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IT’S ALMOST BACK-TO-SCHOOL TIME…
--as Motto Magazine Releases its First Annual Top Ten List—
‘The 10 Best College Mottos’

From Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney to Mister Rogers and Donald Trump—
How Influenced Were They by Their College Mottos??

(New York; July 30, 2007) Just as the gates are poised to open in institutions of higher learning from coast to coast, Motto Magazine, the national magazine of “Work with Purpose, Passion and Profit” (www.whatsyourmotto.com) is releasing it’s first annual “Top 10 Motto List,” featuring some well known and some not-so-well known College Mottos. The magazine editors pored through hundreds in choosing ‘The 10 Best College Mottos.’ According to Motto co-founder and former Wall Street Journal editor, Kevin Salwen, the question of how influenced the famous graduates cited here were by the mottos of their alma maters is “subject to your interpretation.”

1. Cornell University: Motto: “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study”

An interesting collection of doctors found their instruction in study here at Cornell:

* Henry Heimlich, who created The Manuever;
* Benjamin Spock, the baby doctor;
* Dr. Atkins, who can make you skinny until you crave carbs again
* And our personal favorite: Dr. James Maas, who coined the term "power nap.”

2. Brown University: Motto: “In God we hope”

* We love the “hope” element of the motto. Not trust, but hope. And the great thing about Brown is that the students there make things happen. For instance, take the Naked Donut Run. At the end of each semester, student groups walk naked through the libraries offering donuts to students who are studying.

3. Wellesley College: Motto: “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister”

* We think this motto pretty aptly describes Hillary Clinton’s aspiration, given the secular meaning for “minister” is “a high officer of state.” Prior to attending Yale Law School, where she was to meet her future husband, Hillary Rodham graduated from Wellesley, where she became the first student commencement speaker at the college.

4. Stanford University: Motto: “The wind of freedom blows”

* The Internet is not only free, but it has triggered a sense of freedom everywhere. The father of the Internet, Vint Cerf, is a Stanford alum, as are the Google guys, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
* Alumnus Ray Dolby’s sound-reduction system set us free from hissing noises in our recordings.
* And actress Reese Witherspoon felt the winds of freedom in her own way—Dropping out before graduation!

5. University of Pennsylvania: Motto: “Laws without morals are useless”

* The school got off to a great start with that motto; remember that it was founded by Benjamin Franklin.
* Even today, with Warren Buffett as a grad, it’s doing well on the moral scale.
* Of course, some might like to fire graduate Donald Trump from the list of the truly moral?

6. Seton Hall University: Motto: “Whatever risk, yet go forward”

* At least one graduate went a bit too far “forward” with his risk-taking at this New Jersey university: That would be former Tyco CEO and convicted felon Dennis Kozlowski.
* The school’s other famous alumni include a couple of big-time risk takers, including ESPN announcer and annoyance Dick Vitale, Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg, and magician-mental spoonbender, the Amazing Kreskin (who at school was George Joseph Kresge Jr.).

7. Dartmouth College: Motto: “A voice of one crying out in the wilderness.”

* A voice of one alum was mighty soothing to hundreds of millions of American children: TV host Mister Rogers, who brought the calm of a minister to children’s TV.
* But another voice is much less docile: Conservative yakker Laura Ingraham.

8. Carnegie-Mellon University: Motto: “My heart is in the work”
(Took Andrew Carnegie’s phrase as its motto)

* Clearly that was true in the case of artist alum Andy Warhol.
* But fellow alum movie director George Romero may have taken the motto too literally when he gave us real ripped out hearts in his work “Night of the Living Dead” and its even gorier sequels.

9. Clark Atlanta University: Motto: “I’ll find a way or make one”

* That’s perfect for civil rights activist Ralph David Abernathy, a close friend of Martin Luther King’s.
* And, for 4’3” Emmanuel Lewis, who despite his size became a famous actor on the sitcom “Webster.”

10. Brigham Young University: Motto: “Rethinking education”

* Mitt Romney got his BA from this renowned Mormon University, where he was Valedictorian. Rethinking…hmmm…is that like flip-flopping? (Some people say Mitt’s been “rethinking” abortion and gay rights issues since announcing his Presidential candidacy…)

And honorable mentions to:

Amherst College: Motto: “Let them give light to the world”

* Three alumni who arguably did that are dictionary creator Noah Webster, Nobel Prize winner for physics Henry Way Kendall (who helped found the Union of Concerned Scientists), and our favorite, frozen food god, Clarence Birdseye.
* Then there was Melvil Dewey, the man who probably gave less light to libraries than anyone through his Dewey Decimal System. (Where’s that biography again?)

Washington and Lee University: Motto: “Not unmindful of the future”

* This Virginia school was plenty unmindful of the future when it started as Liberty Hall Academy, but then needed a bailout from George Washington to stay afloat. It then saw the future by throwing together the post Civil War North and South with Robert E. Lee as its president starting in 1870.
* W+L might be “not unmindful of the future” but many of its students may have a fuzzy recollection of the past: It was ranked by one college publication as 2nd in prevalence of beer and 4th in hard liquor.

Yale University: Motto: “Light and truth”

* Dick Cheney attended, then dropped out of this esteemed institution, then attended the University of Wyoming, which doesn’t have a motto, but its nickname is “cowboys and cowgirls.”

Harvard University: Motto: “Truth”

This is a shortened version of the original motto which was “Truth…for Christ and the Church.” (Okay, not such a creative motto, but many illustrious graduates!)

* Former presidential wannabe, Ralph Nader, is a Harvard graduate who some say adheres to the motto, “Truth…at any cost.”
* Harvard boasts seven U.S. presidents on its alumni roster, including FDR, JFL and George W. Bush. Were they all influenced by the university’s motto? You decide!

Motto magazine was launched in November by co-founders Kevin Salwen and Anita Sharpe, both formerly of the Wall Street Journal. Most recently, Salwen served as the national small business editor for the newspaper, while Sharpe was an investigative reporter, earning the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for her investigative reporting.

Motto serves a fast-growing group of professionals eager to find more meaning and passion in their work lives. Motto helps individuals and businesses infuse heart and soul into their work in a way that is absent from any other business magazine. In addition, www.whatsyourmotto.com is a top online destination for professionals who want to build a community around their quest for work with a soul. Motto is sold at major bookstores, including Barnes and Noble and Borders, as well as Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and Staples stores.