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The Three Core Competencies of a Whigham School Graduate · The Whigham School Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: All right, hello everyone.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is Steve Wiggum with the Wiggams School.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Also got with me our Chief Academic Officer Jeremy Patterson.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we wanted to have a conversation today and share with you some of the things that were that are behind the scenes when it comes to how we're putting together the Wiggham School program.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_03: Jeremy, glad you're here.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: Good to t good to talk with you about this.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm very excited about the the topic we said we were going to discuss.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because I think everybody can understand it and get excited about it.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think the people understand the whole structure of what the academics looks like for the school.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Everything, all the small parts will fit together so much more nicely.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why these we're emphasizing certain things in our program and not necessarily de-emphasizing other things, but just making sure we're concentrating on certain really key competencies that we want the students to pick up.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: So what I wanted to do is kind of set up the major program and we can break it down and have a conversation about each one of these.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: But uh there are really three parts to this subcompetency program for the Brigham School.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: It is that we want them to have a wonderful understanding of global realities, cultures, things that are happening in other parts of the world.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we do have so much traveling.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Global leadership is a we want them to be able to do something with the knowledge that they have.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna give them the skills that they can actually act on things that they see that need to be acted upon.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the third thing we're trying to do also is give them a sense of global improvement, which is actually how can they make the world a better place?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: We want to give them that sensibility and those skills to be able to see those things and find solutions for problems that they see throughout the world.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's those bounce of those three.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is that how you see it, Jeremy?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: Since you showed me the Venn diagram that lays that out, I knew from then on, I knew exactly what we were doing.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: Academic program.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, of course, we have, you know, learning objectives for each course of the program.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: We have core values and everything, but that Venn diagram, those three values or three competencies that you just mentioned of the global understanding, global leadership, global improvement, that sums it up.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm showing that to you right now, even though we can't see it as we're talking about it, the audience will be seeing it.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we're we're glad for that.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So let's break it down.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about global understanding.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'd like for you just to give your perspective on what that means for the student and what we're ultimately trying to accomplish with global understanding.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: So, global understanding, first of all, I would say that a a lot of master's programs, that's that's pretty much what they're gonna be about.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: Whether you're talking about a master's program in political science or or language or history or or even business, it's gonna be about that understanding, you know, imparting academic knowledge, and that's important.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: But we want we want to complete that picture with the other two.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: So the global understanding, though, because it is so important, we're we're covering multiple disciplines in our master's program, Global Studies.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: It so it's interdisciplinary because we we want our students to have some of all the different disciplines that I mentioned.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: So our students study languages.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's a that's a piece of it.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you have to know language if you're really gonna be a global leader.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_03: If you have to know languages, plural.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: But we also cover history, sociology, culture, even religions and politics from the different countries that students will be going to.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's all those forces that kind of create value, uh how they how they set their own values and the things that are important to them and their culture that we're trying to really emphasize.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I want us to have a conversation separately on languages, but just want you to go a little bit deeper on why you think it's such a critical part of global understanding.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Powell Our students learn for the most part, they're going to be learning four languages, at least to an intermediate level, right?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: And so an intermediate level, that means that they're able to do something with it.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: They can do some conversation, they can get around.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: Because by understanding language, you start to understand people and their culture and how they think.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: You you can go, you can live in a country, you can get a master's in a country, you can work in a country and think you understand it, but until you get the language, to some extent, you don't really fully understand the people.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: People don't want to understand that because it's easier not to learn another language.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: I know it's hard and time consuming to learn a language.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: We've all used the apps to some extent, right?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: And you can get a long street going and still be a total novice, unfortunately, because it's it's work.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: So we want to think, well, you know, there's something deeper than that that, you know, and you don't have to have the language to really understand the people.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: But think about it this way.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: Think about when people come to your culture in our context, you know, when people come to the US, we a lot of times kind of want them to learn English and use our language.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's a normal human reaction in every every culture because it's true.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: So if I lived in Poland, I'd want people to speak Polish around me, right?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that's a very common worldwide phenomenon, not necessarily an American one.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's important for all of us to remember.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's why as we travel the world, you know, because we're going to go to six continents, 40 plus countries, but there are four specific languages that we're going to to train these students into.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh they are Spanish, French, Mandarin, Chinese, and also Arabic.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And with those four languages plus English, they'll be able to speak to people around the world, at least to 50% of the entire world's population.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's pretty amazing.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's the reason the reason why we think it's important.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: But go ahead.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and I have a question about that.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_03: And you just sort of or partially answered the question.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: Why did you pick those four?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: And and I'm on board with those four, right?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: But I what was your thinking behind those four specific?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: Because there are other big important languages in the world.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Those are because they're probably the most common or in special places where there are uh where we think that the the future is going to have a lot of impact.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we think China's gonna be definitely a real big part of this.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: We know certain parts of Sub-Saharan Africa speak either French or ch or Spanish or other languages as well, but we think that these languages are core to being able to for the next generation of leaders to be able to be the most flexible they could possibly be.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it would it be nice if they could speak Russian and Portuguese and Italian and all those others that are very important languages.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: That would be awesome.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Japanese would be a good one too, Russian, but you know, there's only so much that we can put in this program, but we think this is a good a good key to get started.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell And we think that we're preparing them because they could go further in any one of these four languages and become very advanced in their proficiency.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: Or they're gonna be very flexible and adaptable to where they can go and learn another language, a fifth, sixth, seventh language as needed.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, exactly.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're not just training them just to learn those languages, training them how to learn languages, which is uh something that no Jeremy, you've got lots of uh experience in because you uh not only teach languages, you speak languages.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you give a little background on that?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_03: I uh was born in the USA, but when I was five months old, my family moved to Japan.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: So I grew up in Japan until I was 18.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_03: So I grew up with English primarily at home, but lots of Japanese, and then I studied French at university, and then I met a Mexican woman who I married, so I learned Spanish.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: And now I primarily have taught in my academic career, I've taught French and Spanish, and a little English and Japanese here and there.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty awesome.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it can be done.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of those guys that you know kind of fight against languages because it's just like, oh man, that's just too difficult.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm too old, I can't learn a new language.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know my battle already, Jeremy.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: You and I have been around the around the tree a couple of times on this.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_03: But but like you said, or like we were saying, one language is obviously important for understanding people and and really getting into cultures and and even and industries and so forth.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: But also if you ask people, like you would love for me to just like implant a language in your brain.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, kind of like in the matrix we know with Neo.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I I'm looking for those language little plugs they can put in the back of my brain.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_03: And most people want that is just the the effort, right?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: To have to go into it.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: But does it get easier if you learn more and more languages?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: I would say so.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, definitely.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of research about that and nuances, but in general, sure.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: The more you adapt to cultures, the better you get at it.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: And most of us are not good at that naturally.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: And similarly, the more you understand language and learn other languages, it could because it kind of goes along with culture, right?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna say it's easy.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I can't just sit down in a week and learn Russian, but you know how to go about it for sure.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: And it's fun.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had somebody told me I was having lunch with a guy a businessman and we're talking about this.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I just don't have the gift of languages.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, What what what what do you mean?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I just I can't learn languages.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, what are you doing right now?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're speaking a language.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I would beg to differ.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, but that's a really important part of global understanding.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to beat up that uh idea too much, but that's a central part of global understanding.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it is also the travel.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, going all over the world, that's a really important part.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we think that language learning will be easily, more easily picked up by being in country, seeing people use it in a very ordinary way, interacting with locals who speak the language.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to just make it all cement, which is really exciting.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: But we're traveling all the way from Europe to South America to China to the Arabic states, Middle East.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: We'll also be going into sub-Saharan Africa and also back to North America.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And every time we go Yeah.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: And Australia and the islands, yes, yes.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_03: Well people everywhere we can.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: And it's not just to stamp their passports, right?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: Like we're gonna get them, if I can put it this way, like culturally embedded in these places for a week time.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: And so the language is huge.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: And the other academic disciplines are huge as well.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Getting in, meeting people, learning about people, meeting meeting locals, at times meeting leaders, yes and understanding the history and and the society, the politics, how things how places work, how people interact.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's what this is about.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's why we're doing it this way, all these countries.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: Because it would be a lot easier for us just to plant them on a campus on one continent in one country and lecture them.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and there are a lot of programs that are out there.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of universities have a study abroad program.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell And we're not opposed to those programs.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's just that this is different.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: We're trying to be more holistic here.
• 10:28
  unknown: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And was the what do you think is the big benefit is of having a more holistic travel than just going to, hey, I went to Italy for four or five weeks in my senior year of my uh college career.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that enough?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make me worldly wise?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell I mean, what what's ever enough, right?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: Because human beings can we're so adaptable and malleable.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: We have such a capacity for learning.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, four weeks in Italy, that's great.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: You know, whatever you have the opportunity for, some people just don't have the same opportunities.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_03: Education is definitely, unfortunately, many times limited to people with certain privileges.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_03: And we want to give this opportunity to as many people as we can because any experience is going to be helpful, but just imagine taking one study abroad experience, but then expanding on that and really honing in and developing the intercultural competence, that those global fluency skills.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: What you start learning in a few weeks, but we're just we're just really training it in.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, this is an elite force, we could say, of of globally prepared, interculturally competent leaders.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think they'll be so valuable to every employer.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've been talking to CEOs all over the that have global, you know, global reach.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell them about what we're doing and I ask them the a fundamental question, would you hire a person with this kind of educational experience?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I have yet to run into anybody who did not say absolutely.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've had quite a few of them say, even if I didn't even have a position for that person, I would find a way to hire them and figure it out.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I would hate to lose out on an opportunity having that kind of influence in our culture of our company.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I think hesitated?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: What's that?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: Do they ever hesitate?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, no.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's it's almost absurd just to how eager they get when they hear about what the what these students will actually be able to do at the end.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be a really valuable, valuable degree that any person who really wants to do something substantial in the world, they're gonna have, and uh they're gonna find that a lot of people are gonna appreciate it.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine your resume having I've traveled to 40 plus countries, I speak five languages, English plus the four I learned, and I've had these experiences, I've met with these kinds of people.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that that resume will just stand out above everyone else.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's what we're hearing from the the CEOs that I've been talking with.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is just uh an absolutely magnificent program.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and you've been talking with these people about this program just for a few years, but really you've been doing global consulting for decades yourself.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've been in all six continents, yeah.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_03: And so you've met leaders, CEOs, and others.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: Some who probably do have global understanding and some who are in a global context and maybe don't always have global understanding.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like, do you see differences there?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the people that really understand what's happening in the world are so gung-ho about what we're trying to create here.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones we're talking with.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: And in actuality, that's the majority of the jobs of the future.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Having a local coffee shop and those kinds of things will always exist.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: They won't be interested in these kinds of current credentials.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if you wanted to work for a multinational or want to live abroad and work for a multinational, this is the kind of skills that they're looking for.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So Yeah.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, I think the world, I think the world has long been somewhat multicultural and globalized.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_03: Those are recent buzzwords.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: But I mean, you can go back in history, maybe there wasn't always understanding and there wasn't the technology and the ease of transportation, but there was always mixing of cultural stuff.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's just so common.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Anywhere you go, it to some extent is already globalized, a little multicultural.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_03: So people need these skills.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: People need to understand.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And even people in academia I've been talking with, who've been talking to quite a few.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: I I have don't have a full count in my head, but it's got to be well into the two to three dozen universities and colleges that we've been talking with over the years as we develop this program.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: They see this as a an absolute necessity for students of the future.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Many of them are not equipped to do the kind of work we're doing.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: So they're actually looking to partner with us.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: So they want to actually be a part of this thing, knowing that the mechanism and operations and the skill that we bring of uh international travel, they're looking forward to actually tapping into.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that's exciting too.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: So another thing we're trying to do also is teach them about leadership.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's a second big thing besides uh understanding the world, which is great, but also what are they gonna do once they have that knowledge?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we want to do is teach them how to lead.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And this is not just some ordinary form of leadership we're going after.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: We will be teaching them the the tactics, techniques, methods, but we're also gonna teach the mindsets and actually the intentions.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we're actually looking at really driving it from a moral base, what we need to do that's good, what we need to do that's really helpful, and not just be opportunistic.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So the leadership program we're putting together, we're calling it the global leader archetype that actually helps people break it down into meaningful pieces of how they can develop their skills, their knowledge, their ability to discern so they know know what to do in order to act upon it, so they can actually create good in the world.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a really important part of our leadership.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_03: And I like how you've been developing that because you uh you have a leadership council.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: Is that what we're calling?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: You developed a leadership council, dozens of leaders from industry, from academics, from nonprofit.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: And and and it's not just a council, but even I mean, you you're you're publishing a book.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it's coming out in a month, art series or trilogy, but even that is is kind of a group effort where you're you're picking the brains of dozens of all kinds of leaders.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean I know there's so much leadership research out there, and you know better than I do how many thousands of books must have been published on leadership.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: I actually did it, I at least on Amazon.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: On Amazon, okay.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: But something that is this extensive and collaborative.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: First, I mean, leadership should be collaborative, right?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: So you're going about this the way we would want our students to be leading leading one day in a collaborative fashion.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so we have all these people speaking in.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_03: And then on the academic side, what I'm excited about is we don't just have a bunch more courses on leadership to complement the global understanding courses.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_03: We have one seminar on leadership that runs the whole time.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: Students, there's there's instruction, they're doing assignments, but I think the key factor in my mind, it's tell me if you agree or not, is that you're gonna be assigned we're gonna be assigning them a mentor.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: Each individual student in their area of interest.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Is that that is that is that's right spot on.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, in two hours, I'm sitting down with a uh he's gonna be on our he's on our board.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: He is uh he used to run a large global company.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think that is like six or seven billion dollars in sales uh globally.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: CEO, uh just retired, and he wants to to not only help build this leadership program out with me, which is absolutely flattering, but also he is wanting to travel and see the students.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: So he'll be one of the people that the students will be able to interact with.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's just one of many that we're talking with.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've got had a call last night with a gentleman who has uh been running his own business, started off as just a an entrepreneur and grew up to over a$500 million business worldwide.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to do the same thing.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: He just says, I would love to invest in this program and meet the students and tell them my skills.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he has traveled all over the world and uh his primary uh business is global.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we that's just two of 23 people we have right now, 24 people, that are actually helping us with the leadership.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we're real excited about that.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: Think about that as that's gonna help us lead each student to specialize somewhat because this is this is definitely in in one sense a generalist degree.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: They're not just honing in on one of the languages, they're learning multiple languages.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there's so much.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: But that mentoring over two years, we're gonna be able to assign them somebody.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: So if if a student is interested in in the military, we're gonna assign them to somebody with significant global experience in military leadership.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: If they're interested in in industry, whatever aspect of business, whatever industry it may be, we can line them up with somebody who is, you know, automotive industry, exactly, finance, academic, obviously, we have lots of academics we can pair them up with NGOs, government politics, everything enable them to take the generalist education and this this panoramic view of our world.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and then apply it to what they really would like to do with their lives.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to be a journalist, this is the best program you can find.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to be an artist, a writer, this is one of the best programs you can find.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to go into business, this is one of the best programs you can find.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to go into governmental work or policy or become a diplomat, one of the greatest places.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to go into the military and become a leader as an officer, this is a great program.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking to people in the leader leadership of uh military right now, so that's fantastic.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't really matter.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to go into religion, this is a great place to come.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because you'll have such a wide, worldwide expect uh perspective on everything, which would be great.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: So global leadership is really important for us.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: We want people to be able to act on the knowledge that they have.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third part actually is the global benevolence or the global improvement, which I find to be very special.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is probably the reason why the Wiggams School even exists, is that we want to develop people who really truly want to do good in the world.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you have any thoughts on that or not.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's huge because yeah, that's that's going to be hard to find in most academic programs.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: You might be encouraged to do it.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: You know, if you did study abroad, you might get involved in some benevolence opportunity abroad.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: But this is this is just integrated right into our program where as they go around the world, students are understanding how benevolence or charity works in different cultures under different laws and different countries, and that they're getting involved in it.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: And they're also tailoring it again back to their leadership and industry interests.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I think this is huge.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: And what I love is that our lead faculty member for the global benevolence seminar is also a religious leader.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody she specializes in leadership at a graduate level, but she's also been involved in benevolence and in religious leadership her whole career, really.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think that's huge for our students.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know, it just gives them such a depth of understanding of human value and culture.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I really excited.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because we want them to walk out of this, not just trying to find a way of just getting ahead in the world, which they can do from this program.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can become very rich off of the off of this program.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, if you have good global understanding and you have good leadership skills, but you don't have any benevolence, you become an opportunist.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you look for ways of making money, which there's uh already thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people doing that already.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of opportunists in the world.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you are very well um, you know, founded in understanding the world and you have a great benevolent heart, you really want to do good, but you have no leadership, you become an intellectual.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can talk a good game, you can explain things, maybe write good books, but you never get anything done because you just don't have the wherewithal to say, here's what we need, this is what has to happen next, here's how we're gonna go about doing it.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or the third option is the doctor and leaves that out.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: Sorry, go ahead.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see the you'll they'll see this while we're talking about this.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other way is that if they have great understanding of leadership, they're fantastic, they have a great heart, they have a lot of benevolence, but if they don't understand the world, they become what we call idealists.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And many a times they don't have the the understanding of how to fit it into the real world, their ideas, but sometimes they'll throw a lot of effort, a lot of energy, a lot of investment, and uh their ideas are less than successful.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to solve that problem.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why all three are necessary, in our in our opinion.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we're excited about how the student's gonna be able to build off of that.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really what the three the three um competencies are all about for the Wiggham School.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: We think it's fundamental.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, Jeremy, if you wanted to say one last word before we uh finish this conversation.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, diagram, the Venn diagram lays it out very well.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: I was gonna ask actually, how did you come up with that exactly?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: Because you you developed that Venn diagram.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it just kind of fell out out of all the conversations I was having with you, with other people who are leaders, people who have done so many substantial things in the world.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: And just the conversation just kind of kept pointing everything.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was when I was trying to simplify everything I was learning.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: It came to the these are the three big ideas that are that are coming together and integrating that really make a global leader that the world truly can respect and use to make the world better for all of us.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so it fell out of just conversation, hundreds of hours of conversation with so many different people.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the one thing that Jeremy said, we'll talk a little bit more about this, is that we're gonna make that front and center for the students, and we're gonna do it through mentoring.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll have a conversation about mentoring as well, a separate conversation.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's a deep conversation we need to have, along with the language discussion we we gave it a little bit of light to, and we'll have another conversation on that um very soon.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we just want to say thank you.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is what the Wiggham School is all about.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Please reach out to us, go to Wigamschool.org, and that'll be on the screen right now, Wigamschool.org.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Come see what see us, contact us, we'll send you more information, whatever you need.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you know somebody who you just really are the a young person who really wants to do something special with their lives, there's no better gift you can give them than just the knowledge that they could possibly be a part of the Wiggum School.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll talk more about that in the future, but this is something that all of us can really rally around.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's all a it's a it's a c community of of futures that we are truly trying to help improve, and that's all of us.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk soon.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: All right, thanks.