684.From Admissions Rep to DeVry’s first woman CEO - Elise Awaad

[00:00:00] Hey, welcome to another episode of the Quilling Solution podcast with George, truly James

[00:00:14] Rousseau aka Trig. And I'm so excited about the conversation today. I am with Elise

[00:00:19] Awad, president and CEO of DeVry University. And we unpack a number of things including

[00:00:25] how she moved from administration's representative to being the first woman president and CEO of

[00:00:31] the organization in its 93 year history. Transformation moment in her career will be discussed,

[00:00:37] she'll unpack her vision for the organization, and how she is looking to help others not

[00:00:43] to be missed. Also, I want to talk a little bit about some things we experience in our

[00:00:47] faith wall. And why sometimes we ask the question, why does God allow suffering to valid

[00:00:52] question? It gets asked a lot and I'm going to unpack a little bit of that. And then

[00:00:56] thirdly, want to talk about the loss of youth learning over 40% of youth learning loss during

[00:01:03] the summertime. Can you believe that 40% but there are ways you can combat it. Let's jump in.

[00:01:08] Hey, Quilling Solution family welcome back to the show. I've got a special treat for you today. We

[00:01:12] are in the midst of women's month as you know. And I have a woman on the show today. I highly

[00:01:18] respect and hold in high regard. At least I want as the president and CEO of the right university

[00:01:23] and considered one of the most innovative leaders in higher education known for breaking down barriers

[00:01:29] in leading cultural transformations. At least as passionate about the role education plays in

[00:01:34] supporting the career advancement of all learning populations. At least welcome to the show.

[00:01:40] Thank you James and thank you for that outstanding introduction.

[00:01:44] Absolutely. Your folks did you well. So let me ask a question I ask everyone who comes onto the show.

[00:01:50] Let me see, I hope this is something that I don't know. So what's one thing that you can share

[00:01:55] with our audience that even those closest to Elise do not know about Elise?

[00:01:59] Okay so well you may not know this actually. So this might be something new for you to hear.

[00:02:07] I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and I for many many years thought that I would be opening

[00:02:17] my own business after college. So delusional 20 something graduating college. And I still sort of

[00:02:24] think about what life as an entrepreneur would look like but you fast forward to where I'm at today.

[00:02:33] I guess I sort of fell into the CEO role. I say fell in you know hard work got me here but

[00:02:39] I was gonna say you did not fall into their role. You did not think about that. You know family

[00:02:45] of entrepreneurs running their own business now I'm you know at the helm sort of leading a

[00:02:50] university and it's just it's interesting because I've always wanted to do this and now I look

[00:02:56] back and I reflect and it's like wow you know so I was all I entrepreneur at heart James

[00:03:02] a family of entrepreneurs many do not know that. That's good that's good I love that and it's such

[00:03:06] a good segue into the first question I want to ask you which is why the devotion to education there

[00:03:12] are a lot of things you could do with your hutspa with your resilience with your smarts your

[00:03:20] nimbleness your assertiveness your dive into analytics and by the way for everyone listening

[00:03:27] obviously I've worked with Elisa. To be able to list off all those attributes right yeah yeah

[00:03:33] and so I have to ask you why the devotion to education it's a great question so after graduating

[00:03:38] college like I said I thought well maybe we venture off and go start start our own company or you

[00:03:44] I reflect and I'm like okay that wasn't quite I wasn't quite ready to do that so I spent time

[00:03:50] thinking about what type of career I'd be passionate about. What what career would have a mission

[00:03:55] that aligned to my values and having seen the power and influence of an education on my family

[00:04:02] I decided why not try to work on the student advisor inside of academia you know back then I'm

[00:04:07] like okay what's an entry level role in education look like and so I thought okay let me help

[00:04:13] learners understand that education is a lifelong because actually I say this all the time and in

[00:04:17] enduring possession that one served can never be taken away how many things can we say

[00:04:24] fall into that category in life and so I decided back in 2004 to begin my career at Dorae

[00:04:30] so I accepted a role advising students due to my alignment again to the mission the purpose of

[00:04:34] the institution you know it very well you've been writing in a side card alongside us for many years

[00:04:42] as a trustee and James I think you know this I fell in love with my job and it's because I'm

[00:04:50] of the stories of the students as they navigate through their educational journey I would get calls

[00:04:54] from graduate saying thank you for helping me get started I am now finished and could not be more

[00:05:00] proud of myself and truthfully I couldn't be proud of them at that moment that's what led me to a

[00:05:04] career in education why I've been devoted to whatever since is the student stories I'm inspired by

[00:05:09] them I remember them and at that point I decided I want to stick around and see where this career

[00:05:15] would lead yeah I'm with you on that short sidebar guess on the being inspired by the student stories

[00:05:21] I've been to I want to say three of four commencement ceremonies one here in the Philadelphia

[00:05:29] area and two or three out there and I think watching people go across the stage and getting a sound

[00:05:36] bite from them or either in another form of the journey they've been through and what this means to

[00:05:43] them as a part of that journey a milestone coming out of that journey right and then onto the next thing

[00:05:48] it's been that that's the that's some of the most rewarding aspects of being involved in this role

[00:05:55] let me let me share this and I notice it's not a new statistic to you women make up just 10%

[00:06:00] of the CEO roles in the fortune 500 hard to believe in 2024 but still affect I assume those

[00:06:07] numbers are probably not too dissimilar outside the fortune 500 if you expanded to the you know

[00:06:12] 1000 if you expanded the private sector maybe they change a couple percentage points but probably not

[00:06:17] a lot you are the first female president and CEO in the rise 93 year history what does that mean

[00:06:25] oh my gosh first of all I'm incredibly humbled by the fact that I've been able to work with leaders

[00:06:34] who saw and believed she saw something to me and believed in my ability to get to a role like the

[00:06:41] CEO of DeVry University and what it means it's a lot of weight on my shoulders to be honest with

[00:06:46] you because I understand that that's statistic it's sad it's sad and you know while we've made

[00:06:55] movement um fortune 500 even just in general in the C-suite left on CEO it's not enough

[00:07:02] and I am so happy to be talking about this I'm so glad you asked this question because we are

[00:07:06] day one of women's history month yes thank you fun right here and it looked like it means

[00:07:13] that I need to give back I did a a keynote this week and I talked about three sort of things

[00:07:21] guiding principles in my career and I'll unpack the last one it's lift as you climb now what that

[00:07:27] means to me is I got to this role I had excellent sponsors I had excellent mentors you being one

[00:07:32] of them James I had oh thank you fortune of working with people who believed in I want to give back

[00:07:39] I want to be a person that believes in others and lift as I climb the number of female CEOs

[00:07:45] unfortunate 500 companies is is you know it again it's it's been reaching record highs in recent years

[00:07:52] but still yeah incredibly small fraction of the total that's right in this milestone everybody says

[00:07:59] oh while you broke a great glass ceiling you're such an inspiration I you know I want to take

[00:08:04] that and use it for good I want to continue to tell my story and tell people you know I started

[00:08:10] on the front lines I started on the bottom of the organization and I I climbed my way up and

[00:08:16] I want to I want to share my story I want to inspire people and I want to lift as I climb that's

[00:08:21] what that means to me and that's good I bloomed where I was planted that's another guiding principle

[00:08:28] and people think about what's next and I didn't bother doing that I just want to do very well

[00:08:35] in the role that I was in at the time and that served me well but it doesn't always serve everyone

[00:08:40] well so you need sponsors you need mentors I want to get back no that's good and I think

[00:08:45] what you said is really important one we both share that love for that quote that an education

[00:08:51] is something they can't be taken away from you I say it often sometimes people just do the dog turn

[00:08:56] what do you mean by that great let's have the conversation but the second thing is the journey from

[00:09:01] administration excuse me a mission's representative to CEO so and people's mind is easy to say okay

[00:09:09] clearly there was a journey clearly this took some time this didn't happen in the year two years

[00:09:13] three years and so we could probably spend time going through the I was called like the squiggly line

[00:09:19] of what that looked like but what I would ask you is are there a few moments or experiences

[00:09:25] in your that come to mind when I say this was transformative in my journey are there

[00:09:31] few moments that come to mind or experiences there are so I'll say my success can be attributed

[00:09:37] to several factors but it fundamentally fundamentally begins with the mindset that I shared a

[00:09:42] bloom where you're planted early in my career again advice now that I pass on to my mentees and

[00:09:48] I continued to emphasize the importance of that this approach served me well since 2007 James

[00:09:57] I've been provided opportunities for advancement and they've come to me so what highlights the

[00:10:04] value of focusing on you know being in the present and blooming where you're planted it can truly

[00:10:09] pave the way for future success but a turning point in my career was in 2013 I actually opted

[00:10:19] to tackle a challenging assignment that others at my level were super hesitant to take on

[00:10:25] and I moved away from a team I had built to lead a significant transformation of a large

[00:10:33] operation a task that had previously many have failed in leading this part of the organization

[00:10:44] it had daunting challenges it was ripe with opportunity for transformation and growth

[00:10:51] and a lot of people are like I'm cool in my little bubble like I don't want to take that around

[00:10:56] I'm good I don't see the value in that and I approached this situation in 2013 not with blind

[00:11:04] optimism so please do not think I was scared but I also was determined I was fully aware of the

[00:11:12] potential pitfalls that this role could lead to but I was confident and I know I told myself

[00:11:22] you know if I'm not going to take a challenging assignment on now then wait so that experience

[00:11:29] was incredibly transformative because I took something on that nobody wanted to take on that many have

[00:11:34] failed taking on and I jumped right in and you know I wouldn't say it's easy it took a while to

[00:11:43] transform the operation but we started maybe about a year and a half two years in to really turn

[00:11:51] the corner yeah bringing better leadership in really emphasizing the importance of coaching

[00:12:00] and development inspiring your team and not just asking we're not making widgets here we're

[00:12:05] inspiring other people to get an education to pursue their educational journeys so we have to

[00:12:11] motivate our teams to motivate others and so the key to navigating this challenge was not to dive

[00:12:19] headfirst into rebuilding this team but you know my mindset would serve me well because since then

[00:12:26] I've taken on other roles that were in need of transformation or rebuild and it's my mindset was

[00:12:34] understand the nuances and the intricacies of what we needed to endure and who might contrast

[00:12:43] in collaborate with within the organization to help me because transformations are never a solo

[00:12:49] window or we need a team so I formed a coalition of reliable partners I focused on fostering

[00:12:55] a collaborative environment I emphasized the importance of building a new 19 a team with

[00:12:59] the sheer vision and let me tell you that throughout this journey I learned the importance of

[00:13:04] humility and patience and so I think that was a really pivotal moment in my career because I

[00:13:09] learned that we're almost in built-in a day but they were layering bricks every single hour so

[00:13:17] it just it was it was it was a point in my career that really illustrated the value of consistent

[00:13:23] and gradual progress and I reflect on that point and that was a turning point which I think

[00:13:28] really did pave the way for me to become the president CEO. That's very good very good you know

[00:13:35] when you think about the you know there's a lot of words we use or you use now authoring

[00:13:42] about the rye and what the rye wants to be and so on and so forth and one of the big things is

[00:13:47] helping with the opportunity gap in tech just spend a few minutes talking about

[00:13:53] how you see that opportunity gap in tech and in your time in this chair what you like to accomplish

[00:14:01] today. I love this question because you know how passionate I am about this topic and

[00:14:08] I get into the program that we offer for women in tech but look if you work in a university setting

[00:14:17] or if you're an education you must realize you have the resources to lift others at your fingertips

[00:14:22] and I've taken this philosophy seriously this lift as you climb philosophy whether it's

[00:14:27] your mentoring others are creating meaningful programs within the university for the learners that we

[00:14:31] serve from stem labs and supporting high school women in cities across the country through our

[00:14:40] her world program which by the way is going on it's I believe 27th year of existence

[00:14:46] to launching back in 2021 on International Women's Day our Women in Tech Scholars program.

[00:14:53] We are absolutely determined to close the opportunity gap. We launched that program in 2021

[00:15:00] and we are not even close to making a dent in closing this gap there's a lot of work to do

[00:15:05] um a lot of work you gave a statistic earlier around women in the Fortune 500 seat sweet roles

[00:15:13] CEO roles women in tech roles here's here's here's here's a here's the stat that is tattooed in my

[00:15:19] mind women only make up less than 28 percent of the tech workforce yes they make up 50 percent

[00:15:26] of the US workforce right that's a problem and you know we saw that problem back in 2021

[00:15:34] and we said let's try to solve it and so you know the question we asked ourselves is how do we change

[00:15:41] this goes back to getting in front of women or young girls in high school or prior encouraging

[00:15:50] and empowering them to explore stem at an early age and then in that spirit of lifting others

[00:15:57] as you climb our Women in Tech program has allowed women who never thought they should

[00:16:03] or could enter this field to build the confidence to take the first step but it's not about the

[00:16:10] educational own James you talk a lot about mentorship you're actually a very strong mentor for many

[00:16:17] so that is a component of the program that is now infused throughout the students journey

[00:16:24] seeing others who look like them who are now in breakthrough careers in that field of study

[00:16:30] so it helps boost their confidence in funny if I ask our Women in Tech scholars current scholars

[00:16:36] are graduates what the most impactful part of the program was they often say it was their mentors

[00:16:47] those who encourage them to stay the course and believe in themselves look schools hard education

[00:16:52] you know higher education it's not easy you know it's challenging you're going to have to

[00:16:56] break through barriers every single course you take it's not even just about getting started

[00:17:02] every single course you take is going to present its fair share of challenges and it's easy

[00:17:07] to get discouraged regardless of what program you're in but especially when you're in a program

[00:17:12] where you feel like you know am I doing the right thing you know we're very underrepresented here

[00:17:17] should I be transferring into something that's a bit easier less challenging where I can seek guidance

[00:17:22] we wanted to provide the guidance in the mentorship as a part of the scholars program so

[00:17:28] you know it's it's it's we're fortunate because we've now been at this for two years and it's

[00:17:36] it's sort of a highlight program for us and we you'll hear Demaray talk about this throughout the

[00:17:42] month because we're reaching our now what three-year anniversary coming up in the next week because

[00:17:49] we launched an international Women's Day but look you know at the end of the day I like to say

[00:17:54] that Moshe Michelle Obama was right there is no limit to what we as women can accomplish and this

[00:18:00] program as a testament to that we have about now 30% of our engineering and information science

[00:18:08] enrollments being women it was less than 23% two years ago. And one of the things that you said

[00:18:15] I don't want to be lost on people well actually just there's a couple things you said one let's

[00:18:20] start with some of the last stuff first the number of people doing this at later stages in life

[00:18:25] right I think can't be misunderstood when I look at the profile of incoming students or current

[00:18:30] students at the ride 66% female 82% are 26 above but this one really hit me 24% or over 40. And so

[00:18:41] for anyone listening thinking can I do this now okay oh let me give you another one by the way

[00:18:46] 60% of parents supporting children of the tenants yes and 91% of undergrad so sometimes people

[00:18:52] think when they're going back oh they're going back for graduate is easy no no no 91% are undergrads

[00:18:57] and 60% of parents supporting children and other dependents so I just want you to think about

[00:19:05] is it doable yes people have done it before and people are doing it right now and they're

[00:19:10] walking and creating footprints in the snow for you to follow it that's part one part two if

[00:19:15] you've got someone you care for think about what Elise said a terms of making that shift from

[00:19:20] 28% of women in tech versus 50% in the workforce right is that the yeah 22% difference

[00:19:28] and so if you think about that she said get to them earlier get to them earlier stem makes

[00:19:33] it different and if you want to learn more about stem I just talked about it last week right and two

[00:19:37] things I talked about for me as someone always trying to learn more and learn more about how to learn

[00:19:44] two things jumped out for me for stem one for those of us who grew up in earlier years

[00:19:50] we had a lot of multiple choice tests stem makes you use critical thinking okay less multiple

[00:19:56] choice more how to think through a problem two and this should really resonate now stem builds up

[00:20:02] resilient because failure is a natural part of the process in stem and sometimes right now we face

[00:20:08] a population that's very sensitive right we have to win we have to constantly win as opposed to

[00:20:13] learning the cycles of development which includes failure and we can dress it up anyway you want

[00:20:18] fell forward fell fast listen it's just failure sometimes okay but you just grow from failure

[00:20:26] and it's like to me we will go to a gym and we're okay with time undetention and heavier bars

[00:20:31] and oh my god I couldn't do the 10 reps I could only do the four reps but you're good with it because

[00:20:35] you notice muscle growth it's the same thing in work and every other part of life so that's very

[00:20:42] well I never I never thought about that right you know if you go out and you want to I'm a runner

[00:20:47] and you know that yeah you go out and you want to run 10 miles but you're just not feeling it that day

[00:20:52] so you cut it short at eight do you walk away and feel good that you did eight yeah you do

[00:20:57] right that's right you rarely walk away now if you never try and you just sit on like sit on the

[00:21:02] couch you may later on have a bit of regret right that you never try because you were too tired go

[00:21:07] out there try and you make a great great point right I say it's never too really it is never too late

[00:21:13] never too late never too late never too late never too late so I talked about the profile of

[00:21:18] students they the other thing I would I would say is at least from your perspective your chair

[00:21:23] again from ad missions rep to CEO you've seen so much when you think about the current

[00:21:31] education ecosystem how do you describe it to folks we was like okay I'm committed to learning but

[00:21:36] man there's so much out there it is right what do you say you're at the dinner table and you

[00:21:43] got two minutes before the full full breakfast for the full meal comes right they have their attention

[00:21:47] what do you say look I think right now it's characterized by an unprecedented level of diversity

[00:21:53] in terms of learning modalities technical and logical integration and accessibility I think

[00:21:58] this is evolved significantly today and it will continue to evolve and it's driven by technological

[00:22:06] advances and let's not forget the changing needs of the global economy and the greater awareness

[00:22:13] of the importance of lifelong learning which I'm constantly talking about right now online learning

[00:22:19] platforms are becoming more and more common we used to talk about the traditional education system

[00:22:24] caves your 12 colleges universities all offering in person learning as the norm but now online learning

[00:22:32] and platforms for flexible options are found they are now a foundation for the education system so

[00:22:41] put that aside I think artificial intelligence in adaptive learning are becoming more and more

[00:22:46] prominent and AI technologies are being used to create personalized learning experiences you're

[00:22:51] going to see more of that and you know educational systems need to lean into that because we need

[00:22:56] to think about you know how people want to learn in the future and we need to pivot in a

[00:23:03] doubt so that we can meet them where they're at give it a be it AI be it VR be it AR technology is

[00:23:10] going to be a critical component of education and then the other thing I'll say is accessibility

[00:23:16] women's history mother not I have to talk about this the digital nature of many learning

[00:23:21] resources has made education more accessible globally and we've been able to break down geographical

[00:23:27] and economic barriers to learning and we need to keep doing that and I think AI and advancements

[00:23:34] intact online will allow for more women more parents people with full-time jobs to get an education

[00:23:43] that they deserve or come back to school be it you know for lifelong learning opportunities

[00:23:48] you'll hear a lot about upskilling and skills first yep and we need to think about what that

[00:23:54] looks like it's not always a four-year degree anymore what do you say to those skeptical about education

[00:23:59] I'll go back to what I said earlier it's an enduring possession of people cannot take away from

[00:24:03] me I think times are changing slowly but they're changing and I don't know that you fully need

[00:24:10] to get to an MBA to get a good job but you you really certainly do probably need to continue

[00:24:17] to learn and upskill and so education makes that possible and I think the future of education

[00:24:24] will be even more personalized and accessible and integrated with technology so it's not this

[00:24:31] traditional you know I think a lot of people think it's this traditional you know I have to sit in

[00:24:36] a classroom and read a book for you know four hours in the evening and it's just going to suck

[00:24:42] up my life it's not like that anymore and so you know it comes in all shapes and sizes and I'll

[00:24:48] say I've been I consider myself a lifelong learner I have a bachelor's degree I have two MBAs

[00:24:54] I don't know why but I constantly what I just signed up for masterclass I'm like oh okay great

[00:25:03] like I want to continue to learn about things that you know former CEOs are teaching

[00:25:09] I you know you go to you know there's so many options out there just to get these bite-sized

[00:25:15] learning opportunities people are using YouTube to do it that's all education it's all education

[00:25:20] it's not justice you know traditional I have to sit in a classroom you know I've got to scan my

[00:25:26] badge at the door I've got to be on time you know it's it's flexible no one can take it away from

[00:25:32] me so it's important that's it so so what's so funny about what you just said is okay you just

[00:25:37] transition into the president CEO role was that late third quarter last year?

[00:25:41] yeah right and you're in a learning capacity already right you're in the end cloud already

[00:25:49] you know second from the fire hydrant so to speak right but you still can't help take some form

[00:25:54] of education right it's a part of kind of your ecosystem how you operate at this time I'm doing

[00:26:00] the same thing right I just started the class in January and so I would love to hear your answer

[00:26:05] now I'll give my answer to for those who again okay great I'm over the value of education hurt

[00:26:11] over now I'm thinking about the mode of education why should I why should I spend for a formal

[00:26:16] education when I can do everything DIY like I could do YouTube videos what is the incremental value

[00:26:22] with some level of formal education what would be your answer it helps you stand out in a very

[00:26:28] competitive job market today getting the education like I said is a credential that no one can take

[00:26:33] away from you and it's something that you can put on your resume and it's formal and it helps you

[00:26:37] stand out we don't know what the future is going to hold you know you look at recessions in the past

[00:26:42] and how tough it was for people to stand out to get hundreds of applicants for the same job

[00:26:48] having that credential will help you stand out look you know one of my MBAs was you know I paid

[00:26:54] out a pocket for it one you know I work for university and it's a benefit that we offer so I'm like

[00:26:59] oh why not right I've even thought about now you know attending a color class just in time

[00:27:07] staying immersed in the learning experience understanding how our faculty navigate the nuances

[00:27:12] of the classroom the different types of students that we serve and you know while that's not

[00:27:17] formal education I know that I have formal education is helping me stand out yeah I everything

[00:27:23] you said absolutely I agree 200% what you said so not to be duplicative the only thing I would add

[00:27:29] and my answer is community and feedback right so there's something about being in a community

[00:27:35] learning experience in the conversations that naturally happen because we're all starting at

[00:27:40] different points with that topic or that part of the journey and so it naturally brings out

[00:27:45] different questions that we help each other with and you that the learning just takes on a different

[00:27:51] shade if you will and is richer to me the second thing is the feedback from the professor

[00:27:57] right and so I love you two videos and all those things but there's certain things where I want to

[00:28:02] be able to have this iterative process of submitting some level of work and getting feedback on yeah

[00:28:06] that's okay but it could have been so on and so forth to knock it out the park and some of those

[00:28:11] things you don't get in a DIY environment so that's that's my take so that triggers me that triggers

[00:28:17] me to also add one more thing James if you don't mind and it's the accountability it is so easy yes

[00:28:24] to say I'm going to do this I'm going to sit down and I'm going to you know uh you know look up

[00:28:32] this topic on YouTube and try to learn it on my own I'm going to take this master class and

[00:28:37] maybe I'll get through every someone of these modules but you have accountability and accountability

[00:28:41] matters other it's going to the gym when you go to the gym with the partner you don't want to

[00:28:47] you know what that person down when you have a professor that believes in you and wants you to show

[00:28:53] up to their class you don't want to let them down accountability and when you when you formally um sign up for

[00:29:01] uh you know a degree program a credential you know be a certificate you've also got an ecosystem

[00:29:06] of support around you so it's it's not just accountability to your point as community what do you

[00:29:11] want to leave as the last words of advice let's assume sometimes in our fast moving environment people

[00:29:18] are just blown away with so much material if they heard one thing from you in terms of what they

[00:29:24] can do to use education to help them on their journey what would you say what would your last word

[00:29:29] I would say if you can use education to help you on your journey say yes to it because

[00:29:36] listen i'll go back to the whole say yes to challenges educated getting educated is you know

[00:29:43] challenging in and of itself because you're going to you're going to um it's something they have

[00:29:49] to incorporate into your sort of day-to-day routine and it's not going to be easy if it was easy

[00:29:54] everybody would have a master's degree or a PhD it's not going to be easy say yes to the challenge

[00:30:00] commit i promise you it will be worth it and it's never too early or it's never too late the

[00:30:05] education allows you to acquire new skills to stand out so be confident that you can do it

[00:30:09] and just do it hey guys you've heard it from at least i'll watch president and CEO of the

[00:30:14] variety university the first in the organizations 93 year history at least if people want to reach out

[00:30:19] to you to understand more about you and or the bride will you tell them to go so if you want to

[00:30:25] reach out to me you can find me on LinkedIn at least a wad i am searchable happy to connect with

[00:30:32] anyone uh and then also if you want to learn more about the bride uh you can visit us at the brie.edu

[00:30:38] and if you want to just search our women and tech scholars program you could do that on the

[00:30:43] the navigation bar on the whole page absolutely we'll include that in the note at least thank you so

[00:30:47] much for being here thank you for having me James and as always thank you for your mentorship

[00:30:52] so as i was saying earlier in the show one of the things that can happen to us for sure as Christians

[00:30:57] is wondering why would God allow suffering and of course you know we're probably not asking the

[00:31:03] question many times from a meta perspective a lot of times it's our own situation that we're dealing

[00:31:09] with but it could be a meta perspective we could be watching things such as wars such as poverty

[00:31:14] crime and the impacts of those things on people and it actually begs the question sometimes why does

[00:31:20] God allow suffering and de shun plajoua wrote a wonderful article in holycoach.net that i want to

[00:31:26] sift through a bit because he lays out five things to consider five things to consider and i love

[00:31:34] even that terminology just consider some of these things uh in terms of why God would allow

[00:31:39] the first is discipline and correction we need to experience some time suffering in order

[00:31:45] to be disciplined by God and while God may not have set up a situation we realize that he allows

[00:31:52] things to happen he brews 12 5 through 11 reminds us that the Lord disciplines those he loves no

[00:31:59] different than a father would his children and so you can start right there just put that

[00:32:03] mental picture in your mind of many of us can recall being disciplined by our parents and

[00:32:09] sometimes even feeling like i'm doing a discipline man i'm being betrayed how can you do that to me

[00:32:13] but years later being appreciative of those disciplining moments and how it helped build us

[00:32:21] in many different ways number two choices and actions the shoun writes as believers we sometimes

[00:32:27] experience suffering as a consequence of our choices and actions and just think about that if there

[00:32:33] were no consequence to your choices and actions positive and negative how would you learn

[00:32:40] to either continue with those similar choices or actions or make corrections

[00:32:45] Romans 623 states clearly that choosing sin is choosing death further Galatians 6 7 through 8 teaches

[00:32:53] we are subject to the consequences of our actions either good or bad so that sums it up choices

[00:33:01] and actions number three testing and refining i love this one i think about testing refining often

[00:33:06] think about the piece of scripture where talks about the gold maker looking into the pot of gold

[00:33:14] and as is under the fire watching the impurities sift off of it and maybe stirring a bit to see if

[00:33:21] it's where it needs to be and if not man just letting it continue to be under the fire to watch

[00:33:26] those impurities lift off i mean how powerful of a picture is that in terms of how God maybe letting

[00:33:33] us be refined through the fire James 1 2 through 4 and Romans 5 3 through 5 encourage us to keep

[00:33:42] the right perspective as we face trials because they build our faith reason number four to consider

[00:33:51] is allegiance to Jesus we could just stop right there when you think about allegiance to Jesus

[00:33:57] think about the suffering he willingly did although he said father if you man if you could take

[00:34:01] this cup for me please do but if not i am here to do your will and he suffered through the unimaginable

[00:34:09] and then reason number five suffering for others to show rights as the body of Christ we also

[00:34:15] experienced suffering as a result of the suffering of others first Corinthians 12 26 emphasizes

[00:34:24] the importance of entering into the suffering of others to walk alongside them and support

[00:34:31] think about that for a second someone else is going through something and in our desire to be

[00:34:38] empathetic we may suffer with them again one first Corinthians 12 26 emphasizes the importance of

[00:34:44] entering into the suffering of others to walk alongside them and support again five reasons to

[00:34:52] consider why God may allow suffering as i mentioned earlier in the show did you know that research

[00:34:59] shows that students lose up to 20 percent excuse me excuse me 40 percent of the gains made over

[00:35:04] school year during the summer i mean she's thinking about that 40 percent of what they learn is

[00:35:09] loss during the summer now you have to remember you know the United States has a longer summer break

[00:35:15] period right we i mean when i was in school i know i look forward to it i mean knowing you're off for

[00:35:20] two 20 half months depending on winning junan let out through so you got half of June maybe

[00:35:28] July and August 20 half months many other countries don't do that many other countries have smaller

[00:35:33] breaks in Asia for example they have a week off an autumn three weeks off at Christmas a week in the

[00:35:38] winter so cumulatively they have maybe five or six weeks but again it's broken up at different

[00:35:44] periods we in the US eight to ten weeks in summer plus labor day break thanks given break winter break

[00:35:54] etc and so nevertheless the good news is the same people who did the research also conducted

[00:36:00] some further research to say well what are some of the tips you could do to avoid that 40 percent

[00:36:05] loss i mean anything over double digits is it you lost period but 40 percent fam we've got to help

[00:36:10] by you so seven tips i'll go through really quickly one prioritize some reading during the summer

[00:36:17] you know the two biggest losses that happen within that 40 percent are reading and math okay reading

[00:36:23] and math dissipate at a alarming rate how do you combat that first tip prioritize some reading 15 to

[00:36:31] 30 minutes a day is all it takes 15 to 30 minutes a day two make some time for the math of course

[00:36:37] doing three to four problems daily is a great way to get ahead and keep those skills sharp and by

[00:36:43] the way not that we're necessarily Amazon promoter but there are a bunch of workbooks and such

[00:36:49] on Amazon that you can grab and you know the good news about that is you can search and seek things

[00:36:53] out according to age bands so you may say well much else 12 to 14 great put that in find some

[00:36:59] workbooks and such with them for them excuse me and then doing summer pull it out here and there

[00:37:05] right hey do a couple problems i want to see what you don't why you making lunch right you have

[00:37:09] them on the other side of the table while i'm cooking lunch i need you to cook up two or three

[00:37:14] problems and go through them and then we'll review them tip three play some games gaming is a proven

[00:37:19] way to keep kids entertained and learning at the same time obviously you have to work with them to

[00:37:24] pick the right games tip number four turn trips into experiences so keep their mind working

[00:37:33] during trips it's wonderful to go anywhere when i was a child i wanted to go to six flags great

[00:37:37] adventure up on the new jersey turnpike you want to go to koney island do different things but also

[00:37:43] think about trips that is going to make their mind work museums are still available to us our

[00:37:49] institutions etc places where it's an experience it is exploratory and it gets them to use

[00:37:56] different levels of critical thinking number five tip bake learning into everything so have some

[00:38:03] form of treat this one is talking about literally baking something the keger pastry or something

[00:38:08] but the idea is a treat associated with the learning experience so when they walk away from and not

[00:38:14] only are they better for it on the inside in terms of their mental capacity but they're also

[00:38:19] better for it on the inside in terms of something yummy in the tummy you know what i'm talking about

[00:38:23] tip number six choose stem camps now talked about stem a few weeks ago an importance of science tech

[00:38:33] engineering and math and all that it encompasses and one of the big things about stem is again

[00:38:39] for those of us who are a little older in the tooth we grew up on multiple choice exams and things

[00:38:44] such as that one of the things that stem does is shift from that to critical thinking and have to

[00:38:49] develop the answer the second thing stem does is get our children used to the cycle of some failure

[00:38:56] in the process again life is peaks and valleys and what we want to do is make sure they get that

[00:39:01] full holistic experience of you if you want to call it again failing forward that's fine whatever we

[00:39:07] need them to go through trials errors learning corrections in the business world sometimes we say

[00:39:13] pd ac right plan do check act and so planning doing checking in the check and we find some hits and

[00:39:21] we find some misses and then acting adjusting forward after the check and so that's important

[00:39:27] number seven create your own so that means creatively with investigation is such creating things

[00:39:34] that allow your children to learn this one you'll watch family it's on your watch and to just think

[00:39:41] that to go through a school year and all the things you do as a parent guarding in coach mentor

[00:39:48] educator etc. to go through several months was at eight months between september and June eight

[00:39:54] to nine months and then say 40 percent of it gets lost during the summer not not at all not

[00:40:00] all we want to stand and come back that so salute to you all who are already doing a wonderful job

[00:40:05] and i hope these tips help