As a student at Washington University, it’s kind of hard not to feel Dean James McLeod’s impact. His influence is everywhere—in our classrooms, in our administration and even in our residence halls. There are countless things that he did to make this university the incredible place it is today, but one thing in particular that Dean McLeod said will stick with me no matter where I go. It is something that I hope will affect my life philosophy for years to come.

In his Strategic Plan for Undergraduate Education, Dean McLeod said that the University’s mission to undergraduates is: “To build and sustain an undergraduate experience of exceptional quality where students, known by name and story, prepare themselves for lives of purpose and meaning.”

As an RA, I hear this phrase ad infinitum, but it stuck. Names are easy. I tried to know all of my residents’ names before the second day of orientation, and I think I got them pretty rapidly. The same goes for those of other folks I’ve met during my time at Wash. U. Of course, there are those brain farts when I see someone’s face that I know well and, no matter the effort, can’t dredge a name out of my brain — but putting a face to a name is something at which I think I’m generally proficient.

The stories of people are far more difficult. Do you know how much time it takes to get to know a floor of 40 freshmen?! And not just know them by acknowledging what schools they’re in, or where they’re from, but to know what they like and don’t like, what makes them laugh, what upsets them. Add to that my residents from last year and then to that the group of acquaintances I’ve made over the last three years. For all of us, these numbers are practically impossible to grasp. Look at your Facebook friends; how many of them do you actually know? How many more do you just brush past in the DUC every day, with barely a hint of acknowledgement?

I never knew Dean McLeod besides a friendly “Hello” around campus, the same kind of “Hello” that I give plenty of my fellow students. It’s a “Hello” to which I don’t want to be tied. The task to go beyond “Hello” with everyone we know is nothing short of Sisyphean But I want to make the effort. I’m as overcommitted as the next person, but I want to make it a goal in my senior year to make time for others, friends and acquaintances, and to get to know them—not just by name, but by their story.

In an email, Associate Dean of Students Jill Stratton said that Dean McLeod believed wholeheartedly in the “power of personal relationships” at our university. We cannot support ourselves alone. It is only through our interactions with friends, teachers, administrators, advisors, coworkers, and classmates that we can truly achieve our full potential. We do not only rely on this support system, we are a part of it; and we can strengthen it further by reaching out to those that we know by name and finding out their story, too.