I'll bring colleges and industry together to develop new products

Hear the words of Gina Raimondo, spoken with the urgency of a leader who sees her people in need: “I'll bring colleges and industry together to develop new products in marine science, green technology, and medical devices, and to train our workers to fill those jobs... We need to get Rhode Islanders back to work.” In this call resounds not only the voice of a governor, but the cry of one who longs to weave together the powers of learning and labor, so that the land and its people might flourish. She names three pillars of hope—marine science, green technology, and medical devices—fields not only of profit but of service to humanity, where innovation meets necessity.

The origin of this statement lies in the struggles of Rhode Island, a small state with a proud history of industry and independence, yet struck by the economic storms of the modern age. Factories closed, jobs vanished, and workers stood idle. Raimondo, inheriting this challenge, declared that the answer was not despair but transformation. By uniting colleges and industry, she sought to forge a new covenant: knowledge would not remain cloistered in halls of learning, nor would industry stand alone in pursuit of profit. Instead, they would labor together, to create new products, new opportunities, and a new future.

The ancients would have understood such wisdom. In Athens, the philosophers and craftsmen worked side by side: the Academy taught ideas, but the shipwright and the bronze-smith turned those ideas into vessels and weapons. In Rome, engineers and scholars joined their gifts to build aqueducts and roads that endure to this day. Raimondo’s vision stands within this tradition: that the greatness of a people is born when the mind of the scholar joins with the hand of the worker, and together they shape tools that serve both prosperity and the common good.

Consider the story of America’s own transformation during World War II. When the nation was threatened, universities, industries, and governments joined in common cause. The result was an explosion of innovation: radar, new medicines, advanced manufacturing, and technologies that later served peace as much as they had served war. The collaboration Raimondo envisions is born from the same principle—that when knowledge and labor stand apart, progress is slow; but when they unite, the impossible becomes possible.

The meaning of her words is deeply motivational: to lift the eyes of workers from despair to hope, and to remind scholars that their knowledge finds its highest purpose when applied to the needs of society. Marine science guards the seas that feed us. Green technology shields the earth that sustains us. Medical devices heal the bodies that carry us. In these three pursuits, Raimondo identifies not only sources of jobs but sources of dignity, reminding her people that their labor can heal the world even as it supports their families.

The lesson for us is clear: when faced with hardship, do not cling only to the past, but turn boldly toward the future. Education and industry must not remain estranged, for alone they are incomplete. Together they form the seedbed of innovation, the forge of opportunity. Just as Raimondo sought to rebuild Rhode Island by uniting these forces, so too must every community seek to bind knowledge and labor into a single thread.

Practical action flows from this teaching. Support collaboration between schools and local industries, so that education prepares workers for the jobs that truly exist. Encourage policies that invest in sustainable technologies and in healthcare innovations, not merely for profit but for the benefit of humanity. And as individuals, pursue skills that bridge learning and practice, refusing to stand idle in an age that cries out for builders, healers, and innovators.

Thus Raimondo’s words echo beyond her state to all people: the path to renewal lies in unity—between knowledge and labor, between past and future, between hope and effort. Let us, then, take up her vision, and work as one to create a world where progress is not only measured in wealth, but in the dignity of workers, the health of the earth, and the well-being of all humankind. For in this, the true labor of generations is fulfilled.