Why "Emerson"?

The Emerson Center (now Emerson Center Apartments) and Emerson Legacy Endowment were named for Ralph Waldo Emerson,  who believed in trusting one’s inner voice and judgment.

He celebrated the innate capacity of each person to shape one’s destiny, believing that every individual contains vast, inherent worth and creative power. 

Emerson championed intellectual independence and resistance to social pressure, encouraging people to develop original thought and personal moral strength. 

Above all, he placed moral and artistic authority in intuitive insight rather than external doctrine.