Peter Atkin, 1998: First with the head, then with the heart

 Our March Academic Assembly speaker, Peter Atkin, Class of ’98, spoke to the students about the joys of goofing off. But, he said, you have to earn it.

A former lifer, head prefect and Pitcher Prize winner, Peter talked about his initial life ambition to be a ski bum. He understood, however, that doing only that would not be fulfilling. In fact, he cited a reference from The Power of One, a book he read at Stanstead: “First with the head, then with the heart.”

So he decided to follow the path that Stanstead College had led him to, namely studying Mechanical Engineering at Stanford. While he was there, he worked as hard as he could, in effect, earning the right to goof off, which he did, for three months in the middle of his studies.

“I travelled through Europe and hung out with completely different people and discovered so many completely different perspectives,” he said.

The hard work he had put in earlier guaranteed that, having proven himself, there would be a place waiting for him when he returned to school.

“My time away helped me realize what I was doing and why I was doing it. I realized that I wanted something meaningful to come out of my degree, something I could apply it to.”

This led Peter to his second point, namely not to let inertia take over your life. The easy thing to do is to keep to the path you’re on, in his case Mechanical Engineering, which would eventually have led him to designing and making “stuff.” Exploring different perspectives led him to the decision to divert his path towards engineering for sustainability.

Since then, Peter has worked for a number of non-profits, developing strategies for green buildings, even green airlines. Now he is developing strategies to help businesses respond to society’s increasing demands of environmental sustainability, including such ideas as finding ways for companies to make money by not selling things.

“We need to redesign our society from the ground up,” he said. “And there’s lots you can do right here to prepare yourself to face that challenge.”