Saint Leo University's Captain Kirk

Value Proposition
Saint Leo University is Florida’s first Catholic university, but you don’t have to be Catholic to enroll. You do, however, have to be of good character, says Saint Leo President Art Kirk. All students, including those taking classes online, are exposed to Saint Leo’s core values. The values are written in numerous places, including a prominent display in the grand lobby of the university’s new $11-million Donald R. Tapia business school: “Excellence, Community, Respect, Personal Development, Responsible Stewardship, and Integrity.” Kirk says he considers those values whenever he makes a decision. “My ultimate vision for the place is 25 years from now that students come back to their reunion and talk about how they lived their life based on our core values,” he says. “The engineering we teach them or the computer science we teach them, those things are going to change. But the values, they’re forever.”