The Community Solution International Archives - The Community Solution Education System

TCS Education System Partners with NGO to Develop Global Student Agents of Change, Empower Women and Children in Ghana

CHICAGO, July 22, 2021 — TCS Education System, a nonprofit system of colleges advancing student success and community impact, has formalized a legacy relationship with DUNK (Developing Unity, Nurturing Knowledge) to support the development of women and children in the most deprived communities in Accra, Ghana.

The Memorandum of Understanding, signed in late May, will support several initiatives including study abroad programs, faculty and student research for the institutional communities of TCS and educational programming for the 350 children ages 8-19 who are empowered by DUNK.

“After working together for nearly eight years, we are excited for the opportunity to formally create global agents of change through this partnership,” said TCS President and Founder Dr. Michael Horowitz.

DUNK creates safe spaces in at-risk Ghanaian neighborhoods through after-school support, sports programming including basketball, and life-skills and vocational training. The impact of prior trips and research with TCS partner schools has allowed the DUNK program to expand its reach to adult learners ages 19-25, developing a slate of ambassadors who serve as volunteers and role models.

“These experiences are really about changing our students’ lives and perspectives and enhancing their professional growth,” said Leanne Wruck, TCS’ Chief Academic Officer. “What we might provide in terms of services or volunteer opportunities at DUNK is given back to our students and our faculty one hundredfold.”

The MOU will last until 2031 as part of TCS’ Community and Global Engagement Office.

About TCS Education System

TCS Education System (TCS) is a nonprofit system of colleges that was launched in 2009 to advance student success and community impact. Currently, the System spans five colleges, campus locations across 12 cities and a community of more than 30 global academic partners to fulfill the aspirations of approximately 10,000 students. The TCS model provides its colleges with a number of strategic resources, including admissions and enrollment operations, finance and accounting, information and learning technology, marketing, strategic planning, compliance and legal services, human resources, and global engagement among other areas of professional expertise. The System was founded on the belief that by sharing administrative resources and allowing colleges to concentrate on providing students with quality, social change-focused education, it can give each member of its collective community the power to change the world. TCS colleges include The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Pacific Oaks College & Children’s School, The Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law, Saybrook University, and Kansas Health Science Center. To learn more, visit www.tcsedsystem.edu.

Virtual Global Engagement: New Paths to Common Ground in a Year Without Travel

Global engagement has been at the heart of the TCS mission since the organization was founded more than a decade ago, in large part because of the vision of President Michael Horowitz. This year, our commitment to global citizenship and cultural exchange was tested in ways none of us could have predicted.

In the spring of 2020, the COVID crisis made uncertainty and chaos the “new normal” for faculty, administration, students, and staff throughout higher education. For many in the TCS community, the sudden impossibility of international travel (or any travel, for that matter) was a major disappointment.

In response to this halt in travel, we dove head-first into bold, pandemic-driven innovation. No matter how great the challenge, we knew we had to find a way to provide rich, meaningful global exposure and engagement — safely, at a distance. Born from this driving commitment, the inaugural TCS Global Engagement Online (GEO) Summit took place in April of 2020. Earlier this spring, we came full circle with our second GEO Summit on April 15, 2021. As the two events “bookended” a year of extraordinary challenge, I find myself reflecting on all that we’ve learned about cultural connection and global impact in an unpredictable world.

Creating successful pathways for virtual global engagement

When we launched our first virtual Summit out of necessity in 2020, not only did we detect some skepticism within the learning community — frankly, we shared it. After all, online programming, no matter how well executed, is not the same as actual travel. Yet the event exceeded all expectations, drawing thousands of participants from around the world for three days of live and recorded online sessions. As we witnessed educators, administrators, and students connecting with such focus and energy, we realized that for those of us who are truly passionate about global engagement, no obstacle is too big to shut down our hunger for cross-cultural experiences. In fact, when we embrace the full potential of online methodologies, “global engagement” takes on a whole new meaning, and countless new paths to exposure, education, and action take shape.

Throughout the past year, we’ve built on the success of our first Summit with extensive virtual programs engaging both globally and closer to home. This evolution resulted in taking on a new identity as the Community and Global Engagement Department, with an expanded charter to foster cultural connection and learning across all communities, whether abroad or here in the United States. For those who might question, as we once did, the depth of cultural experience available through a screen, I’ll share a few favorite examples: In the past year, our students “visited” South Africa where they experienced a hands-on cooking class in the home of a local grandmother. Also in South Africa, they joined together to make virtual music with found household objects under the guidance of a local drumming expert. In Germany, a virtual tour of VW provided a level of up-close exposure and education that may not even have been possible for on-the-ground travelers.

Opportunities for heightened collaboration

At our recent 2021 Summit, language immersion, interdisciplinary exploration and the sharing of personal narratives were just a few of the dynamics that delivered meaningful cross-cultural connection to hundreds of participants. And just as with on-the-ground exchange programs, the impact of these virtual experiences goes far beyond the broadening of individual minds. Whether online or on location, our work is always anchored in the TCS Education System mission: To create innovative, engaged, purposeful agents of change who serve our global community.

Having joined the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in 2020, TCS is now positioned more strongly than ever to make a global impact. With this in mind, we focused the entire 2021 GEO Summit on the timeliest of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: #3, Ensuring Health & Well-Being for All. Summit sessions explored topics ranging from local community health outreach to systemic strategies to achieve global health equity.

In addition to presentations from students and faculty, the Summit elevated the work of our newly established Staff Global Engagement Cohort. For several months, this team of staff members from across the TCS community has served as consultants to Ventanilla de Salud, a public health initiative of the Mexican Consulate, supporting health and well-being for the Latinx community in Los Angeles. When I step back and consider that the past year has allowed little to no physical travel for all Summit participants, I stand in awe of the insight, imagination, drive, and optimism reflected in the body of work presented this year.

Rethinking what it means to have a global perspective

I’ve made my career in global engagement because I believe that the more we are exposed to cultures and traditions different from our own, the better choices we can make as global citizens. There was a time when I viewed physical travel as the defining experience by which we can achieve such growth. Today I see this differently. I’ve seen how authentic cross-cultural connection can take many forms, and that all of them are enormously powerful. During a crisis that might have turned each of us inward toward the safe and familiar, we at TCS have seen that we’re capable of reaching instead toward our global neighbors — even against all odds of geography, practicality, and convenience. Together, we’ve seen how a common threat can inspire an even deeper commitment to the values of cross-cultural connection, understanding, and respect.

Today, with the promise of physical travel again on the horizon and all the power of technology in-hand, the paths to Community and Global Engagement for students, faculty, and staff appear infinitely variable, and thrillingly interconnected. With the success of our GEO Summits and other initiatives, not only have we proven that global engagement is essential, we’ve learned how to make it even better. The prospect of tapping this potential moving forward fills me with excitement for our discipline, and indeed, with hope for our world.

Exploring South Africa

A lifelong resident of South Africa, International Liaison Officer (ILO) Kari Prince has seen firsthand the people’s resiliency and the complex history of the country. For Prince, being an ILO gives her the chance to share South Africa with students and faculty from other countries.

“Even though there is poverty, unemployment, and all the post-apartheid challenges, there is a great sense of humor in the South Africans, a great resilience, and there is so much that can be learned both ways—for the U.S. students and the South Africans we interact with,” says Prince.

Originally from Durban, on the east coast of the country, Prince attended the University of KwaZulu-Natal where she received a degree in economics and finance. While working in the business sector, Prince realized that public relations was her true passion. She worked as Public Relations Officer for the South Africa Sugar Association, before launching her own food and events company, Picnic Fanatics. In 2005 she sold the company and moved to Johannesburg to pursue other opportunities, which ultimately involved outreach work within the rural primary schools sector.

Then in 2013, Prince heard about TCS Education System through a friend and was soon working as an ILO, TCS’ first in South Africa. She embraced the chance to show others her country. In this position, Prince represents all of TCS’s affiliate partners in South Africa and helps “create a collaborative opportunity for staff and faculty.”

Currently, Prince is working with TCS partner colleges that have programs dealing with trauma—Saybrook University, Pacific Oaks College, and The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. “Unfortunately, South Africa has a lot to offer in terms of trauma: the poverty, gender-based violence, and crisis pregnancies,” she says.

Partnership in South Africa

During Prince’s seven-year tenure with TCS, she has built amazing relationships with many organizations and students, throughout her home country and beyond. As a result, students are able to have a more meaningful experience when they are visiting. Some of the most impactful have been exchanges of personal, rich stories. “I will take a group of students to an orphanage, and everyone will sit and talk for two hours, sharing amazing, personal stories and connecting over them,” she says.

Prince attended TCS’s first Education Beyond Borders (EBB) study abroad program in Berlin in 2016, and it was then that she first conceptualized its next trip—to South Africa. She considered what topics might be best for students to focus on and created a curriculum centered around identity. “I thought Ph.D. students would find it easier to relate to future clients or classmates if they know who they really are,” she says.

In 2018, EBB took 66 TCS students, faculty, and board members to South Africa. An incredibly diverse country with several languages and a racially varied population, South Africa also has 13 tribes that each have their own language, traditions, and rituals—which adds to many conversations around identity and culture. “For children from a mixed marriage where the parents speak two different languages, the questions of what is their family culture and what is their cultural identity arise,” Prince explains.

Prince believes EBB is so important for students to relate to others in different fields with whom they might not get a chance to connect, in a country they might otherwise not visit. “If anyone is given the chance to take an EBB trip, they should grab it with both hands,” Prince says.

Radical Cooperation in Action: Design Thinking & Global Engagement

Faculty from Saybrook University and The Chicago School of Professional Psychology study Design Thinking globally with other experts in the field.

April 27 marks 25th anniversary of South Africa’s first democratic vote

In honor of this holiday, explore the history of its origins and learn more about a recent study abroad course in South Africa.

In light of the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Trump administration’s travel ban can be fully enforced, TCS Education System renews our commitment to an education that transcends geographical borders.

Become a Global Ambassador!

TCS Education System is looking for Global Ambassadors to join our dynamic team! As we continue building partnerships globally, we need your help in supporting our efforts in your home country. By volunteering your time as a Global Ambassador, you will have a unique opportunity to represent your institution by serving as a liaison —helping inform prospective students on their decision to join our community.

How One Psychologist Didn’t Let the Fear of Striking Out Hold Him Back

This content originally appeared in Saybrook University’s UNBOUND Magazine, by Shamontiel Vaughn

As with any professional sport, an athlete in his 30s usually starts looking for other jobs because he knows his time is limited. In Patterson’s case, his baseball career ended early due to sports injuries—a torn rotator cuff, supraspinatus tendinitis, knee surgery, and back surgery.

“I couldn’t throw at all, but fortunately I could hit so I was still able to play in high school and I still played semi-professionally,” says Patterson, who played during the late ‘70s and ‘80s. “I think I played my last semi pro-game in 1989.”

But by that time he’d already shied away from putting all his eggs in one basket. Patterson became a school psychologist in 1984, was a part-time scout for the Major League Scouting Bureau (MLSB) for the next five years, and then a scout part-time for the Texas Rangers, while working on his doctorate degree at Saybrook.

“I knew that my baseball days had passed,” Patterson says. “You hear people call that Cubs player Grandpa Rossy, and he’s only 39. After baseball, I had to figure out what was I going to do. My bachelor’s degree was in psychology and pre-dentistry from the University of Illinois. My parents always stressed to me to have a good education as a backup plan in case I was injured. And Saybrook had the humanistic, holistic approach that fit my needs and that I strongly believe in.”

Read the full article

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

Immigration Executive Order: Updates

On January 27, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed the Executive Order: Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States. Since then, we have reiterated our commitment to advancing student success and community impact regardless of country of origin or religious beliefs. We continue to closely follow the executive order signed by the U.S. President, and will continue to provide updates. Also, please click here to find resources and frequently asked questions.

UPDATE June 27, 2017

On Monday, June 26, 2017 the Supreme Court decided that it will hear the government’s appeal of two lower court decisions that blocked enforcement of Executive Order No. 13780, Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States. The cases will be heard during the Court’s October Term 2017.

In its decision, the Court also ruled to partially lift the injunctions and permit some parts of the Executive Order to take effect immediately. If you recall, the Executive Order includes a 120-day suspension of entry for all refugees and a 90-day ban on entry to the U.S. for nationals of six foreign states: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Pursuant to the Court’s ruling, refugees and foreign nationals from the designated states can be denied entry to the U.S. if they “lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”

The Court provided some examples of bona fide relationships that qualify a foreign national for entry into the U.S., including students admitted to study at a university in the U.S., a worker who accepted an offer of employment, a lecturer invited to address an American audience, and a foreign national seeking entry to live with or visit a family member. A bona fide relationship must be a documented, credible claim, but it is too early to know the types of documentation required or the manner of providing proof of a bona fide relationship.

In light of today’s Court action, we encourage members of the community from the designated foreign states to exercise caution in traveling outside of the United States. There may be travel delays as a result of the need to produce acceptable documentation and the review by immigration officials.

As a community of higher educational institutions committed to global cooperation and social justice, we welcome our international community members and will continue to support and embrace their presence in our schools.

UPDATE March 16, 2017

Two key portions of the executive order on Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States scheduled to go into effect on March 16, 2017 have been temporarily stayed from enforcement nationwide by courts in Hawaii and Maryland. Both stays apply to the 90 day bar on entry to the U.S. of nationals from the six designated states of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen and Hawaii’s stay also extends to the 120-day suspension of entry for refugees. The actions taken by the courts mean that nationals from the six named countries as well as refugees will continue to be admitted to the U.S. pursuant to the laws, rules, and procedures pre-dating the recent executive orders. As the Hawaii and Maryland cases evolve and other cases emerge throughout the U.S., we will keep you updated of the status of immigration enforcement in the U.S.

UPDATE March 8, 2017

The March 6 executive order on Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States is similar in content to the previous executive order, issuing a temporary travel ban for nationals from a confined list of countries and suspending entry of refugees. The new order provides more guidance to aid immigration officials to utilize their discretion to issue exceptions or waivers in cases where they deem there to be no threat to national security. This new order revokes and replaces Executive Order 13769 in its entirety, effective March 16, 2017.

There will be a 90-day ban on entry to the U.S. for nationals of six states: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen. The order does not ban Iraqi nationals, they will be subject to heightened scrutiny in the issuance of visas and grants of admission to the U.S.
There are exceptions to the ban for nationals of the six states who are lawful permanent residents of the U.S., dual nationals traveling on a passport from a non-designated country, and others authorized to be admitted through means such as asylum, refugee status, or diplomacy.
Immigration officials are also empowered to issue waivers to the ban in their discretion on a case-by-case basis. Generally, waivers are permitted when the person has a long-term tie to the U.S. through work, study, or family and is seeking re-entry. A waiver may also be appropriate when a person is in need of urgent medical care or is carrying out activities supported by a foreign nation or international organization.
During the travel ban, the federal government will be reviewing the screening and vetting standards for all immigration programs to develop a uniform standard. We can expect more rigorous screening of visa applicants which will likely include interviews for future visa applicants from nations perceived as a threat.
There will also be a 120-day suspension of entry for all refugees.

Please refer to this page for updated information and resources on how this affects faculty, students, and staff. Our Global Engagement team will continue to closely monitor ongoing changes that impact our community. Please join us for our informational session open to all members of our community regarding the Executive Order and related resources on March 30, as listed under Resources & FAQ below.

UPDATE February 15, 2017

As of February 9, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth District upheld an earlier judge’s decision to temporarily block enforcement of the executive order on immigration. At this time, further legal action for this order will continue, and this is not the final decision on the executive order. While this news was a step in a hopeful new direction, we continue to anticipate new developments, and have developed a centralized location for our resources related to the issue and will update as new information becomes available. These resources include FAQs and focuses primarily on the executive orders on immigration. We also provide resources for other issues, such as those related to refugee status and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, immigration and mental health resources, and resources for supporting students within the classroom. At this time, each day continues to unfold and bring about changes, and the future is yet unknown. The outpouring of concern, support and patience shown by our community is inspiring. Please feel free to share our resources page and if you have additional suggestions for resources, please share them with Global Engagement. Jenn Fullick, our Director of Global Enrollment and Kathie Henn in our Office of the General Counsel serve our central support team to support members of the TCS Community as we navigate changes to our country’s immigration policies. Please look forward to updates from Jenn and Kathie as appropriate.

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