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Thursday, 29 September 2011 |
Last month we introduced you to JFI’s new President and CEO, Dr. Lucian Spataro. This month we sat down to interview him about his background, his excitement about his new role, and about the future of the Joe Foss Institute.
TB: (The Beacon): Tell us about why you are excited about your new role at JFI.
LS: Big picture, I'm convinced that JFI is well-positioned to make a difference in the lives of students—and ultimately in the life of our nation as a whole, as these students become leaders down the road.
There is such an emphasis in our educational system today on science, technology, engineering, and math—often referred to in educational circles as STEM)—that civic education has really fallen by the wayside.
For example, an arm of the U.S. Department of Education reported last year that fewer than 35% of fourth graders understand the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. Yet our founding fathers talked often
about the critical importance of civic education in a free country. It might sound over-dramatic, but how will our nation retain its freedoms if today's students--tomorrow's leaders--do not understand the underlying foundation upon which these freedoms are built and why this matters?
At the very moment when we need civic education more than ever, it is being deemphasized in schools and school systems across America. We believe the Joe Foss Institute can step into the gap, to help provide programs and resources to educate students, and inspire them to pursue public service. We are honored to work with—and serve—educators and schools across the nation in this important task.
TB: Tell us a bit about yourself, and about why your background has uniquely prepared you for this role.
LS: I've spent roughly half of my career in the academic world, and the other half in the business arena. Having only been on the job for two months, it is already easy to see how the different experiences I've had will allow me wear different hats at JFI. (Editor's note: You can read more about Dr. Spataro’s background here.)
TB: For example?
LS: On one hand, our business—our “product” if you will—is to serve students and educators. We need to operate comfortably in the world of academia. My experience as an educator—in an online learning program, literacy initiatives for K-12, and as a college professor and administrator at the University of Arizona—provides me with a unique perspective, one that can help us more effectively align our offerings to state and national standards and then build an program that will help schools serve their students in an effective manner and advance their learning objectives in the classroom.
The experiences I’ve gained in business through helping restructure and grow a number of companies (as an executive at a venture capital firm) have prepared me to help take JFI to the next level organizationally. JFI is moving rapidly from a more regionalized organization to one with a more significant national presence. We need to continue the process of improving and growing the programs we offer and improving the efficiency of deployment as we bring these programs and services to market. By bringing business expertise and experience to the operational side of JFI, we will improve both our reach and our ability to cost-effectively serve schools, students, and our donors and benefactors.
TB: Tell us what major initiatives you are pursuing over the next six to twelve months at JFI.
LS: We are starting by taking a hard look at what we call our legacy program—Veterans Inspiring Patriotism (Editor’s note: Veterans Inspiring Patriotism—VIP—is our program that brings veterans into schools to make presentations in classrooms and school assemblies).
We are doing research to discover how good a job we are really doing through this program and are investing time and energy in improving any areas of the program that need improvement. For example, we are looking for ways to make the content that is taught by our veteran volunteers more closely aligned with state and national standards. To do so, we have already started to re-engineer the training process our phenomenal corps of veteran volunteers go through when they sign on to be presenters.
At the same time, we are studying the best ways to resource educators and schools in ways that will extend what our veterans touch on during VIP visits. We are calling this our eCitizenship program, and our plan is for this program to work well on its own as content for teachers and students to use in the classroom, while also tying in more closely as a follow up to our VIP presentations. We want to complete the development of this program so that when our Veterans leave the classroom and the students are excited and want to learn more, the teachers have some content to dip into that is tied to the Veterans presentation and can extend that experience and advance the students learning objectives.
Our third initiative is to dramatically expand our student scholarship program in the coming years. We have given away more than $80,000 in college scholarships over the last ten years. We are excited to have just introduced our first ever video scholarship program—and plan to increase that total significantly next year and in the years beyond.
Our final initiative is to expand our development efforts to different regions of the United States. Our plan is to develop partners (whether families, individuals or companies) across America, who will help sponsor our work in their own communities. (Editor’s note: If this intrigues you, and you would be interested in supporting our work in YOUR community, please contact us today.)
TB: Sounds ambitious.
LS: It is—but anything worth doing is rarely easy, and some of the most worthwhile advances that have been made in this country often spring from “grass roots” community efforts and then spread from there nationally.
TB: Let’s wrap up with a personal note. Help our readers get to know you. What do you do for fun?
LS: My favorite hobby is endurance horseback riding. I’ve been involved in it for more than twenty years. In 1989, in fact, I had the opportunity to ride—on horseback—from Los Angeles to Maryland to raise environmental awareness.
TB: You wrote a book about the experience…
LS: I did. It is called The Long Ride. (Editor’s note: you can learn more about Dr. Spataro’s ride—or buy the book—here.).
TB: Fantastic. Anything else you’d like to tell our readers?
LS: Thank you for your interest in JFI—we are grateful, and we hope you’ll help spread the word, and consider supporting our work as we invest in America’s future—our youth.
TB: Thanks, Lucian.
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