Celebrating our Community of Immigrants: The Community Solution Education System’s Chief Academic Officer – Jack Paduntin

By Dr. Michael Horowitz

As a System designed to serve the global community, it is our pleasure to celebrate the rich, multi-cultural tapestry of our community during Immigrant Heritage Month and throughout the year. The Community Solution Education System model not only welcomes diverse perspectives from a myriad of traditions – it requires it. Radical Cooperation with people of all backgrounds makes us not only greater than the sum of our parts – but individually better for being part of the whole. One of the many change agents making meaningful contributions to our community each day is The Community Solution Education System’s Chief Academic Officer, Jack Paduntin.

Jack’s remarkable immigration story began in 1992 when he traveled to the U.S. from Thailand to pursue his MBA at the University of Dallas. Just 24 years old, the move was a challenge for him as he understood very little printed English, and was unable to speak the language at all. Through two years of dedication and hard work, he acclimated himself to an entirely new culture, learned the language, excelled in his studies, and met the love of his life at the University. Following graduation, he and his Korean-born fiancée moved to Thailand for two years before deciding to return to the US in pursuit of Jack’s doctorate degree. Admitted to a program in San Diego at the height of the 1997 financial crisis – which devalued Thai currency by half, Jack was presented with a timely opportunity extended by the U.S. government. To ensure foreign students from Asian countries earned their degrees prior to their return home, it authorized these students to work on campus beyond the standard 20-hour limit. This led to a full-time employment at the university for Jack, effectively launching his academic career.

The path to U.S. citizenship for Jack wasn’t instant or easy, however. Jack’s passion for teaching led him to a full-time faculty position where his university sponsored him for a permanent residence status (a green card). Beyond the long wait periods – driven in part by national green card quota limitations of less than 200,000 annually – U.S. citizenship pursuit is a complex process requiring special legal counsel for even the most learned among us to successfully navigate. Five years after receiving green cards, Jack and his wife applied to become US citizens and were granted citizenship in 2010.

The most difficult obstacle for Jack to overcome as he anticipated each milestone along his path, however, was the legal restriction imposed on him to accept employment outside the organization that sponsored him for the green card. Jack said no to several paid consulting opportunities that could benefit the community. With a strong desire to give back to the country that gave him the opportunity to launch a meaningful career, he wasted no time engaging in a myriad of community service-based activities for free. Jack worked with several churches and a retirement home for Catholic nuns to improve their performance management systems to better serve parishioners and resident retirees, and leveraged his non-citizen, foreign status and perspectives to lead the diversity council for the Society for HR Management.

The path to U.S. citizenship literally takes a village. Jack shares that his hard won status was not the work of one person or resource—it took the effort of an entire community. That included vitally important government program support that granted him access to gainful full-time employment, the strong support his universities provided him to succeed academically, and his U.S. employer’s approval of his citizenship application—fueled by its faith in Jack’s talents and ability to meaningfully contribute to society.

Jack’s favorable impact as a first generation immigrant on the larger community has been substantial. Beyond the pro bono work he contributed early in his academic career, he has dedicated his entire professional life to giving back to the community. As a staunch advocate for students of every walk of life and corner of the world, Jack ensures their success through his tireless work driving progressive improvements in academic innovation. “I’ve seen a lot of students come through the same path I did. I see how they struggle with language, culture, and change, and supporting their success is very meaningful and rewarding to me,” he says. As the CAO driving academic innovation across five Community Solution Education System partner colleges, Jack’s is squarely focused on helping each of our institutions advance student success and community impact. The reach of his outcome-changing work also knows no bounds, as he is regularly tapped for media interviews in Thailand that give Thai students valuable strategies to improve themselves through U.S. education.

Reflecting on his American experience to date, Jack adds, “My wife and I can both advance our dreams as we wished. I see no limitations here—the U.S. is truly the land of opportunity, and the American dream can happen to anyone. I went from knowing no English at 24 to earning a Master’s and Doctorate, grew in my ability to meaningfully serve others, fulfilled my career goals, and made a comfortable home for my family.” Jack’s work creating tomorrow’s Agents of Change epitomizes our founding American values. He is also a vital thread in the rich, culturally diverse tapestry of our System, and precisely what makes us The Community Solution in Higher Education!

The Unparalleled Benefits of Study Abroad Programs for Working Adults

By Dr. Michael Horowitz

Mark Twain once said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Committed to preparing innovative, engaged, purposeful agents of change who serve our global community at TCS, we happen to agree. However, while it’s impossible to argue that students of every generation can benefit from the expanded view that study abroad programs afford, for working adults—these experiences hold particularly meaningful value.

A More Robust Learning Experience

Study abroad engagements are something of an introduction to life for traditional students between the ages of 18-22. The lens through which an adult student experiences these global engagements, however, is entirely different. In contrast to traditional college students in their late teens and early twenties, adult learners are more seasoned, with access to perspectives, baseline understanding, and an expanded world view that only life experience allows. Not only do they have a greater appreciation for the significance of this experience not customarily available to them as working adults, they are also better equipped to assimilate the experience into their lives.

Direct Application to Professional Roles

Working adults also have the distinct opportunity to immediately apply what they learn from global academic engagements to their profession. Focused programs can be experienced more fully by a non-traditional student through the lens of awareness. Take for instance, a study abroad program focused on the current immigration crisis. By contextualizing the subject matter into professional terms, working adults can translate key insights to professional skills refinement and enhancement. The potential impact of close range examination of immigration can extend well beyond increased awareness of migrants’ challenges alone to more empathetic nurses, more sensitive legal counsel, more astute mental health practitioners, and more focused early childhood education professionals.

Meaningful Social Impact

For study abroad programs with community service-based curricula, like those at all TCS partner colleges, greater society stands to benefit from the participation of more seasoned students. Because non-traditional students have the capacity to bring their well-informed life experience and professional perspectives beyond their curiosities alone to these programs, they contribute at a much higher level with faculty, collaboratively with each other in the course of the program, and within the larger communities these field experiences serve. Based on their broader definition of community and intentionally inclusive design that includes adult learners, college faculty, staff, administration, alumni and trustee study abroad participants, TCS programs not only benefit the larger community, but perpetuate participant social issue advocacy and the growth of community partnerships around the world.

A Study Abroad Case in the Making

A prime example of programming with an unparalleled opportunity for adult learners is the TCS cross-college study abroad program scheduled for this fall. Through this Education Beyond Borders study abroad trip to South Africa exploring the impact of identity, non-traditional students will be in a strong position to assimilate the curriculum into their lives, directly apply key learnings to their profession, and meaningfully advance favorable social impact at home and abroad. As one of the most culturally diverse nations on earth, South Africa is the optimal venue to examine the complex challenges inherent to a country of 55 million people that speak over 20 tribal languages and deals with millions of immigrants and a myriad of related social issues. The rich global experience this program promises participants on the issues of resilience and reconciliation was born from six focused years of in-country relationship building and field experiences between TCS partners and the South African community, and the meaningful contributions of working adult students in these programs.

While the primary purveyors of study abroad programming might appear on the surface to be traditional college students, a leviathan opportunity for favorable community impact with the power to change the world lies in global academic engagement by working adults!

Winning in Higher Ed via the Road Less Traveled

Why (despite the headlines) it’s a great time to be a small college in the U.S.

By Dr. Michael Horowitz

Taking a 30,000-foot view of the higher ed space today paints a very graphic picture of a sector in the throes of pure distress. From the widely reported shrinking student population to evaporating university budgets, and an accelerating number of college closures over the past five years, the terminal fate of institutions without billion dollar endowments would appear sealed.

The Importance of First Generation, Immigrant Students

A Case for Radical Cooperation

By Dr. Michael Horowitz

As our country continues to struggle without a permanent solution for U.S. immigration policy or a clear pathway for Dreamers to U.S. citizenship, an average of 1,400 DACA recipients will lose their ability each day to work legally, from now through the end 2019 and be subject to immediate deportation. The stark and heartbreaking reality of this unresolved issue constitutes not only an emergency of humanity and a threat to our socioeconomic standing in the world, but an affront to the fundamental principles that we stand for as a nation.

A Message on DACA Developments

The Trump Administration recently announced that it will sunset the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in six months, leaving Congress to find a legislative solution for undocumented immigrants in the country. Created in 2012, DACA enables approximately 800,000 undocumented youth who entered the country as minors to receive a two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit.

As we closely monitor these unfolding events, TCS Education System continues to support both the global advancement of knowledge and cooperation as well as the individual members of our community. Our Office of the General Counsel and the Global Engagement team have partnered with the broader TCS Education System academic community to monitor the situation.

If you have specific questions, please contact Jennifer Fullick, Director of Global Engagement or visit our Global Impact resource site for updates.

We maintain an unwavering commitment to advancing student success and community impact—with inclusion and diversity as central components of our mission. Each of our System institutions will stay in close communication with their communities as DACA developments unfold.

Michael Horowitz, Ph.D.

President, TCS Education System

National Nursing Week: An Open Letter to Our Healthcare Agents of Change

Dear Dr. Shelton, Dean Gaston, and the faculty, staff and students of The Dallas Nursing Institute:

As we recognize and celebrate National Nursing Week, I want to express my personal sentiments about the important and powerful work that you do. Each and every one of you is making a meaningful contribution to developing nursing agents of change – whether as executive leaders driving strategic direction, administration and staff supporting students and programs, faculty delivering on the promise of a world-class nursing education, or our nursing students themselves endeavoring the rigors of education and committing their lives to the service of others.

The significant impact of skilled, compassionate nursing cannot be understated. In good and bad times – nurses are always there. They bring light to the ailing individual, to their families and loved ones, to the larger community, and to the entire world. I am beyond proud to have the nursing discipline as a vital part of The Community Solution in Higher Education, and inspired to count the professionals that train and support these healthcare agents of change among us. True ministers of compassion, caring, and altruism – TCS stands in appreciation and gratitude before each of you.

Thank you for doing what you do!

Yours Truly,

Michael Horowitz, Ph.D.

Response to Executive Order on Immigration

Dear TCS Colleagues,

On the heels of this weekend’s Executive Order to restrict U.S. entry to citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries, all of us at TCS would like to take a moment to underscore our unwavering mission to advance student success and community impact – regardless of country of origin or religious beliefs.

TCS was founded on the belief that we can synergistically impact both communities and students through education. Our institutions have been drawing people together from around the world, both physically and virtually to create a culture of understanding and acceptance for many years. We experienced the power of this firsthand recently, when students, faculty, and administrators from across our institutions convened in Germany to create a global environment of cross-disciplinary learning.

TCS colleges are currently working with each other and the Office of Global Engagement to examine our collective role as a system committed to leveraging radical cooperation to affect meaningful social change.

The wealth of diverse perspectives across our entire system of colleges enriches all of us, makes TCS The Community Solution in Higher Education, and fuels our ability to nurture global agents of change that have the power to change the world. The very foundation of our community was built on inclusion and radical cooperation – and it endures even more resolutely as we remain committed to welcoming international students, exposing students to profound international experiences, and supporting refugees and immigrants in our communities. We will continue to support all TCS colleges with maintaining their own steadfast commitment to students and inclusive global engagement.

Sincerely,

Michael Horowitz

The Pursuit of Lasting Social Change

As a higher ed system of colleges focused on empowering our partner institutions to develop agents of change and favorably impact their communities, we’re constantly exploring opportunities to impart lasting social change. While there’s certainly no shortage of opportunities to make an impact, some rise to a level of urgency that simply cannot be ignored.

In recent years, the prevalence of brutal strife between police officers and communities across the nation has been impossible to ignore. However small the minority of implicated officers and departments may be relative to the entire domestic law enforcement population, the clear evidence of gross abuses of power that smart phone journalism has highlighted in recent years elevated these offenses to a national issue of the very highest imperative.

The result has been a seemingly irreparable loss of trust that can be systemic in its unfolding. Loss of community trust in police can easily be exacerbated by a loss of police force trust in community. To avoid being profiled as abusers of power, police can pull back on active policing, which can in turn lead to spikes in violence and murders. How do you begin to solve for the emotionally charged and seemingly insurmountable issue of total trust breakdown between communities and police? While solutions don’t come overnight, our approach is to enable our partner colleges to leverage transformative education to make their students agents of change that benefit the greater good through lasting social change.

Toward this end we recently leveraged the occasion of our annual board meeting to host a presentation by TCS partner college Saybrook University alumna and agent of change Dr. Ginger Charles discussing her new book, entitled: Police Pursuit of the Common Good: Reforming & Restoring Police Community. A 27-year veteran law enforcement officer and PhD in psychology, Dr. Charles addressed key members of the community in this very timely conversation topic, including key Chicago Police Department leadership. By leveraging her own research and proposed approach from both a social psychological perspective and firsthand experience as an officer and sergeant, the audience for this message was receptive to dialogue surrounding the need for law enforcement diversity training to understand their unconscious biases at a deeper level and change perceptions to reduce community tension.

Why does rebuilding trust between communities and police matter so much to us at TCS? Beyond just pacifying unrest and mitigating future episodes of violence, these initiatives have the capacity to create the conditions that allow all members of society to feel safe, respected and confident in the common value placed on human life. What ultimately results from persistently advancing these goals are progressive societies that are well positioned to lift all individuals within their communities, and poised to thrive as a collective.

Click here to watch Saybrook alum Dr. Ginger Charles’ full presentation at our recent board meeting, or explore her book to learn more about the psychology behind healing the divide between law enforcement and communities.

Realizing More Meaningful Global Engagement Opportunities in Higher Ed

With the launch of the first U.S. study abroad program nearly 100 years ago, there’s nothing novel about academic foreign exchange itself. Notable in recent years however, is the value that these programs have the potential to provide students in the increasingly dynamic global environment we now live in. Once prized for their capacity to improve student foreign language skills, enhance confidence and contribute to an unquantified sense of “personal growth,” today’s programs can surpass existing benchmarks of high level cross-cultural understanding and personal development. At their best, they can cultivate students’ aptitude for understanding highly nuanced and complex issues, and ultimately change the world.

Take for example the complex issue of global immigration today, which features not only unique cultural considerations, but also political policies rooted within multiple cultures and the distinct perspectives of professional disciplines within those cultural and political environments. Too narrowly applying a one-dimensional perspective to this issue can have grave consequences. When an oversimplified, singular focus is placed on incoming refugees’ need to find employment, that one-dimensional perspective can easily lead to vulnerable and underserved populations that fail to assimilate into new societies. Because narrow thinking along this line is obsolete in today’s increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, a monumental opportunity exists to develop a broader global perspective within students through higher ed programming.

The TCS Global Engagement team has seized this opportunity with the launch of our first-ever, system-wide course scheduled this Fall in Berlin, Germany. The program is designed to bring students from our nursing, law, psychology, education and humanistic studies colleges together for a collaborative and in-depth examination of the issue of immigration. A rare opportunity that will allow all our participating students to examine the issue from a foreign city at the epicenter of immigration, this course will also provide visibility into the psychological, social, educational, legal, healthcare and intercultural perspectives of individuals, families, communities and providers directly impacted by the issue. The ultimate aspiration of this kind of programming is to nurture and grow global change agents with the discerning, and comprehensive perspective needed to drive positive outcomes for complex global issues.

Not only does the design and launch of collaborative programs like this create value for employers in the form of seasoned, problem solving graduates that are capable of creating comprehensive solutions to complex problems – they also create global change agents in the process. In an age of unprecedented global interdependence, they’re programs we can’t afford to be without.

President’s Panel – Dr. Horowitz Leads NRCI Conference Discussion to #EndTheStigma on Mental Health

In recent years, the rallying cry to #EndTheStigma surrounding mental health has grown throughout the global community. TCS Education System’s President, Dr. Michael Horowitz, has been a lifelong advocate for mental health awareness and works closely with our community of colleges and universities within TCS Ed System to foster dialogue among students, professionals, and the general public. Last week, he moderated a panel focused on addressing the ways different cultures view mental illness at the 14th Annual Community Mental Health Conference, sponsored by the Naomi Ruth Cohen Institute (NRCI) for Mental Health Education at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

The Naomi Ruth Cohen Institute was established by the Cohen family in memory of their daughter, Naomi Ruth Cohen. NRCI works to prevent others from suffering as she did and to overcome the stigma of mental illness. Funding is used to promote educational programs and to support organizations engaged in mental health illness research, education, self-help, anti-discrimination, and advocacy.

In this interview, we asked Dr. Horowitz about the critical elements needed to foster a better public understanding of mental health and the impact of the NRCI conference.

Q: What motivates your dedication to mental health advocacy?
Mental health and mental illness are such important issues to deal with in our society. We have millions of people suffering from treatable conditions. Unfortunately, people are embarrassed to get the help that’s available to them because of the stigma associated with mental illnesses. And to some extent the funding and awareness of the ability to help people through psychology is not available because of how much it’s been kept in the shadows. Yet it’s a vital concern that affects every segment of our society.

Q: How long have you been involved with the Naomi Ruth Cohen Institute?
I’ve been involved since the very beginning. I was so moved by the Cohens’ commitment to creating this institute out of their personal history and their resolve that as many people as possible in their community be educated about mental health. Having a warm and open place where people can learn about treatment, advocacy, and issues related to their families and communities is so important. I think that their methodology of bringing mental health education to the community through houses of worship and other community settings is a very powerful and distinctive one.

Q: How did the topics raised in this year’s conference contribute to the national discussion surrounding mental health care and advocacy?

Often people don’t get the ideal service treatment or consultation because we’re not sensitive to differences in culture. One of the issues the conference addressed is the way that different communities perceive mental health. So it was enlightening to the professionals, students and general public that attended because this type of dialogue creates more access and awareness for mental health services.

We were thrilled to have a culturally sensitive dialogue about mental health at the Naomi Ruth Cohen conference to move the agenda forward.

Q: As moderator of the panel discussion “How Different Cultures View Mental Illness,” what do you think needs to be done to further advance the presence of mental health awareness in various cultural communities?
We need to know more about the different cultures that we’re working with. In some cases that may be immigrant cultures in the United States, so we have to be sensitive to language. We have to try and find practitioners with experience working with that community or the willingness to learn about the special issues in that community. As one example, we know that for years in health care, we applied treatments and remedies based on studies of men without thinking about the implications and differences for women. The same holds true for many of our cultural groups. And so it’s a matter of our mental health professionals within various disciplines committing to learn about the communities they serve. It’s something The Chicago School does very well, getting on the ground and learning about the particular needs of a community.

Q: How does your work with educational institutions, such as The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, influence mental health advocacy?
We want our students at all of the colleges that study mental health and health care disciplines to know that the work is not limited to an office or clinical setting. It must also involve reaching our communities in meaningful ways. That’s part and parcel of what we do. So at our community of colleges and universities, our approach is to educate students to go the extra mile and engage with their communities to support people who are dealing with such important social and mental health and health issues.

Q: What can a person that is not involved in the mental health industry do to contribute to raising awareness of its importance?
Join our efforts at TCSPP and the NRCI to educate the public. We need advocates in the public and spokespeople more than ever before, because we’re in a time where the need is tremendous. Issues like depression and suicide, autism and other serious mental illnesses are growing, while the services available in many of our communities are contracting. Change is made one person at a time. By creating spaces where people are able to talk about these issues, which affect so many of our families but are often kept in the dark, we can all make an impact. You can also get involved through advocacy within your local government or becoming a donor to a related cause.

To find out more about Dr. Horowitz’s work in the community, follow him on Twitter at @TCSEdPrez.