Scott Saxman graduated from Ball State University’s Honors College and what is now the College of Health in 1981. He is retired from Eli Lilly and Company, where he was Senior Medical Director for Oncology, Global Medical Affairs. Here are Three Things To Know about Scott:
1. Scott’s experience at Ball State enabled him to “expand his horizon:” “I grew up mainly in small town Indiana (before the internet), so my understanding of people’s lives and experiences outside my little sphere was somewhat limited. The classes and professors at Ball State forced me to think and consider issues and ideas more broadly. I was also enrolled in the Honors College, so I was challenged to excel in ways that I had not been in the past. At Ball State I learned how to think, examine, and reason through problems rather than just commit subjects to memory. As I went on to post-graduate training and work experiences it was these skills that served me greatly in my personal life and career as a physician and cancer researcher.”
2. Coming from a family of Cardinals—his parents were both Ball State graduates in the 1950s—Scott knows the importance of reinvesting into the success of current and future students: “As someone who benefited over a lifetime from my years as a student at Ball State, I believe we all as alumni have a charge to ‘pay it forward’ to current and future students so that they can become the leaders of tomorrow. It is genuinely difficult for me to see how anyone could have had the experiences that Ball State provides and not feel the same way.”
3. Scott’s advice for future students to help them have a fulfilling career and meaningful lives? “Be a student of the world. Embrace challenges. Don’t be afraid to explore beyond the walls that people with parochial minds will erect to constrain you. Make use of opportunities to seek and examine contrasting viewpoints and discover the wondrous blessing of experiencing people that are diverse and different from yourself. Being made uncomfortable periodically and forced to examine your own identity and beliefs is one of life’s greatest journeys.”