KEITH COZART COMMENTED ON THE FOLLOWING PAPERS GROUP 2 and GROUP 3
KYLE OWEN COMMENTED ON GROUPS 1 and 2
Important Adult Education Organizations:
The Lumina Foundation and the Small Planet Institute
Keith Cozart, Kyle Owens
Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Group 4
Division of Responsibilities:
Kyle Owens: The Lumina Foundation and table
Keith Cozart: The Small Planet Institute,
table, summarized comparison, references, edits, submission and blog posting.
Abstract
This research paper describes and compares two important
adult education community organizations the Lumina Foundation and The Small Planet
Institute. Though the discovery of these
two organizations this paper will identify and describe their names, organizational
start-ups, missions and goals, roles and responsibilities and other pertinent
information relating to their aimed accomplishments. The paper will conclude with a cross
comparison between the two organizations identifying aspects of their impact
and implications within society and the field of adult education.
Important Adult Education Organizations:
The Lumina Foundation and the Small Planet Institute
An introduction to the Lumina Foundation and its’ Mission
In the late 90’s
and early 2000’s USA Groups was the nation’s largest private guarantor and
administrator of education loans (Miller, 2007). On July 31st, 2000 USA groups sold
most of its assets to Sallie Mae for a sum close to 770 million dollars. Both
of these companies held a stake in the student loan industry and the merger was
seen a successful transition that had no negative effects on the customers.
While most of the merger was complete, the subsidiary USA Funds was unable to
be purchased for legal reasons in the mediation. USA Funds was a non-profit
branch of USA groups that was incorporated with the purposes of fostering
education and the continuation of studies, promoting attainment of higher
education by those who otherwise might be unable to achieve it, and advancing
the cause of aid and support to college students (USA Funds, 2014). After the
transition and the buyout by Sallie Mae, the USA Fund changed from a non-profit
to a foundation.
The new
foundation became the USA Group Foundation with the mission to provide special
emphasis on the improvement of higher education through the strategic
utilization of original and sponsored research, provision of educational grants
and sponsorship of selected educational activities (Miller, 2007). Once the
foundation had become official then Sallie Mae issued a press release and the
USA Group stating that all proceeds from the merger (770 million) would be
given as an endowment to the USA Group Foundation in the hopes of improving the
access to higher education. The transaction immediately made the USA Group
Foundations one of the largest education foundations in the United States.
After receiving these funds it was the goal of the company to change their
identity and to become something new. The board of the USA Group Foundation
wanted to have a search committee find a name with the goals being that of a
distinct entity. On February 27th, 2001
the USA Group Foundation officially became the Lumina Foundation with the motto
“A new light dawns on American Higher Education”.
Goals,
Roles and Responsibilities
The Lumina
Foundation stated that their goals were to increase the proportion of Americans
with high quality degrees, certificates, and other credentials (Lumina, 2014).
Since the Lumina Foundation was in its early stages of formation and had a lot
to learn when it came to successfully run an educational foundation, the board
decided to seek the help of the Lilly Endowment. The Lilly endowment fund help
integrate a grant – management system as well as provide valuable information.
Lumina identifies and supports a proprietary definition of effective practice,
through public policy advocacy, and by using communications and convening to
build public will for change (Lumina, 2014).
The Lumina
foundation has recently started their 2025 goal campaign, which is aimed to
mobilize action at the local, state and national levels to reach a goal of 60%
higher education attainment (Lumina, 2014). The CEO has been quoted saying
“Goal 2025 is not Lumina’s goal; it is the nation’s goal”. The first part of
this to goal is to create a social movement in society and promote the idea
that education is attainable. If those in society are never aware of those
opportunities to gain hire education, then the Lumina Foundation has already
failed at its goal. The second part of the Luminas strategy to achieve goal
2025 is to reach out to employer and metro areas to increase the likely hood of
the opportunity reaching the people. When are you able to bring everyone
together to help achieve a common goal then the likelihood of the goal
succeeding is much higher. The third strategy in Lumina’s goal is to reach out
to institutions and help provide the education. If you don’t have a way to
provide students with the education then there will be no place for these
students to gain an education. The fourth an probably most important strategy
is to seek the help of state governments, to be able to achieve something of
this magnitude then policies will need to be put in place to help. The Final
stage of this strategy is advance federal policy that is already in place. Ever
since the “War on Poverty” there has been plenty of policies and funding put in
place to help attainment of higher quality education. The goal here is just to
advance it and adapt it to the current need. A brief video of each of these
strategies can be at the bottom of this portion of the report.
Impact
and implications
The Lumina
Foundation is focused on providing education to all individuals from all walks
of life, not only high school students who are graduating from high school and
looking for the next step. One of the ways that the Lumina Foundation promotes
adult education is through open education resources, which are a strategy to
make the whole experience of seeking high education a lot more affordable. Open
Educational Resources are any educational resources that are available to both
educators and students with having to pay fees for licensing. This type of opportunity
could potentially help take relieve some of the financial load off of those
individuals both adults who are considering improving both their education and
lives. The Lumina foundation also promotes helping veterans receive education
once they return from service. In their publication Focus, the foundation gives examples and stories about how they
have helped adults achieve the goal of receiving further and meaningful
education.
In a recent
article by the Pittsburgh Gazette discussed how Lumina Foundation are helping
fund services that will be used in Pittsburgh to increase post-secondary
education among African-American males, the group that has the smallest numbers
taking advantage of the Promise scholarships (Niederberger, 2013). The Lumina
foundation has also been responsible for providing the funding to help found
Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, KnowHow2GO, and College
Productivity. The Lumina Foundation has been responsible for helping hundreds
of adults and high school students gain higher education. This foundation has
the funds and support to help change the world and achieve their goal to have
60% of Americans achieves “Higher Quality Education” by 2025. The following list of links highlight The Five
Strategies the Lumina Foundation aims to achieve by 2025:
An
Introduction to the Small Planet Institute and its’ Mission
In 1966 award winning author and activist
Frances Moore Lappe’ graduated from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. As an undergraduate student at Earlham she
attend a workshop series that included shocking statistical information about
the world’s hunger crisis. Also included was information about human habits in
the handling of food- covering subject such as over farming, topsoil depletion,
food waste, food dispersal, and food inequality. Her experience attending the series was life
changing and stirred Frances to action.
What she came to realize was there was quite a lot of information about
the negative effects of the food industry but little-to-no action taken to
change these unsustainable habits as a global society. Frances wrote and
published her thoughts and practices within a little cookbook called Diet for a Small Planet (1971). Now a bestseller, her effort is considered the
first major book to note the environmental impact of meat production as
wasteful and a contributor to global food scarcity. She argued for environmental
vegetarianism, which means choosing what is best for the earth and our bodies instead
of what commercialism dictates. Through
this she called for daily action, action that reminds us of our power to create
a saner world. Diet
for a Small Planet was
groundbreaking for arguing that world hunger is not caused by a lack of food
but by ineffective food policy. In addition to information on meat production
and its impact on hunger, the book features simple rules for a healthy diet and
hundreds of meat-free recipes. This book began Frances’ long journey into food
and environmental activism. Via twelve
published books, countless journal contributions, media interviews, non-profit
organization start-ups and hundreds of lectures she has helped define the world
food movement.
Along with Frances’ professional life,
she also raised a family. Her son
Anthony and daughter Anna, now adults, have been brought up practicing their
mothers preaching. Clearly the apple
does not fall far from the tree because as professionals Frances’ children are
directly connected to their mother’s mission.
Together Frances and Anna began The Small Planet Institute, a non-profit
organization, in 2001. Anthony and
Frances’ partner Richard Rowe are also principal contributors to the institute
along with many volunteers, fellows and interns rounding out the staff. While the institutes’ goals and mission
statement does not specifically list the fact, its continual message is always
threaded to food, hunger and the environment awareness.
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts Small
Plant carries out its mission mainly through public outreach using books,
articles, speeches, and other media. Its’
mission statement is quite broad and is a follows:
To
help define, articulate, and further an historic transition: a worldwide shift
from the dominant, failing notion of democracy as a set of fixed institutions
toward democracy understood as a way of life, a culture in which the values of
inclusion, fairness and mutual accountability infuse all dimensions of public
life. We call this Living Democracy. (Small Planet Institute, 2014)
Goals, Roles and Responsibilities
The Small Planet Institute’s main
contribution to adult education stems from their coined phrase Living Democracy. From the Institute’s first book, Hope’s Edge, the next diet for a small
planet (Lappe’ and Lappe’, 2003) and the many books that have followed, the
Small Planet Institute reveals how people on every continent are creating
living democracies as they discover their power to remake societal rules and
norms to serve their widely shared values. Small Planet supports this historic
awakening through collaborative public education efforts with colleagues
worldwide and through their own books, articles, websites, speeches, and other
media. Hope’s Edge continues where Diet
for a Small Planet left off. Frances and
Anna travel the world, discovering practical visionaries who are making a
difference in world hunger. Along with
their publications, Frances’ and Anna’s public speaking events and the
institute’s wealth of online media resources the Small Planet Institute is disseminating
important best practice information based on living examples of food
sustainability, better food health/choices, environmental awareness, economic/social
equality and living democracy.
The institute calls its audiences to action “to be a drop in the bucket”
(Lappe’, 2011, p. 112). Even though one may feel that their single effort cannot
make a difference, the fact is it can and will make a difference with
persistence and kindness. The ripple
effect is at work in their example. Small Planet’s dedication to
self-empowerment and improvement is evidence of andragogy in practice. It shows fundamental philosophies of past
historically known adult educators such as Myles Horton who approached education from the
perspective that every student is a teacher and every individual is a learner
(Horton, Kohl and Kohl, 1990). Also
evident is the connection to practices and philosophies of Malcolm
Knowles. Knowles taught us to apply
informal adult education by learning about concepts which we already have from
past life experiences and applying them to our personal growth. Through this
application we are able to educate and develop others by helping them realize
what they have learned through self-guidance and reflection. This means as
educators we need to create real life scenarios and application that allow
learners to problem solve on their own and find solutions so that they are able
to learn from what they apply (Smith, 2002).
Impact
and Implications
As
with most everything in life there are boundaries and barriers to adult
education. While examining access and
opportunities for the Small Planet Institute in reaching their student audience,
it is evident that they’ve had their challenges. Merriam and Brockett (2007) identify four
conditions that limit access to adult education: geographic conditions, demographic factors, socioeconomic conditions/education
and cultural determinants (p
189-200).
They go on to list several responses within adult education to help
solve the dilemmas of access and participation, which include political, educational and technological responses. Small Plant has positioned it self to overcome
these barriers through their many options for accessibility.
For
example Frances has reached large and broad audiences through her book successes. From her initial following she has been able
to grow many different aspect of the institute through public speeches,
awareness newsletters, additional book sales, food awareness organizations, and
world travel. Daughter Anna has spun her
own take on mother’s food initiative by angling her public lectures and
publications on food systems and sustainable food advocacy. Anna is well published in her own right with
books such as Diet
for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can
Do About It and Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen.
Her current project, Food MythBusters
is a new collaborative project to bust myths about industrial agriculture and
share the positive story of sustainable farming through creative movies, an
online action center, and grassroots events. Food MythBusters is an initiative
of the Real Food Media Project, directed by Anna, and whose mission is to
inspire, educate, and grow the movement for sustainable food and farming. An example of Anna’s lectures can be view on
the following link via TEDxManhattan http://youtu.be/0bop3D7-dDM. Together Frances and Anne have also co-founded
the Small Planet Fund that channeling resources to democratic social movements
worldwide. Taking an account for all the
many different approaches implemented by Small Planet Institute to reach adult
audiences, it seems that they are making a good effort to cover the four conditions that limit access to
adult education through traveling to remote location of the world, online
resources, publications, public and university lectures and political
involvement. Frances’ most recent book
and lecture tour entitled EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want (2011) is currently appearing
on college campuses and public venues across the country. As an attendee to one of her lecture, I’ve
gained much perspective on global food, hunger and environmental awareness. The following link fantastically shows the
development of what the institute calls “The Food Movement” dating from 1966 to
the present http://smallplanet.org/food/timeline. The timeline highlights the major happenings
and organizations during the last 4 decades, a testimony to Frances’ work and
the Small Planet Institute. She is a
dynamic speaker with a heart and demeanor of openness and kindness. She instills the same rooted philosophy into
The Small Planet Institute and the people with whom she works.
Summarized Comparison
In comparing the Lumina Foundation to the Small Planet
Institute many differences are immediately evident. Lumina is extremely large in structure, size
and cash flow giving it a major corporation public appearance, where as Small
Planet is very much the opposite. It is
family driven, small in structure, size and cash flow. Both are tackling extremely important issues;
Lumina is an advocate for increasing higher education accessibility to the
general public while Small Planet advocates for food, hunger and environmental
reform. Here is a suggested argument. Is
either organization promoting a change that is necessary to sustaining life? Maybe
both? For much of the US population,
high education is perceived as an unnecessary luxury. The same could be said for Small Planet’s
sustainable food source initiatives. Who
is to really know if the food movement will effectively decrease world hunger? There is no question that access to food is a
requirement for sustainable life. From
an adult education prospective both are necessary for sustaining life, at least
life as we know it. High education leads
individuals and groups to expanded awareness of the world and the problems that
we face in overpopulating our “small planet.”
If Frances Moore Lappe’ could not afford to attend undergraduate studies
at Earlham College in the 1960s, there may have been no debate on food, hunger
and the environment. The more the
world’s population balloons, the more necessity there is for educated adults. It is life sustaining.
|
The
Lumina Foundation
|
Small Planet Institute
|
Founding
Year
|
2000
|
2001
|
Mission
and Goals
|
Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation
committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality
degrees, certificates and other credentials. (Lumina, 2014)
|
The Small Planet Institute is a non-profit organization with the slogan
“Living Democracy, Feeding Hope.” Its’ advocacy is food, hunger and
environment awareness/change.
|
Roles
and Responsibilities
|
Lumina identifies and supports a
proprietary definition of effective practice, through public policy advocacy,
and by using communications and convening to build public will for change
(Lumina, 2014).
|
Small Planet
Institute is disseminating important best practice information based on
living examples of food sustainability, better food health/choices,
environmental awareness, economic/social equality and living democracy.
|
Other
Important Information
|
The
Lumina Foundation is a locally founded organization, being based out of
Indianapolis, and has made a total of 250 million dollars in Grants
|
Small Planet Institute is family organized and operated. It combines older
generation values with more youthful approaches hence reaching larger
audiences.
|
Impact
|
Lumina funding is responsible for the
founding of Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, KnowHow2GO, and
College Productivity
|
Small Plant is making a global impact via dissemination of food
and agricultural best practices based on sustainability and self-activism.
|
Implications
|
The
Lumina will help increase the percentage of Americans with “High Quality”
Degrees and Certifications by the year 2025.
|
Small Planet’s “drop in the bucket” approach has rallied people to take
action on food waste, world hunger and sustainable life styles.
|
References
Horton, M., Kohl, J.,
& Kohl, H., (1990). The long haul:
an audiobiography. New
York, NY: Doubleday.
Lappe’, F. M., (1971). Diet for a small planet. New York, NY:
Ballandine Books
Lappe’, F. M., (2011). EcoMind: changing the way we think, to
create the world we want. New
York, NY: Nation Books.
Lappe’, F. M., Lappe’, A., (2003). Hope’s edge, the next diet for a small
planet. New York, NY: Tarcher
Books.
Merriam, S.B.,
& Brockett R.G., (2007), The
profession and practice of adult education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Smith, M. K. (2002), Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and andragogy, the encyclopedia of informal
education, Retrieved from www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm.
