Receiving a national medal was a tremendous accolade for Andy Viterbi, but it’s nothing new for Trojans. Over the last three years, our alumni and faculty have been frequent guests at the White House. In 2007, USC Distinguished Professor Morten Lauridsen – a three-time alumnus, and a longtime professor in the Thornton School of Music – became the first USC faculty member to receive the National Medal of Arts. In 2006, USC University Professor and California State Librarian Emeritus Kevin Starr received the National Humanities Medal. We believe this is the first time that a university has ever laid claim to consecutive medals in the arts, the humanities and the sciences.

Trojans also earned their share of medals at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Last August, 40 athletes with USC ties competed in the Olympics, bringing home 21 medals. If USC athletes had competed as a country, they would have placed 13th in the overall medal standings and tied for eighth in the number of gold medals. You can read more about our amazing Olympians on page 14 of this issue.

These achievements are a testament to the talent, skill and drive of USC’s students, faculty and alumni. But these accomplishments also reveal something inherent in the Trojan Family. We believe in going for the gold, in aiming for the top, in capturing the prize. Whether it’s a Heisman Trophy, a Nobel Prize or the top of the best-seller list, the Trojan mindset might best be summed up by the words of President Teddy Roosevelt, who said, “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

Trojans do not live in the “grey twilight.” We expect our students, faculty and alumni to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs. We expect them to be captains of industry and champions of social justice. We believe they will succeed in the public sector and in private business. We know that they will literally heal the sick and help the blind to see.

In every field and every profession, people know that success breeds success. During our record-setting Building on Excellence campaign, USC trustee Ken Leventhal had a mantra. He said, “Everyone loves a winner.”

We witness abundant evidence of this. People love to support a university such as USC whose reputation is on the rise around the nation and throughout the world. They want to assist a university that was named as one of 10 “dream colleges” in a Princeton Review survey of college applicants. Students want to attend a university that recently was named by Forbes.com as one of “10 great schools for networking.” People want to invest in a university that was ranked among the top three “up-and-coming national universities” by U.S. News & World Report for innovation in academics, faculty, students, campus life, diversity and facilities.

Everyone loves a winner. Whether it’s a national medal or Olympic gold, Trojans believe that reaching for excellence is their mandate. I hope, like me, you continue to be inspired by the prodigious accomplishments of the extraordinary members of our extraordinary Trojan Family.