Daniel Porterfield, now president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, served as president of Franklin & Marshall College from 2011 – 2018. During his tenure, F&M, a private liberal arts college in rural Pennsylvania, significantly increased civic outreach and student access, all while strengthening academic excellence. Porterfield came to the post with an impressive history: professor at Georgetown University, speechwriter in the Clinton Administration, teacher and community activist. By all accounts, his leadership at F&M was transformative. Porterfield has been an effective and consistent champion of the power of education to transform and uplift for decades.
In 2024, Porterfield wrote Mindset Matters: The Power of College to Activate Lifelong Growth. It is an unusual book for a former college president, because fundamentally, it is neither about his leadership nor his institution. The focus is students. One of the most impressive features of Mindset Matters is that Porterfield is most interested in students and their journeys, not the structures or organizations around them. His frame of mind – and not just his mindset – makes this work special.
In the early 2000s, psychologist Carol Dweck popularized concepts that emerged from her research – growth mindsets and fixed mindsets. The study and application of mindset thinking has expanded ever since. More than temperament or personality, mindsets help us understand how people approach life and life’s major questions. Are they drawn to change, learning, growth and improvement? Or do see the world, and themselves, in more concrete terms? Porterfield, like many in the field of education, embraces and champions a growth mindset. He believes that developing growth mindsets should be an aim of education at every level. His book provides a framework for understanding growth mindsets. The histories of the F&M students are the evidence, examples, and proof. Pulling it all together is Porterfield’s affirmation of higher education. He wants the public to look closely at “the real learning of real students today.”
Porterfield identifies five general types of growth mindsets. Not mutually exclusive, the categories are akin to general tendencies that frame a person’s underlying direction. They are as much about self-identity as they are about action. College, by the nature of who it educates and its function of crafting young adults with skills and purpose, has a massive impact on this process. More than messaging and framing, comprehending and activating a growth mindset is ultimately about a person’s self-realization and activation. When institutions, programs and peers aid in that growth, the outcomes can be amazing. That is at the core of Mindset Matters.
The “Discovery Mindset” promotes restless curiosity. It is drawn to ambiguity, to question, and to embrace lifelong learning. Faculty are vitally important in facilitating that drive, Porterfield asserts, making sure that learning is active and ongoing. The accounts of F&M students are powerful, moving from college into graduate programs and careers that call for inquiry and change. The “Mindset for Creation” propels students to imagine, to make (often with others), and to develop a voice. F&M students illustrating this mindset are drawn to the creative arts, yet also build organizations, code apps, and build agency. They are makers.
The “Mindset for Mentorship” is based on learning, learning how to learn, and ultimately on learning how to help others learn. Mentoring, into Porterfield’s eyes, is more than helping. It is about enhancing and deepening relationships and community. The “Collaboration” mindset takes that approach further. Students who evidence it are organizers, leaders and doers. The “Mindset for Striving” is about making self-challenge a personal choice and value. A college education can help a student direct and identify that desire, giving students support and intentionality.
Porterfield pulls together these students’ stories with the mindsets, emphasizing how the college, its dedicated faculty, and overall culture and practice facilitated mindset growth. It is admirable, compelling, and the narrative makes us cheer for the students and their growth.
Not stated, but obvious to anyone who has worked in higher education for any length of time, Porterfield has an extraordinary ability to connect with students. The student accounts in Mindset Matters were drawn from interviews and discussion, but more importantly, from Porterfield’s own values. He deeply cares and truly sees the students as the story. I am certain that Porterfield has scores more student stories, too. He is that kind of educator and person.
That observation, though unstated, is one of the most relevant takeaways from Mindset Matters and what higher education can do. The intelligence and hard work of the faculty, the resources for research, study and collaboration, the curiosity and ambition of the students are all essential parts of the recipe. But without an institution of higher education that is fully committed to seeing and believing its students are people with agency, power and true potential, transformative student success is not possible. This unwavering sense of student as colleague in the learning process, as fellow human being on a journey of growth, is what stands out in Porterfield’s work and his book. We would all be well served to take that message to our colleges, universities, classrooms and labs.
David Potash