View from here: Head of the class

As a 20-something in the late 1950s, all Joseph Sorrentino knew were the pool halls and gang life of Brooklyn. He flunked out of school four times, lost dozens of jobs and gained a criminal record that included time in a padded jail. The Marines booted him for mess hall rioting. And so Sorrentino took to street boxing. After one particularly bad bout, he passed a Brooklyn high school with a sign advertising for night school. “My only chance for a better life is through education,” he concluded.
Determined to rise above “the down side of life,” he channeled his street fighting energy toward learning instead. He went on to graduate from night school with its highest grade-point average. He enrolled in the University of California at Santa Barbara, became student body president and graduated magna cum laude. At age 30, after reenlisting in the Marines to repair his record, he became Harvard Law School’s valedictorian.
“I made the commitment that I was going to change my life,” Sorrentino observed, reflecting on his transformation in an interview. “Ultimately the spiritual resources of the individual are the most important elements of his destiny.”
This issue of Deseret Magazine examines America’s higher education crisis, exploring the ideas and highlighting the innovators making higher learning more affordable, accessible and responsive to the marketplace. But, like Sorrentino, this issue also examines the “spiritual resources” that so often sustain and drive transformative educational experiences.
The Rev. Que English writes about religious-based universities lifting community members toward greater prosperity, meaning and joy. In an interview with Ruth Okediji, Mariya Manzhos unpacks the Harvard Law professor’s unique embrace of both study and faith, while Elder Clark G. Gilbert and Shirley Hoostra provide the blueprint for why many religious institutions are seeing enrollment increases even amid gradual enrollment declines in higher education.
And in an interview with Deseret News executive editor Doug Wilks, the former governor of Indiana and emeritus president of Purdue University Mitch Daniels discusses what campuses can do to regain America’s trust. Stephen C. Rockefeller makes the case for building a spiritual foundation in a child’s education and Richard Vedder points out missing ingredients on college campuses. Looking at solutions, we profile 10 prominent voices in the higher education landscape seeking to make college more affordable, accessible and effective.
Finally, Lois M. Collins interviews one of America’s most prominent embodiments of publicly embracing both religious faith and science, Francis S. Collins, regarding life and his new book: “The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust.”
Changing American higher education and restoring faith in its ability to transform students’ lives is no easy road. During his valedictory speech at Harvard Law School, Sorrentino told an audience that included Henry Kissinger and a smattering of Kennedys that his “long journey to this honor” was “not what social scientists would have predicted.” He admonished the audience: “Do not look for love, tragedy or trauma” to explain his own personal metamorphosis. “It was simply resolution from within” and the reality that “in America such things are possible.” Whether this remains true today will be up to us.
This story appears in the September 2024 issue of Deseret Magazine. Learn more about how to subscribe.