Yesterday, we conferred degrees upon nearly 800 masters, baccalaureate and associates candidates. It was a day of celebration for students and families, as well as the faculty, staff and administration of Philadelphia University – graduation is a culmination of why we do what we do and a chance to recognize the exceptional students we serve. Below are my comments to this year’s graduating class.

Graduates, you came to Philadelphia University from 33 different states and 17 countries. You majored in 62 distinct disciplines, became All American athletes, published authors, founders of commercial and not for profit ventures. You have patented intellectual property, designed award winning products and apparel, created unique structures and materials and have served in clinics and hospitals. You have volunteered thousands of hours in communities from Philadelphia to Haiti. Many of you leave here to work for great companies from DuPont to Apple. Some of you are going to medical school, law school or to study for masters degrees in business, psychology, medicine, engineering, environmental science and many other disciplines.

But all of you, now and forever, will be a member of the class of 2012, bound by the experience of growing from adolescent to adult and from student to professional – an experience that is lived out uniquely at Philadelphia University.

You are better prepared for a complex and fraught world than any class in our 128-year history. Your life’s work begins now and our expectations of you are high. We desperately need you to be leaders, and people who see the needs of their families, companies and communities as more important than their own. You will not only apply the skills represented by your freshly minted degree but you will commit yourselves to collaborating across disciplines, industries and generations to solve problems big and small.

I deeply respect this class. Many of you are my friends. When you cross this stage today though, our relationship changes – you become alumni of this University, and my boss. I am proud of you and excited to serve you.

Some of you might remember me telling you, as first year students, that I expected you to thrive at Philadelphia University. You have proven me right. Now, I expect you to do even more. You will create much value and beauty in the world. Some of that value will be financial in nature. I expect you to pay your bills, save a little, and send some back to mom and dad who have sacrificed and loved you all these years.

This week, we announced a $15 million dollar gift from dedicated alumnus: Maurice Kanbar. Through innovative entrepreneurship and inventive thinking, driven by a curious mind, he has established himself as a leader. Through his generosity, he has given resounding affirmation to the transformative, interdisciplinary education we are pioneering here at Philadelphia University.

You are the products of that education, and that experiment. The next Maurice Kanbar is in your ranks. The reputation, success and future of Philadelphia University are intimately tied to yours. I am confident in you, the class of 2012 – in your talent, your ability to lead and in your ambition.

You are Philadelphia University’s class of 2012. I am confident you will make us proud.

Anyone who has ever had an idea knows something of the distance between thought and action. There are wild differences between the person who thought of the self-starting car and the team of designers, engineers, and business professionals who made it possible. All of us have armchair-quarterbacked an Apple product, or had the “why didn’t I think of that” moment when presented with an elegantly simple solution for an everyday problem.

It is in the gap between great ideas and creation that entrepreneurs are found.

This week, Senior Industrial Design students made interim presentation of their capstone projects. The problems they approached are varied, from urban wind turbine production to creating products for the niche toy market. What is true of all their designs is that they solve problems – big and small – in unique and innovative ways. This approach to design, which is taught at Philadelphia University, begins with observing an environment and the people who interact in it. We define problems and map solutions. This process is pure DNA helix.  It creates entrepreneurs

The end result of these student creations is a market-ready product, and the important marketing component is not left out of their research. Students have tested their products with marketing teams in up-and-coming neighborhoods in Philadelphia, and in national companies like Polartec.

The presentations students make to panels of faculty and industry experts could just as easily be given to investors. Listening to them, I was ready to write a check.

Steve Blank (PhilaU H’11) describes entrepreneurship as a good idea looking for a business model.

But the journey from idea to good idea is too often haphazard.  The Darwinian evolution of ideas into companies leaves a great deal of resources wasted or discarded.  Failure can be painful.  Is there a way to increase the odds for success?

Innovation has become a buzzword because the pace of change in the marketplace is so dramatic.  “Innovate or die” now precedes “innovate and prosper” as an R&D mantra.  We are learning that great contributors to prosperity have a disciplined approach to idea generation.  It usually starts with examining the environment and mapping opportunities for improvement.  Then, through intimate contact with customers, prototyping and iterating; the innovator shapes ideas into good ideas.  Thus the entrepreneurial process is primed with good ideas.

Our students are working through this process organically, creating market-ready products. I am eager to invest in them, to purchase their creations, or, like the innovators of old, start a company in our garages that just might change the world.

Philadelphia University is pioneering a curriculum that fosters disciplined and creative decision making and results in innovation.

This elegant yet understandable map [click here to view] of integrated design processes can be used to make almost any decision about creating value through product or service innovation.

1st years at PhilaU learn this process.

Powered to do what’s now, powered to do what’s next.

In response to: http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/critical-thinking-in-the-curriculum-donald-lazere/37094?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Philadelphia University’s mission is to define professional education at the university level through our teaching and research, and to deliver an educational experience that prepare students to be leaders at every level of their careers in a rapidly changing world. 

We are breaking people out of their disciplinary silos to work collaboratively on real-world, complex human problems — the kind that are relevant to industry today and in the future.  For the past four years we have engaged in a formal process of reviewing and revising the curriculum to more pervasively and sustainably deliver on the promise of a new, more relevant educational paradigm.  We are passionate about elevating the university experience by addressing what we believe is the false dichotomy between educating the professional degree candidates and liberal arts education.  Our proposition is that the liberal arts are better served by educating the engineer, design, architect, health scientist and business student in critical thinking through the lens of the student’s professional passion. 

The pedagogical nucleus is an education framework that defines, focuses upon and measures collaborative, active, engaged, real world learning that is infused with the liberal arts.  The most profound manifestation of that framework is in our newly formed College of Design, Engineering and Commerce (DEC).  Structuring the college as a collaboration brings disciplines into intimate proximity.  It affects all aspects of university life; governance, teaching and research. The enhanced curriculum includes four transdisciplinary courses taught over four years and culminating in a senior capstone.  We believe the disciplinary perspective is enhanced, not diluted by the “DEC Core” because the student must argue their disciplinary position in a team of otherwise trained colleagues.  You must understand your perspective in the context of the problem and your teammates’ decision frame.  Our beta testing of the curriculum found that students spent more time observing, researching and critically analyzing data before delivering their arguments.  They also tend to offer a variety of options rather than absolute conclusions.  There is an interesting mix of quantitative certainty (“the structure must have a foundation of X to support y”) and qualitative alternatives (“we could build a structure or we could offer an enhanced service”).  The passion derived from their discipline is not muted but it is argued in a less sterile environment. 

We believe three broad learning objectives can be achieved through this curriculum and add value to a graduate’s degree:

1. Students learn to form transdisciplinary teams and function effectively as a part of those teams.
2. Students define problems rather than expecting to be handed a problem to answer.
3. Students create solutions rather than singular conclusions.

The transdisciplinary imperative is critical in professional education on the university level.  Most teams function as a triage structure to assign individual tasks that are then negotiated into a more holistic solution.  That is an inter-disciplinary team.  Transdisciplinary teams must understand the decision-making frames of their teammates, considering the critical thinking of other disciplines when making their decisions.  Importantly, when debating the possible solutions to problems, the student needs a deep understanding of their own discipline to properly represent that perspective in the team.  Deep disciplinary understanding, transdisciplinary awareness, observation and analysis, debate and solutions.  That is the liberal arts-professional education marriage made at Philadelphia University.

An address to the Cum Laude Assembly of the Penn Charter School, April 27, 2011
Stephen Spinelli Jr., President, Philadelphia University

The title of my talk is, “A commercial about a product called me”. It might be the strangest title of a Cum Laude Society keynote speech ever proposed…at least I hope so. It is constructed to articulate the wonderful and, I believe, reconcilable combination of self promotion and service as the foundation of a purpose driven life.

I ask you to imagine how the world sees you and how you would like to be seen. Recognize and shape that which makes you different and special. Too often we teach people to be like everyone else…but just a little better. A “92” on an exam is a lot like an “88” but a little better. More on that later.

You are “selling” yourself…your ideas, your skills, your opinions and perspectives every day. As you mature in life the intensity and impact of your uniqueness will increase or recede depending on the decisions you make.  Why not proceed with thoughtfulness and even a plan?

Let me start with a brief commercial about the product called Steve.

Poverty is classically defined as the lack of basic human needs, such as clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. There are 1.7 billion people in the world today that live in poverty. I define it more simply. Mom and Dad said no when we asked for more food. When I was young I thought this was because of religious observance. “Regular” Catholics abstained from meat on Friday…we skipped entire meals! Or, maybe mom just thought we were getting fat.

I consider the realities of my youth to be a great advantage in my life. Truthfully, I was one of the very lucky kids. First, I had a loving family. And, after ninth grade I was awarded a scholarship to a private school in Massachusetts. I then received a scholarship to attend college. The powers of a loving family to inspire and motivate a person and the pursuit of knowledge to lift a life are enduring axioms for me.

After college I had a mentor in business who gathered a team of motivated young people to create a new venture. While in business I did my MBA degree, catalyzing my belief in focused thought leading to decisive action. The “thought and action” paradigm still drives me.

After selling the company, I completed a Ph.D. My future rests in combining entrepreneurial experience with a scholarly life. That is was brought me to Philadelphia University.

The facts of my brief commercial are unimportant; fun for me to talk about, but, really unimportant. What is important is that building the story is a lifelong behavior. Drawing on the past for knowledge and wisdom but thinking about and working to be the person I want to be today and tomorrow.

I ask you to consider creating your “commercial about the product called me.” You have to have the courage and fortitude to be different…that brings me back to the fact that the world questions and sometimes belittles the outlier. But the outlier is the most interesting person. The path less taken is made a road by your dedicated passion fueled by knowledge and ignited by action.

Passion, knowledge, action.

Here’s a tool I find helpful.

Penn researcher Martin Seligman has identified three types of happiness that might be informative when writing your commercial.

The first type of happiness is the pursuit of a Pleasant life.

A pleasant life consists of having as much pleasure as you can, working to increase the duration and intensity of your pleasures. These are shortcuts to happiness. You can go shopping; you can watch television; you can take drugs. You can eat chocolate. Sometimes good, sometimes bad but almost always ephemeral, a moment or a fleeting few hours of happiness at best.

The second is an Engaged life.

An engaged life is being totally wrapped up in the people you love or being enraptured by the music you are hearing or book you are reading. There are no shortcuts to the engaged life. The engaged life can only be had by building and knowing your greatest strengths, your signature strengths, and crafting, or re-crafting your life to use them at school or work, in love, in leisure, in your family and with your friends.

The third is a Meaningful life.

A meaningful life consists of again knowing what your greatest strengths and talents are and using them in the service of something that you believe is bigger than you.

Most folks need pleasure, but too many live in the pursuit and acquisition of pleasure. Life satisfaction is more a function of the second two pursuits, engagement and meaning, built on knowledge, understanding and service.

(Source: Dr Martin E.P. Seligman, the Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania)

You have begun the production of your commercial whether you like it or not. Your generation is the first in history to be culturally imbued in creating the differentiated “me”. Most of us in the room have a Facebook account, tweet, text and/or blog. Some of us post videos of what we think might be special about us. We have screen names and avatars that depict the persona we conceive ourselves to be. My wife’s screen name is CFS (Carol Fulton Spinelli) Music. She broadcasts her immersion in music as the cornerstone of her persona. Her avatar is her female conception of Mozart (it scares the heck out of me). By the way, Carol is Phi Beta Kappa and should be giving this talk. I’ve done distance teaching and my avatar is a muscular man with lots of hair.

I ask you to consider the creation of your story…and go beyond the144 character text messages and fantastic caricatures. Do not use words or themes that are common and self-serving but rather I urge you to explore the depth of your beliefs and understandings. Start today by asking the question, “What are the truths by which I will lead my life.” For me

I will be a loving member of the family,

Knowledge inspires me,

I will think deeply and act decisively.

I will serve in the education of as many people as I can.

1. Write the words that define who you are and who you will become.
   a. Some of the words are descriptive
   b. Some of the words are aspirational
   c. Some of the words are damning
2. Avoid saying things that everyone else will say.
   a. Unique is defined by Webster as existing as the only one or as the sole example
   b. Limit the use of adjectives!  Mark Twain, in a letter to a 12-year-old boy wrote, “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when close together. They give strength when they are wide apart.”
   
3. Think about your transition from the external environment controlling who you are to an internal locus of control.
4. Begin to tell a story…
   a. Ideas excite people…begin to imagine
   b. Words inspire people…learn and become passionate
   c. Take action…it will ignite the passion in your life
5. If you really want to have fun with this, write a break-up letter with the aspects of the current product called me that you are going to change.
   For example,“Dear over-sized ego,
   We’ve been together for a long time, as long as I can remember.  I’ve relied on you in good times and bad, but honestly, I’ve used you.  And frankly, when we’re together, I’ve begun thinking about other people…”

   You get the point.

As you leave this special, historic, nurturing place called Penn Charter, a community that you have been blessed to attend, that has helped you shape your ideas and mold your persona…embrace the product called me. Dare to be unique, believe in something more important than yourself and build a purpose driven life.

Philadelphia University believes in educating students by deeply understanding academic disciplines and then transcending the boundaries of those disciplines to help students become fluent in the cross-disciplinary ways of the 21st-century work world. We are creating a lot of excitement among students, faculty, alumni and industry partners.

As I look toward the fall semester, I’m both excited and a little nervous. I’ve taught juniors, seniors and graduate students for 18 years. But, for the first time in my career, I’ll be teaching freshmen in our new Design, Engineering and Commerce foundation course. What excites me is the ability to be part of a team of faculty who will be teaching groundbreaking curriculum that is going to quite literally change the freshmen experience. The team is preparing rigorously and I wanted to share with you the pearl of wisdom we are including in our stated learning outcomes:

Students should:

• Understand team dynamics and how to work well in a team
• Find problems and turn them into opportunities…don’t expect to just be handed problems to solve
• Craft multiple solutions to the problems you find and make sure you identify associated risks and return

We are changing higher education.

On Saturday February 12, 2011 a group of smart, insightful, accomplished friends and alums of Philadelphia University gathered at the home of entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist, Maurice Kanbar. 

We discussed Philadelphia University’s innovative new Design, Engineering and Commerce curriculum.  A few days later Steve Blank, serial entrepreneur and master educator wrote a terrific blog on the state of higher education and Philadelphia University’s curriculum. 

It is worth reading: www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2011/02/15/college-and-business-will-never-be-the-same-philadelphia-university-integrates-design-engineering-and-commerce