To reach adulthood is to become bumped and bruised at the very least, shattered and shuttered at the worst. “Hope,” as Emily Dickinson wrote, “is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul.” In its residence there, it allows us to dream of something better than we’re experiencing at the moment: better education, better health care, better lives.

That same hope allows us at the University of Tennessee to lift our heads and dream of answers to the question of what if.

What if a conversation over a cup of coffee could change everything?

What if we could look at the burned-out loss and imagine regrowth?

What if health-care treatment focused on the humans bearing the illnesses?

At the University of Tennessee, we’re doing more than dwelling in hope, dreaming of a new world filled with possibilities. We’re working to create that better world. In that work, hope no longer perches but soars above, leading the way.