The poet Mary Oliver asked the question that should animate every college student’s journey: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” At Franklin & Marshall College, that question deserves a dedicated place to be explored, tested, and ultimately answered. That place is the Curiosity Center.

The Curiosity Center will be a hub that unites orientation, advising, mentoring, design thinking, and early leadership development and that serves every F&M student from the moment they deposit to the moment they declare their major. The center will ensure that the transition from curiosity to career is coherent, intentional, supported, and seamless.

A major gift from Kelt Kindick ’76, P’07 will support the development and launch of the Curiosity Center at F&M. Kindick is a business executive and former member of F&M’s Leadership Council, and his support will give the Curiosity Center an exciting runway to be a transformative and signature part of the F&M student experience. 

“The Curiosity Center will give students a wider aperture and perspective for what they can do as students and in life after Franklin & Marshall,” said Kindick. “When we open that aperture for students and encourage them to think broadly while they still have time to pick courses and experiment, that makes a difference.”

Earlier this year, Brett Harwood ’71 and Dr. Larry Bonchek P’91 made gifts to support the Center’s initial planning.

“The Curiosity Center will fill a critical need at F&M at this important moment in higher education. When we empower students to explore what inspires them, we’re giving them immediate agency in their academic journeys,” said F&M President Andrew Rich. “I’m grateful to Kelt for his generous support of this new center and excited to develop and launch what will be a defining aspect of the F&M student experience.”

Housed in a dedicated space, the center will integrate pre-orientation, the first- and second-year student experience, early leadership development, and design-thinking workshops to help students develop a portfolio of work and formative experiences. Rather than forcing an early career focus or requiring students to navigate a maze of disconnected campus services, the Curiosity Center will offer a unified approach that prioritizes scholarship grounded in inquiry, iterative prototyping, and an inquisitive spirit — all while utilizing campus and Lancaster as a living laboratory.

"The Curiosity Center will give students a wider aperture and perspective for what they can do after Franklin & Marshall."

-  Kelt Kindick '76, P'07

When Curiosity Meets Agility

Kelt Kindick was accepted to the University of Pennsylvania but decided he wanted a rigorous small college instead. He attended F&M with plans for law school, but the popularity of the government program resulted in wait lists for upper-level courses. He took economics, math, and business courses until space opened up — and before he knew it, he was a senior finishing a business major and applying to grad programs. He received a deferred admittance to Harvard, with the requirement he’d gain work experience before enrolling.

Kindick worked for two years as a bank examiner with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation between F&M and Harvard Business School. Unexpectedly, he loved the job and made several lifelong friends.

Those unexpected pivots, first in his major and then for grad school, stuck with him. In the decades since, he’s often reflected that being open to more than one career path and gaining work experience before graduate school made him a better student and a more successful professional.

“I thrived at Harvard, and I give F&M and my professors a lot of credit for that,” said Kindick. He remembers business professor Robert Boldin, history professor Lou Athey, and physics and astronomy professor Michael Seeds, who became his mentors. He developed relationships with faculty that extended well beyond the classroom, even joining Seeds’ Superman-themed bowling league.

Kindick’s career included 45 years at Bain & Company, where he retired in 2025 as one of the firm’s longest tenured employees. He found the greatest satisfaction when tapped to tackle internal challenges, including a period in the early 1990s when the firm faced financial difficulties. He remembers attending a partners meeting led by his then-colleague and future Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, where he offered an uncomfortable solution to a problem when most in the room remained silent.

Romney was impressed by his initiative and asked him to run Bain & Company’s Boston office, the firm’s largest. When Romney was later elected governor, he appointed Kindick as the Commonwealth’s chief financial officer, tasking him with closing a deficit that went afoul of the state constitution.

Kindick returned to Bain & Company to serve clients, but on the eve of the 2008 financial crisis was soon appointed global chief financial officer. In each new opportunity, his approach to the work was to act as an operator, rather than simply a consultant. 

“I find being hands-on incredibly rewarding. When you make the decisions, you live with them. Hopefully you learn and get better,” said Kindick. “When you see the growth that comes out of hard work, you see opportunities for others, and you see your team and firm succeed.”

Meeting an Unprecedented Moment

Kindick currently chairs the governance, environment and public policy committee of Devon Energy. He previously had lead director roles at Devon, WPX Energy, and The Advisory Board. Looking back at his own career, he knows F&M gave him a foundation and a mindset that served him and his colleagues well. And looking forward, he sees critical thinking, exposure to a broad set of subjects, and risk-taking — all hallmarks of a Franklin & Marshall education — more valuable than ever before.

“One of the greatest strengths of a liberal arts education is that it opens doors students may not even know exist,” said Provost Sunita Kramer ’92. “The Curiosity Center will make exploration a more intentional part of the F&M experience, encouraging students to connect what they learn in the classroom with new experiences, ideas, and opportunities. We want students to leave F&M not only with a strong academic foundation, but with the curiosity and adaptability to continue learning and growing throughout their lives.”

With this new support, the Curiosity Center will begin developing in earnest and work toward a launch of pilot programs in time for the arrival of F&M’s Class of 2031.