Who is Viktor Frankl? Viktor Frankl is a world-renowned psychiatrist who endured several years of horror in Nazi death camps. His wife, father, mother and brother all died in the concentration camps, but he survived.

I read his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” last summer, and I have bought into his philosophy. This philosophy centers on the concept that anyone can survive any situation or circumstance as long as the person’s focus is on his or her principles.

Obviously, many of us will never experience the dehumanizing horror Frankl went through in the Nazi camps.

He was stripped of his family, his work and his humanity; his name was a number: 119,104. But through this experience, he developed a way of thinking that enabled him to remain human amid the dehumanizing conditions. Even though some of his friends and family committed suicide, he survived. His story and the lessons learned from his experiences can help us survive the little challenges we face as college students.

According to Frankl and so many other thinkers, the only thing that is predictable is our principles. Therefore, by focusing on our principles, we can build our character and happiness on a foundation that never changes. A character built on such a solid foundation over time can resist any inequitable act, misunderstanding, racist comment, tragedy or any other unpredictable factor.

Frankl also says these principles should be guided by love for our neighbors and the people around us. “I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and is love,” Frankl said. He came to this introspective revelation after walking miles in the cold to begin another day of forced labor.

There is scientific evidence to back up Frankl’s philosophy. A 2002 study of AIDS patients that was published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine concluded that the most religious patients had the lowest levels of cortisol, a stress hormone associated with the disease. This ultimately led to longer survival for the patients involved. Most religions, if practiced the right way, are based on principles of love for one’s neighbors.

A 2004 study at the University of Iowa concluded that there was a link between church attendance and living longer. It is not surprising that millions of people around the world find solace in so many different religions and benefit as a result of their beliefs. The focus of religion is on principles, and, as a result, people can pray away problems that are not within their control and focus on those principles.

With the physical and mental hardships Frankl went through, one would have expected him to have health problems. He didn’t; he lived to be 92.

I read a lot of books now, thanks to my dad. When we were younger, my dad used to give my siblings and me a lot of books to read. I never read most of them. Last summer, I brought out all of them and read them. I went to the bookstore to buy the ones I didn’t have anymore. Most of them said the same thing about being principle-centered.

I started school at Iowa State when I was 16 years old (a month from being 17), and I have to admit that I denied many of the problems I went through, and, in some cases, internalized the ignorant belief of some people that Africans are somehow inferior.

There are some of my friends who still internalize these beliefs and lie about where they are from and try not to associate themselves with Africans. There is one statement I can offer to them for dealing with this ignorance: “It’s your principles, stupid.”