Our New Partnership with HACU

We are very excited about this, particularly the capacity-building component....I will elaborate in further posts...

Press

THE HISPANIC ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (HACU) AND GLOBAL LEARNING SEMESTERS FORM THE HISPANIC GLOBAL ALLIANCE TO REDUCE THE GAP IN HISPANIC STUDY ABROAD BY 50%

• Over $8M in scholarships available for HACU study abroad students • Capacity Building Initiatives for HACU member institutions • Joint study abroad program development

SAN ANTONIO -- October 28, 2006 -- HACU (the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities) and Global Learning Semesters, Inc. are undertaking a 10 year partnership to address the factors hindering Hispanic study abroad with the goal of reducing the gap in Hispanic participation in study abroad by 50%. Hispanic students study abroad at about half the rate of all college students due to issues related to actual and perceived affordability, limited awareness and home institution capabilities.

This multi-faceted partnership draws upon the deep expertise of HACU in Hispanic higher education and Global Learning Semesters in study abroad administration to address the root causes of the gap in study abroad participation.

1. Financial Support: Global Learning Semesters has committed to making available over $8 million in scholarships during the next 10 years to HACU students through the Hispanic Study Abroad Scholars program and to working with HACU on Special Initiatives to further increase available scholarship funds. The University of Alcala in Spain has generously agreed to be the first Special Initiative partner.

2. Capacity Building: Global Learning Semesters is making its expertise in study abroad office administration available to HACU member institutions through training seminars and free use of its patent-pending software for study abroad office administration. This capacity building initiative will make it more affordable and feasible for HACU schools to administer a best practice study abroad office.

3. Program Development: HACU and Global Learning Semesters have formed an Advisory Council to guide the development of Global Learning Semesters’s study abroad programs in Latin America focused on issues important to Hispanic students

Dr. Andreas Polemitis, Chairman of Global Learning Semesters said: “I have no doubt that the best business executives, teachers, scientists and artists of today and tomorrow will be individuals who have broadened their horizons by studying, living and traveling abroad. Hispanic college graduates should not be denied the opportunity to enhance their career and life prospects through study abroad.”

"HACU is pleased to add Global Learning Semesters as a new partner to our effort to promote study abroad opportunities for students at our member colleges and universities," said Antonio R. Flores, President and CEO of HACU. "GLS has generously committed to provide scholarship assistance to eligible HACU member students who participate in their respective study abroad programs."

Mr. Antonis Polemitis, President of Global Learning Semesters said: “Our goal is increased diversity, openness and access in study abroad. No one organization can provide the full solution to a challenge of this magnitude which is why we are providing our partner institutions within HACU the tools that will help them be successful.”

The Hispanic Study Abroad Scholarship will be available to students attending HACU member institutions for a 10 year period starting with the Spring Semester 2007. Students or Advisors interested in applying for the scholarship programs should visit: www.StudyAbroadScholars.org or call (877) 300-7010, ext. 6. University Administrators or Advisors interested in participating in the Hispanic Global Alliance should complete the registration form at: www.HispanicGlobalAlliance.org.

For More Information

Press

HACU Dr. Alvaro Romo AVP for Programs, Services and International Affairs ARomo@Hacu.net (210) 692-3805

Press

Global Learning Semesters
Mr. Antonis Polemitis President AntonisPolemitis@GlobalSemesters.com (917) 747 3417

About HACU – The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) was established in 1986 with a founding membership of eighteen institutions. Because of HACU’s exemplary leadership on behalf of the nation’s youngest and fastest-growing population, the Association rapidly grew in numbers and national impact.

Today, HACU represents more than 450 colleges and universities committed to Hispanic higher education success in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Although our member institutions in the U. S. represent less than 10% of all higher education institutions nationwide, together they are home to more than two-thirds of all Hispanic college students. HACU is the only national educational association that represents Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs).

To learn more about HACU, please go to: www.HACU.net

About Global Learning Semesters
Global Learning Semesters is a leading study abroad organization with a mission of preparing North American college students to be leaders in an increasingly interconnected world. Global Learning Semesters is best known for operating innovative, thematic study abroad programs that combine academics with co-curricular travel. In 2007, Global Learning Semesters will operate 35 study abroad programs that will cumulatively visit 60 cities, from Belmopan to Beijing, in 20 countries. Global Learning Semesters draws from 25 years of experience in international higher education at Intercollege, the leading college in Cyprus, and has been at the forefront of promoting best practices in study abroad administration within NAFSA and the Forum for Education Abroad.

How Steve Jobs prepares for a speech

It looks so easy

If the chief executive of Cadbury-Schweppes speaks at a conference, or Nike's boss introduces a new kind of trainer, you might expect to see it covered in specialist magazines, then quickly forgotten. But on Tuesday a chief executive will stand up and announce something, and within minutes it will be scrutinised across the web and on stockbrokers' computers. It will be in newspapers. They'll talk about it for months.

That chief executive is Steve Jobs, and I know why that speech makes an impact. To a casual observer it is just a guy in a black shirt and jeans talking about some new technology products. But it is in fact an incredibly complex and sophisticated blend of sales pitch, product demonstration and corporate cheerleading, with a dash of religious revival thrown in for good measure. It represents weeks of work, precise orchestration and intense pressure for the scores of people who collectively make up the "man behind the curtain". I know, because I've been there, first as part of the preparation team and later on stage with Steve.

The perfectionist has not gone away

Steve wanted material that looked great, yet was possible for an average person to achieve. So we called on everyone we knew at Apple to submit their best home movies and snapshots. Before long we had an amazing collection of fun, cool and heartwarming videos and photos. My team picked the best and confidently presented them to Steve. True to his reputation as a perfectionist, he hated most of them. We repeated that process several times. At the time I thought he was being unreasonable; but I had to admit that the material we ended up with was much better than what we had begun with.

The Money Quote:

The team and I spent hundreds of hours preparing for a segment that lasted about five minutes.

Overall article from Guardian worth reading.

A lot of work goes into the "casual" presentation

Handy Nominal-Real US$ Calculator

Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation calculator from 1913 to 2006 or any years in between. Saves you the trouble of looking up past inflation stats. Don't ask why I know this. Required spurious example of the power of compounding. $10,000 in 1913 = $204,949.49 today! or in other words 3.3%.

Inflation Calculator

Guy Kawasaki and Commercialization

Amusing post by Guy Kawasaki on the perils of commercialization. Net conclusion: If you can, hire away one of the junior folks if they are passionate and legally clean. Full post here

The Art of Commercialization

One of the consequences of a boomlet is that organizations like research labs, defense contractors, and aerospace companies are going to want a piece of the action. Their logic will go like this:

"The technology we invented for satellite imaging can be used for amateur video, so we could have created YouTube and sold to it to Google for $1.6 billion. Let's find an investor to fund this since our budget is set for the year. How hard could it be to create a better YouTube?"

I've been on the other side of the table as these organizations try to negotiate a deal to spin out, license, or sell their technology. I can tell you that it's almost always Mission: Impossible to get a deal done because most organizations try to stipulate the following conditions:

• The startup can't hire away any employees. It cannot talk to them because they don't want them distracted from their Department of Defense contract work.
• The sole contribution is a CD-ROM with their research findings. They'll mail it to the startup when the deal is done. They repeat: Do not talk to the employees. Everything they think a startup needs is on the disk.
• Their technology is so great that they aren't offering any kind of exclusivity or perpetual license. They might find a better deal, and they will take it. This is what's called vacuosity wrapped in pomposity.
• Since their technology is the company, they want to own 80% of the spinoff. In addition, they want a 50% royalty structure with a $5 million advance. Unfortunately $5 million is twice the size of the first round of financing.
• They want to restrict the markets that the startup can sell into because they know best who should use their technology and for what purposes. (Did you hear the story about the inventor of Novacaine who insisted that the drug be used for operations and not for dentistry because it was too important a discovery to be used for something as mundane as tooth extraction?)

Full post here