundaries — geographic, disciplinary, and cultural. Scholars from vastly different contexts are finding common ground in shared curiosity and purpose. People from all over come together to engage, to imagine better futures, and to build them together.

Optimism is the spark that fuels the work being done here. It’s the shared belief that new discoveries are still possible. It’s the force that bridges cultures and disciplines, the energy that turns questions into collaborations.

Both experiences (walking among ancient islands and exchanging ideas on graduate education in South Africa) remind me that when we approach the world with curiosity, courage, growth, and optimism even challenges of the unknown can be an adventure.