The Sphere College Project


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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.


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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!


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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!


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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.


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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!


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Congratulations Virginia!

Last night artist and Sphere College student Virginia Stewart was awarded a $200 grant for her proposal to Sunday Soup Phoenixville. I invite you to take a moment to read her proposal to use the funds to frame some of her artwork for exhibition in the Phoenixville area. The Sunday Soup concept is a fabulous idea and I would like to thank Emma Peabody for bringing it to our community. I also wish to thank Markels of The Diving Cat Studio for providing a location for the Sunday Soup dinner.

Virginia's winnings!

Virginia accepting the grant of the evening.


Please join me in congratulating Virginia on the beautiful and inspiring work she is doing and on winning the grant!


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A Successful Evening!

Last night we celebrated two years of Sphere College! We sponsored the film Amélie at the Colonial Theatre and had a very nice crowd in attendance. People heard about it through an article in the Pottstown Mercury, a couple of spots I did at WPAZ 1370AM (I learned last night who won the tickets by calling in to WPAZ!), on Facebook, and by word of mouth. Before the film, Frank Wolfe, poet, artist, entertainer and student in Sphere College performed a well-received opening monologue introducing the audience to him as a person and as a student. After the show a group of attendees went across the street to Artisan’s Gallery and Cafe for a discussion of the film. What a pleasure it was to celebrate two years of Sphere College!


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Two Years?

That’s right: two years! The second anniversary of Sphere College is coming up on Wednesday, April 20. To celebrate, we’re hosting the film Amélie in the Colonial Theatre at 7:30pm. Mark your calendars! Come out and enjoy this spectacular film ON THE BIG SCREEN and support a new, innovative form of education!


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The 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

The Sphere College Entry for the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge is now available online, along with all the other entries. Please take a moment to visit the site! (Make sure to click on “Read More”.)

From the Buckminster Fuller Institute website:

“The IDEA INDEX 1.0 is a searchable database of incredible ideas submitted by design pioneers and social innovators from all over the world”, commented Elizabeth Thompson, BFI’s Executive Director. “One project wins the Challenge, but many of the entries are very worthy of support and attention. It is our hope that in publishing this work on-line, we can develop interest in, and support for comprehensive approaches to addressing our critical issues.”


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Another Take

How fun! The winner of the Sphere College Creative Writing Contest 2011, Jessica Perhaps Portia Epp, has made available her own version of her winning entry. You can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFOvp91P4cM. Enjoy!

For reference, the one we made is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so7xUSTw6vg. IMHO, it’s interesting to compare the two versions.

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