[@Keksalot] You absolutely can be the narcissistic loose cannon director with grandiose delusions about his magical talent and who constantly reaches above his station.

All trolling aside, you can be whatever you want. But as I stated above magic is relatively new, so it won't exactly be the most awesome thing ever (but still pretty damn good!)
Students don't have a choice, so yes, you can have "fervent" and "devote" pupils who devote their lives to science and your teachings because they totally want to. Good luck keeping them all alive :D
Achieve greatness beyond it's walls you say? Hmmm... it won't be easy. It will be a long an arduous journey. Filled with [s]human[/s] sacrifice and danger. You want to know what's outside the walls? YOU CAN'T HANDLE WHAT'S OUTSIDE THE WALLS.

Hell from the looks of things, nobody can handle what's inside the walls.