“Then my story goes around to Tulane’s graduation, which is like no other graduation on Earth. It is really Tulane-oriented. This university is like no other because it emphasizes cross-disciplinary teaching and education. And being part of the city that it’s in—not seeing themselves as the anchor, but being part of it. Tulane is a leader in how institutions of higher education should be.”

BILL: “When people say that New Orleans or Tulane is not like anything else, people immediately think of Mardi Gras, crawfish, Jazz Fest, but that’s not what it is. There’s a whole deeper level that you get by attending the university.

“Kudos to Tulane for being one of the only universities I’m aware of that actually mandates a service requirement. When my daughter did her service requirements, she chose to coach a [New Orleans middle school] debate team, and she had no idea what she was doing, but she caught on really quick. It had a storybook ending because they won their competition, and they had no experience prior to that. So they did really well, but the more important part was that just having the service requirement and being exposed to something outside of Tulane and something bigger than yourself. And I guess that’s what family is, right? You’re a component of something that’s bigger than yourself.”