Spontaneous applause greeted Nelu Nedelea, Ph.D., as he entered the Keene Seventh-day Adventist Church for his Oct. 6 inauguration as the 27th president of Southwestern Adventist University (SWAU). 

In his address, “No One Runs Alone,” Nedelea invited the university community to help students face an uncertain future with knowledge, faith, and a commitment to serving others.

“We cannot give them a perfect map,” Nedelea said. “We cannot make their choices for them.” What educators can do, he explained, is run beside students, continuing to learn themselves while preparing young people to excel without losing their identity.

“Running fast is not the same as running in the right direction.”

Nedelea illustrated that responsibility through the partnership between blind sprinter David Brown and his guide, Jerome Avery. Connected by a short tether, the runners would coordinate their movements, trusting one another. For Nedelea, that tether represents the support students receive from teachers, staff, families, churches, donors, and friends—and support they eventually extend to others.

Nedelea’s own journey shows how consequential that support can be. At 14, he was struggling in a vocational boarding school in Romania, where his parents had sent him to prepare for a secure future as an electrician. Away from family and facing a harsh environment, he prayed, asking why he was there.

After his mother repeatedly dreamed that she should move him to an Adventist academy, she acted. Teachers, pastors, administrators, and friends then helped nurture his faith and create opportunities he could not yet imagine.

“Without Adventist education, I would not be standing here today,” he said.

Nedelea shared that his experience as a teenager shaped his understanding of the university’s responsibility. Educators cannot change a human heart, he explained, but they can make room for God to work by teaching, challenging, listening, praying, and loving. Sometimes that begins with noticing a struggling student or taking a few extra minutes to ask whether someone is okay.

The congregation broke into spontaneous applause again when Nedelea became visibly emotional while thanking his wife and daughters for accompanying him through moves, difficult decisions, and new beginnings. The moment gave a personal expression to his message: He, too, depends on people running beside him.

As he looked toward his presidency, Nedelea acknowledged that he would make mistakes and need counsel, prayer, and honest feedback. He pledged to listen, keep learning, and seek God’s direction while maintaining Christ at the center of the university. 

“I know this presidency does not belong to me,” he said. “It has been entrusted to me.”