Content in Portuguese.
This week we started surfing a new youth wave in Portugal: the annual wave that marks the beginning of more than 50,000 youths’ journey in higher education.
This August in Portugal, we surfed the world’s biggest wave. This wave was not in Nazaré, which holds the world wave record, but in Lisbon, where it arrived and lasted a whole week. It was an overwhelming wave of joy and goodwill, formed by a million youths from all over the world.
These youths came to Portugal as walkers and pilgrims for a new hope: the hope that the deepest humanity, that based on love for one’s neighbor and charity, will take root in the hearts of the young who will become the citizens and leaders of tomorrow. The joy, emotion, civility, and dedication witnessed throughout the days’[JA1] central moments were contagious and acted as a life lesson for those more “adult.”
This week we started surfing a new youth wave in Portugal. This wave, cyclic and smaller in size, but of no less importance, is the annual wave that marks the beginning of more than 50,000 youths’ journey in higher education and the entry of more than 50,000 youths into master’s and doctorate courses. There is no nobler task in a nation than that of educating the youth and preparing them for the future.
This is what we do at the Portuguese Catholic University. As director of Católica Lisbon, I had the pleasure this week of welcoming more than 1,000 new students to the undergraduate and master’s programs in Economy, Management, and Finance, half of whom were from Portugal and half from more than 40 countries worldwide. The joy and dedication of these young adults is contagious and represents a renewed hope that, through rigorous and humanistic training, these youths may become protagonists of positive change in society.
To arrive at this point and to gain admittance to Católica Lisbon, huge academic merit was required of these youths, as was the demonstration of great discipline throughout their secondary education and great potential. The noblest mission of a university is to work on this raw potential, develop it, and polish it into the brightest of jewels. This is done by training the mind through a rigorous education that allows students to develop the theoretical foundations that enable them to perceive the world and work on the reality around them in the service of others and the common good. It is also done by training their character in an ethical and action-orientated sense, through the resolution of concrete problems using innovative solutions. Lastly, it is done through a whole-person education aimed at developing self-knowledge and the ability to pursue a life with purpose in each student. Católica Lisbon’s motto is "Achieve Greatness," and from the first moment with our students we share with them that greatness is achieved when value is created for others, directly, systematically, sustainably, and at scale.
It is for this reason that we teach Economy, Management, and Finance. Knowing how to manage resources well, being able to develop and bring to the market innovative solutions, knowing how to intelligently invest financial resources in the activities that generate most value, knowing how to design and implement virtuous economic policies, and being able to inspire and lead others, mobilizing them around a common goal: these are among the most valuable skills in society today. And they are skills that enable the mobilization of the most powerful tool that humanity ever developed for attaining progress and well-being for all—the market economy, fed by private initiative, framed by the rule of law, regulated by independent technicians, and with the state providing access to public goods. When this economic structure is operated by informed, ethical, humanistic citizens focused on creating value, the results are without equal. The mission of management and economics schools that aspire to excellence, such as Católica Lisbon, is to work diligently and intelligently to train the younger generations, to launch brilliant careers, and to create new knowledge in management and economics that can make our economic system even more capable of generating prosperity and progress. In the words of Pope Francis, "Let us not be managers of fears but entrepreneurs of dreams!"
Filipe Santos, Dean da CATÓLICA-LISBON