David Southern ’73

Antioch College Class of 1973

Studied Psychology

Preferred Pronouns are He/Him

Bio- Tell us about your self

Graduating high school in the late 1960’s surrounded by the San Francisco Psychedelic Rock Scene left me open minded and very into “experiential” learning. Returning to Ohio (the state I left when I was five years old) to attend Antioch, was an eye opening reminder of why I was glad to have been raised in California. From an Antioch Fortran programming class I took, my career focus shifted from Psychology to Finance and with an MBA from UC Berkeley I worked Finance jobs in various Biotechnology companies from the early industry days to most recently. It has been a privilege to watch the industry grow-up and I remain deeply interested in watching science and technology evolve as the pace of change accelerates. There was naturally some political activism along the way, from the anti-Vietnam war protests to protesting racial discrimination in San Francisco’s gay bars during the late 1970’s and, thanks to the President, I’ve recommitted to expressing my Antioch values in political actions. With retirement, has come some free time. With it, I am honing my writing skills so I can influence the world in new ways, and exercise the non-numerical side of my brain at the same time!

How did Antioch College’s Co-op program prepare you for work life?

The most important thing I learned from co-op was that I could go somewhere I had never been, find a place to live, start and succeed at a new job and survive. In some ways it made you fearless, and after graduate school I had no concerns about taking self-guided 3 week vacations by myself to new overseas countries where I didn’t speak the language. The experience made you self-reliant and independent. Learning and completing multiple jobs in three month stints also endowed one with the wisdom that failure was not the end of the world but still a learning experience. (Early Silicon Valley thinking).

How did your Antioch experience prepare you for life?

I felt that my professors took me seriously, even if some of the ideas I wanted to explore and write about were a little odd in retrospect. It gave me confidence to reach-out to people I might never had had the confidence to approach. And if there was no response, I didn’t take it personally. My Psychology training taught me to look at situations with empathy and for motivation in context, which was a great help in my management career.It taught me that failure was a learning experience, and you just needed to get up and continue on.

What does our charge to “win a victory for humanity” mean to you?

It means taking action to care for your community, your country, respecting the environment, fighting to support the less advantaged and the marginalized, and working towards human rights and the respect and dignity of every individual everywhere. The work will never be completed, but we have an obligation to try.