ASU Research E-Magazine: Letters From the World

Mark Rentz corresponds with world leaders on a regular basis. Each of those leaders completed at least a portion of their education at American universities. Following are snippets from just two of the many essays and letters Rentz has received.

Dear Mark…

In April of 1955, I went to Durham, N.C., to start college studies at Duke University. From an English course in a summer high school, I went through freshman studies at Duke. I earned bachelor's and master's degrees in agricultural engineering and economics at North Carolina State. I earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago. From a 17-year-old Panamanian, I ended up nine years later as a young man with three degrees, a wife, and two children.

Those were pleasant years of discovery, new challenges, hard work, and personal consolidation. I consider myself very fortunate to have studied in Ameican universities. I have no doubt that American universities provide the best environment in the world as learning institutions and as a living experience for personal growth.

I had excellent opportunities throughout. I had good professors most of the time and made very good friends along the way. Many of those personal and professional friendships continue to this date.

From the perspective of a professional career dedicated to nation building and development, I summarize four key ingredients as indispensable for human development: loving care; discipline; participation; and high standards. All these ingredients were present in college life as I knew it. Perhaps the topnotch, dedicated student succeeds anywhere, but the average student needs a more stimulating environment. The environment provided to the average college student in the United States increases the likelihood of his success...

Through my years of university study in the United States, I learned more about my culture, my country, and myself. By learning about other cultures, one becomes more independent and detached about one's own.—Dr. Nicolas Ardito Barletta, president of Panama

Dear Mark…

When I got to the University of Chicago, I found I was confronted with a university of the highest quality, where the students were very competitive, where the academic standards were extraordinarily high, and where the level of stimulation was unbelievably high… Socratic dialog was in full force and effect at the law school. It was extraordinarily rigorous. I never had expected that an educational experience of that sort would have such a profound effect on my outlook on life.

I think you can say without any exaggeration that the educational opportunity I had in the United States had a pretty profound impact on my political career. Quite possibly, I would have had no political career but for that education. Furthermore, it helped me in that political career by virtue of the contacts I had with people in other countries. I think that academics tend to think internationally more easily than law practitioners. I found that when New Zealand got into a profound dispute with the United States over New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy, I was the one who came to Washington to negotiate with the State Department to see if we could bridge that gap.

From the point of view of graduate education, that's where the American universities excel... The essence of it for me was exposure to first rate professors who had really something to teach of lasting value. It was an intellectual experience. Living in America is certainly a diverting and interesting thing to do. But that is secondary to the intellectual value of the education itself.

America can make a tremendous investment internationally through education. In this way, it can have profound influence in the world. I would never have become Prime Minister of New Zealand had I not studied at the University of Chicago.—Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former prime minister of New Zealand