Styli C.’s Post

Though the news may have a touch of antiquity, each encounter with it unfailingly bestows a renewed sense of delight. As someone wisely noted, wealth may be susceptible to appropriation, but knowledge remains impervious to theft, a perpetual companion that appreciates with each act of imparting. The phrase, 'Queen’s University Belfast in the top 14% of universities in the world,' invokes an indescribable sense of joy, rendering expression a challenging endeavour. It evokes tears of joy and begets a gentle, heartfelt smile. For a brief interlude, one is transported back to a time when the global community grappled with the COVID pandemic, and an unfamiliar dread weighed heavily on all hearts, uncertain when respite would arrive. Despite the manifold tribulations, my colleagues Pooja Kataria Chawla, MBA,Shiliang Sun,Barak Gideon,Min Fu,Zheyu Zhang,Caitlin Cosgrove MBA,Charissa Shelton,Naing Min Oo, MBA,Fernando Lindoro Tenorio, MBA, WSET and the entire academic staff Queen's Business School labored assiduously, in harmonious unity, to craft a brighter future. 'Alumni' may merely be a term from the lexicon, yet the collective commitment shared during those times embodies a profound dedication. Our societal responsibilities are greatly magnified when we, ourselves, surmount adversity, and Queen's Management School, now the Queen's Business School, has adeptly facilitated this responsibility through its unwavering dedication to excellence. https://lnkd.in/gaKpipHW.

New @TeessideUni Chancellor, Baroness @JennyChapman to help drive University’s mission to transform lives. “I am proud to join Team Teesside and am committed to doing all I can to help the University continue its remarkable work.” Full article here 👉 https://buff.ly/44nkerR

Good opening: education is the fuel for transformation. As academics, we're driven by what's happening in society; that is we drive to do research that helps society address what's happening. As such, the academy has a role to play in society. This perspective aligns with the new Smith School of Business at Queen's University Strategic Action Plan. https://lnkd.in/gGxdBcnH

Love love love this! What has always made Leverage Edu unique is its DNA of being in love with students’ success .. when we say “student-first”, it ain’t some random corproate rhetoric that’s only meant to be put on walls (another thing that we have 6 different large walls in our office dedicatedly exclaiming STUDENT FIRST, reminding us who we are every single night and day through every little decision we take) — but it’s something that previously the leadership, and now the entire team, as they spend more and more time in the org, start to deeply fall in love with, and make it their own “core value” in life. Whenever we build a new policy, whenever we revamp a process, whenever we launch a new add-on product / service, we put profit-making / business way behind our core mission of “benefiting the student” - be it with comfort, with saving some more money, with reassurance, with better planning, and on and on and on. It hasn’t been easy to scale this philosophy. As hundreds of new students fill their University Forms everyday on the Leverage platform, helped by a thousand people plus org, it becomes critical for us to reiterate what we stand for, how we do things, how we got to to obsess with the student. It does take us a quarter atleast to ingrain this in every new hire, so over the previous summer we set up a sub-division within our Talent team to do a rigorous hard & soft training, extending from everything in/around/about the college to the Leverage-style of operating, then tested it out on our Leverage Launchpad app for Counsellors & Coaches. ^ Everytime we scale 4-5x, few things break, we then work extremely hard to mend them, and then take a new life form, our value-moat becoming thicker and stronger every intake, every year. Yes, we aren’t perfect. But, we have our heart in the right place. For our students. And every single day we are working hard to inch towards perfection .. the goalpost keeps shifting, so does our dream, so does rightfully so our effort and work to get there. Incredibly grateful to all the students & all the universities who have trusted in us, a young company that came out of nowhere, with its mission at the centre of everything, head down learning alongside them, and promising to hear every feedback, capturing little insights through our own machinery, and getting better. Building Global Citizens of Tomorrow Responsibly. Ethically. With respect to each stakeholder. That’s us at Leverage Edu.

Members of the Stellenbosch University convocation were invited to submit our views on the requirements to be considered for the appointment of a new Rector and Vice-Chancellor to step into the big shoes of Prof Wim de Villiers at the end of his term. I submitted the following 6 “concepts” to be considered: 1. Vision for the university to continue to be a symbol of excellence and a producer of people and knowledge that transform the world around us. 2. Transformational leadership/statesmanship/stature/presence to take all stakeholders forward with her/him; the omies trying to hold onto an archaic picture of Stellenbosch, the politicians who don’t care what damage they do towards their own objectives, the super-talented young black children who are not sure Stellenbosch wants them, the academic staff who are fearful for their jobs and the world they know and everyone in between. 3. Passionate love for South Africa, including its past (and its residual impact on all of us today, which we need to acknowledge, talk about and fix), the grave challenges of the present and its most hopeful potential future. 4. The ability/desire/love/humility truly to listen to the stories and the lived and felt experience of all the many stakeholders who have an interest in Stellenbosch and to foster spaces and bridges for these stories and experiences to be shared. 5. Knowledge/understanding/excitement about the use of technology and data in the administration of the university and turning burocracy into agility. 6. Personal groundedness, maturity and self-care “muscles” to preserve courage, determination and perseverance for the journey ahead. I believe Stellenbosch University was a very good university when I attended (30 years ago), that it is a significantly better university for my kids today and that it has the potential to become even better for my grand children.

It was an honour to be invited last week, alongside a handful of other Australian education, government, and industry leaders, to participate in a round table discussing the value and impact of non-formal education opportunities for young people. Thank you Peter Kaye AM ESM, for facilitating a robust discourse with us and HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh. Highlights for me were the exchange of ideas with the other participants, witnessing first-hand the passion of HRH for The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award - Australia . I came away with a large bundle of notes rich with ideas, possibilities, and challenges to solve. Some of these included : How might we prepare young people for the future work world even where we do not know what that may be? How might we develop critical thinking skills and a lifelong passion for new knowledge? How might we collaborate across networks locally and globally to increase opportunities across all levels of society to elevate young people's voices? How might we contribute to the development of the 'whole person'? How might we embrace the myriad learning preferences and create pathways for young people to excel? A wonderful end-of-year list to ponder over our summer break and consider how we do this, and could do more at Enactus Australia. Thank you also Anthony Matis and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand for your continued support. We value our partners and collaborators because alone we may go fast but together we go further, longer, and with more impact.

Sharing the good news out of Athens, both as a proud parent and the increasing likelihood we'll have one off the payroll in 18 months! To all my accounting and advisory firm colleagues, let me know you need an intro.

Do you have the right incentives in place to encourage the culture & behaviour your institution needs? Or have you just been getting lucky that people go above and beyond? It is so important that we take the time to celebrate the tireless student success champions among us. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Other campuses should take note: who has provided critical internal leadership but never been appreciated publicly? Take a page from Virginia Commonwealth University leadership (Fotis Sotiropoulos & Michael Rao) and make intentional steps to recognize people going above and beyond so you continue to build the culture your students need.

🎓 Join us in celebrating Dr. Chad Bushman, the latest recipient of National American University's prestigious 'Best in Class' Faculty Award! 🏆 Dive into our latest blog post to learn how Dr. Bushman's innovative teaching methods and unwavering dedication are reshaping the educational landscape at NAU. Don't miss out on this inspiring story! Read More: https://ow.ly/YFnV50Rr1Vm #TeachingExcellence #StudentSuccess #HigherEd #NAUAwards"