Letter from the president
By Darron Collins ’92
Each time I’ve addressed an audience across the past 13 years, I’ve introduced myself as, “Darron Collins, an alumnus and the president of College of the Atlantic.” Beginning July 1 of this year I’ll go back to introducing myself simply as, “Darron Collins, an alumnus of College of the Atlantic.” These 13 years have been outstanding: ultimately challenging and with great personal and professional rewards. Just like the family of COA President Steve Katona when I was a student, the elements of my family got the chance to become part of the COA family. Collectively, we both helped shape and were shaped through the dance we did with this tremendous educational institution.
“Navigating Change” is a perfectly appropriate metaphor for the last opening letter I will pen for COA Magazine. We love our maritime metaphors at COA—maps, compasses, sextants, and the like—and this one is particularly rich and inspired me more than a few times to yell over to Dan and the editorial desk to ask for more space. With plenty of ink by or about me in this edition, he appropriately told me to keep it short, so, consider this interpretation and tactic for doing such navigation.
Between my sophomore and junior year in high school I did a stint building fences out in the high desert of Idaho with the Student Conservation Association. My trip leader quickly became a mentor to me during and after my fence building. But at one point late in the trip he caught me just standing around and screamed at me, “WHY in God’s name are you just standing there when we have miles of this stuff to build,” and my response was that I didn’t know what needed to be done next.
“Sometimes, Darron, you just need to pick up a tool and have a go at it.”
That stuck, and that kind of having a go at things has since been a part of how I’ve moved through the world. Fast forward to my recent experiences volunteering on the Bar Harbor Fire Department and the winter of 2022 when the hotel across the street from the college went up in flames. Building on fire. Things to do. Pick up tool. Have a go. And just as I did I felt a large hand on my collar and a verbal and physical call for restraint: “Collins you stand here and don’t move a muscle until I tell you to.”
When managing flames and highly flammable things, such freelancing is highly frowned upon. It turns out, in a perfect example of life-long learning, that navigating change requires knowing when to just have a go at it and when to stand at attention and be ready to respond to commands; requires balancing innovation with expertise; requires individual initiative and effective collaboration.
The pages of this magazine tell stories of navigation and of change, from students and alums and friends from the distant past and this year. They tell the story of our own Ship of Theseus, and how we navigate all the while replacing the planks on the high seas. I think you will be both entertained and edified, and will come away with a better understanding of who we are and what we do. Enjoy.
Darron
