"I think we’ve been very wrong about the reasons for going to college. … How many of you think you are going to college to get a job? Or to be a more qualified and therefore expect a better salary? And how many of you are pursuing a degree in something you love, something you lose yourself in, just because it brings you intellectual and emotional pleasure?" Leah Batstone is a musicologist focusing on the intersections of music and social and political change, with expertise in fin-de-siècle Austria and 20th-century Ukraine. Her doctorate was completed at McGill University in 2019 and her dissertation examined the relationship between composer Gustav Mahler and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In 2015-16, she was the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship for dissertation research in Vienna. Her work has also been supported by the Center for Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center and the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko. She serves on the editorial board of Artistic Culture Topical Issues, the journal of the Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, and is a member of the Gustav Mahler Society of New York. She teaches music history at Hunter College. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx