Introduction

Good morning, Board of Regents, faculty, staff, parents, family, friends, and the Class of 2008. Congratulations on your graduation, and thank you all for being here. Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge the contribution of the many SCU friends, guests and dignitaries in the audience here with us today - and extend a warm welcome to you. A special greeting is also extended to our Board of Regents. Thank you for your generous support and encouragement. I’d like to also acknowledge SCU’s faculty and staff for their strong support in creating an organizational environment where diversity, strategic thinking, academic inquiry, and growth are not only welcomed, but embraced. And, of course I’d like to extend special congratulations to you, our graduates.

State of the University
This academic year has been extraordinary to say the least. We have seen changes on almost every front in the university. And not just any changes, but what the Romans called ‘NOVO’: to make anew, to refresh, and to revive. When Rome was in the glory of its empire - its ascendancy was based not solely on its military prowess, but also on its development of the fine arts, of law, of architecture, and of the healing arts. NOVO was the concept used by Roman Senators to help frame the change in the Empire’s status, its development as a nation, as a unique structure in the world, and in its approach to defining a culture of intellectual expansion.

Your university - Southern California University of Health Sciences - is also in the midst of a culture of expansion. And our cultural shift carries with it, a sense of renewal and openness that is resulting in unprecedented program development, university advancement, instructional and institutional progress, and student learning.

I’d like to take a moment to share some examples.

Our university is now in meaningful and productive curriculum development on all fronts. At LACC, our focus on the future of chiropractic as both a ‘healthy life practice’ and an integrative part of a broader system of healthcare, is resulting in significant changes in both content and context of our curriculum for our current students and our future graduates.

At the College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CAOM), our focus is on developing a wider range of programs intended for both CAM practitioners and traditional western medicine professionals. These include new programs and certifications as both acupuncture and oriental medicine are mainstreamed into American healthcare protocols.

Our university is also focusing on providing the tools, resources and practical skills for the development of our students and alumni as successful entrepreneurial leaders and practitioners in the field. SCU's ‘The Practice of Prosperity’ program has already garnered national attention. And as the first CAM university in the nation to focus on ‘The Practice of Prosperity’, our university is providing monthly seminars featuring nationally recognized speakers, authors, and successful people from all walks of life. Soon our programs will be expanded to a broader-based approach of integrating the ‘entrepreneurial-leader’ concepts into each college’s curriculum. And over the next year, increased on-line resources, lectures, podcasts, monthly webcasts, and certification programs in entrepreneurship and leadership will be offered through the university’s School of Professional Studies - meeting our goal of offering a wealth of entrepreneurial know-how to our students in preparing them as clinically expert healthcare providers with highly successful practitioner skills.

As many of you might know, we have taken the first steps in instituting changes that will firmly place SCU as the premier institution for higher education in complementary and alternative medicine - not only in the western US, but as a national destination campus central to the important developmental research, student learning, and quality programs in chiropractic, acupuncture and other health science disciplines.

Recently we hosted a meeting of several hundred business leaders and professionals at SCU, invited to our campus to meet and talk with others, and frankly to talk about the plans we have for the development of the university.

Our multi-year strategic plan called ‘The Road Ahead’ is laying the foundation for a major transformation of the university and includes the following goals:

First - remodeling of the campus into a comprehensive center of higher education, through the development and build-out of residential graduate and married student housing. The project, aptly named ‘University Village’ will provide students in the near future with the convenience and benefits of a comprehensive university environment. Additionally, work has already begun on several fronts to beautify, modernize, and provide new spaces, new classrooms, and newer buildings which will serve our university’s needs as we grow student enrollment.

Second - a continued focus on increased sports performance and research. Our goal is to plan and open a ‘Sports Enhancement Center’ focused on providing key knowledge for students interested in the scope of sports medicine, wellness, rehabilitation and nutrition.

Finally, we are developing the broad outlines of a unique new campus center celebrating both the history and the contribution of complementary and alternative education through museum displays, interactive exhibits, and physical collections. Our vision is of a place where students of all ages, faculty, and visiting scholars can research, learn, and experience the valuable and increasing relevant aspects of CAM to the global healthcare community.

In Conclusion
Returning to history for a moment, one Greek word for healing is Therapavo, and among other definitions, it conveys a feeling of responsibility, of authority, and of accountability to both the practitioner and the patient.

Healing! ‘THERA’. What a powerful concept. We understand that our bodies possess a remarkable ability to self regulate, to realign, and to regenerate. We understand that in many cases this remarkable engine of design and grace also requires that practitioners have an important and vital role in healing, promoting, and optimizing health.

Graduates like those who have come before you - the Romans and Greeks - you are called to healing and now have a special role.

There is power in this word ‘THERA’, and as doctors and healers you must understand, embrace, and consign to action its meaning. It means promoting health and also active participation in the healing process. It means responsibility, authority, and accountability.

You now have the authority to heal. You now have the accountability to heal. And you now have the responsibility to heal. This is your professional threshold. Your ‘minimum requirement’ - as it were.

We have many modern examples of this kind of leader in complementary and alternative medicine, and I encourage you to reach out and stretch your horizons to connect and learn from them.

As I’ve studied and researched, the evidence is overwhelming that the entire structure and landscape in healthcare in our nation is changing. And as doctors and healthcare providers, your path to success is also changing. This is a time filled with opportunity for you to fully embrace your role in the health and wellness of America. My hope for all of you is that as you leave here today, you decide to embrace your life as a healer. Be strong. Be confident. And be proud of your accomplishment. Thank you so much class of 2008 and congratulations on your graduation.

We last met and talked together about how shared expectations lead to stronger beginnings. This was an important lesson we learned on the beach at Newport, and a critical factor in achieving success together as we become the nation’s premiere institution for CAM. So let’s travel together right now to the front gates of Disneyland, USA (easy to imagine because it’s just a short drive!).

At 9:00 am we arrive at the ticket booth, pass through the gates a few minutes later, and are now walking toward our favorite ride, The Pirates of the Caribbean.

Disneyland of course is a world unto itself. Billed as ‘The happiest place on earth’ many of us consider it ’our favorite place’. And we are right. Built as a total concept theme park, Disneyland was founded by one of the world’s foremost visionaries. Walt Disney congers up for most of us visions of animated films like those featuring ‘The Little Mermaid’, the world’s favorite Mouse, and his faithful friend Pluto. Walt’s dream of Disneyland is now an icon for a great institutional vision, where employees, staff and guests share a common experience.

As we walk, you overhear a boy asking his parents, “Mom, can we go see the pirates?” “Sure” she says, “that’s a great choice!” And we share the same thought - it’s our favorite ride as well.

The Pirates of the Caribbean is hardly just “a ride”. It’s a massively impressive spectacle. It’s a total immersion into an experience that grabs your imagination from the very first second. As we board our longboats, we glide past a bayou at twilight, plunge into a pirate’s cavern, and emerge in a ransacked town on the coast of some forgotten Caribbean isle. Then it starts, “Yo, ho, yo ho… a pirates life for me!”

We are completely transported to another place and time. The attention to detail is staggering, and we are called to use all of our senses in the experience. A pirate staggers over toward us. Another is singing. A pig in the mud wiggles his ears. We look up and there are clouds moving across the sky. At the next turn we catch a glimpse of Capt. Jack Sparrow peering out from a barrel!

“Who thought this up?” we ask. And, “Who built all this?” Ah, that’s the real question isn’t it? That “who?” question. Based on the concept of ‘Imagineering!’ pioneered at Disney decades ago, the parks’ total concept rides called on a dynamic team approach to their design and eventual construction. Not the sole visionary expertise of a mastermind, or the unbelievable talent of an artist or modeler, Pirates was created, designed and constructed by a highly motivated team working together to accomplish something that none could accomplish alone. This is our The Road Ahead Allegory Rule #2 - “Our best accomplishment takes a team, not just individual effort.”

In a flash of gunfire, and amid a burning fortress, we emerge from our experience no worse for the wear. “Let’s go again!” you say. “Sure”, I say.

Our SCU Road Ahead was designed and created to help us focus our energies as a university family on the same outcome. Our shared experience is building something even larger, more dynamic and infinitely more complex. Our vision is a great university and, like Disney’s dream, it takes visionary leadership at all levels of our institution to make it happen. You’ll need to let go of your ownership, and use (or in some cases learn to use for the first time) your team building skills to help accomplish something you could never accomplish alone. And I promise the outcome will astound even the most accomplished leader.

Next time we meet, we'll travel to Big Bear Lake, a short drive up to the San Bernardino Mountains, where we’ll board the ski lift for a glimpse of what some have called the greatest lesson of leadership

I’ve decided to invite you to share a journey with me in the coming weeks, but I need your help. First, I’d like you to read my blog every chance you get. Second, I’d like you to forward it to a colleague, a friend, or a family member as well. Perhaps all three! By sharing it with others, I think you’ll enjoy it more, and to be completely honest, I want to reach as many inquiring minds as possible. So starting today, please forward it on with this link www.scuhs.edu/president/blog, and ask your group to forward it on as well.

I thought about how to best share with you how I see The Road Ahead playing out over the next few months and years here at SCU. The Road Ahead has turned out to be a wonderful icon. It’s not only a beautiful picture for you to see, but it’s a dynamic idea as well. And in talking with many of you, our image…

…seems to evoke a feeling of progress, of hope, and of destination. It’s my hope that you’ll also be able to see it as an allegory, as a story of a university growing up. I also want you to ‘own it’, to share in the victories that are coming our way, and to help overcome the challenges we’ll sure to face together. It’s also important for us to keep in mind that our Road Ahead vision, “to become the premier higher education institution for CAM in the United States” is our shared destination.

Often I’ve thought that one of the most challenging aspects of leadership is conveying what we feel as leaders to those around us. And I believe this can be the single most important aspect of successful long term leadership. So let’s start. Our journey begins like all great adventures - with a single step…

It’s late August 2007. Picture the pier at Newport Beach. Fresh sun, people swimming, surfers on their boards, tourists, students, beach bums, locals, and families all mixed together to enjoy this thing we call “going to the beach.” As you and I sit on the sand, we’re aware that although all of these people are so different, today here at Newport, they are sharing in a common experience. As we talk about it you might say, “You know there must be something special about a place like this. I just feel calm here. Free to relax, swim, and to be carefree.” I nod and add, “I know what you mean. I think the common thread is that people are comfortable around all these others who share their values.” A sailboat passes in front of the pier, and as we look, a group of kids yell and wave from the deck. “I see what I mean”, you say. “After all, they all took the same road to get here!”

The “same road to get here” is our starting point. You see, it’s important to have a context for our journey. And that context is all important. Although most of us would expect to understand what we’d encounter when we arrived at the beach, we really don’t know exactly what we’ll encounter. We have a perspective about what we did last time we went to the beach. And even if we are headed toward a different spot, or we intend to do something different this time around, we have a shared expectation that things will be pretty much the same. This is an important idea for us to hang onto. So let’s call it The Road Ahead Allegory Rule #1:

“Our shared expectation is based on our past personal experience.”

If we met on campus after our beach trip to talk about it, I’d invite you to consider that one of the first expectations you should have about the Road Ahead is that although you understand where we might be headed, your perspective about the journey and our eventual destination are based on your own unique and wonderful world view. If you have experienced the joy of being associated with an institution that went through successful rapid growth, then you have some notion of how to think about our journey (this happened in the early days at Microsoft). If you have never witnessed or been a part of a powerful movement that helped shape the discourse of an idea (we are now witnessing a major transformation in American politics) then perhaps you have no concept of what to expect from our Road Ahead journey. I guess you’d say, “I’ve just never been to the beach, so I don’t know quite what to expect!” And you’d be right. So, as a matter of trust and faith in our future, I’d like to again write these words…. “SCU’s vision is to become the premier institution for CAM in the United States.” If you’ve been a part of an exciting and powerful movement like this before, then you know what to expect; if not, I’d like you to be powerfully proactive in asking others around you how they see our journey and what you can expect along the way.

And I plan on continuing our Road Ahead Allegory each week (along with other blog entries) sharing what you can expect along the way. When we finish, we’ll have a group of Ten Rules that you can share with others about our journey. Next time, we’ll meet again in line at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland to talk about The Road Ahead Allegory Rule #2: “Our best accomplishment takes a team, not just individual effort.”

I believe we all have a covenant with our children. We may not say it out loud, but we all know it’s there…and we believe in it. It’s embedded in us at their birth. In our heart we have this ‘knowledge’ that we are here to serve our children.

“I will protect you, and guide your steps.”
“I will help you grow and learn.”
“I will pick you up, dust you off and give you strength to continue.”
“I will gift you with what I’ve learned in the hope that it helps somehow.”

We have plans for our children as well.

“You are to make life your servant, to rise above the den and the noise of the ordinary, and achieve the greatness I see in you.”
“You are to excel in whatever you do.”
“You are to be courageous and strong.”
“You are to fall in love with someone who will love your spirit like I do. Who will honor your every breath like I do. Who will see in you the strength of your character, the power of your love and the perfect being that we have made.”

And as parents, we are also sure that there is plenty of time for all of these lessons. Time to help our children by answering their questions, and time to speak with them about life’s challenges.

“Dad, when will I get to be tall?”
When the time is right,” we say smiling.
“Mom, why can’t I stay out late?”
Because it’s just not safe,” we say.

These questions become tougher as our children get older, but we are up to the challenge because we have faith that they will live long and wonderful lives, and they’ll be able to use the lessons we’ve shared with them.

This week our University family joined together in support and tribute to a wonderful young man and his family. Ryan Perkis passed away from apparent complications from his Type 1 Diabetes two weeks ago, and his passing at such a young age shocked us all. It was his family’s desire, and our honor, to have a time where we could talk together about Ryan’s life, his time with us here, and a time where his teachers, friends and fellow students could share their memories of Ryan.

And it was an especially tough moment for our University, because we lost one of our family members too early as well. We weren’t finished yet. We wanted so much to keep pouring our love and truth into Ryan. Our family grieved the loss because there seemed to be so much unfinished in Ryan’s passing, but a remarkable thing happened. As friends and family spoke, there emerged a new part of the covenant.

In Ryan’s all too brief life he seems to have taught us about love and connection and spirit. His words, related through those who spoke about him, echoed our own thoughts as parents, as friends and as mentors. He seemed to say through the memories and stories of those who shared—

“I will protect you, and guide your steps.”
“I will help you grow and learn.”
“I will pick you up, dust you off and give you strength to continue.”
“I will gift you with what I’ve learned in the hope that it helps somehow.”

In a world where we so believe that a lifetime is needed to be a complete being, we have Ryan’s legacy to achieve, “You are to make life your servant, to rise above the den and the noise of the ordinary, and achieve the greatness I see in you.” This is Ryan’s covenant to us.

Peace Ryan. We will miss you greatly.

I thought I’d share with you a bit more about our progress along the Road Ahead. The bottom line is that we are advancing positively in so many areas, and it’s tough to have a conversation about just one. There’s a long list of the many positive changes that have been made in the last seven months, and an even longer list of areas in which we have achieved significant progress. As you might remember from the university-wide meeting we had in October, my mantra has been that “planning is wonderful, but successful execution is what counts!” And across the board our University is successfully changing…we are gearing up for a brighter future and fully engaged in meaningful proactive actions that are helping us meet our vision of SCU as “the premier higher education provider of CAM in the United States.”

It seems that we receive more great news almost every week, and this one is no exception! With the support of our accrediting institution (WASC) we’re immediately launching SCU’s Institute for Science in the School of Professional Studies! The Institute of Science will enable the University to offer a variety of science related classes providing a valuable way for students to fulfill prerequisites for admission to both colleges or to provide important review courses for content mastery. If you’d like to check it out, go to http://www.scuhs.edu/newsevents/index.asp?id=646.

Along the same line…

At a recent dinner celebration, I was talking to a very accomplished Doctor of Chiropractic, who graduated from LACC almost ten years ago. She has a growing and vibrant practice, but has regretted one decision—not finishing her bachelor’s degree. For one reason or another, she had never fully completed her final eight units, and had just ‘written it off’. She said, “You know, I’m only eight units shy of it!” As we spoke, I explained my desire to have SCU offer a degree completion program. As we discussed it, her enthusiasm grew and so did mine! We have now begun an aggressive plan to research what it will take to bring a quality degree completion program to SCU in the near future. Imagine the possibilities! Our goal to offer a degree completion program for prospective, current, and past students would enable the University to broaden its reach and provide a depth of academic options for potential students. I believe there are a significant number of alumni, local community college students, and transfer students who would love the benefits of an earned bachelors’ degree. I’ll let you know more soon, but if you’re interested and/or supportive of the idea, will you email the Dean of the School of Professional Studies at meleafields@scuhs.edu and let her know? She’d love to hear from you!

I was talking to my son this past weekend about ‘life’. What an enormous topic!

“Dad” he said, “How do you know what to do?” OK, I thought, here comes an interesting conversation.

As we talked it seemed to me that his real question was about “opportunity.” He has some decisions to make about finishing his last year in high school and about what courses to take, and of course about which college or university to attend. I made two decisions on the spot. First, I made sure he knew that my love is unconditional. Second, I spoke with him about always moving toward his dreams.

I shared that there have been several important (life changing in fact) decision points in my life and each case I’ve also struggled with that question, “How do you know what to do?” The answer I think lies in understanding that although sometimes our dreams are unclear, there can be clarity in simply moving forward. Engaging life. Strengthening our resolve to help shape our destiny by stepping toward something.

There is a powerful truth here that I have learned to use when circumstances seem to create a ‘deer-in-the-headlights moment’, it’s simply this—there is no such thing as ‘the status quos’!

I believe that our lives are never in neutral. We are either growing or in decline. That’s it, “no growth = decline”. A simple equation. We are either growing in our personal, professional, spiritual, physical, or emotional life, or we are not. That tiny little point we sometimes call the status quo is simply another definition for what my friends in music call a ‘tacet”…it’s that space between a note and the next note…something and something else…a placeholder, a moment in time, but nothing more.

“A deer in the headlights.” He said, “Yep” I said, “that’s my graphic visual of the status quos.”

So, I shared with my son that nothing stays the same for long. That love, joy, passion, and understanding all grow or decline depending what we choose. It’s natural sometimes to want to hold too tight to the here and now, but is not so much of an act of intention as it is of desperation. So I encouraged him to embrace his right to grow by choosing. To make a conscious decision to move forward takes courage.

As we approach LACC’s 100 Year Anniversary Kick-Off this August at our (first) Annual Extravaganza in Long Beach, it’s broadly acknowledged that LACC graduates have served in the key leadership positions across the nation for the better part of the school’s 100 year history. With over 6000 living alumnus, LACC now has the unique opportunity to mobilize an incredible group of healers and doctors across the nation for our one hundred year celebration to be held on November 11, 2011!

Remember that date! 11-11-11! You could say simply that this date is ‘auspicious’ or you could also say that 11-11-11 is a very lucky number! In both cases you’d be right!

I believe we will also be able to say that by the time of the celebration, SCU will have achieved the major milestones in the ‘The Road Ahead Strategy’ and be looking forward with our second strategic plan scheduled to take us into 2015.

As we move into the planning phases of for this momentous event, there will be many opportunities of service and of celebration. I encourage every LACC Alumni to reach out and connect with current colleagues and former classmates and ask them to visit our Alumni pages on the web! Let’s energize our incredible base of chiros for even greater leadership opportunities.

I left last Wednesday for a speaking engagement in Washington, DC. As our Boeing 757 taxied out from the gate, my attention was drawn to a long line of airport employees all standing along the taxiway in a salute. Hands over their hearts, two dozen baggage handlers, fuel truck drivers, repairmen, ground crew and maintenance staff stood in solemn silence out of respect for the remains of a young soldier who was making his last journey home in the cargo bay of our plane. The cabin grew very silent and those around me shared in a moment of recognizing the ultimate sacrifice and agonizing loss of a young soldier’s life, and our brief but important part in it.

In that moment of silence, a woman’s voice rose as she simply said, “Thank you.” This soldier’s wife was accompanying her husband home one last time.

There are moments when we simply have to give over control to something stronger. Something more visceral than the day to day issues and concerns we all carry with us. This was one of those moments. I’m sure for most of us on that plane the hostilities in the middle-east were a world away. But not on this day. On this day, the reality of the war was shared.

I just returned from the NCLC (National Chiropractic Legislative Conference) in Washington DC with a renewed sense that SCU is not only “on mission”, but we are indeed leading the way in many areas across the board! In meetings with policy-makers, students, and DCs from across the United States, I fielded many questions about our renewed sense of vision and momentum; about our new entrepreneurial-leadership Practice of Prosperity programs; and especially about our “on fire student population!” excited about their future as chiropractors! There was one underlying theme to most of these comments and questions, which summed up goes something like this - “I keep hearing about SCU’s new vision! And it’s clear that there’s a powerful sense of momentum underway!”

I talked in depth with policy and governmental leaders (both in and out of CAM higher education) at the conference about entrepreneurship, business, and leadership, and I am very happy to report that SCU is seen by many leaders to now be “taking the lead in seriously preparing chiropractic students to be successful practitioners!”

What all this means is that SCU is now effectively on-the-way as the nation’s premier “first tier” CAM University! Of course, this is the University’s broader vision statement, but it’s so heartening to see and hear from respected leaders across the board that they are looking to SCU for this leadership. I’ve asked several policy and educational leaders to help “weigh-in” on how to best present SCU’s broad appeal of CAM to local, state and federal legislators. And in light of the recent CNN Headline News’ Special Reports on SCU’s integrated Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine programs combined with our strong chiropractic education, there seems to be strong agreement that we are on track in accomplishing our goals outlined in our ‘The Road Ahead’ strategic plan.

As a kid, I often went camping with my grandfather. Everyone I knew called him “Walt,” except me. For me he was “Pappy”—wise, skilled and a profile of what a man should be. Born on a reservation in Oklahoma at the turn of the century, Pappy was raised by his mother (a Cherokee) who taught him from an early age to respect nature and to understand patience.

On one trip, Pappy woke me up early. He simply said, “Come on. I want to teach you something.” We walked about a ½ mile to a small river canal where we were camping. We both sat down on the river bank by an ant hill. Pappy then took out a pack of crackers from his coat pocket, crumbled up a cracker or two and began feeding small pieces to the ants.

I had spent enough time with Pappy to understand that there must be a point to our lesson, so I simply watched and waited. And waited. And waited. Over two hours we sat there watching those ants find each small piece of cracker, communicate to those around them of their great ‘find’, circle around the morsel, work at tugging and pulling the bit of cracker up the hill, and then watch as scores of ants heaved and hauled their treasure below.

Finally, he pushed himself up, dusted off his hands, and started walking away. He looked back at me and said, “Let’s go.” I followed and asked, “When is the lesson going to start?”

He said, “That was the lesson.”

To say I was disappointed was an understatement! I tried to think about what I’d seen and done over the last couple of hours that could possibly translate into any kind of “lesson.”

As we walked along, Pappy put his arm around me and confided the secret of the ants….

He said, “You know the great secret of those ants? It’s not only that they work together, but it’s patience with purpose.” That was it. No more description. No long discourse, he just said, “it’s patience with purpose.”

Only much later in life did I fully realize what a powerful lesson I learned that day. Pappy taught me to understand that “patience” was much more than a virtue. For him, patience was an expression of a positive act—not the absence of one.

And as a leadership truth, I’ve used this lesson all of my adult life. Certainly I think it’s true that part of our wisdom arrives when we grow older, but sometimes wisdom comes in small lessons we learn early.

Over the last week, we had a visiting team here on campus from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). WASC was formed in 1962 to promote the welfare, interests, and development of education in the Western Region of the United States, and is a voluntary, non-governmental, institutional accreditation commission that is a unique characteristic of American education. In many other countries, the maintenance of educational standards is a governmental function. No institution in the United States is required to seek accreditation; however because of the recognized benefits, SCU has sought and gained this valuable recognition and accreditation.

WASC Teams (peer educators from other colleges and universities) periodically visit a campus to aid institutions in developing and sustaining effective educational programs and assure the educational community (this includes our students, staff, faculty, and Board), the general public, and other organizations, that SCU as an accredited institution has met high standards of quality and effectiveness.

After this week’s visit, the WASC visiting team will issue a report outlining what our peers see as our strengths and our challenges. The report will be similar to the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis we conducted in our strategic planning process. In fact, The Road Ahead Plan employed a very similar team approach utilizing experts (all of you!) across the campus for input about what we are doing well and what we can improve. This is an exciting time for all of us here, and as we pursue the initiatives in the Road Ahead, I want to thank each of you for your support and enthusiasm as we emerge as the premier institution for CAM in the United States!

On the plane the other day I was asked by the woman sitting next to me, “What do you do?” A seemingly easy answer, I replied, “I’m the President of Southern California University of Health Sciences!”

Ever see a deer in the headlights? This was that moment. Then she broke into the brightest smile I have seen in a long time and said, “I know that school! My husband’s a chiropractor and graduated from LACC!”

What a wonderful world we live in! Over the next hour, we shared stories about healing, stories about leadership, stories about life directions, and stories about new beginnings.

One statement from that conversation has resonated with me so strongly that I can’t shake it off. At one point we were talking about the role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the future of an integrated approach to healing and she said, “You know Dr. Kraft, of all the stories I see in the news, the most disturbing for me are those of people seeking out answers for their health! They just don’t know where to look.”

My response as we travel our Road Ahead is, “It’s here at SCU!”

As we are preparing the next generation of healers through LACC and our College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, I think more than anything else our graduates will be able to respond to the overwhelming numbers of people who are now seeing the direct benefits of living a healthy lifestyle, in combination with a proactive approach to their healthcare. And this word is getting out through a remarkable effort of our alumni, professionals from many specialties in the field, and through our Practice of Prosperity focus as an institution dedicated to success.

Next time you get the chance, share your story of a bright future of healing with someone you’re sitting next to!

Last week we made a bit of history here at SCU! The first of a ground-breaking series of Entrepreneurial-Leadership programs was launched in our new The Practice of Prosperity Seminars©. The Practice of Prosperity is more than just a name; it’s an iconic symbol of what our institution believes, and an emerging comprehensive academic program to help you achieve success as a graduate at one of our colleges or programs.

Let’s look at it:

Prosperity (noun); the attainment of physical or spiritual success or well-being
Prac▪tice (1) (verb); the pursuit of an endeavor to achieve perfection or
Prac▪tice (2) (noun); the business or activity of a trained professional

Over the last decade there have been several important surveys conducted at medical and health science institutions across the United States on the preparation of students for success. Several of these studies focused on CAM institutions, with participation from major universities with comprehensive programs like SCU, to the much smaller stand-alone colleges in the mid-west and southern states. In many of these studies, key findings pointed to the consistent lack of preparation for ‘success after graduation’. This meant not only practical and useful information about how to operate the ‘front office’, but how to effectively manage or lead an institution, or how to effectively work with integrated teams, and how to launch and grow an ‘entrepreneurial business practice.’

Incredibly, the follow-through from higher education institutions across the United States has been less than stellar!

A quick review of research conducted in 2007-2008 indicates that although alumni, students, faculty and staff repeatedly provided responses indicating that they were unsatisfied with business preparation provided by their institutions, there was a continuing lack of response by their leadership.

SCU is different. Very different.

Our Practice of Prosperity (POP) focus is now defining a major launch of entrepreneurial, leadership and business initiatives across the institution to prepare our students (and alumni) for success. Future plans include business, leadership, and entrepreneurial classes starting in Term 1 and continuing through Term 10 (this has already begun with the “Practicum in Entrepreneurship I” class— check it out on Fridays in O-50 from 9:30 – 11:00 am), a full complement of our current Practice Management classes, and as soon as this summer many new classes coming online each term for the next three-to-four terms!

SCU is also offering our monthly ‘POP’ seminars (in our Performing Arts Center) that will culminate in our Annual Practice of Prosperity ‘Extravaganza’ held each year in the Summer Term. Our first annual ‘Extravaganza’ will be held this coming August 14-17 in Long Beach, CA (www.scuhs.edu/extravaganza), and will provide the national platform for SCU’s launch of its new programs, and includes seminars to enhance your clinical expertise, boost your leadership and increase your business ‘know-how’.

Our institutional focus also includes our launch of several new Business Certificate Programs in entrepreneurship, leadership, and business through the School of Professional Studies starting this summer. And planning is also underway for a Masters Degree program in business! Envision an MBA program that focuses on the specialized needs of practitioners and leaders in healthcare and integrative medicine!

So, when I say we are making a bit of history here, I mean it! SCU is re-emerging as the premier institution for CAM in the United States, by listening and responding to the needs of the professionals for the skills and tools of prosperity!

A few days ago I recounted the story of my son’s accident and how it made him examine his attitude and circumstances. He’d had an accident in his car and now found himself without transportation! Not a very pleasant shift for a 16 year old.

We’ve had quite a shift here at SCU as well. Our shift came on the heels of the university community embracing our new strategic plan, The Road Ahead. It’s quite a life altering event really, because it creates a situation where choices now have to be made about moving the institution forward or holding on to the status quos.

If our journey is to be a successful, I’d invite you to consider that now is a perfect time to begin embracing change.

Early on in my presidency, I shared with several groups across the campus a list of actions about how we might go about shifting from ‘the old to the new’. Now that our strategic plan is in place, I’ve decided to publish the list here again. I invite you to read it over anew, and consider how you can personally provide the kind of leadership that moves us closer to our goal of establishing SCU as “the premier CAM institution in the United States!”

From	To
Internal focus	Community partnerships
Hierarchical top down	Participatory
Ensuring status quos	Rewarding innovation
Fighting for budgets	Leveraging resources
Arbitrary rules	Flexibility
Barriers	New opportunities
Static plans	Dynamic plans
No accountability	Accountability
Teaching paradigm	Learning paradigm
Departmental walls	Fluid Teams/collaboration

 

Last week my son had an accident on the way home from school. He turned a corner, the car he was driving slid on the ice, and “BAM!”

He’s fine by the way, but it’s amazing how fast a seemingly singular event can change the course of life events. His car is so badly damaged that it will be un-drivable for good. It’s ‘totaled”, and creates for him a new reality.

So my son finds himself in the situation where choices need to be made. Walk to school? Ride with friends to school? Take the bus? Drop out of after school sports? Are his weekends now at the mercy of others’ charity in picking him up? Try as he might, he simply can’t ‘unwind’ something that happened. And it’s just this kind of event - this seemingly small life circumstance - that makes his journey so interesting.

My son now has to choose a new path and in that choice, he’ll come face-to-face with shifting his current paradigm. This shift, as inconvenient as it seems, is actually a wonderful opportunity for him I think. Sometime it takes a change in our circumstance to create the environment ready for change.

2007 ended with the opportunity of more in-depth conversations about our ‘Road Ahead’ university strategic plan as I met with students, faculty, alumni and Regents in a broad university forum at the PAC. It was a tremendous time for our university family, and I’ve received literally dozens of emails and phone calls from faculty, staff, students and alumni in what I can best term “unabashed excitement” about our future.

I knew that there had been a huge surge of interest and enthusiasm from the alumni for a new direction for the university, but I think a phone call I received late last Friday afternoon from a 1996 LACC graduate put it into perspective.

“Hello Dr. Kraft,” she said. “I’ve been waiting to call until I was sure that what I’ve been hearing about the university was true.”

…To be honest, this is the kind of opening statement can send shivers down a university president's back…but it turned out to be an incredibly uplifting conversation.

She explained that she has a good practice in Los Angeles, and as an LACC graduate she wanted to share with me that, “over the last couple of months I’ve been hearing about a new sense of destination and leadership, and about excited students.” Her enthusiasm about a ‘sense of destination’ has made her a champion of SCU (and especially LACC) with her patients and colleagues. She told me that she’d decided to come to the Road Ahead Forum held on campus—and better—she’d brought with her two other DCs (one a graduate of a large Midwestern chiropractic college). She shared that her conversation with her colleagues ranged from her successes and challenges in practice, to her LACC education, and to what all of them witnessed as a renewed sense of enthusiasm from her alma mater. She went on to share a sentence that seemed to sum it up for me. “You know”, she said, “There’s a new rhythm and a sense of ‘right’ here that has just been missing for far too long.”

It’s that sense of ‘right rhythm’ that is now translating across the university. In separate conversations and emails I’ve had with LACC and CAOM faculty, and many others, after the Road Ahead presentation, I heard very similar remarks:

From a current LACC Department Chair:

“I know that SCU has had some difficult times, but I can tell you that I’ve personally talked with growing majority of faculty who are excited about the optimistic shift in LACC’s faculty outlook.”

From a current Board of Regent Member:

“Our Road Ahead is exactly what this institution needed! A plan focused on results.”

From several faculty members:

“OK, I’m on-board. Let’s go!”

From a student, simply:

“I’m so glad I chose this university!”

I want to thank the entire university family for such an outpouring of positive responses. It’s heartening to see the groundswell of support for our vision of “the premier institution for CAM” and for our dynamic leadership plan to get us there. Here’s to our Road Ahead.