Years ago William B. Yeats made a very simple statement, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

Recently, Gallup asked, What if colleges and universities adopted a culture of “customer excellence” in how they engage students? What would those campuses look like?

Two factors emerged to create this ‘culture of customer excellence’ – students who were “emotionally supported” & students who had “experiential learning.” For those who received support from professors who cared about them as a person and made them excited about learning, and from a mentor who encouraged their goals and dreams — were twice as likely to be engaged in their work and almost twice as likely to be thriving in their well-being later in life.
Those who had “experiential learning” doubled their odds of being engaged in their work later in life.

We believe if colleges and universities were to get serious about aligning values, culture and incentives to put student engagement first, there is much they would do differently. They would measure their success by the success of their graduates. They would measure whether graduates achieve great jobs and great lives.

The UTRUM Symposium

Healing the Divide 

Perhaps more than any time in recent history the need to heal the divide that is fracturing our nation and world. We are polarized: Left or Right; Conservative or Liberal.  It impacts individuals, leaders, and organizations.  It even affects our families. If we are to be honest it influences how we perform in both work and play.

Just image if we could bring healing to the divide? We believe now is the time venture boldly where few have dared.  Utilizing a scholastic form of writing developed by Thomas Aquinas’ in the Summa Theologia over 750 years ago, The UTRUM Symposium sets out to empower individuals, leaders, organizations, and even families to learn the five steps of Utrum as a platform to practice attentive listening and master the art of representing each other well.