Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY017069A
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00:01 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people 00:12 I want to spend my life 00:18 Removing pain 00:23 Lord, let my words 00:29 Heal a heart that hurts 00:34 I want to spend my life 00:40 Mending broken people 00:45 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people 01:07 Hello, and welcome to 3ABN Today. 01:09 My name is CA Murray, 01:11 and allow me once again to thank you for sharing 01:13 just a little of your day with us, 01:14 to thank you for your love, your prayers, your support 01:17 of Three Angels Broadcasting Network, 01:20 as we seek to take the good news 01:22 of the soon coming of Jesus Christ 01:23 to the whole world. 01:25 Hope you've got some time to listen today 01:27 because we got a very good program 01:28 and one that you may want to take advantage of air, 01:33 the day is done. 01:35 We're gonna be talking about Herbert Fletcher University, 01:38 which is a very unique school of learning 01:42 that we're gonna talk about today. 01:44 My guests are David Siguelnitzky. 01:46 Did I get that right, David? Yes. 01:48 I love that name Siguelnitzky, it just kind of flows. 01:51 Perfect. Yes. 01:52 And, Carlos Robles. 01:53 Good to have you here, man. Thank you. 01:55 And, Carlos, good to have you here, 01:56 also they are respectively, 01:58 David is President of Herbert Fletcher 02:01 and Carlos is Director of the Academic Office, 02:06 so that'd be academic affairs, Herbert Fletcher University. 02:09 Good to have you guys here. 02:11 I want to get right in before we go to our music 02:13 because you are headquartered in...? 02:16 Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. 02:18 And in the city of? Mayaguez. 02:21 But you are an online university. 02:25 And we want to talk about what all that means 02:27 and what all that entails 02:29 and we can say, praise the Lord, 02:31 fully recognized and accredited 02:33 by the Government of Puerto Rico. 02:35 Hallelujah, amen. 02:37 Amen. Amen. 02:39 And we have before that, want to get history 02:41 on you both as individuals before we talk about the school 02:45 because it's been little while since you've been here, 02:47 a few years as a matter of fact and I think I had the pleasure 02:49 of doing an interview then, that interview at that time. 02:53 You are originally from? I was born in Argentina. 02:56 Yeah, but you kind of lived all over the place. 02:58 Yeah. Yeah. 03:01 After leaving Argentina, you went where? 03:03 After Argentina, I went to Israel. 03:05 Israel. For how many years? For almost 14 years. 03:08 Wow, good little while. Yeah. 03:10 And involved in education there also? 03:12 No. I was... I went there to study. 03:15 And then I worked in the area of research and development. 03:19 So your history really is kind of in academia. 03:23 I studied engineering biotechnology, 03:25 so I am an engineer. 03:27 So I worked in Israel in that area 03:31 when I was there for several years, 03:35 the church called me to come to the Inter-American Division 03:39 to work in the academic area to teach. 03:44 Ah. 03:45 So that was my first exposure to teaching. 03:49 I was not an academic person, I was a researcher. 03:51 Yes, yes, yes. 03:52 Was the change easy for you or...? 03:55 And I say that because I have great respect for teachers. 04:00 First of all, it's ministry 04:02 because you're imparting knowledge to young minds 04:05 which are also hopefully shaping them 04:07 to be good citizens here 04:08 and to prepare for the world that is to come, 04:11 so I have great respect. 04:13 Was it an easy change to go from research 04:14 to the classroom setting? 04:16 I wouldn't want to be a student of myself at that time. 04:19 I'm sorry, if some of my students are watching me, 04:23 please I'm sorry for that. 04:26 No. It's not easy. 04:28 You don't know how to do things. 04:30 You're just trying to improvise. 04:32 Yes. That's not a good thing. 04:34 No, you're kind of learning on the fly. 04:35 Yeah. Yeah. 04:37 So this is why I had to learn to study something 04:38 about education later on to be a better educator, 04:41 and I did that. 04:42 Let me ask this, David, did you grow up 04:44 in an Adventist home? 04:45 I was born Seventh-day Adventist, yes. 04:47 We are seven brothers and sisters, all of us. 04:50 Oh, good sized family. Yeah. 04:51 You are where in that continuum of brothers and sisters? 04:53 I'm the third. The third? 04:55 Okay, sort of in the middle. About the middle. 04:57 Yeah, they say the middle child can always be 05:00 a little different, you know, because you got some above, 05:02 you got some below, you know, so the middle child 05:05 can go in any direction, you know, kind of thing. 05:07 Yeah. 05:08 I was spoiled in that area, in that sense, yes. 05:13 When did the idea of a personal relationship 05:17 with God come to your life? 05:19 As a young person or when you were a little older? 05:21 No. 05:23 As a young person, I was fairly regular Seventh-day Adventist 05:28 going every Sabbath to church and participating 05:30 in Sabbath school and preaching also. 05:36 I mean, I was a regular person 05:38 without a personal relationship with God. 05:41 I think that I was... 05:45 I discovered Jesus as a personal savior later on. 05:49 I think I was about 20 something so all the way naive. 05:52 I became really aware of who am I and why 05:56 I'm Seventh-day Adventist because I don't need to. 05:59 This is not something that you have to 06:01 if you don't want to. 06:03 Then I really wanted to at that time 06:06 and then from then I feel that I'm Adventist... 06:09 Praise the Lord. Since that time. 06:11 Excellent, excellent. 06:12 Carlos, say now you're from Puerto Rico? 06:14 Yes, I am. Praise the Lord. 06:17 Adventist home growing up? Third generation Adventist. 06:19 Oh, wow. Okay, deep root. That's right. 06:22 Brothers and sisters? One sister. 06:24 Just one sister? Yes. 06:26 Older or younger? Older. 06:27 Same with me, one sister older. 06:29 Not that much old, about year and half older. 06:32 So you grew up in Adventist home. 06:34 Always involved in education? Yes. 06:38 Always involved with youth and since I was little, 06:40 I was preaching, I was into Pathfinders, 06:42 I was a Master Guide, I was in a lot of things in church. 06:45 Okay, okay. 06:46 You came up the root, yeah. Yeah. 06:48 And then I started studying to be a teacher, 06:51 an English teacher. 06:52 And I graduated and began 06:55 in our Adventist educational system. 06:58 Okay. Did you go to Antillean? 07:00 Yes, I did. Good school. 07:01 I got my bachelor's degree there. 07:03 Ah, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 07:06 Whose idea was Fletcher University? 07:12 In whose mind did that first start? 07:16 The thing is this. 07:17 Pastor Israel Leito, 07:20 the President of the Inter-American Division... 07:21 I know him well. 07:23 Went to Columbia for a Revival Week. 07:28 And somebody asked him and said, 07:32 "What are you doing for people like me? 07:34 People that are already adults with family need to study, 07:39 but we are not close to university, 07:42 an Adventist university 07:43 where we can pursue our studies. 07:46 What are you doing for people like me, like us?" 07:48 That was the question, 07:50 and that is the beginning of the idea. 07:52 Then Pastor Leito started to think about this. 07:55 He took that to the board 07:56 and the division continued developing that idea 07:59 and they took the vote in 2000, long ago, 08:03 2007 something like that, 08:07 to think seriously about building a university, 08:10 an online, fully online university 08:12 in the Inter-American Division. 08:14 So the energy to start, it was a real situation 08:19 where people want to go back to school, 08:21 but who can't leave their families, 08:23 leave their jobs and go to a school, 08:26 but needed school to sort of come to them. 08:28 Exactly, that's the idea. 08:29 So the brethren laid hands on you. 08:33 It was, they contacted me at the end 08:38 of 2009 or '10, 08:42 2009 I think, 08:44 and they asked me to develop the plan 08:48 which equipment we need, 08:50 which programs we can do, which... 08:52 I mean skills for people we need, 08:56 to develop the whole skeleton. 08:59 See, I'm the first employee of that university. 09:01 I see. 09:02 Two thousand and something, yeah, I'm the first employee. 09:04 Well, to develop I think the infrastructure, 09:06 you need an engineer kind of mind, 09:08 so I guess you'd be the perfect fit. 09:12 Did you know Pastor Leito? Yeah, I knew him. 09:14 Okay, okay. Yeah, since long ago. 09:15 Okay, very good. The thing is this. 09:18 My academic experience is this. 09:22 I am systems analyst. 09:24 Later on I did engineering in biotechnology, 09:28 later on software engineering 09:30 a master's degree in systems analysis, 09:36 then master degree in educational systems 09:39 and then the PhD. 09:42 So all that brought me to a point 09:46 where I think I knew what to do. 09:52 The emphasis on, "I thought I knew what to do." 09:55 Indeed. 09:56 You can't be sure because always there is a person 09:59 that can do things better than you. 10:01 I believe that in the world there are people 10:03 much smarter than me and wiser than me 10:06 and faster than me to do things, 10:09 and they can do better than me. 10:10 I truly believe that. 10:12 But I also believe that 10:14 my background in the area of computer science 10:18 and my background in the area of education 10:20 because by then I had already a master's degree in education. 10:25 So these two things gave me an advantage 10:30 that few people have. 10:31 You don't have people coming from two different areas 10:34 with that expertise. 10:36 Yes, yes, yes, yes. 10:37 So that was an advantage I had. 10:39 It's amazing, and I hear this over and over again 10:41 how God fills out your resume before you even know it. 10:45 You know, He gives you these experiences 10:47 and at the right time and the right place, 10:49 someone calls upon those experiences 10:51 and you have there, I did that 10:52 and I did that and that. 10:53 Oh, that's what we need, you know. 10:55 And now the Lord will prepare you 10:57 even though you may not be aware of it, 10:59 but at the right time... 11:00 You're married and have a family? 11:02 I have a family, yes. 11:03 It's amazing that you had time to have a family 11:05 with all those degrees, man. 11:06 You spent a lot of time in school. 11:08 So we praise the Lord. 11:10 This is a blessing. Let me tell you this. 11:12 This is not because... 11:14 Sometimes people think that you're a smart person 11:17 because you did this and that and that 11:18 and you have a long resume. 11:20 This is not because of that. 11:21 This is because you have a supporting family. 11:23 If you don't have a supporting wife, 11:25 forget about this. 11:26 You'll never ever be able to get something like this. 11:30 So the wife is something important for me. 11:35 She did absolutely everything to make sure 11:37 that I will reach the goals and also my kids. 11:41 I have two children. 11:43 They are grown children already, 11:45 but they were very much supportive. 11:49 So I believe that that made 11:54 the favorable conditions 11:57 to be able to start it because I remember that 11:59 I always worked full time, all the time, all my life 12:04 and I went to study in the nights 12:06 so I used to leave home at about 6:30 in the morning 12:11 and be back home at about 10:30 or 11 pm 12:16 because working and then university 12:19 and then home. 12:20 So that is not easy unless you have 12:23 a supporting wife, first of all, 12:27 and supporting family after that. 12:29 And praise the Lord, He gave you. 12:30 And the blessing of God because you can dream 12:33 as much as you wish, if God doesn't bless, 12:36 you'll forget about that, you'll never have that. 12:38 Well said. 12:39 You know, and I'll say this having studied, 12:43 you don't necessarily have to be a genius 12:46 to get advance degrees, even a PhD, 12:49 but you do have to maintain focus. 12:52 It's a testament to being able to stick to something. 12:56 If you stay at it, you can get the degree. 12:59 There are some who sail through because they're just brilliant, 13:02 but getting a doctorate degree is not necessarily 13:05 a testament to brilliance, 13:07 it is a testament to staying with it. 13:09 Staying with it, maintaining your focus, 13:11 and if you maintain your focus and stay humble 13:14 and stay prayerful, you can do it. 13:17 And as you said, having a family 13:18 that supports you in that is a good thing. 13:21 Why did they choose to put 13:24 Herbert Fletcher in Puerto Rico? 13:27 The Inter-American Division, well, 13:29 the headquarters is in the States here 13:31 and, of course, it covers all of the Caribbean, 13:32 why Puerto Rico in particular? 13:36 The division wanted us to be 13:39 in American territory. 13:44 It is easier for many people to study with us 13:47 and get recognition in other countries. 13:49 If you're in other places of the Inter-American Division, 13:52 some countries will not, I mean you'll need to fight 13:56 to make sure that your government 13:57 will recognize that degree. 13:59 But if you're coming from the US, 14:01 from North America, 14:03 Puerto Rico is part of North America in that sense, 14:05 that is easier. 14:07 So that is the main reason. Yeah. 14:10 And knowing how sometimes the countries 14:13 particularly in Central America can pick at each other. 14:15 If you got a degree in Guatemala, 14:16 then Nicaragua will say, "No, we don't want that" 14:18 or El Salvador, "No, we don't want that kind." 14:20 Right, so we just saw that, put it in United States 14:23 and everything is fine 14:25 and we praise the Lord for that. 14:27 I want to go our music, then we'll come back 14:28 and sort of really dive into this 14:30 and talk a little bit more with Carlos also. 14:33 Our music today is coming from a good friend of the ministry 14:37 and a good personal friend and that's Neville Peter 14:40 and he sings, he plays, he is a godly young man 14:43 and he's going to be doing, "Let It Rain". 15:02 Let it rain 15:06 Let it pour 15:11 I'm longing for Your presence 15:15 To deliver and restore 15:18 Let Your love 15:22 Wash over me 15:27 For where Your Spirit is 15:30 I am free to bless Your holy name 15:38 So let it rain 15:42 Let it rain 15:47 Oh, Jesus, sing for me 15:50 Let it rain 15:54 Let it pour 15:59 I'm longing for Your presence 16:03 To deliver and restore 16:06 Let Your love 16:10 Wash over me 16:15 For where Your Spirit is 16:18 I am free to bless Your holy name 16:26 Lord let it rain 16:30 Let it rain 16:35 Renew my heart again 16:39 I'm longing for Your hand 16:44 Quench my thirsty soul 16:47 In this dry and barren land 16:51 The latter rain, it must fall 16:55 In these last and evil days 17:00 And I know it will cause me pain 17:04 When I bless Your name 17:09 But let it rain 17:13 Lord, let it pour 17:18 I'm longing for Your presence 17:22 To deliver and restore 17:25 Lord, let Your love 17:29 Wash over me 17:34 For where Your Spirit is 17:38 I am free to bless Your holy name 17:45 Lord, let it rain 17:50 Let it rain 17:54 The latter rain, it must fall 17:58 In these last and evil days 18:05 And I know it will cause me pain 18:11 When I bless Your name Jesus 18:16 But let it rain 18:21 Lord, let it rain 18:25 Lord, let it rain 18:29 Lord, let it rain 18:34 Even if it causes pain 18:38 Even if it causes pain 18:42 Lord, if it causes pain 18:45 Let it rain 18:50 The latter rain, it must fall 18:54 In these last and evil days 19:01 And I know it will cause me pain 19:06 When I bless Your name 19:10 But Lord let it rain 19:15 Lord, let it rain 19:21 Let it rain down in my life 19:25 Let it rain down in my soul 19:28 Let it rain 19:44 And thank you Neville Peter. 19:46 Let it rain, very, very, well done. 19:48 We're talking with David Siguelnitzky 19:49 and Carlos Robles. 19:51 David is the president of Herbert Fletcher University, 19:53 and I need to say, Dr. Siguelnitzky to be fair, 19:58 and Carlos, 20:01 family also you told me, Carlos. 20:05 Husband of one wife? 20:06 That's right. Praise the Lord. 20:07 How many children? 20:09 None yet. None yet. 20:10 Okay, well, stay at it. 20:11 Lord will bless. 20:13 It will come, it will come. 20:15 It will come. 20:18 You went to school in Antillean, 20:20 and then where did you do your graduate? 20:24 My masters, I did it at Walden University 20:27 in higher education 20:30 with a degree in online education. 20:33 Ah, okay, so that's your specialty. 20:35 And now I'm in my PhD. 20:37 Oh, praise the Lord. 20:39 In online leadership and online distance education. 20:43 Now where are you studying? 20:45 My PhD is in the University of Inter-America in Puerto Rico. 20:49 Okay, okay. So you work out in the island. 20:51 Very good, excellent. 20:53 So we found out how Dr. David got roped into this. 20:57 How did you come to get hooked up dare 21:00 we say with Fletcher University? 21:02 Well, God has strange ways of directing us 21:06 where He wants us. 21:07 Indeed. 21:09 I was preaching in a church 21:11 and a colleague saw me preaching 21:15 and she told me, "Do you know I work for this university? 21:18 You might want to give me your resume." 21:21 I said, "Why would I want to do that?" 21:23 I'm teaching, I've been 15 years teaching comfortably. 21:29 And then she told me, "You better pray about this." 21:33 I said, "That's interesting." 21:35 Nobody told me told me that ever, 21:37 so I sent my resume and I started praying 21:39 and immediately I received a call, 21:42 "We need you and your wife to come to the University 21:45 because we want to talk to you." 21:47 And I said, "Okay, that's good, I think." 21:53 So we went both and back and forth. 21:58 I mentioned this before to Dr. Siguelnitzky, 22:02 but I did not want to work for university. 22:05 I was comfortable. 22:06 I was in a place that I was comfortable. 22:07 I've been teaching for 15 years. 22:09 You were in Puerto Rico already? 22:10 Yes, teaching English for the educational system. 22:13 Ah, okay. 22:14 In the public system? In the public system. 22:16 Oh, okay. 22:17 And I said so... 22:19 I said to God, "God, if you really want me to go, 22:24 you need to tell me, give me a sign." 22:27 And He gave me the sign. 22:29 I said, "No, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." 22:32 Maybe, maybe not that fast. 22:34 Maybe you need to take it easy, give me another sign 22:38 so I could be very, very sure that this is what You want me. 22:41 Double fleece, indeed. 22:43 And that same day, 22:46 the same day the sign came through. 22:47 The other thing about God is when you ask for little signs, 22:50 you know, if He wants you to come, 22:51 He will give you the sign 22:52 and He will make it really, really clear 22:54 that that's the sign. 22:55 And when He says, "I want you to do this." 22:58 We need to do it 23:00 and I did not feel comfortable saying no. 23:02 So I immediately called back and I said, "Okay. 23:07 What do you need me to do?" 23:09 And here I am. 23:10 Did you know David already? No. 23:13 Oh, you did not. Okay. 23:14 That was the most frightening thing 23:16 I've ever done. 23:17 How so? 23:18 Because he was... 23:20 He was the one that interviewed me. 23:21 And I said, okay, he comes from the division, 23:23 he is a doctor, he is... 23:26 This is his place, and I'm here, 23:29 I don't know what to do and, 23:31 but I thank the Lord that it happened. 23:35 You were teaching English, 23:36 but were you working in this online area 23:39 or are you studying in this online area already 23:41 or that came post to your call to the university? 23:43 That came after. Ah-huh. 23:45 I've always been a fan of technology. 23:47 Those who know me, 23:48 my students and those that have seen me, 23:52 they know that every time that I went to class, 23:54 there was something related to technology, something new. 23:58 And when I received the call, I said, that's interesting 24:01 because God has always leaded me to technology 24:04 and it was in the right lane. 24:08 This is a nice combination though, 24:10 you know, your specialty and David's specialty 24:14 kind of make for a nice leadership core 24:17 when you're trying to start out something like this. 24:20 How does one... 24:21 Okay, we got this idea. 24:23 We want to do an online school here. 24:26 How do you... 24:27 What's the first thing that you do? 24:30 Obviously you have a physical building 24:32 where you... 24:34 That houses what you do. 24:35 So how do we begin? How do we start? 24:39 What, building a university? 24:40 Yeah, and in online. 24:42 I mean, we start a regular university, 24:44 we put one brick in front of another, 24:45 we used to mortar on it, put another brick 24:47 and then we get a school, but this is different. 24:49 How do you begin? How do you start? 24:53 Go ahead, go ahead, you explain. 24:56 First, we did it together so... 24:58 Indeed. 24:59 First you need to be ready to do a lot of work, 25:02 a lot of hard work. 25:04 The documentation for a university 25:06 that's completely online, 25:07 that doesn't have any physical campus. 25:12 The government is going to start to get worried 25:16 because in regular education you have a campus, 25:19 you have a library, you have a place 25:21 where you can see the teachers and everything, 25:22 but in distance education, 25:25 the government is always trembling 25:26 because there's a lot of issues on the matter of, 25:32 "how do I know that you're doing this?" 25:35 And specifically when we were delivering the documents 25:39 to the government of Puerto Rico, they, they... 25:42 At one point they set us aside and they said, 25:44 "Listen, we have an issue here." 25:47 The issue is, this is the first university 25:49 that's completely online 25:51 and we have a lot of requirements for you 25:53 that we don't know how to deal with. 25:55 So in Puerto Rico, this never existed before? 25:58 There has been... 25:59 There is online education 26:01 but there is always with the component 26:02 that there is a university that has a campus. 26:06 They have library, they have courses... 26:07 Sure, sure. 26:08 But completely online, they started saying us... 26:11 Well, we need to take you as an example. 26:14 Okay, then that makes it tough 26:15 because you're gonna be the test tube baby now. 26:18 Yeah. You're gonna be, yeah. 26:19 This is the problem because, you know, 26:20 as Carlos said already. 26:23 They don't have any other place to compare you with... 26:27 Right. You are it. 26:29 And all the documentation they require includes buildings 26:33 and many other things 26:35 that we don't have and we'll never have. 26:37 Right. 26:38 So this is one thing and one big problem. 26:40 The second problem is, 26:41 the Adventist system doesn't have any online university. 26:44 So we're having the same trouble 26:46 with the Seventh-day Adventist education system 26:50 because we are academic monster. 26:54 Yes, yes. 26:55 I mean, something that never existed before. 26:57 Right. 26:58 So they are asking for things 27:00 that are very difficult to fulfill, 27:03 but we have many things that they cannot evaluate. 27:06 True because there's no pattern, there's no manual. 27:09 You are it. Of course. 27:11 When they come for an evaluation, 27:14 it's hard to find the right person 27:16 to evaluate you. 27:17 Exactly. 27:18 That happened with the Council of Education of Puerto Rico. 27:22 We sent the documents 27:23 and they did not send us a date immediately 27:25 that they were gonna visit us. 27:27 And we started calling, 27:28 what, is there something going on 27:30 and they said, "We are looking for someone 27:32 and we cannot find in Puerto Rico." 27:34 So they started looking in the States, 27:36 in the United States for people that knew about this, 27:39 so that they can come to Puerto Rico and evaluate us. 27:42 And in the visit that they made, there was... 27:44 I think it was two? 27:46 Two of the evaluators came from the States. 27:48 No, one from the States and one from... 27:51 One came from the States and she was... 27:54 I was a doctor and she was a lady, 27:56 a very special lady, 27:58 and she was kind of leading the way 28:01 because they were behind her. 28:02 Okay, you know about this, we're gonna follow you. 28:04 I see. I see. I see. 28:06 Now, so you have that with the secular government, 28:11 you also have that with the church, 28:13 because, of course, you want to be recognized by the church 28:15 but since they don't have anybody either, 28:17 how did you work with that? 28:19 How did you deal with the church evaluating 28:21 so that you could be accredited, 28:23 you know, by the Adventist church? 28:24 Well, we have some people that are very well prepared 28:27 in that area too. 28:29 We don't have any fully online 28:32 and only online university in the church around the world, 28:36 but we have some people that in the last few years 28:39 finished their degree in that area. 28:41 So they had to pick a person that has some experience also 28:47 because degree is not enough, 28:50 you need some experience, some knowledge. 28:52 Yeah. Sure. 28:53 And... 28:54 So they brought one person from Andrews 28:57 and the other two were 29:00 in educational area and that's it. 29:03 And they did the best they could. 29:06 Which I think is fabulous. 29:08 So when Dr. Israel later dropped this on you, 29:11 he really laid a heavy burden on you, 29:13 because you're starting something 29:15 that has no pattern, that has no, 29:17 there's no way you can go and look and say, 29:19 let's follow that pattern, 29:20 you're building it from the ground up. 29:22 Exactly. 29:23 Exactly because I didn't have that experience before. 29:25 I mean, how many people do you know in the world, 29:30 because, you know, many people around the world. 29:31 How many people you know 29:32 that built a university from scratch, 29:35 from nothing, from zero? 29:37 Very few. Very few. 29:38 How many of them built a university fully online 29:42 with all the infrastructure, paperwork, knowledge, 29:48 skills needed for every different function 29:51 and everything, how many you know? 29:53 Perhaps not too many. Not too many, like zero. 29:56 I know zero. 29:57 See, this is a major thing 30:01 because you're starting something totally from scratch. 30:03 Now, are there many online universities 30:05 in existence now today? 30:08 Is that it...? 30:10 We have several online universities 30:14 around the world, not... 30:17 I mean, several universities that have an online department 30:23 and they teach fully online. 30:24 This is what we have. 30:26 So the infrastructure is mixed, you have both. 30:29 But only online university, fully online university, 30:32 I don't think we have too many. 30:33 Okay. So there's not, there's not a lot. 30:35 So you don't really have like other club 30:37 that they can get together and encourage each other 30:39 because they just, you know, 30:41 that there are groups and university presidents 30:43 will come together and encourage each other 30:44 because they have some commonality, 30:46 but you guys are kind of out there 30:47 swimming in a very big ocean 30:49 and evidently doing a pretty good job. 30:51 So we praise the Lord, we praise the Lord. 30:52 And by the way we're building now a network 30:56 in the Inter-American Division 30:57 among the 14 universities we have in different areas, 31:02 student development and curriculum and so on. 31:06 One of the areas is online education 31:09 that includes also the online technology 31:12 you need for that, 31:13 and Carlos is the coordinator for that area. 31:17 So we're trying to develop 31:20 that more and more in our division and most likely 31:24 in the rest of the world in future. 31:25 Yeah. Give me an idea of how much staff you have? 31:30 That's difficult to say. 31:32 We have... 31:33 We're 17 in all. 31:34 Because your staff is not all in Puerto Rico, 31:36 they are everywhere. 31:37 Well, we have an office in Puerto Rico 31:39 and that is seven people, right? 31:42 Seven people. Seven people. 31:43 We have in Puerto Rico people working from home 31:46 from different places in the island, 31:48 we have about three? 31:50 No, four. 31:52 Four, four people and then we have people 31:56 in the South American Division and other places, 32:00 we have about 20 more, 27? 32:02 Twenty-nine. 32:04 Twenty-nine professors around the world. 32:06 And not only professors, we have the web development, 32:09 and people working for us from their own places. 32:13 See this is a fabulous thing. 32:17 It peaks my interest in that 32:20 since you're not bringing everybody together 32:22 to a campus, your professors, 32:25 your teaching staff is everywhere. 32:27 Yeah. Yeah, it's everywhere. 32:30 And your student body is everywhere. 32:32 Exactly. 32:34 So now your job is to connect professors 32:37 who could be anywhere with a student 32:40 who could be anywhere and that's your job, 32:44 that's how university functions. 32:45 So let's walk through that. 32:48 Let's answer the question. 32:50 What kind of courses do you offer? 32:53 I'm a student. 32:54 I'm a person at home, I want to get education, 32:56 I cannot leave, I contact you, what is available to me? 33:01 Yeah. All right. Carlos is the Academic Director. 33:03 So I will, I will... 33:04 We have a couple of programs that might interest. 33:07 There's one that we're pretty emphatic about it, 33:12 because it's in groundbreaking master's degree. 33:17 And that master degree 33:18 is an online instructional design. 33:21 They are not... 33:22 Online education is growing quickly 33:25 in every university, especially in the United States. 33:29 And there are not really a lot of people 33:32 that are prepared in that area, specific area. 33:35 Some people think that just to be an online professor 33:37 you need to, okay, I'll take my courses in PowerPoint 33:40 and in Microsoft Word and I'll put them online 33:42 and have students read it and that won't work. 33:45 It's a specific way of teaching 33:50 that needs to be coordinated 33:52 and we are providing this master's degree 33:55 to help people on how they could transfer their knowledge 33:58 in education or any knowledge, 34:00 could be nursing, could be in pastoral, 34:02 could be anything 34:04 and transfer that into an effective 34:06 and good quality course in online 34:11 and that's one of the programs. 34:13 Another program that we're really proud of is 34:15 the Church Administration and Leadership, 34:19 and that is to help anyone 34:20 that wants to be proficient in administration 34:24 and be a good leader of any institution, 34:28 any not-for-profit institution or a church institution, 34:33 so that they can be effective 34:37 in what they want to do for God. 34:40 I find this fascinating. 34:42 My next question would be, 34:44 how do you evaluate your faculty? 34:50 In other words, someone comes to you or you contact someone 34:55 who has a degree in field X. 34:58 How do you know...? 35:00 And I'm saying this 35:01 because in all endeavors that humans do, 35:04 you have good, better, best. 35:05 You have good lawyers, you got better lawyers, 35:08 you got bad lawyers, you got good teachers, 35:10 you got bad teachers. 35:11 You know, how do you know that a given person is a fit? 35:17 Because I may be a good classroom teacher, 35:19 doesn't necessarily mean that I can do this online. 35:21 As you mentioned, I put up a bunch of PowerPoints, 35:23 a bunch of papers and say, "Here take it," 35:25 you know, that's not what works for you. 35:27 How do you evaluate? 35:28 How will you know that this guy is a good fit 35:30 or this woman is a good fit for what we're trying to do? 35:34 There is a very intense process 35:38 that we go through to accept a professor. 35:41 First, we accept their resume or their curriculums 35:46 and we analyze them. 35:47 First of all, they need to have PhD or doctorate 35:52 in the specific area. 35:54 And then when they start teaching for us, 36:00 we have evaluations, we have peer evaluations. 36:03 Other professors evaluate other professors 36:05 and then we have students' evaluation. 36:08 And we also constantly at the administrative part, 36:12 that's my area, 36:14 we constantly enter the course to see what's going on. 36:16 If there is too much... 36:19 There is not enough interaction between the students 36:21 and the professors, 36:22 we look at the comments 36:25 and we also do student evaluation 36:29 at the end of the course 36:30 or almost at the end of the course 36:31 we give them a form that they need to present 36:35 and tell us how are we doing, how was the course, 36:38 how was the professor, 36:39 how was the integration of faith in that course, 36:41 was it okay. 36:43 There are different topics 36:44 that we need to guarantee the quality of that course 36:47 because it's nothing if we, if we just provide courses 36:51 and we don't have integration of faith. 36:53 If we don't have a good quality core, 36:58 in that course we're not doing our job well. 37:01 So we evaluate our professors in that way. 37:05 But we also have a training course 37:08 for every professor. 37:09 Before you start teaching a course, 37:11 you have to pass a training. 37:16 This is a must. 37:17 I mean, a professor may have 20 years experience, 37:23 but exactly as you said, 37:24 may not fit within the online environment, 37:27 online techniques, online world. 37:31 So that person will need to have 37:33 a full training of 10 weeks at least. 37:37 Oh, wow. 37:39 And then if they succeed with that... 37:41 It's like a semester of training. 37:43 Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. 37:45 About the semester and it's quite intensive. 37:48 Yeah. 37:49 So after that we know 37:51 if the person will be able to teach. 37:53 To teach. 37:54 And may I add, we constantly also do 37:57 a professional training, additional. 38:00 Every semester, they need to take a course, 38:02 an online course, the professor, 38:04 so that we can, you know, incorporate more technology 38:10 and more and more skills for them to use in the courses. 38:12 Okay. 38:14 Yeah. The thing is this. 38:15 You cannot assume that a person with 20 years experience 38:20 teaching face to face 38:21 is going to be the perfect online teacher. 38:23 No, you can't. 38:24 And this is why out of 10 people 38:27 that start the training, 38:29 we'll finish, we'll end up with about four or five, 38:34 something like that, no more than that, 38:36 because usually they get offended. 38:38 They said, you're not going to teach me 38:39 how to teach. 38:41 You can teach me the technology, 38:42 not how to teach, but it's not true. 38:44 It's a combo, it's a whole package. 38:49 When you learn how to teach, 38:50 you need to learn lot of things together 38:54 and many people do not understand that part. 38:55 Yeah. 38:57 So when a person comes to you, 38:58 they've got to come with a certain modicum of humility 39:03 because you're reeducating the educator 39:06 and he has to be, 39:08 because I could be a good online teacher. 39:09 Okay gentlemen, today we're gonna learn this. 39:11 That does not translate to what's going on online. 39:13 Yeah. Let them listen to this. 39:15 We're not the only people that do that. 39:17 All online universities, 39:19 every university that has online department 39:22 will do that, all over the world. 39:24 Every university that respects itself will do that. 39:28 And this is something 39:30 that people don't necessarily understand. 39:31 It's not because we're proud of doing 39:35 what we do that we added that training, 39:38 every university does it. 39:40 So that's necessary, absolutely necessary. 39:43 Okay. So we're selling our product now. 39:45 One, all of your faculty is PhD level, 39:49 so they have a handle on their own material 39:51 what they're teaching. 39:52 Two, they've gone through specialized training 39:56 that deals with being able to teach online. 39:59 Three, they're evaluated periodically 40:01 by peers and students 40:03 to know that they're making the grade. 40:07 Are there any other mechanisms 40:09 put in place to evaluate faculty? 40:12 I mean, those three are enough really 40:13 because you got a pretty good handle 40:14 on what you're dealing with, but is there anything else? 40:20 When they... 40:21 After the training they have to prepare a course. 40:23 This is part of the training, after the 10 weeks. 40:25 They have to prepare to develop a full course. 40:29 And we have to check the course and we have to make corrections 40:34 and that goes back and forth four or five times, 40:38 fix this, fix that, fix that, and that is annoying. 40:43 That requires a lot of patience. 40:46 Yeah, listen. I'm the expert in my area. 40:49 Let's say that I'm expert in theology, 40:53 just to say something. 40:54 And how come you tell me what to change? 40:59 They don't understand that the change 41:01 is about the organization of the course 41:05 and the pedagogical components of the course. 41:08 It's not about the content itself. 41:09 So I say, if you want to present this, 41:11 you've to present in this way 41:13 or that other way but not in this way. 41:15 So it's very difficult for people to assume 41:19 and this is why we have out of 10 about four 41:21 maybe five people finishing the full training. 41:23 But once they finish the training, 41:25 once they start teaching, 41:27 they understand exactly why we required this 41:32 or that change. 41:34 So I think that, that is a very comprehensive way 41:40 to prepare and then to evaluate them. 41:43 Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. So that comes together. 41:44 Are most of your faculty in the Inter-American Division 41:46 or they outside of Inter-America 41:48 and in Inter-America also? 41:50 Most may be in the Inter-American Division. 41:52 Most of them. 41:53 But we have in all the continents, 41:55 I mean all over. 41:58 Your student body, 42:01 mostly Inter-American, mostly Spanish-speaking, 42:03 mostly English-speaking, diverse? 42:06 It's very diverse. It's very diverse. 42:08 We have a lot of students English-speaking students, 42:12 Spanish, a lot of them at this moment. 42:15 And we also provide non-academic courses. 42:20 For example, layman's training. 42:22 At this moment we're providing a course program 42:26 for Sabbath school teachers 42:28 and we even started with a section in French 42:32 and that's basically the three languages 42:35 that we're pointing at, Spanish, English, and French. 42:39 Which covers a fairly wide swath of the world. 42:42 If you had someone with sort of an eclectic language, 42:46 is there any way to accommodate them at all 42:48 or that, I guess... 42:49 Well, I mean, some, they could come with you 42:51 with Tagalog or something. 42:53 I guess, there is no real way to get that in 42:54 because you don't have the personnel in that. 42:57 But in English, Spanish, and French, 43:00 you've got a pretty good part of the western hemisphere. 43:04 We're very limited in French. Yes. 43:06 We don't have enough faculty 43:09 and enough people knowing how to develop in French, 43:13 but in Spanish and English, everything is bilingual. 43:17 French, we are at some limited areas. 43:22 What... 43:23 You offer bachelor's? 43:25 Master's degrees. Master's only. 43:27 Master's? 43:28 So all you have them, 43:29 you're at the graduate school level? 43:31 That's right. Okay, not doctorates just yet? 43:32 Not as yet. Not as yet. 43:34 So it's master's degree? Okay. 43:36 We'll praise the Lord for that. 43:38 How big is your student body? You have the number. 43:41 At this moment we are around rounded up in 300. 43:46 It's like 296 students in both languages, 43:52 Spanish and English at this moment. 43:54 Is that about the average? 43:55 Is that a little high, a little low as to what average 43:57 as you get average, average-wise? 44:00 Yeah. Okay. 44:05 Can you rate it in terms of, you know, 44:07 in a brick-and-mortar school, 44:10 you would say X number of faculty per student 44:13 or X number of students per faculty member. 44:15 Does that even calculate, 44:18 you know, in this kind of setting? 44:20 Yes. 44:21 Our equation... 44:23 Let's put it that way. 44:24 Our equation would be like 20 students per professor. 44:28 Okay. Okay. 44:30 That's not bad. 44:31 We have maximum, we have a minimum. 44:35 But today it's about that, right? 44:37 Yeah. 44:38 That's the average. Yeah. 44:40 Now I wasn't quite sure on your course offerings. 44:43 Walk me through that again. 44:47 What do you offer? 44:48 We have graduate. 44:50 As I mentioned, master's in online instructional design. 44:53 We have the church administration 44:55 and leadership program 44:57 and we also offer training courses, 45:00 nonacademic training courses. 45:01 Okay. 45:03 But we're developing new programs too. 45:04 Yes. 45:06 In the graduate program, we have, 45:09 at this moment we're in the process of being, 45:12 of submitting two more master's degrees. 45:15 We also had doctoral programs 45:17 but we need to wait a little bit 45:19 for some of the technical aspects about it. 45:23 But we're planning to... 45:24 I don't know if we can mention them. 45:25 Yeah, you can mention because we wanted to start, 45:29 already offering degrees. 45:30 People are asking for doctorate degrees, 45:33 but there are some technical requirements 45:35 from the accrediting bodies and this is why we had to wait. 45:39 They're asking for a couple of years, 45:41 after the first graduation 45:44 in order to start submitting the documentation for PhD 45:49 and that's why we can't right now, 45:51 we're waiting for that. 45:52 Yeah. Yeah. 45:54 I know that in evaluating universities in particular, 45:57 a lot of weight is placed on what students are you sending 46:00 through that are finishing. 46:01 You know, you don't want a lot of people in queue 46:03 waiting for their degrees. 46:05 Which is why I said that a doctorate's degree 46:06 is a testament to, to focus, 46:10 because if you, if you stay focused enough schools don't... 46:13 You don't get points for having a lot of people in queue 46:16 waiting for their degree. 46:17 You can't get... 46:18 You wanted to get them out 46:20 because it makes a school look better to say, 46:21 we've graduated X number of students. 46:23 Yeah. 46:24 So you don't want to be having this long line of students 46:26 waiting to get finished, you want them through so that, 46:29 you know, the resume of the school looks better, 46:30 so that's coming. 46:32 But there are two master's degrees 46:34 that people are asking us for, 46:36 so that's why we presented those two. 46:39 One of them is administration as a profession, 46:41 education administration and supervision 46:44 and the other one is administration and leadership. 46:48 So those two are the ones 46:49 that people are asking a lot for them 46:51 and then we prepare them 46:52 and we're submitting the documents already for it 46:53 to be fulfilled. 46:55 I suspect a lot of pastors in the field 46:58 and administrators in the field 47:00 would kind of like to study those kinds of things 47:02 that are having to leave 47:03 their, their charge and responsibility. 47:05 Yeah. Praise the Lord. 47:07 Is it an expensive thing? 47:09 You know, it always gets down to shekels and... 47:13 Not at all. 47:15 I would say that this is not expensive, 47:17 I know that Carlos just finished his master's 47:21 not long ago and now he is in PhD. 47:24 And he will testify that our prices 47:27 are about half of what he paid for his master's already. 47:30 One-fourth. 47:32 One-fourth? One-fourth. 47:33 Wow! 47:34 My master's was $21,000 to finish. 47:38 That much? I didn't know. 47:40 And our master's degree is like $6,000. 47:45 Yeah. Well, we have some programs with discounts. 47:48 I mean, if you fulfill some conditions, 47:52 then you get 5% discount for that, 47:54 10% for that and so, so the price can get as low as, 47:58 can get as low as about $6,000, five something. 48:02 But the reason for this, for such a low price 48:05 is because if we present the price 48:09 that of a US degree for $21,000. 48:14 And we go to Venezuela at this moment and we say, 48:16 this is a degree for $21,000, 48:19 they'll say you're crazy, get out of here. 48:22 And if we go to Inter-America, 48:24 that's too high and that's one of the things 48:28 that we were told that our degrees 48:30 need to be very low 48:32 so that our fellow countries can afford them 48:38 and that's why it's such a low price. 48:40 Yeah. 48:42 Consider that a PhD... 48:43 My PhD cost about $70,000 in the US. 48:48 I studied here in the US. 48:50 Who will be able to pay that in the Inter-American Division? 48:53 I mean, we have to be reasonable 48:56 and think about them, 48:58 because we want people to be prepared. 49:01 We need people to be prepared. 49:03 So that's our mission, that's our vision too. 49:07 So we can't think in terms of prices here. 49:10 That's why we do every effort we can 49:14 in order to make sure 49:15 that prices are going to be accessible, 49:19 people will be able to study with us. 49:21 Praise the Lord. 49:22 And the only way to do that is to hire people 49:24 from all over the world 49:25 and to have people well-prepared, 49:28 but with the lowest possible expenses 49:30 in terms of institution. 49:32 So we have just the minimum people at office 49:37 and the rest of the people are from home. 49:39 And, I mean, that saves a lot of money, 49:42 that's why we can afford that. 49:43 So you're actually exploring ways to keep the cost down 49:46 for education. 49:47 And, of course, your professors 49:48 that are in different countries, 49:50 you're paying them in their money, 49:51 so it's not out us, I would suspect. 49:54 No, we pay in USD, 49:56 but we have different rates because, 50:00 I mean if you have a professor in the US 50:02 less than $3,000 to $4,000, 50:05 they may not want to work, 50:08 but in the Philippines $4,000 is half year's salary. 50:12 Yes. 50:13 So... 50:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 50:16 You understand? Oh, very much so. 50:17 We need to consider that and they agree with that 50:20 because for them... 50:21 I mean, what we pay is reasonable. 50:25 We don't pay the lowest of the lowest. 50:27 We pay what is reasonable I guess. 50:30 So for them, it's good too. Yeah. 50:32 I mean, they are doing work, so you've got to pay them. 50:34 I mean, yeah, yeah, it's not volunteer. 50:35 Yeah. Yeah. 50:37 It's not volunteering at all. 50:39 No, but that is a good thing 50:40 because you may ask people to do exactly what you need 50:44 because you're paying and I think that that is fair. 50:47 It is fair. That is fair. I want my salary. 50:48 You want your salary. 50:50 I mean, when you work and you do the best you can do, 50:53 you can expect also a reasonable salary, 50:56 but you have to do the best. 50:57 Yes, you have to do your best. Yeah. 50:59 And this is the way we think, and this is the way we work. 51:02 You know, I've been concentrating on you so much, 51:05 I've not looked at the clock 51:06 because this is fascinating to me 51:08 that we're getting down to the end. 51:10 I want to go to the contact information just now 51:14 and then we can recalculate our time 51:15 and then we can end this 51:17 because there are still many more questions I have. 51:18 First of all I think this is a fascinating thing 51:20 and a thing whose time has come 51:22 and glad that God has laid hands 51:24 upon you guys to do this. 51:25 Should you want to make contact with the university, 51:29 to support it, 51:30 to find out what courses you can be involved in, 51:36 how you can join the faculty of the staff. 51:38 Maybe you even have a skill that they may want to use. 51:41 Here is the contact information that you'll need. 51:45 Herbert Fletcher University 51:46 is an online distance learning institution 51:49 of the Inter-American Division of Seventh-day Adventist. 51:52 They offer graduate programs 51:54 for those who wish to further their education. 51:56 To find out more, 51:58 visit their website HFUniversity.org. 52:01 That's HFUniversity.org, 52:04 or call them at (305) 712-3732. 52:09 You may also write to them at Herbert Fletcher University, 52:13 P.O. Box 3269, 52:16 Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00681. |
Revised 2017-11-28