Keep It Going!

There’s no doubt about it, from time to time it can be a real challenge to keep moving forward with this education project, but we keep seeing students make progress and that’s all we need to keep us doing everything we can to make it work. I’d like to draw your attention to a couple of developments.

First, Frank Wolfe continues to work on his passions of poetry, entertaining, comedy and art. His signature piece is “Love and Bagels”, which he has performed many times at Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville. Well, now he’s making this piece available in a YouTube video to share with everyone. Thanks to our friend Kevin Coxe, who shot several performances and put a lot of thought and work into the editing, here’s the video for you to enjoy:

Congratulations, Frank, on completing this project!

Second, Lisa Longo recently began attending our classes. We’re currently studying Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasion, and it seems to be having quite a positive affect on Lisa. You can read about it by following this link to her latest blog entry, How Rhetoric Rocked My World. It’s a real pleasure to have you in the classes, Lisa!

So it seems that the message is this: no matter how challenging things appear to be, just keep it going. There will always be things that will come along to make it all worth it!

Sphere Communication Workshops

Last night at Steel City Coffeehouse I presented the second of two Sphere Communication Workshops. It went extremely well! We had a nice crowd: some members of the Phoenixville Green Community, some musicians, some students in the Sphere College Project, and several others who heard about it and dropped in.

Most attendees were there last night because people who attended last week encouraged them to come. And last night’s attendees were sincerely enthusiastic afterward about how much it opened their eyes with respect to problems and solutions of group communication. Ultimately, that’s how I want to publicize this: word of mouth. If the quality of a product is high enough, then people WILL tell other people.

Here’s a rundown of the workshop: I briefly discuss the motivation for the workshop, then present some principles of communication that emerge from synthesizing diverse disciplines. Then there’s a break. Last night during the break the audience was entertained by Frank Wolfe, student in the Sphere College Project. After the break I solicit a group of courageous volunteers to practice their skills by discussing an engaging topic based on the principles introduced previously. Naturally, the participants are a bit self-conscious since the rest of the group is listening intently to the discussion, but by this time it isn’t too difficult for the individuals to focus on the topic while simultaneously remaining aware of the quality of their interaction.

The night was so successful that I look forward to presenting this workshop often and soon. I’m currently working on a grant to offer it to unemployed/underemployed individuals. In the meantime, if you, dear reader, can think of any groups who would like to be more effective at finding common ground through improving their communication skills (who wouldn’t?), I’d appreciate being connected with them! I can be contacted directly with an email to info AT spherecollege DOT org. The workshop is also offered through the Center for Resolutions in Media, PA. Some information about the workshop is available by following this link.

Everybody Learns!

Deeply etched into the philosophy of The Sphere College Project are the convictions that all faculty, administration and staff must be engaged in their own personal pursuit of knowledge, and that experience is the best teacher. This implies that I, the president and founder, must be as willing to learn from experience as I expect the students to be.

So what have I learned? One thing is that in our current economic environment holding fundraisers and contests and asking people to contribute money and expertise is not going to sufficiently build the necessary infrastructure for us to become a stable, sustainable entity. I’ve also learned that we’re solidly on the right track. There’s no question of our giving up, even in the face of what may appear to many to be insurmountable challenges. How do I know we’re on the right track? All of my knowledge tells me the structure is right, I look at the progress currently being made by the students, and the fact that 2 1/2 years in, we’re still alive.

What has become clear to me is that we can survive and grow by offering something of value to society—something people will pay for. Virginia Stewart, for example, has been working on her artwork. She is producing new, innovative works that deliver what our lives and times need: insight into self-awareness, and surreal works of beauty that provide fertile ground for interpretation and contemplation. Frank Wolfe is writing and entertaining and producing his artwork in the form of greeting cards and a calendar for sale during the holiday season. His work provides fresh, poignant insights into what it means to be human. Virginia and Frank are both beginning to get paid for doing the work they love to do, too!

So…what do I have to offer? Well, I have developed something called the Sphere Communication Workshop. In the workshop I convey principles of communication and leverage the metaphor of roles played by musicians as they engage in creating music together. Participants in the workshop will gain an awareness of their own individual communication strengths and weaknesses, and to begin to interact more effectively with others.

I am offering these workshops at Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville on two Tuesdays, October 18 and 25 from 6-8pm. Information about the workshops is available by following this link. And Fern Brodkin created this press release. I’m very excited about the workshops. They accomplish multiple goals: they are a way for us to bring in some much-needed funding, and they will also get people communicating more effectively, a critical component of a functioning society. If you are in the Phoenixville area, I hope you will consider attending one or both of these workshops. If you can’t attend, feel free to call Kim Feindt at 610-917-9797 to schedule workshops at other times. If you are not in Phoenixville, I would be delighted to visit your area to perform the workshops. Please contact me via email, richard AT spherecollege DOT org, for more information.

Now Hear (Read) This!

Read this feature article about Sphere College in the Chronicle of Higher Education and learn about the college education you wish you had. One that was financially accessible, stretched your boundaries and aligned with your passion.

It is the education you personally can give to others, especially those talented people who don’t fit into the current box of higher education we’re trying to squash everyone into—those talented people who have something big to contribute to society and really are the change we need to create a more enjoyable and functional world, where we live rather than douse our dreams.

Read It and Be Inspired. Grab the article by following this link: http://spherecollege.org/ChronicleMay2011.pdf

And then take the step to make this dream come alive—for the present students, for those we can ignite and even, maybe, for someone you personally know.

Every bit helps foster the dream. You can donate the cost of lunch or a movie ticket easily. Just click HERE on this DONATE link.

You’re almost done. Now think of just a few people you know who understand that bringing effective education, individualized education, to a wider public is the key to creating a world where we are passionately productive, aligned with our joy, and choose to bring the very best of ourselves to make a contribution that matters to society and point those people to this entry. That’s it!

THEN sit back for a few moments and breathe a nice, deep sigh, comfortable in the knowledge that you’ve joined many other like-minded people in supporting what we would like to see happen—a world with a greater appreciation for the arts; with a greater capacity for understanding scientific thought; and a greater ability to be compassionate for those who differ from us while connecting more closely with those who are similar.

Ok, let’s really see what we can do to change the world now.

The News Is Getting Out

Quick note: Sphere College was mentioned in an article about the Saxifrage School in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Sunday. (Here’s the website for the Saxifrage School. Kudos!) And we’re closing in on obtaining reprint rights for the feature article in Chronicle of Higher Education about Sphere College. When that deal is closed we’ll be able to place that article here for you to read. Good times!

Delete a Post?

It was recommended that I delete my previous post because people want to support a winner, and the previous post looks a bit desperate. Ok, I understand that. But I also must impress upon people that I’m not accustomed to having things I set out to do not be successful. I have a habit of accomplishing some rather difficult things. Simply put, I’m going to stay with Sphere College until it is a self-sustaining entity (and beyond). So don’t hesistate. Go ahead and get behind us now!

Also, upon reflection, the thought of deleting a post leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. To my mind, one of the greatest ills of our society lies in the belief that everything must be ‘spun’ in order to be successful. It’s almost as though we have a collective dysfunctional hysteria that says ‘Don’t tell me about the reality, just make me feel good.’ And I’ve been seeing businesses go under lately that apparently believed they needed to act publicly as though things were fine. Trying to look like a winner didn’t help them. So I’m going to leave the post and move forward.

Perhaps it’s my software engineering training, but if a software engineer is unwilling to think about what could go wrong, talk about it with other people and protect against it to the best of their abilities, then they’re not much of a software engineer.

Furthermore, I must also consider the fact that we’re setting a precedent for how we at Sphere College will conduct ourselves in the future. It is important to me to foster an environment in which it is normal to speak honestly and publicly about difficult situations, as long as appropriate individual privacy is protected.

So here it is, folks. We live in hard times. We need your help. A donation to a project I’m hosting at RocketHub will not only benefit a group of deserving youths in need, but it will also provide me with a bit of financial freedom to continue focusing on establishing Sphere College. And I’ll be able to purchase the PDF rights to reprint and distribute the article in Chronicle of Higher Education. It won’t take much on your part. A contribution of the cost of lunch or movie tickets will be significant and appreciated.

The project is doing well, too. So far there are 18 contributors and $900 has been raised! We’ve got two more days. Let’s see how well we can do. It’s easy. Click here, read about the project and contribute a small amount. Please know that contributing $10 IS very helpful. And please take a moment to help spread the word!

Permissions, Please?

Oh, what a day! So I’ve been waiting for two years for something this big: an article about Sphere College in Chronicle of Higher Education! The big time! This is the article that could turn everything around!

But oh, wait. It’s only available via subscription. So most people whom I know can’t read it. And even if I should obtain a copy (I don’t have a subscription, and I don’t actually have the money to spend on a subscription right now) I can’t legally email it out or post it on my website.

Hmm. What to do now? I’ve got to get people reading this thing. It was suggested that I just go ahead and get a copy and post it anyway. I considered this, but only briefly. It just didn’t seem very wise to me to start out a organization built on trust that way.

Ok, well, I’m the founder of a college, right? I should be able to figure this out. I’ll make a few calls and talk with a few people and see what I can find out.

WELL. I’ll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that I spoke with a number of very nice people, and eventually discovered that all I have to do is pay a licensing fee (there’s this whole fee structure and details about how the article can be distributed) so I can get access to a nice pdf with advertising removed and pretty Chronicle masthead and everything. It turns out that the licensing fee is $675 for 1 year, which allows me to post the article on this website, email it around, and make and distribute copies. Cool! Only I don’t have $675.

SO I called my Dad and my uncle and they’re trying to come up with some money, and my sister offered to help as well. Meanwhile, I’ve got my RocketHub project that is doing pretty well—9 people have donated so far and it jumped from $150 up to $500 since yesterday! AND it was just selected as a Featured Project on the RocketHub home page! (It’s a kind of tiny photo—look for my smiling face.)

So if you’d like to see the article AND do something good for youths in Phoenixville, it would be a huge help if you could donate a small amount to my RocketHub project AND help spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, sending emails, etc. Then I’ll have the funds to purchase the license and make it available here. Sound good? Good.

And, oh look, it appears to have just now jumped to $550 in donations! Let’s go see who donated…Coleen! Thank you!

And check out this video.

Article in Chronicle!

This morning I received an email from my former PhD advisor at Georgia Tech (and a dedicated supporter of Sphere College), Ellen Zegura, that read:

Woo hoo!

Ellen

She also attached headlines from Chronicle of Higher Education, one of which was: “It’s His Very Own College, and Welcome to It”. That’s how I discovered that an article about Sphere College I’ve been hoping to see in Chronicle of Higher Education for quite some time has finally made it!

This is big. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Chronicle of Higher Education may be loosely described as “the Wall Street Journal of higher education”. An article in Chronicle gives us a level of credibility that is very difficult to achieve otherwise. They wouldn’t waste their resources on something that doesn’t have merit, and they have clearly put a lot of work into the article. Our task at hand now is to leverage the article, to get the word out about it and continue to raise the funds that will support us as we move to become a self-sustainable entity and truly provide students with the resources they need.

Hmm, maybe you can help. Maybe you can point people you know towards the article, particularly people who work in higher education (it does require a subscription). Maybe you can provide a small amount of financial support either directly to Sphere College or perhaps even better at this time to the project I posted at RocketHub. This is a project to raise some funds to help promising youths in the Phoenixville community and to help me survive (yes, it’s like that these days): http://rockethub.com/projects/1831-walk-this-way. And please encourage others to support it as well! You know what to do: facebook, twitter, comment on other blogs, send emails, etc.

The point here is that we are all connected and must help one another out. I’m doing my level best to help members of my community. I’m asking you to assist me in that, and you will benefit as well by living in a more educated, compassionate, sensible and fun community, peaceful in the knowledge that you helped make it all happen.

So… let’s get to play!

What a Weekend!

In the last post I told you about some upcoming student successes, both of which took place over the past weekend: Virginia and Jonathan Stewart’s art openings in the Members Show at the Phoenix Village Art Center, and Frank Wolfe‘s book signing at Steel City Coffeehouse.

WELL, not only was the opening a wonderful event, but early on Virginia told me she sold one of the two works she had in the show! AND Frank did a superb job of entertaining the audience with his poetry, wit, stories and comedy. He had them in the palm of his hand, sold some books and is very eager to get up on stage again.

These are very important steps for these individuals and I’m quite proud and honored to be able to travel this portion of their journey with them. Their stories are truly an inspiration!

Student Successes

Other than the knowledge that we’re doing some very important work, what keeps us going after two years of struggling to establish a new institution of higher education in a challenging financial environment? Student successes, naturally–that’s the whole point!

Well, this is a big weekend for Sphere College students. On the heels of being awarded the Sunday Soup grant to have her artwork matted and framed, Virginia Stewart is showing some of her artwork in the Members Show at the Phoenix Village Art Center during the month of May. Virginia’s husband and Sphere College student, Jonathan Stewart, will have works on display as well. The opening is tomorrow night, Friday May 6 from 7-9pm.

AND this Saturday May 7 from 2-4pm, Frank Wolfe and friends will be entertaining during his book signing, Love and Bagels, at Steel City Coffeehouse. A superb article about the event appeared in the Montgomery News (with mention of Sphere College).

We invite you to come out to meet us and see the wonderful work our students are doing!

Meanwhile, classes continue each Thursday night from 7-9pm in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. As is the philosophy of Sphere College, the students select the topic of study. We are currently engaged in a 10-week session on Propaganda.

Please support the work we’re doing. Providing financially accessible education for adults in the way they learn is a critical component of a healthy society. You think a small donation won’t help? NOT SO! $10 from 10,000 people would raise the funds necessary for Sphere College to build an infrastructure that can grow. There are 15,000 people in Phoenixville alone. We need your help. Please donate!