Four "Elf" Life Lessons
“We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup.” ~ Buddy the Elf
Because It's Personal
“Marine leaders are expected to eat last because the true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.” ~ Simon Sinek
A Failure on Metrics
When we only look to numbers to define value, we miss how success should truly be measured. Higher education has a unique opportunity. It takes only one institution to understand that students are people. People who need support, encouragement, and just one chance to enter an educational institution without the fear of failure or crushing debt.
Pathway for Hope
When people are denied an opportunity to achieve their potential, they act out of desperation. They turn against societal norms to find a way to survive in the absence of opportunities. When we close our minds, doors, and borders, we only hurt ourselves.
Closer Than They Appear
Students’ higher education dreams are closer than they think. We tend to waste opportunities by looking back at what could have been. Dreams, like fires, take a little work to get going, they need someone to fan the flames and protect them from the wind, but once the embers begin to burn, the fire is hard to put out.
How You Finish
Institutions need to revisit their mission and really ask themselves, why. Why do they exist? But most importantly, how do we continue to meet the needs of students and society when what we have always done is not possible right now? Now is the time for institutions to rethink how to deliver effectively deliver education that provides opportunities for all students who face an unknown future.