By: Michael Horowitz

Our System’s success depends on making sure that all students feel welcome. Today, students and scholars from all over the world are a vital part of our community — bringing fresh perspectives and new ideas, leading clubs and organizations, and contributing to the vibrant diversity that we all value. This week, we honor the spirit of unity that is bringing neighbors together across our colleges from Los Angeles, California to Washington, D.C.

During Welcoming Week, I invite all TCS Education System students to join this movement of colleges nationwide by renewing our commitment to our core American values and by taking action in the spirit of welcoming. By working together, we can achieve greater understanding and make our System the kind of place where diverse people from around the world feel valued and can learn in harmony with their fellow students.

Regardless of where we are born or what we look like, we are students of TCS, united in our efforts to build a stronger global System and greater future. By recognizing the contributions that we all make to creating a vibrant culture, we create a more prosperous and inclusive community for all who call it home. Let us come together to build campuses where every student has the opportunity to contribute at his or her best. Let us come together to create more unified communities and to reaffirm that TCS Education System still stands as a beacon of education and opportunity. Now, therefore, I Dr. Michael Horowitz, by virtue of the authority vested in me as TCS Education System President, do hereby proclaim the week of September 14th, 2018, Welcoming Week. I call upon the people of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School, The Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law, Saybrook University, and Dallas Nursing Institute to join together to build stronger communities across Chicago, IL, Los Angeles, CA, Washington D.C., Pasadena, CA, San Jose, CA, Santa Barbara, CA, Ventura, CA, Oakland, CA, Seattle, WA, Dallas, TX, and every community in between and beyond that our colleges touch in service.

Download the proclamation, here. 

Note: This content originally appeared on May 31, 2018 in University Business Magazine, by Dr. Michael Horowitz

In a higher education landscape marked by a shrinking student population and increasing uncertainty, institutional longevity—if not short-term survival—is top of mind for most. What many at-risk institutions fail to see, however, is that a primary focus on competition is a precarious survival strategy that more often than not, backfires. Cooperation, not competition is the way out. Read the full Professional Opinion piece in University Business Magazine here. 

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 TCS 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 TCS 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 TCS 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!

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!

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.

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.