Podcasts about union county college

My guest and conversation partner for this episode is Anna Pereira. Anna grew up in New Jersey. She tells us about growing up in a home where she was discouraged by her father from going to college. She tells us that while her mom typically exceeded to the wishes of her dad, Mom did insist that Anna should be able to go to college if she wished. And so Anna did, but only stuck it out for three semesters.   Anna then joined the workforce holding a variety of jobs and becoming successful at most of them.   In 2009 she met and married her husband. That story is one I leave for Anna to tell, but suffice it to say Anna's story is an inspirational and fascinating one you should hear from her. Anna's husband is a sports expert as you will learn. A few years after marrying Anna and her husband moved to Portugal for a job and have been spreading their time between New Jersey and Portugal ever since. In fact, not just travels to Portugal but also to other countries around the world.   The Wellness Universe concept was created by Anna to help bring wellness to leaders and others. Through The Wellness Universe, and now Wellness Universe Corporate Anna has reached thousands of people. Her programs are in large part membership-based endeavors that help promote well being and a more positive outlook on life.   Our conversation is not only informative and inspirational, but it also is quite animated in a positive way that I believe will keep you engaged. Please enjoy your time with Anna and reach out to her afterward at www.thewellnessuniverse.com. I think you will see why Anna believes she is truly changing the world.       About the Guest:   Anna Pereira is the CEO of The Wellness Universe, and Wellness Universe Corporate, creator of wellness events, projects, community, programs, author of 4 best selling books, and founder of Wellness for All, donation based wellness programming and leads a woman-owned business, where they believe happy, healthy, healed humans lead to peace globally. She's an inspirational leader, mentor, and connector for business owners who help humans to live and lead their best life. Anna has worked with thousands of wellness business owners bringing their transformational resources to those seeking wellbeing and now taking those people to help transform organizations through the lens of company culture and well-being. Her contribution and impact are well documented through those she has worked with, evident in over 150 written recommendations in her Linkedin profile.  Anna resides between Portugal and her birthplace, New Jersey, USA, with her husband, sports expert, Hugo Varela. The couple has adopted pets (one dog and two cats) and cares for strays and their African Gray is a quite conversationalist speaking two languages. Her relationship with her loved ones and others is top priority. Anna finds balance in being creative, in nature, and at the beach.  She's dedicated to serving her calling and leaving her legacy as a ‘conduit for change' by bringing more health, happiness, and wellbeing to the world with a collaborative spirit and intentional action.   Ways to connect with Anna:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/annapereira1/  https://www.thewellnessuniverse.com/world-changers/annapereira https://www.facebook.com/CirclesOfInspiration IG - @annapereiraofficial Books - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08VFFJPN9       About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of unstoppable mindset. Today we get to chat with Anna Pereira. And Anna is the founder of the wellness universe, the wellness universe and other things that we're going to talk about. She's written several books, and she has been a very active and engaging person. We've had fun catching up even before we started doing this podcast, because Anna spends her time between Portugal and her home in New Jersey, and where she lived in New Jersey was like just a few miles from where I and my wife Karen lived in Westfield New Jersey for six years, so we hadn't talked about that before. Shame on us, but now we have, and we got caught up. Anna, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here. Oh   Anna Pereira ** 02:14 Michael, thank you so much. I am delighted to be here. Thank you for having me. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 02:18 I'm really glad that we're getting a chance to do this. So tell us a little bit about kind of the early Anna growing up and all that stuff. Might as well start with that,   02:31 such a big question. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 02:33 if we take the hour to talk about that, then we know that there were some interesting events.   Anna Pereira ** 02:39 All right. Well, great. Well, you know, it's so funny, like you said, we were talking about growing up in in very close proximity to each other, probably around those same years, and had no idea that here we are, later again and and it was our wonderful friend Sharon Carn, that actually put us together here. Yeah. So I grew up in New Jersey, and I had a pretty, pretty average childhood, except for the fact that I feel, and I think that with a lot of first generation immigrants, people that came in from a very strict background, my my culture, my background is Portuguese. My parents raised me in a pretty strict household, but I was not a very compliant individual, growing up with a very free spirit and very creative spirit. So with that, I was always very independent. Wanted to do my own thing, and at the same time, there wasn't, like, a lot of, I want to say nurturing or good parenting from the from the angle of, there wasn't a lot of I love using the house, or there wasn't a lot of encouraging me to pursue a more of an academic route in life. When I expressed that I wanted to further my education, I was met with the minds with my father's fear mindset around money, saying, you know, no, you're not going to college. We can't afford it. Instead of saying, let's explore options here, let's get our child who is interested in furthering her, you know, her, her education, the resources that she needs in order for her to pursue her dreams. So everything was kind of met with that. So where was your mom and all that? My mom was there, and she was just basically subserving to my father. Okay, the and it's a great segue to the the conclusion of that my mom was the one who said, no, no, we're going to go enroll you in college. That's what I was wondering. Yes, thank you. So I went to the wonderful UCC over here in in Cranford. So. I went to for a few years of Union County College, and it still wasn't for me. So I never really finished with any degree, as with many union, I'm sorry, county college students and I joined the workforce. But growing up was a mixed bag. I was very artistic, and I was very well championed and respected, and my peers and even teachers and people around me really knew me for my artistic talent. They and I was very much celebrated and encouraged in that area, but there was a lot of areas that I felt were lacking. I was bullied when I was growing up, and again, the lack of nurturing, and if something happened, well, it had to be my fault. And if it was my fault, then there was the shame and the blame and all that put there. So in growing up with all of these stigmas and traumas, only as I became an adult, did I understand what what I went through and how to become more aware of the situations and circumstances which kind of led me to where I am today. But all through that time, it was interesting, because I don't know where the inspiration came from to have adult conversations as a teen with my teachers, my guidance counselor, which with other adults, and they would ask me for my advice or my perspective on things that I I don't know where I came up with things, but that was kind of like the the seeding of where I am now,   Michael Hingson ** 06:46 interesting. You know, one of the things that that comes to mind when you when you say that last bit, is that I've learned, if nothing else in the world, our subconscious minds, our heart, if you will, observes everything that goes on around us, and oftentimes, will tell us things if we learn to listen. So in a sense, I'm not really surprised that maybe you were able to carry on adult conversations because they picked up on that, but clearly you had been observant enough to be able to gather the knowledge to be able to go off and deal with some of those things, and it's so often that people don't do that today. My favorite example of that is playing Trivial Pursuit. When somebody asks a question and you immediately think of an answer, and then you go, Oh, no, that can't be the right answer. It came too quick, and then you give some other answer, but the original answer was the right answer. And we just don't follow our instincts and our heart nearly as much as we probably ought to.   Anna Pereira ** 07:44 I love that you use the word instinct, Michael, I like to use the word intuition.   Michael Hingson ** 07:49 Same concept, yeah, for what I'm talking about here. Yes, it's there, and we just, we don't use it. We, we seem to be taught by others that that's not the way to do things, and it's a problem.   Anna Pereira ** 08:08 I'm laughing so hard right now, authentically, laughing at what you're saying honestly, and people are now. And then you learn. You go through life, and then you learn like I should have listened to my gut. I should have listened to what I was being told, you know? And if we, if we do, listen more into that, and we lean into that space, which is what, literally, I'm all about right now, and the people I surround myself, it's like listening to that, tuning into your heart, tuning into your gut, and quieting the mind, because the mind is really great after you've come to some sort of decision to help you balance that decision. But if you go to your strictly to your mind, well, that just that just gets all up in the way.   Michael Hingson ** 08:54 Of course, it's really going to part of your mind, because the other part of your mind is really your gut that we don't tend to listen to nearly as much as we should agree. How long ago did you leave college? When did you leave?   Anna Pereira ** 09:06 Oh, my goodness, it was, it was quick. It was basically, I went to county college. So I went for like, three semesters or something. I was probably around, like, 19 or 20.   Michael Hingson ** 09:18 Okay, well, I was wondering how, like, how long, so, how long have you been in the workforce? Then,   Anna Pereira ** 09:23 oh, I've been in the workforce since I was 12 years old, if you want to talk about workforce, okay, no, I got it. I got a part time job after school, and then I was working three jobs when I was 19, so I can get my own apartment. So I joined the workforce like early on, and had always worked, and even when I was in college, I was working two jobs along with being in college. So it just kind of my ethic. And honestly, again, from the immigrant perspective, you work hard, you stay out of trouble, and then. You know you'll have an okay life. And so   Michael Hingson ** 10:03 often, even on this podcast, I hear people who talk about being immigrants directly, or first generation with parents who were immigrants, who say that very same thing and who follow that work ethic, and it serves them so well.   Anna Pereira ** 10:22 There's, there's lots of great things to take away from that. I will say, like when I'm dedicated, I'm committed. You know, there's a lot to be said for a lot of the benefits, as they have seen, have benefited them. But I also see how it creates a lot of shortcomings in your life, and I'm trying to reverse some of that, those patterns and that thinking and those beliefs, those false beliefs, as I've gotten older, because that they really don't serve. Not, not every single thing from that point of view, serves   Michael Hingson ** 11:02 no but it lays a foundation. And then the question is, how you work with and how you evolve? Yes, yeah, which, which really makes a lot of sense. But so you had, what kind of jobs did you have after you left college? Then,   Anna Pereira ** 11:17 oh goodness, well, I've done everything from retail to undercover security, to office, to head of a $15 million division for a pet products company. I've had my own businesses. I've had my own clothing lines, I've had jewelry collections. I I've been an entrepreneur, and I still am, and so it's kind of a hodgepodge, and I've taken away from every single experience, a very big learning experience, from the people that I worked with to the jobs that I've held to you know, even when I talk now, I know, for example, when I design product for a pet products company, I know that there's a certain footprint that a department store or a spec or a store, you have to stay within that footprint when you're designing the packaging, because if you design the packaging outside of that footprint, they're not going to bring the product in it. The profit margin is not there to that makes sense to occupy that footprint, right? So there's, there's so many things that I've learned along the way that I bring into my now. But, yeah, I've hold, I've held, like, various, various job. Telemarketer, like, you name it, almost, I've done it. I've done it. Michael, well,   Michael Hingson ** 12:34 let's, let's get real. You live in New Jersey. Bada, bing, bada, boom. Did you ever work with Tony Soprano? Just checking.   Anna Pereira ** 12:42 I did not, you know, just yesterday, where we headed out to Connecticut, and one of the one of the rest stops are named James Gandolfini, rest stops.   12:50 Oh,   Anna Pereira ** 12:51 I was like, That's so nice, yeah. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 12:52 what? I actually have a funny story when we were building our house. Well, we built our house, and the builder was a gentleman and his sons, Joe scalzidonna, and his partner was the financier for the for the group, and his name was Joe Pinto. And they Joe, especially Pinto, I guess, made his money ready. Here it comes in the garbage business. And it means all that that implies. But, you know, they were very nice to us. All of them were, were really great to us and helped us a lot. They they were very concerned about making sure everything that could be done to make the house accessible for Karen was done. And did some some really great things, and had some really creative contributions over the things that we included in the design. So it was wonderful to work with all of them. But, you know, it's an interesting it's, I like New Jersey. We had a lot of fun there. We would go into New York many weekends and go to the theater or just walk around, and so it was a lot of fun. But Karen was a native Californian and always wanted to get back to California. So after September 11, we did move back here, but it's always good to keep in touch.   Anna Pereira ** 14:14 Yeah, I do love it here. I couldn't give up my home when I married my husband back in 2009 um, it was we were here. But then my husband had to leave and go out of the country, back to Portugal to for an opportunity that he had, that he couldn't, that he couldn't refuse,   Michael Hingson ** 14:33 couldn't refuse one of those, huh?   Anna Pereira ** 14:37 But in a good way. And you know, then there was the, this is where it led to me living between two two countries. But I literally, there was no way I could go in my home in New Jersey. I'm sorry. I am a Jersey girl at heart.   Michael Hingson ** 14:49 There you go. Do you guys ever commute back to Portugal now?   Anna Pereira ** 14:53 Oh, yeah, we live between the two and also our global citizens. Like I just got back from San Paolo on I. Friday morning? Yeah, we, I've traveled this so this year, so far, we've been to San Paolo three times, Rio to London to Dubai to Oh, Argentina is   Michael Hingson ** 15:14 all of that for work?   Anna Pereira ** 15:16 Yes, well, both, because both of us are both business owners, entrepreneurs, networking is a big part of our success. So it's work related, not you know more, more with networking and showing up for different things. I came actually here from Portugal to attend an event as a as a facilitator of a master class for wellness. So I was actually in Portugal when I got called back here to come back to New Jersey, so and so. There is no rhyme or reason or where we go, or what when we go, unless it is provoked by a business opportunity or meeting.   Michael Hingson ** 15:58 What kind of work does he do? So   Anna Pereira ** 16:01 my husband is a very interesting person. He is actually a specialist in the sports world. He had played, yeah, he had played professional football in Portugal, which we call soccer. We call soccer Yes. And from that, it kind of ushered him into this amazing career. He used to be a professional goalie. He went from that to sports agent to advisor to sports team owners restructuring teams, to overseeing the whole workings of teams and helping helping an owner to being part of a fund and being owner of teams, as well as intermediate intermediating different deals and negotiations between partners and just all kinds of things he is. He is a sports expert. He's actually been asked last week to be part of a book that has nothing to do with sports. It's about, I think it's a mathematician or an economist that is a professor over at the college in Portugal has asked him to contribute to the book based on his expertise of sports management. So he's kind of like I want to say, and you and I will understand the terminology. He's a businessman in the sports world so   Michael Hingson ** 17:26 well, that's pretty cool. So does he own a team? Yes.   Anna Pereira ** 17:30 So we are in and out of ownership, depending on when you speak with us. Their their group buys and sells teams. They go in, they restructure, they make sure that the team becomes, you know, better than they were, and they create a great investment out of the the team that they're invested in based on, you know, recruiting great, great talent, selling those, selling the players for transfers much more than what they paid, things like that. So right now, we're in between, but something is coming very soon, and I'll let you know when that happens. When it happens. Keeps   Michael Hingson ** 18:06 you busy. Has he ever thought of or ever explored? This is an off the wall question. But what the heck creating any kind of level of accessibility in soccer, either for like people in wheelchairs or people who are blind, because there are people. I don't know about soccer, but I know that, for example, there are blind people who are well, there are blind golfers. I know a couple of blind people who is children in high school actually played baseball, and they have a clever way to do it. And it was and it was competitive. They were parts of regular teams, and of course, there's, you know, other things like basketball. But I'm just wondering, has he ever considered that, or has that ever come up? I   Anna Pereira ** 18:49 love that you brought this up. First of all, Michael, because this was actually just part of a larger conversation of the conference that I came back for. So my husband's wheelhouse is not in that area. However, you can imagine the amount of detail that goes into the inner workings or structure of an organization for the employees and the structure of a sports organization, down to the individual athletes and then to all of the experiences for everyone who's engaged, every stakeholder, every fan, and so I don't know how much he's ever been involved in those particular conversations before, but I will tell you what was so interesting last week, the organization Sega Sports integrity, global alliance is the organization that is addressing this. And last week we had the master class, sorry, a week and a half ago, there was the master class that I was part of, and the next day were panels, and one of the panels really addressed diversity and inclusion. And the the whole event was, was. Focused on female leadership in sport to bring in more women into the leadership. Their goal is to have 30% of the leadership to be women in sport, professional sport, all of it. So they their big focus, because their founder was part of the soccer world, Emmanuel, but they focus on all the other areas of sport, and so they had offensive champion on the panel. They had someone representing golf, someone there representing chess. They had someone representing all of these different areas, basketball, volleyball, from all these different areas of sport and the the Special Olympics and the Olympics were discussed, and there was a speaker there in a wheelchair, and we, they actually addressed this at this conference specifically. So it is a big conversation. It is a big topic. But to answer your question specifically about my my husband, my husband, I don't know how much he's been into that conversation, specifically.   Michael Hingson ** 21:06 Well, it's interesting. I remember this year when the LA Marathon was run, the first winner was the person from well, the wheelchair category. And I learned last year or the year before, in talking to somebody on the podcast that in reality, oftentimes people in chairs will actually complete a marathon course significantly faster than regular runners because they they get those chairs moving. But of course, it does mean that they have the athletic prowess to do it. And equating competitiveness is, of course, a different story. I suppose that ought to be explored. But the fact of the matter is that oftentimes, wheelchairs will will go through the whole 26.3 miles, or whatever, faster than a person just running with their legs. Now, at the same time, I know a woman who is blind who was an international rower. So rowing is not something that requires any real mate, well, any adaptations to work. But she could never be on an Olympic team. She could only be on a Special Olympic team because she was blind, even though what she did and what rowers did certainly could be done whether you're blind or sighted. So you know my my opinion is what we really should do is require that all sports be played totally in the dark, without any lights, and then we'll see who wins.   Anna Pereira ** 22:49 That is, that's an interesting approach. That's an interesting approach.   Michael Hingson ** 22:52 I worked for a company once, and when my wife also worked for the company, and she was in charge of Doc document control for the company. And one of the things I said is, if you really want to have true document control, because some of the people in the company, including the President, would oftentimes go in and steal the gold copy or the master copy of something, and send it out, rather than making a duplicate, which is a no no. But they did it anyway. And I said, well, then to have doc control, just put everything in Braille and then see what they do. But, you know, good doc control. But so it was just an interesting question, and it is a topic that is more and more part of the discussion, the whole issue of having some level of access for people who are who have other disabilities. And I say that because my opinion is, of course, that every person has a disability. Yours is your light dependent. You know, if the lights go out, you're in a world of hurt, although I'm not. And you know, Thomas Edison and the invention of the electric light bulb mainly fixed that it covers up the disability, but it's still there, but it's but it is true that we are at least discussing it more than we used to. And if we take that discussion further and make something happen with it, that will be a good thing, but it is a an interesting thing that we we end up having to face from time to time.   Anna Pereira ** 24:23 Well, I'll tell you what the individual that I was just speaking about that was part of that panel would probably be interesting for you to have a conversation with. If this is something that you're passionate, have a conversation with Michael. Her name is Karen Korb, K, A, R, I N, K, O, R, B and she she was the one that was speaking on that panel, specifically, and and she was in a wheelchair, so that is really something that she would love to dive into. I'd   Michael Hingson ** 24:50 love to chat with her. If you have a way to help us get an introduction, that would be cool. We'd love to have her on the podcast.   Anna Pereira ** 24:56 Absolutely, she's a divine in. Visual. And   Michael Hingson ** 25:01 of course, as I as I tell people often on this podcast, anyone who has an idea for a guest, we're always looking for, for more people to have so love to meet folks. It's fun.   25:12 Absolutely well, so   Michael Hingson ** 25:14 you wrote a book, 25 tools for happiness, one of four, I believe. And you talk in there about the fact that you manifested your husband. That's an interesting topic. Tell me about that, if you would.   Anna Pereira ** 25:27 Yes. Oh, Michael, this is one of my favorite stories. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Any chance, any chance I get. To number one, talk about my husband. Number two, encourage hope in someone who is of, you know, a middle age and still single. Is, is just, it's just a joy for me so and just, I just wanted to correct that. I didn't write the book. I authored book because I had, and this is why I want to, I want to really make note of this. I had 24 other 25 amazing authors contribute to this book. The diversity of stories in that that particular book is really, really, really amazing. So, God, where do I start? And it happened here, in the hat, in the home in union, New Jersey. And a lot of going back to what we were talking about earlier, about what structured my belief system about myself from my childhood and growing up, and how it manifested through my life, and the type of self love, self awareness, belief system I had from growing up really impacted my general happiness. So one of the things that at this point in my life, I just really wanted to settle down with someone that that I was going to build a life with. And in that introduction to the 25 tool this, it's the wellness universe guide to complete self care. 25 tools for happiness. Book my introduction specifically shares my secret sauce of how my life has literally turned into well, I mean, nobody has a fairy tale. Even a fairy tale has its challenges, right? But of as much of a fairy tale as possible, humanly possible on this earth, one day for no reason at all, and I this is why I believe that we all are connected to the Divine and have this channel, this guidance. I wish I just I was at the second floor of my house. I was at the top of my stairs, and it just hit me like because I had just gone through some really traumatizing experiences with somebody that I was getting involved in business with, and she was it just, was just terrible, terrible experience, one of the worst in my life taught me a lot of things. And for some reason, just that day, I was like, and I was raised Catholic. I don't really go to church. I don't like, I don't believe in strict religious rules, but I believe in my spirituality and who exists on the other side watching over me. I think that they are so I was at the top of my stairs, and I was like, Dear God, universe. You know Mary, Jesus, you know Joseph, Saint Rita, whoever's watching over me, I'm like, please just let me, allow me to release judgment of myself, judgment on others, and what I believed others are going to judge me on. And please just bring me someone that's going to allow me to live my happiness and make beautiful babies with and that's what I asked for. And all of a sudden, just by voicing that out, I release so much off of myself, but hearing myself say those words allowed me to have hope and believe in this and hang on to it and cling on to it. And I did. And nine months later, on october 26 I went out on my first date with with my now husband, but I didn't know it at a time. So october 26 was our first date. And on December 23 2009 we were married, and we've now been married 14 years. If, if I met, my math is correct and and that is, I believe, how I manifested, you know, my husband, because of making sure I voiced it, I committed to that I owned it. And then i i Every day, I reminded myself of what I really wanted, and because for me, happiness, it's not it's not what you're experiencing now, you don't really even know what happiness is until you're experiencing so I can't say I want this for the rest of my life, because you don't know if that's exactly what you will want tomorrow, it can make you very miserable tomorrow. Or whatever's making you happy today, like I might not want to go on a roller coaster tomorrow. You know what I mean, and I liked it when I was 14 or 15, so leaving it open to please just allow me to live my happiness was a very strong statement and resonated with me because I was aware enough to know that there was so much undiscovered territory in the world that I would not know what happiness was until I was there and and now here I am living around the world, experiencing all of these new experiences globally, traveling everywhere that I would have never known existed if I had boxed myself into one scenario or one expectation, or what I thought I would be happy, happiness for me, at least at that time, having the wherewithal to say, just allow me to live my happiness and make beautiful babies with and then beautiful babies was just more of a metaphor of Like, bring me someone who's attractive, who I'll be attracted to, who's and that we can create things together that would be beautiful. And I believe that we're doing that through his work, through my work, and through what we're doing on this earth, and our relationships with our friends and family. I think we're creating beautiful things.   Michael Hingson ** 31:18 So do you have children? No, we   Anna Pereira ** 31:21 have not had children and when the window is closed, but we do, we do talk about adoption when things get a little bit more settled, things are a little crazy with all the travel and the work. But no, we ended up not have being able to have children, not because of, you know, physiological reasons, but because of just timing and travel and time passed. I was 36 when, when we met. So,   Michael Hingson ** 31:48 yeah, well, and so, you know the for us when I met Karen, it was in January of 1982 and so I was basically 32 and she was almost 33 and we I always thought there had to be somebody who would be right for me, and I would know it when we met and when I met Karen, and it was a friend who introduced us, we started talking, and when we hit it off. So it was just great conversations. Great great interacting together. And over six months, we we talked some, and then, well, actually, seven months, and then at the end of July of 1982 we were in a car in Santa Ana, and I asked her to marry me, and she said yes, and we have said ever since we were old enough and mature enough to know what we wanted in a person who we would spend the rest of our life with and as I said, it is we. We were together 40 years, and I'm sure that she's still up there monitoring me, so I will behave but, but you know, it, it was just something that took it was the right thing to do, and she was definitely the right person. We had conversations about children and decided she was in a chair and didn't want to really go through a lot of the physical things, because she said if she had to be pregnant, she'd probably be bedridden for a lot of it, and she didn't want to do that. So we made the decision together that we would spoil nieces and nephews, because the advantage of that is that we could kick him out at the end of the day and shoot him home and do and did. So it worked out pretty well. But I know exactly what you're saying, and you know it when the right person comes along, if you really look at it and think about it, and again, it's like most things, all too often, we don't think about the right kinds of things, or we don't think about stuff enough, and that can be a challenge. Or in our case, it wasn't because we thought about it enough and it worked.   Anna Pereira ** 34:15 I love that. Thank you for sharing that.   Michael Hingson ** 34:18 So it is that's cool. And you know, you you guys will will figure out what you're going to do. And adopting. There's a podcast episode that we did with someone now, almost two years ago, and he and his wife adopted two daughters from China when they were over 40, because she wanted to adopt a child from China. And there were stories behind it, but they adopted, and now the children are, I think, like 22 and 25 or 23 and 25 or so, and he's written a book about their adopted. Option journey. But again, the the issue is that you never know where life's going to take you. And they never thought about adopting a Chinese girl, or he didn't his wife did for for various reasons, but they both became part of the journey, and it was, and it still is, a great adventure for them.   Anna Pereira ** 35:21 That's wonderful. So gives us hope.   Michael Hingson ** 35:24 Yeah, a lot of a lot of kids need adopting too. Yeah, so you went to Portugal and for the first time, and by the way, have you learned Portuguese? Let   Anna Pereira ** 35:40 me just put it this way, my Portuguese is as good as my singing. You don't want me to hear you want to hear me do either unless I am. It's absolutely necessary so,   Michael Hingson ** 35:55 and I assuming people in Portugal have probably affirmed that in some way, so I won't dig any deeper. Yes, but you, while you were there or somehow involving Portugal, you decided to form this thing called the wellness universe. Tell us about that.   Anna Pereira ** 36:15 Oh, thanks. Yeah. So I was over in Portugal, and I really didn't have much to do. I started a jewelry collection and a Facebook page to kind of get, you know, get the word out about the jewelry collection, but much more my my approach was to just share who I was and inspirational messages, because that's kind of what lent to the jewelry collection. They were called circles of inspiration, and they had, you know, words of inspiration and colors that attracted certain things to you. And so my facebook page actually really became the outlet for my inspirational memes and quotes and things like that, just where I shared and I grew a great community organically. You know, I started in 2011 and I kind of quickly grew to about 300,000 Facebook followers. And from there, I was very much networked with a lot of inspirational people, whether they were life coaches or spiritual coaches or counselors or speakers or authors or therapists, they all had something to do with being inspiring or motivating in some way shape or form a group of my followers And so we were networking and sharing each other's inspirational posts, you know, the memes, things like that. And then I was sitting at my kitchen table again, when you're hit with these moments of inspiration, when you go quiet and you listen, you know, it's amazing what messages you receive. And I was sitting on my kitchen table in Portugal in 2013 September 2013 and something told me, you know, there needs to be a place where people who are changing the world need to come as a community, and you're the one to build it. And I was like, Okay, not too big of an ask. I'm like, All right, so I kind of held to myself for a couple of months, and then I went out to one of my friends, Teresa. She ran this, this page called on the road to me, I believe it was, and I told her first, and I got her input, because she was very wise and she was a good friend, and she's like, Oh my gosh, it sounds like such a great idea. And I said, okay, so Well, since that was the cat was let out of the bag, I'm gonna move forward with this. I went to my husband, I said, Look at this, what I'm thinking of doing. Are you behind me on this? Because basically, when I moved to Portugal, he was like, you don't have to work. You don't have to do anything. You just, you know, you just hang out and you do what you want to do. And I was like, Okay, well, I can't not work. I mean, I have an entrepreneurial spirit. I cannot not work. So aside from the the the jewelry collection, which was slow, I mean, the the it was a slow business, so the inspirational side of me really took over. And this building, the wellness universe, was the next project on my agenda. And through 2014 we started growing a Facebook group of practitioners and people who and hobbyist as well. And then in 2015 we launched the first version of the platform, and it was, you know, self funded, membership supported. And so from 2015 january 2015 we've been growing the wellness universe every year. And now it's a basically, it's a directory of practitioners, wellness practitioners, and people who are making the work. A better place. So anyone go and find them through the wellness universe.com but we also have amazing classes and courses. The practitioners who are part of membership are able to host their classes and courses on our platform, the lounge, the wellness universe lounge. But also we work in partnership with those that we know, love and trust to help them also amplify their message through a program, what we call wellness for all and wellness for all programs on the platform are all free to join in donations supported by people who are seeking those courses and classes. And we have a blog, and like you mentioned, we have the books, the four books that we've published with over 65 people that we've created into best selling authors, because some of them have repeated through some of the books. So that's why it's not 100 authors, 25 chapters per book with 25 different authors. And now we've launched wellness universe corporate, and so we are actually delivering wellness solutions through a company culture lens of analyzing, going in and assessing an organization on what their needs are and their culture, through their culture, and then bringing in wellness components to shore up those gaps, while we have the buy in from the leadership, letting everyone know, hey, based on, you know, the assessment the organization, this is what you need, and we're bringing this in. So that's kind of like the very condensed version of the wellness universe, and wellness universe corporate division. And I'm really, really honored and blessed to have worked with some of the most transformational people in the world, like our friend Sharon, and bringing wellness to to places that it may have not been before, and bringing the conversation to stages and and rooms and boardrooms and classrooms and retreats and things like that that may not have experienced it before, which is really, that really, I find is the most fun when I when I bring something to someone and they never heard of it before, like EFT or muscle testing or, you know, you know, you know, you know, trauma informed, you know, sessions, stress management sessions, you Know, Like, what like that really has been so rewarding when people at the end of the day are like, you know, I learned from you last week, or what I read or whatever, or the person that you brought to me or to my organization, and it truly has transformed my life. I found, I found. I just got a story the other day from a woman who read our books, and from reading the stress relief book, she's like, you know, after reading this book, I had, I found the self love to go and get a surgery on my foot that I've been putting off because I feel I was worth the investment of the surgery to relieve myself of this pain. But then I did it after reading your book, and I was like, I literally was in tears. And of course, Michael, as you know, as an author, how often do we actually hear those stories that are so rewarding from the people you know? How do you feel about that? By the way, let me ask you questions. I know that. I know that you're interviewing me, but   Michael Hingson ** 43:20 how it's a conversation. It's fair.   Anna Pereira ** 43:23 Thank you. How great is it when somebody comes back to you and says, Your story has changed my life?   Michael Hingson ** 43:33 Well, let me tell you one of my stories. So the answer is great, of course, but I also know that I can't let that kind of thing go to my head. But let me tell you one of my favorite stories. I've talked about it a couple times here. In 2003 I was asked to go to New Zealand, so as basically a year, and it was about 1516, months, no, 14 months after September 11, and 16 months, I guess. And anyway, I was asked to go and help to raise some funds for the Royal New Zealand foundation of the blind by speaking. And they paid me to come over. And before I had had come over in, actually, early 2002 a gentleman from New Zealand called he said his name was Paul Holmes, and he wanted to interview me. Well, he came, what I learned was to to do an equivalent sort of thing. He is, what you would say would be the Larry King of New Zealand, so very famous and all that. Well, anyway, he came and we chatted and all that. And he said, If you ever get to New Zealand, I want to interview you first before you go anywhere else and talk to anybody else. And I said, Okay, had no idea that anything was going to happen about going to New Zealand. But then the next year. Early in 2003 I was invited, and we set up the trip to go over in early May. So needless to say, being a loyal kind of guy, I emailed Paul Holmes and said, hey, guess what, we're coming over. So we got there on a Wednesday, and he had arranged for the interview to be done that night, New Zealand time at seven o'clock. So we went and did the interview, and the Royal New Zealand Foundation had me traveling all over New Zealand for basically 16 or 17 days. We did 21 different stops, both by flying and by car and all that, in 16 or 17 days. But anyway, so we did the interview and a week and a half later. So it was the second Sunday I was in New Zealand. Now we were on the South Island. We had landed originally on the North Island. Now we're on the South Island. And I was speaking to a group of blind people, and I they wanted to know all about the World Trade Center and all that. And I told them, and then one of them said, we have to tell you a story. And his story went on something like this yesterday. That would have been a Saturday. We took a river rafting trip, and the foundation set it up. These are all clients from the foundation, and said they set it up, and the guy who was in charge of the trip took us out, and we all had a great time. It was wonderful. But at the end, he said, I have to be honest with you guys, I was about to cancel this trip. And I said, why? Or No, I didn't say, I mean, they said, why? And he said, well, because he said I didn't think that blind people could do this. He said I was just all afraid that the next thing that was going to happen by the end of the trip is at least one person was going to fall overboard and drown. But he said, I happened to be watching the telly the other night, and I saw Paul Holmes interview this blind bloke from the United States who was in the World Trade Center. And he said, if he could get out of the World Trade Center, the least I could do was have an open mind about you guys going on this trip. And he said, it has been the best trip I have ever had. Wow. So, you know, I, of course, there was a lot of pride. I love the story, and I know I've taken a fair amount of time to tell the story, but the point is, you never know what seeds you're going to plant. And the bottom line is that my goal in speaking has always been if I can help even one person learn something and inspire one person. I've already done my job. And more important, I've decided a long time ago, if I could help people move on from September 11, and I've done my job, but what a what a great story. And yeah, it has inspired me a lot, and it's one of the stories that continues to propel me forward, knowing that if I can help people and get them to understand about being blind a little bit more and and accepting of people who are different than they then, then it's working out really well. Michael,   Anna Pereira ** 48:22 I am so glad that you shared that story with me, and that is really that speaks the truth and the power of showing up and sharing who you are and impacting someone where they impact the many. Wow. Can you imagine if that guide had called off that trip and didn't give the opportunity, sure people, I'm sure, I'm sure, probably many was their first time. I don't even think river rafting. Oh my gosh, that's great. Thank you for sharing that.   Michael Hingson ** 48:55 It was great. I haven't either. I've been on boats, I've been on cruises, but I haven't gone river rafting, so it's something to do someday. Yeah, well, let me ask you this. You know you talked earlier, especially about your husband and in relationships and networking and so on, networking is certainly a very important thing. So relationships are really essential to having success. Tell me what you think about the whole idea and the intersection of having a relationship and building relationships, especially authentic relationships and success.   Anna Pereira ** 49:37 Michael, I've been talking a lot about this lately. To be honest with you. We were even talking about this last night, the new company that we're forming, we're actually putting together a very strategic team on the back side, and some of those people are new in my world. And one of the people happened to be this gentleman that was introduced to me by my partner. And. Founder of the wellness universe Corp. And his name is Jack, and I've met him online, virtually, you know, on Zoom calls, over several calls, I'm very confident, very comfortable with him. And I really, I really admire him and the work he's done in his life and what he's achieved. So he's already proven that he has been able to create successful businesses, manage successful businesses, exit successful businesses, and things of this nature. So none of that was was was why I wanted to meet with him, but I found out that he was because he lives kind of in the middle of the middle of the country, lives in Milwaukee, so he was coming out to New York and to Connecticut, actually, to for his current company that he's at, to be a part of a conference. And so with that, I'm like, Oh, you're coming out here, Hugo and I are going to be home. I want to come out. I want to meet with you. And what's interesting is he disclosed to me last night that I'm not going to use the words he says, But he said, like when I asked him to meet up in person, you know, he gets off the call with me, and he turns his wave. He's like, you know, what is Anna? Want to bleep and beat me for? And it was so funny to hear him say that last night, because for me, it's about making that authentic connection and meeting someone in person, if I have the opportunity to which I do and investing, knowing that you're investing in a bigger, a bigger project, building a company together, you know, it's, it's not transactional, it's about, it's about a bigger thing and and so I couldn't understand why he felt that when he when he said this To me last night. But then he said, I understand now, like, and I get it like, I get that. I get who you are, and I see who you are, and I see that you just wanted to just meet up, just to see who you know who I am, and for me to see who you are. I said, That's it, Jack. Because his immediate response, as you know, a man who's white in the business world. He felt that probably I was Troy. I wanted to kind of, quote, unquote, interview him in person after all of these months of working with him, you know, remotely, with alongside with him, on through us, building this new team together. But for me, it was all about beginning the foundation to nurturing a relationship that we've had many meetings, many strategy sessions, many of the do, do do phone calls and the what's what phone calls. But I wanted to sit down with this gentleman and have a break bread with him, see what he's about, him to see what I'm about, what my husband's about, and I truly believe, and I say this over and over and over again, and quite unfortunately, because of my position as the founder of the wellness universe, people see the wellness universe as a bright, shiny object. They see me as somebody in a place of power that I can just give stuff out or help them, give them a hand up, but it's it's not always that. It's still the same thing. Relationships need to be nurtured. I need to get to know someone if they're going to represent the brand of the wellness universe and work with us through wellness universe corporate, for example, or they're going to be a member, I have to see who they are in action that's helping me to nurture the relationship so I can work with them and bring opportunity to them, as well as you saw, Michael, as soon as I am completely networking relationship minded, I am all about giving opportunity and sharing the spotlight and giving the microphone over to people who are talented, just as you said before. It reminded me of Karen Korb, you know, I would love to introduce you to her, for her to be a guest because of a specific topic that was struck up while we were having conversation. This is just who I am. I do believe that networking has a bad name. And if you believe in the networking, like from the early days, and it's just about exchanging business cards, which of course, nobody even has anymore, but I mean, you know what I mean, I have one too, by the way. But if you just think it's about showing up and shaking as many hands as possible, and then, like just vomiting all over somebody what you do and how great you are at it, you're never going to get far in business these days, it's about building, nurturing those relationships and sharing and listening to what someone needs and sharing with them whether you're a resource for that need or not, and chances are 99% of the time, you're really not. But by giving them something that they need, they're going to remember you, and you've just created yourself as a value in their life. So by creating yourself as a value in their. Life, you're still nurturing the relationship. It may not have created a business transaction in the moment, but guess what? You're starting to nurture a relationship that will lead to business growth, that will lead to personal growth. I like to approach things that like you said before, if you don't, it was, well, you didn't say this, but it was part of the conversation, in a way, I think was before we started. You know, if I don't like the person, why would I want to do business with them? And I look at every, every person that I come into contact with, like, do I like this human? Am I trying to show up as my best self for them to like me as a human? And then we'll see where the chips fall around that, yeah, and that. That's kind of my whole philosophy around networking and building relationships.   Michael Hingson ** 55:44 Well, you know, one of the things that I encounter a lot when I'm talking to people about coming on the podcast is, well, I don't, I don't see why I would be an interesting guest. Why do you want me to have Why do you want to have me as a guest on the podcast? I don't have anything in the way of a famous story or anything to tell. And I, I love to tell people, Look, everyone has stories to tell. And the fact is that if you're willing to come on and talk about things and and as you know, I really want to cover the topics that you as a as a person, coming on as a guest, want to talk about, but we do have a conversation, and I do like to encourage everyone to come and tell stories, because I've yet to find people who don't have a story to tell, and I believe everyone does. Everyone's adventures in life is a little bit different than everyone else's, which makes the telling of the story worthwhile.   Anna Pereira ** 56:47 Agreed? Oh, agreed.   Michael Hingson ** 56:51 So with the wellness universe, Corp and so on. Tell me a little bit more, if you would, about wellness and how that plays into company culture,   Anna Pereira ** 57:05 absolutely well. I want to thank you for that. I mean, a few years ago, somebody else was because I was in the throes of my initial co founder, exiting the company and pivoting in some great way, and I didn't know really what was going to be. And at the same time, someone approached me, they wanted to create, you know, corporate wellness solution with me, and that started and fizzled out. And then I brought on somebody else that was going to do that with me. And then that started up and fizzled out. So over the past several years, I've been looking for the proper strategic partner that created a holistic approach to the well being of an organization so we can really create impact. Because all of these years, I've been building the community. I quite honestly, have had 1000s of members come through the wellness universe. Right now, we have a little over 100 and something, enrolled members, active members, people who have a membership and pay a membership and have a public platform through the wellness universe that we work with. But there's been 1000s that have come through. And I really wanted to find a way to work with the people I know trust and love, because they have something, something so great to offer the world. And it wasn't just about creating a wellness app or just the wellness component. There had to be something else that we can sink our teeth into. And also allowed an organization to really get behind because what happens is they bring in a wellness app because it's nice to have, and I'm doing air quotes right now, it's nice to have a wellness app, and then the truth behind it is, for a wellness app, the success rate is to have, you know, 4% is the highest engagement on with a wellness app, and that's their success rate. So nobody really uses that. They the wellness apps, and nor do I find it like a sustainable or something that's part of the person to go to through, through their you know, through their work. But if you go into an organization and you do an assessment around what's going on in the company, and you have that buy in from leadership, because they can see exactly where the breakdowns are and where the successes are. And then you bring in the solutions to reinforce the successes and also shore up where they have the challenges, and then you bring in wellness as a component for for the retention of the employee, for the happiness and health of the employees as individuals, then you have an ecosystem that creates success for the entire organization. And. Coming back down to the individual. So it's really important to find this way to holistically serve and it's a delicate balance, because sometimes it's going to create disruption and the changes that need to be implemented, but you have to have buy in from the leadership, and you have to show them this is exactly why you need it, and that's why the company culture, and addressing that through the assessment that we have is really essential to bringing in the different solutions we have, from the corporate trainings and things like that, to the wellness experience, the wellness experiences and stress management type of classes and courses and things. So for me, it was an evolution and a learning curve over the last four years. I think it took for me to find the proper partner, Alex Bowdoin and people first is her company, and that's where she comes from as a HR consultant, expert, and coming together with the wellness universe, and knowing what I know in the people experience, along with the evaluating the practitioners for what they do and how they serve to give a great experience to a wellness seeker, and then merging the two worlds together with the technology and the platforms and the solutions that we bring so then, that way, it's a really in depth, and I want to say all encompassing solution for an organization, for everyone to walk away, go home and feel good at the end of the day, and come back to work more and be more productive and happy in what they do, and know that they are, that they're supported by their organization, for an organization to be proud to bring these solutions to their employees, knowing that they're bringing something that they actually will use,   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:55 and that's really all anyone can ask For. They will do that and make it work. And think about it, they'll be more successful by any standard in the world. I would think   1:02:10 we would hope Yes. So if people want   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:12 to reach out to you and learn more about wellness universe and maybe contact you and become a part of it, how do they do that? Sure, so   Anna Pereira ** 1:02:21 my email is so simple. It's Anna a n, n, a at the Wellness universe, typical spellings, the wellness universe.com, they can reach out to me there, or they can go right to the wellness universe, which is the wellness universe.com, and connect with me there, or on any of my social platforms. I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. I'm very excited to be a top voice in leadership on the platform, and they can connect on LinkedIn as well by searching. Anna Pereira, you'll see me come up. But I think those are probably the best ways to connect with me. There's, you know, there's Facebook and Instagram and things like that, but if you really want to reach me, I check these platforms, my email, and I check my LinkedIn and my wellness universe. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:12 there you go. Well, I hope people will reach out. This has been fun. It's been exciting, and what a great conversation. I'm glad that we did it and we finally got connected. And thanks, Sharon. Thanks, Sharon, for me, and I hope all of you have enjoyed this as well. So love to hear from you. Love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to email me. I'm easy to reach. It's Michael M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I, B, e.com, or you can go to our podcast page, www, dot Michael hingson.com/podcast, and Michael Hinkson is m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I, N, G, s, o, n, so as I said earlier, love it. If you have any ideas for guests, we really appreciate and value any introductions that you can make. And Anna, we didn't mention it and much, but that's okay. I do. I'm really ramping up speaking again. So if anybody knows of anyone that needs a speaker, love to explore that and and we'll always be glad to talk to people about coming and speaking. If you would please give us a five star rating wherever you're listening to us today, we really value your ratings and your thoughts, and of course, I want to hear your opinion, so please let us know. So thank you once again, everyone for listening. And Anna, specifically for you, thanks again for being here and for being on the podcast. Thank   Anna Pereira ** 1:04:34 you, Michael. I really appreciate the time with you.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:41 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. 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Pablo Molina, associate vice president of information technology and chief information security officer at Drexel University and adjunct professor at Georgetown University, leads the conversation on the implications of artificial intelligence in higher education.   FASKIANOS: Welcome to CFR's Higher Education Webinar. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach here at CFR. Thank you for joining us. Today's discussion is on the record, and the video and transcript will be available on our website, CFR.org/Academic, if you would like to share it with your colleagues. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We are delighted to have Pablo Molina with us to discuss implications of artificial intelligence in higher education. Dr. Molina is chief information security officer and associate vice president at Drexel University. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Dr. Molina is the founder and executive director of the International Applies Ethics in Technology Association, which aims to raise awareness on ethical issues in technology. He regularly comments on stories about privacy, the ethics of tech companies, and laws related to technology and information management. And he's received numerous awards relating to technology and serves on the board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for AI and Digital Policy. So Dr. P, welcome. Thank you very much for being with us today. Obviously, AI is on the top of everyone's mind, with ChatGPT coming out and being in the news, and so many other stories about what AI is going to—how it's going to change the world. So I thought you could focus in specifically on how artificial intelligence will change and is influencing higher education, and what you're seeing, the trends in your community. MOLINA: Irina, thank you very much for the opportunity, to the Council on Foreign Relations, to be here and express my views. Thank you, everybody, for taking time out of your busy schedules to listen to this. And hopefully, I'll have the opportunity to learn much from your questions and answer some of them to the best of my ability. Well, since I'm a professor too, I like to start by giving you homework. And the homework is this: I do not know how much people know about artificial intelligence. In my opinion, anybody who has ever used ChatGPT considers herself or himself an expert. To some extent, you are, because you have used one of the first publicly available artificial intelligence tools out there and you know more than those who haven't. So if you have used ChatGPT, or Google Bard, or other services, you already have a leg up to understand at least one aspect of artificial intelligence, known as generative artificial intelligence. Now, if you want to learn more about this, there's a big textbook about this big. I'm not endorsing it. All I'm saying, for those people who are very curious, there are two great academics, Russell and Norvig. They're in their fourth edition of a wonderful book that covers every aspect of—technical aspect of artificial intelligence, called Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. And if you're really interested in how artificial intelligence can impact higher education, I recommend a report by the U.S. Department of Education that was released earlier this year in Washington, DC from the Office of Education Technology. It's called Artificial Intelligence and Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations. So if you do all these things and you read all these things, you will hopefully transition from being whatever expert you were before—to a pandemic and Ukrainian war expert—to an artificial intelligence expert. So how do I think that all these wonderful things are going to affect artificial intelligence? Well, as human beings, we tend to overestimate the impact of technology in the short run and really underestimate the impact of technology in the long run. And I believe this is also the case with artificial intelligence. We're in a moment where there's a lot of hype about artificial intelligence. It will solve every problem under the sky. But it will also create the most catastrophic future and dystopia that we can imagine. And possibly neither one of these two are true, particularly if we regulate and use these technologies and develop them following some standard guidelines that we have followed in the past, for better or worse. So how is artificial intelligence affecting higher education? Well, number one, there is a great lack of regulation and legislation. So if you know, for example around this, OpenAI released ChatGPT. People started trying it. And all of a sudden there were people like here, where I'm speaking to you from, in Italy. I'm in Rome on vacation right now. And Italian data protection agency said: Listen, we're concerned about the privacy of this tool for citizens of Italy. So the company agreed to establish some rules, some guidelines and guardrails on the tool. And then it reopened to the Italian public, after being closed for a while. The same thing happened with the Canadian data protection authorities. In the United States, well, not much has happened, except that one of the organizations on which board I serve, the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy, earlier this year in March of 2023 filed a sixty-four-page complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Which is basically we're asking the Federal Trade Commission: You do have the authority to investigate how these tools can affect the U.S. consumers. Please do so, because this is your purview, and this is your responsibility. And we're still waiting on the agency to declare what the next steps are going to be. If you look at other bodies of legislation or regulation on artificial intelligence that can help us guide artificial intelligence, well, you can certainly pay attention to the U.S. Congress. And what is the U.S. Congress doing? Yeah, pretty much that, not much, to be honest. They listen to Sam Altman, the founder of ChatGPT, who recently testified before Congress, urging Congress to regulate artificial intelligence. Which is quite clever on his part. So it was on May 17 that he testified that we could be facing catastrophic damage ahead if artificial intelligence technology is not regulated in time. He also sounded the alarm about counterfeit humans, meaning that these machines could replace what we think a person is, at least virtually. And also warned about the end of factual evidence, because with artificial intelligence anything can be fabricated. Not only that, but he pointed out that artificial intelligence could start wars and destroy democracy. Certainly very, very grim predictions. And before this, many of the companies were self-regulating for artificial intelligence. If you look at Google, Microsoft, Facebook now Meta. All of them have their own artificial intelligence self-guiding principles. Most of them were very aspirational. Those could help us in higher education because, at the very least, it can help us create our own policies and guidelines for our community members—faculty, staff, students, researchers, administrators, partners, vendors, alumni—anybody who happens to interact with our institutions of higher learning. Now, what else is happening out there? Well, we have tons, tons of laws that have to do with the technology and regulations. Things like the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, or the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Sarbanes-Oxley. Federal regulations like FISMA, and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, Payment Card Industry, there is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, there is the Budapest Convention where cybersecurity insurance providers will tells us what to do and what not to do about technology. We have state laws and many privacy laws. But, to be honest, very few artificial intelligence laws. And it's groundbreaking in Europe that the European parliamentarians have agreed to discuss the Artificial Intelligence Act, which could be the first one really to be passed at this level in the world, after some efforts by China and other countries. And, if adopted, could be a landmark change in the adoption of artificial intelligence. In the United States, even though Congress is not doing much, what the White House is trying to position itself in the realm of artificial intelligence. So there's an executive order in February of 2023—that many of us in higher education read because, once again, we're trying to find inspiration for our own rules and regulations—that tells federal agencies that they have to root out bias in the design and use of new technologies, including artificial intelligence, because they have to protect the public from algorithm discrimination. And we all believe this. In higher education, we believe in being fair and transparent and accountable. I would be surprised if any of us is not concerned about making sure that our technology use, our artificial technology use, does not follow these particular principles as proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and many other bodies of ethics and expertise. Now, the White House also announced new centers—research and development centers with some new national artificial intelligence research institutes. Many of us will collaborate with those in our research projects. A call for public assessments of existing generative artificial intelligence systems, like ChatGPT. And also is trying to enact or is enacting policies to ensure that U.S. government—the U.S. government, the executive branch, is leading by example when mitigating artificial intelligence risks and harnessing artificial intelligence opportunities. Because, in spite of all the concerns about this, it's all about the opportunities that we hope to achieve with artificial intelligence. And when we look at how specifically can we benefit from artificial intelligence in higher education, well, certainly we can start with new and modified academic offerings. I would be surprised if most of us will not have degrees—certainly, we already have degrees—graduate degrees on artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and many others. But I would be surprised if we don't even add some bachelor's degrees in this field, or we don't modify significantly some of our existing academic offerings to incorporate artificial intelligence in various specialties, our courses, or components of the courses that we teach our students. We're looking at amazing research opportunities, things that we'll be able to do with artificial intelligence that we couldn't even think about before, that are going to expand our ability to generate new knowledge to contribute to society, with federal funding, with private funding. We're looking at improved knowledge management, something that librarians are always very concerned about, the preservation and distribution of knowledge. The idea would be that artificial intelligence will help us find better the things that we're looking for, the things that we need in order to conduct our academic work. We're certainly looking at new and modified pedagogical approaches, new ways of learning and teaching, including the promise of adaptive learning, something that really can tell students: Hey, you're not getting this particular concept. Why don't you go back and study it in a different way with a different virtual avatar, using simulations or virtual assistance? In almost every discipline and academic endeavor. We're looking very concerned, because we're concerned about offering, you know, a good value for the money when it comes to education. So we're hoping to achieve extreme efficiencies, better ways to run admissions, better ways to guide students through their academic careers, better way to coach them into professional opportunities. And many of this will be possible thanks to artificial intelligence. And also, let's not forget this, but we still have many underserved students, and they're underserved because they either cannot afford education or maybe they have physical or cognitive disabilities. And artificial intelligence can really help us reach to those students and offer them new opportunities to advance their education and fulfill their academic and professional goals. And I think this is a good introduction. And I'd love to talk about all the things that can go wrong. I'd love to talk about all the things that we should be doing so that things don't go as wrong as predicted. But I think this is a good way to set the stage for the discussion. FASKIANOS: Fantastic. Thank you so much. So we're going to go all of you now for your questions and comments, share best practices. (Gives queuing instructions.) All right. So I'm going first to Gabriel Doncel has a written question, adjunct faculty at the University of Delaware: How do we incentivize students to approach generative AI tools like ChatGPT for text in ways that emphasize critical thinking and analysis? MOLINA: I always like to start with a difficult question, so I very much, Gabriel Doncel, for that particular question. And, as you know, there are several approaches to adopting tools like ChatGPT on campus by students. One of them is to say: No, over my dead body. If you use ChatGPT, you're cheating. Even if you cite ChatGPT, we can consider you to be cheating. And not only that, but some institutions have invested in tools that can detect whether or something was written with ChatGPT or similar rules. There are other faculty members and other academic institutions that are realizing these tools will be available when these students join the workforce. So our job is to help them do the best that they can by using these particular tools, to make sure they avoid some of the mishaps that have already happened. There are a number of lawyers who have used ChatGPT to file legal briefs. And when the judges received those briefs, and read through them, and looked at the citations they realized that some of the citations were completely made up, were not real cases. Hence, the lawyers faced professional disciplinary action because they used the tool without the professional review that is required. So hopefully we're going to educate our students and we're going to set policy and guideline boundaries for them to use these, as well as sometimes the necessary technical controls for those students who may not be that ethically inclined to follow our guidelines and policies. But I think that to hide our heads in the sand and pretend that these tools are not out there for students to use would be—it's a disserve to our institutions, to our students, and the mission that we have of training the next generation of knowledge workers. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Meena Bose, who has a raised hand. Meena, if you can unmute yourself and identify yourself. Q: Thank you, Irina. Thank you for this very important talk. And my question is a little—(laughs)—it's formative, but really—I have been thinking about what you were saying about the role of AI in academic life. And I don't—particularly for undergraduates, for admissions, advisement, guidance on curriculum. And I don't want to have my head in the sand about this, as you just said—(laughs)—but it seems to me that any kind of meaningful interaction with students, particularly students who have not had any exposure to college before, depends upon kind of multiple feedback with faculty members, development of mentors, to excel in college and to consider opportunities after. So I'm struggling a little bit to see how AI can be instructive for that part of college life, beyond kind of providing information, I guess. But I guess the web does that already. So welcome your thoughts. Thank you. FASKIANOS: And Meena's at Hofstra University. MOLINA: Thank you. You know, it's a great question. And the idea that everybody is proposing right here is we are not—artificial intelligence companies, at least at first. We'll see in the future because, you know, it depends on how it's regulated. But they're not trying, or so they claim, to replace doctors, or architects, or professors, or mentors, or administrators. They're trying to help those—precisely those people in those professions, and the people they served gain access to more information. And you're right in a sense that that information is already on the web. But we've aways had a problem finding that information regularly on the web. And you may remember that when Google came along, I mean, it swept through every other search engine out there AltaVista, Yahoo, and many others, because, you know, it had a very good search algorithm. And now we're going to the next level. The next level is where you ask ChatGPT in human-natural language. You're not trying to combine the three words that say, OK, is the economics class required? No, no, you're telling ChatGPT, hey, listen, I'm in the master's in business administration at Drexel University and I'm trying to take more economic classes. What recommendations do you have for me? And this is where you can have a preliminary one, and also a caveat there, as most of these search engine—generative AI engines already have, that tell you: We're not here to replace the experts. Make sure you discuss your questions with the experts. We will not give you medical advice. We will not give you educational advice. We're just here, to some extent, for guiding purposes and, even now, for experimental and entertainment purposes. So I think you are absolutely right that we have to be very judicious about how we use these tools to support the students. Now, that said, I had the privilege of working for public universities in the state of Connecticut when I was the CIO. I also had the opportunity early in my career to attend public university in Europe, in Spain, where we were hundreds of students in class. We couldn't get any attention from the faculty. There were no mentors, there were no counselors, or anybody else. Is it better to have nobody to help you or is it better to have at least some technology guidance that can help you find the information that otherwise is spread throughout many different systems that are like ivory towers—emissions on one side, economics on the other, academics advising on the other, and everything else. So thank you for a wonderful question and reflection. FASKIANOS: I'm going to take the next question written from Dr. Russell Thomas, a senior lecturer in the Department of International Relations and Diplomatic Studies at Cavendish University in Uganda: What are the skills and competencies that higher education students and faculty need to develop to think in an AI-driven world? MOLINA: So we could argue here that something very similar has happened already with many information technologies and communication technologies. It is the understanding at first faculty members did not want to use email, or the web, or many other tools because they were too busy with their disciplines. And rightly so. They were brilliant economists, or philosophers, or biologists. They didn't have enough time to learn all these new technologies to interact with the students. But eventually they did learn, because they realized that it was the only way to meet the students where they were and to communicate with them in efficient ways. Now, I have to be honest; when it comes to the use of technology—and we'll unpack the numbers—it was part of my doctoral dissertation, when I expanded the adoption of technology models, that tells you about early adopters, and mainstream adopters, and late adopters, and laggards. But I uncovered a new category for some of the institutions where I worked called the over-my-dead-body adopters. And these were some of the faculty members who say: I will never switch word processors. I will never use this technology. It's only forty years until I retire, probably eighty more until I die. I don't have to do this. And, to be honest, we have a responsibility to understand that those artificial intelligence tools are out there, and to guide the students as to what is the acceptable use of those technologies within the disciplines and the courses that we teach them in. Because they will find those available in a very competitive work market, in a competitive labor market, because they can derive some benefit from them. But also, we don't want to shortchange their educational attainment just because they go behind our backs to copy and paste from ChatGPT, learning nothing. Going back to the question by Gabriel Doncel, not learning to exercise the critical thinking, using citations and material that is unverified, that was borrowed from the internet without any authority, without any attention to the different points of view. I mean, if you've used ChatGPT for a while—and I have personally, even to prepare some basic thank-you speeches, which are all very formal, even to contest a traffic ticket in Washington, DC, when I was speeding but I don't want to pay the ticket anyway. Even for just research purposes, you could realize that most of the writing from ChatGPT has a very, very common style. Which is, oh, on the one hand people say this, on the other hand people say that. Well, the critical thinking will tell you, sure, there are two different opinions, but this is what I think myself, and this is why I think about this. And these are some of the skills, the critical thinking skills, that we must continue to teach the students and not to, you know, put blinds around their eyes to say, oh, continue focusing only on the textbook and the website. No, no. Look at the other tools but use them judiciously. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Clemente Abrokwaa. Raised hand, if you can identify yourself, please. Q: Hi. Thanks so much for your talk. It's something that has been—I'm from Penn State University. And this is a very important topic, I think. And some of the earlier speakers have already asked the questions I was going to ask. (Laughs.) But one thing that I would like to say that, as you said, we cannot bury our heads in the sand. No matter what we think, the technology is already here. So we cannot avoid it. My question, though, is what do you think about the artificial intelligence, the use of that in, say, for example, graduate students using it to write dissertations? You did mention about the lawyers that use it to write their briefs, and they were caught. But in dissertations and also in class—for example, you have students—you have about forty students. You give a written assignment. You make—when you start grading, you have grading fatigue. And so at some point you lose interest of actually checking. And so I'm kind of concerned about that how it will affect the students' desire to actually go and research without resorting to the use of AI. MOLINA: Well, Clemente, fellow colleague from the state of Pennsylvania, thank you for that, once again, both a question and a reflection here. Listen, many of us wrote our doctoral dissertations—mine at Georgetown. At one point of time, I was so tired of writing about the same topics, following the wonderful advice, but also the whims of my dissertation committee, that I was this close from outsourcing my thesis to China. I didn't, but I thought about it. And now graduate students are thinking, OK, why am I going through the difficulties of writing this when ChatGPT can do it for me and the deadline is tomorrow? Well, this is what will distinguish the good students and the good professionals from the other ones. And the interesting part is, as you know, when we teach graduate students we're teaching them critical thinking skills, but also teaching them now to express themselves, you know, either orally or in writing. And writing effectively is fundamental in the professions, but also absolutely critical in academic settings. And anybody who's just copying and pasting from ChatGPT to these documents cannot do that level of writing. But you're absolutely right. Let's say that we have an adjunct faculty member who's teaching a hundred students. Will that person go through every single essay to find out whether students were cheating with ChatGPT? Probably not. And this is why there are also enterprising people who are using artificial intelligence to find out and tell you whether a paper was written using artificial intelligence. So it's a little bit like this fighting of different sources and business opportunities for all of them. And we've done this. We've used antiplagiarism tools in the past because we knew that students were copying and pasting using Google Scholar and many other sources. And now oftentimes we run antiplagiarism tools. We didn't write them ourselves. Or we tell the students, you run it yourself and you give it to me. And make sure you are not accidentally not citing things that could end up jeopardizing your ability to get a graduate degree because your work was not up to snuff with the requirements of our stringent academic programs. So I would argue that this antiplagiarism tools that we're using will more often than not, and sooner than expected, incorporate the detection of artificial intelligence writeups. And also the interesting part is to tell the students, well, if you do choose to use any of these tools, what are the rules of engagement? Can you ask it to write a paragraph and then you cite it, and you mention that ChatGPT wrote it? Not to mention, in addition to that, all the issues about artificial intelligence, which the courts are deciding now, regarding the intellectual property of those productions. If a song, a poem, a book is written by an artificial intelligence entity, who owns the intellectual property for those works produced by an artificial intelligence machine? FASKIANOS: Good question. We have a lot of written questions. And I'm sure you don't want to just listen to my voice, so please do raise your hands. But we do have a question from one of your colleagues, Pablo, Pepe Barcega, who's the IT director at Drexel: Considering the potential biases and limitations of AI models, like ChatGPT, do you think relying on such technology in the educational domain can perpetuate existing inequalities and reinforce systemic biases, particularly in terms of access, representation, and fair evaluation of students? And Pepe's question got seven upvotes, we advanced it to the top of the line. MOLINA: All right, well, first I have to wonder whether he used ChatGPT to write the question. But I'm going to leave it that. Thank you. (Laughter.) It's a wonderful question. One of the greatest concerns we have had, those of us who have been working on artificial intelligence digital policy for years—not this year when ChatGPT was released, but for years we've been thinking about this. And even before artificial intelligence, in general with algorithm transparency. And the idea is the following: That two things are happening here. One is that we're programming the algorithms using instructions, instructions created by programmers, with all their biases, and their misunderstandings, and their shortcomings, and their lack of context, and everything else. But with artificial intelligence we're doing something even more concerning than that, which is we have some basic algorithms but then we're feeling a lot of information, a corpus of information, to those algorithms. And the algorithms are fine-tuning the rules based on those. So it's very, very difficult for experts to explain how an artificial intelligence system actually makes decisions, because we know the engine and we know the data that we fed to the engine, but we don't know the real outcome how those decisions are being made through neural networks, through all of the different systems that we have and methods that we have for artificial intelligence. Very, very few people understand how those work. And those are so busy they don't have time to explain how the algorithm works for others, including the regulators. Let's remember some of the failed cases. Amazon tried this early. And they tried this for selecting employees for Amazon. And they fed all the resumes. And guess what? It turned out that most of the recommendations were to hire young white people who had gone to Ivy League schools. Why? Because their first employees were feeding those descriptions, and they had done extremely well at Amazon. Hence, by feeding that information of past successful employees only those were there. And so that puts away the diversity that we need for different academic institutions, large and small, public and private, from different countries, from different genders, from different ages, from different ethnicities. All those things went away because the algorithm was promoting one particular one. Recently I had the opportunity to moderate a panel in Washington, DC, and we had representatives from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And they told us how they investigated a hiring algorithm from a company that was disproportionately recommending that they hired people whose first name was Brian and had played lacrosse in high school because, once again, a disproportionate number of people in that company had done that. And the algorithm realized, oh, this must be important characteristics to hire people for this company. Let's not forget, for example, with the artificial facial recognition and artificial intelligence by Amazon Rekog, you know, the facial recognition software, that the American Civil Liberties Union, decided, OK, I'm going to submit the pictures of all the congressmen to this particular facial recognition engine. And it turned out that it misidentified many of them, particularly African Americans, as felons who had been convicted. So all these artificial—all these biases could have really, really bad consequences. Imagine that you're using this to decide who you admit to your universities, and the algorithm is wrong. You know, you are making really biased decisions that will affect the livelihood of many people, but also will transform society, possibly for the worse, if we don't address this. So this is why the OECD, the European Union, even the White House, everybody is saying: We want this technology. We want to derive the benefits of this technology, while curtailing the abuses. And it's fundamental we achieve transparency. We are sure that these algorithms are not biased against the people who use them. FASKIANOS: Thank you. So I'm going to go next to Emily Edmonds-Poli, who is a professor at the University of San Diego: We hear a lot about providing clear guidelines for students, but for those of us who have not had a lot of experience using ChatGPT it is difficult to know what clear guidelines look like. Can you recommend some sources we might consult as a starting point, or where we might find some sample language? MOLINA: Hmm. Well, certainly this is what we do in higher education. We compete for the best students and the best faculty members. And we sometimes compete a little bit to be first to win groundbreaking research. But we tend to collaborate with everything else, particularly when it comes to policy, and guidance, and rules. So there are many institutions, like mine, who have already assembled—I'm sure that yours has done the same—assembled committees, because assembling committees and subcommittees is something we do very well in higher education, with faculty members, with administrators, even with the student representation to figure out, OK, what should we do about the use of artificial intelligence on our campus? I mentioned before taking a look at the big aspirational declarations by Meta, and Google, and IBM, and Microsoft could be helpful for these communities to look at this. But also, I'm a very active member of an organization known as EDUCAUSE. And EDUCAUSE is for educators—predominantly higher education educators. Administrators, staff members, faculty members, to think about the adoption of information technology. And EDUCAUSE has done good work on this front and continues to do good work on this front. So once again, EDUCAUSE and some of the institutions have already published their guidelines on how to use artificial intelligence and incorporate that within their academic lives. And now, that said, we also know that even though all higher education institutions are the same, they're all different. We all have different values. We all believe in different uses of technology. We trust more or less the students. Hence, it's very important that whatever inspiration you would take, you work internally on campus—as you have done with many other issues in the past—to make sure it really reflects the values of your institution. FASKIANOS: So, Pablo, would you point to a specific college or university that has developed a code of ethics that addresses the use of AI for their academic community beyond your own, but that is publicly available? MOLINA: Yeah, I'm going to be honest, I don't want to put anybody on the spot. FASKIANOS: OK. MOLINA: Because, once again, there many reasons. But, once again, let me repeat a couple resources. One is of them is from the U.S. Department of Education, from the Office of Educational Technology. And the article is Artificial Intelligence and Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations, published earlier this year. The other source really is educause.edu. And if you look at educause.edu on artificial intelligence, you'll find links to articles, you'll find links to universities. It would be presumptuous of me to evaluate whose policies are better than others, but I would argue that the general principles of nonbiased, transparency, accountability, and also integration of these tools within the academic life of the institution in a morally responsible way—with concepts by privacy by design, security by design, and responsible computing—all of those are good words to have in there. Now, the other problem with policies and guidelines is that, let's be honest, many of those have no teeth in our institutions. You know, we promulgate them. They're very nice. They look beautiful. They are beautifully written. But oftentimes when people don't follow them, there's not a big penalty. And this is why, in addition to having the policies, educating the campus community is important. But it's difficult to do because we need to educate them about so many things. About cybersecurity threats, about sexual harassment, about nondiscriminatory policies, about responsible behavior on campus regarding drugs and alcohol, about crime. So many things that they have to learn about. It's hard to get at another topic for them to spend their time on, instead of researching the core subject matter that they chose to pursue for their lives. FASKIANOS: Thank you. And we will be sending out a link to this video, the transcript, as well as the resources that you have mentioned. So if you didn't get them, we'll include them in the follow-up email. So I'm going to go to Dorian Brown Crosby who has a raised hand. Q: Yes. Thank you so much. I put one question in the chat but I have another question that I would like to go ahead and ask now. So thank you so much for this presentation. You mentioned algorithm biases with individuals. And I appreciate you pointing that out, especially when we talk about face recognition, also in terms of forced migration, which is my area of research. But I also wanted you to speak to, or could you talk about the challenges that some institutions in higher education would have in terms of support for some of the things that you mentioned in terms of potential curricula, or certificates, or other ways that AI would be woven into the new offerings of institutions of higher education. How would that look specifically for institutions that might be challenged to access those resources, such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities? Thank you. MOLINA: Well, very interesting question, and a really fascinating point of view. Because we all tend to look at things from our own perspective and perhaps not consider the perspective of others. Those who have much more money and resources than us, and those who have fewer resources and less funding available. So this is a very interesting line. What is it that we do in higher education when we have these problems? Well, as I mentioned before, we build committees and subcommittees. Usually we also do campus surveys. I don't know why we love doing campus surveys and asking everybody what they think about this. Those are useful tools to discuss. And oftentimes the thing that we do also, that we've done for many other topics, well, we hire people and we create new offices—either academic or administrative offices. With all of those, you know, they have certain limitations to how useful and functional they can be. And they also continue to require resources. Resources that, in the end, are paid for by students with, you know, federal financing. But this is the truth of the matter. So if you start creating offices of artificial intelligence on our campuses, however important the work may be on their guidance and however much extra work can be assigned to them instead of distributed to every faculty and the staff members out there, the truth of the matter is that these are not perfect solutions. So what is it that we do? Oftentimes, we work with partners. And our partners love to take—(inaudible)—vendors. But the truth of the matter is that sometimes they have much more—they have much more expertise on some of these topics. So for example, if you're thinking about incorporating artificial intelligence to some of the academic materials that you use in class, well, I'm going to take a guess that if you already work with McGraw Hill in economics, or accounting, or some of the other books and websites that they put that you recommend to your students or you make mandatory for your students, that you start discussing with them, hey, listen, are you going to use artificial intelligence? How? Are you going to tell me ahead of time? Because, as a faculty member, you may have a choice to decide: I want to work with this publisher and not this particular publisher because of the way they approach this. And let's be honest, we've seen a number of these vendors with major information security problems. McGraw Hill recently left a repository of data misconfigured out there on the internet, and almost anybody could access that. But many others before them, like Chegg and others, were notorious for their information security breaches. Can we imagine that these people are going to adopt artificial intelligence and not do such a good job of securing the information, the privacy, and the nonbiased approaches that we hold dear for students? I think they require a lot of supervision. But in the end, these publishers have the economies of scale for you to recommend those educational materials instead of developing your own for every course, for every class, and for every institution. So perhaps we're going to have to continue to work together, as we've done in higher education, in consortia, which would be local, or regional. It could be based on institutions of the same interest, or on student population, on trying to do this. And, you know, hopefully we'll get grants, grants from the federal government, that can be used in order to develop some of the materials and guidelines that are going to help us precisely embrace this and embracing not only to operate better as institutions and fulfill our mission, but also to make sure that our students are better prepared to join society and compete globally, which is what we have to do. FASKIANOS: So I'm going to combine questions. Dr. Lance Hunter, who is an associate professor at Augusta University. There's been a lot of debate regarding if plagiarism detection software tools like Turnitin can accurately detect AI-generated text. What is your opinion regarding the accuracy of AI text generation detection plagiarism tools? And then Rama Lohani-Chase, at Union County College, wants recommendations on what plagiarism checker devices you would recommend—or, you know, plagiarism detection for AI would you recommend? MOLINA: Sure. So, number one, I'm not going to endorse any particular company because if I do that I would ask them for money, or the other way around. I'm not sure how it works. I could be seen as biased, particularly here. But there are many there and your institutions are using them. Sometimes they are integrated with your learning management system. And, as I mentioned, sometimes we ask the students to use them themselves and then either produce the plagiarism report for us or simply know themselves this. I'm going to be honest; when I teach ethics and technology, I tell the students about the antiplagiarism tools at the universities. But I also tell them, listen, if you're cheating in an ethics and technology class, I failed miserably. So please don't. Take extra time if you have to take it, but—you know, and if you want, use the antiplagiarism tool yourself. But the question stands and is critical, which is right now those tools are trying to improve the recognition of artificial intelligence written text, but they're not as good as they could be. So like every other technology and, what I'm going to call, antitechnology, used to control the damage of the first technology, is an escalation where we start trying to identify this. And I think they will continue to do this, and they will be successful in doing this. There are people who have written ad hoc tools using ChatGPT to identify things written by ChatGPT. I tried them. They're remarkably good for the handful of papers that I tried myself, but I haven't conducted enough research myself to tell you if they're really effective tools for this. So I would argue that for the timing you must assume that those tools, as we assume all the time, will not catch all of the cases, only some of the most obvious ones. FASKIANOS: So a question from John Dedie, who is an assistant professor at the Community College of Baltimore County: To combat AI issues, shouldn't we rethink assignments? Instead of papers, have students do PowerPoints, ask students to offer their opinions and defend them? And then there was an interesting comment from Mark Habeeb at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. Knowledge has been cheap for many years now because it is so readily available. With AI, we have a tool that can aggregate the knowledge and create written products. So, you know, what needs to be the focus now is critical thinking and assessing values. We need to teach our students how to assess and use that knowledge rather than how to find the knowledge and aggregate that knowledge. So maybe you could react to those two—the question and comment. MOLINA: So let me start with the Georgetown one, not only because he's a colleague of mine. I also teach at Georgetown, and where I obtained my doctoral degree a number of years ago. I completely agree. I completely agree with the issue that we have to teach new skills. And one of the programs in which I teach at Georgetown is our master's of analysis. Which are basically for people who want to work in the intelligence community. And these people have to find the information and they have to draw inferences, and try to figure out whether it is a nation-state that is threatening the United States, or another, or a corporation, or something like that. And they do all of those critical thinking, and intuition, and all the tools that we have developed in the intelligence community for many, many years. And artificial intelligence, if they suspend their judgement and they only use artificial intelligence, they will miss very important information that is critical for national security. And the same is true for something like our flagship school, the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, one of the best in the world in that particular field, where you want to train the diplomats, and the heads of state, and the great strategical thinkers on policy and politics in the international arena to precisely think not in the mechanical way that a machine can think, but also to connect those dots. And, sure they should be using those tools in order to, you know, get the most favorable position and the starting position, But they should also use their critical thinking always, and their capabilities of analysis in order to produce good outcomes and good conclusions. Regarding redoing the assignments, absolutely true. But that is hard. It is a lot of work. We're very busy faculty members. We have to grade. We have to be on committees. We have to do research. And now they ask us to redo our entire assessment strategy, with new assignments that we need to grade again and account for artificial intelligence. And I don't think that any provost out there is saying, you know what? You can take two semesters off to work on this and retool all your courses. That doesn't happen in the institutions that I know of. If you get time off because you're entitled to it, you want to devote that time to do research because that is really what you sign up for when you pursued an academic career, in many cases. I can tell you one thing, that here in Europe where oftentimes they look at these problems with fewer resources than we do in the United States, a lot of faculty members at the high school level, at the college level, are moving to oral examinations because it's much harder to cheat with ChatGPT with an oral examination. Because they will ask you interactive, adaptive questions—like the ones we suffered when we were defending our doctoral dissertations. And they will realize, the faculty members, whether or not you know the material and you understand the material. Now, imagine oral examinations for a class of one hundred, two hundred, four hundred. Do you do one for the entire semester, with one topic chosen and run them? Or do you do several throughout the semester? Do you end up using a ChatGPT virtual assistance to conduct your oral examinations? I think these are complex questions. But certainly redoing our assignments and redoing the way we teach and the way we evaluate our students is perhaps a necessary consequence of the advent of artificial intelligence. FASKIANOS: So next question from Damian Odunze, who is an assistant professor at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi: Who should safeguard ethical concerns and misuse of AI by criminals? Should the onus fall on the creators and companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft to ensure security and not pass it on to the end users of the product? And I think you mentioned at the top in your remarks, Pablo, about how the founder of ChatGPT was urging the Congress to put into place some regulation. What is the onus on ChatGPT to protect against some of this as well? MOLINA: Well, I'm going to recycle more of the material from my doctoral dissertation. In this case it was the Molina cycle of innovation and regulation. It goes like this, basically there are—you know, there are engineers and scientists who create new information technologies. And then there are entrepreneurs and businesspeople and executives to figure out, OK, I know how to package this so that people are going to use it, buy it, subscribe to it, or look at it, so that I can sell the advertisement to others. And, you know, this begins and very, very soon the abuses start. And the abuses are that criminals are using these platforms for reasons that were not envisioned before. Even the executives, as we've seen with Google, and Facebook, and others, decide to invade the privacy of the people because they only have to pay a big fine, but they make much more money than the fines or they expect not to be caught. And what happened in this cycle is that eventually there is so much noise in the media, congressional hearings, that eventually regulators step in and they try to pass new laws to do this, or the regulatory agencies try to investigate using the powers given to them. And then all of these new rules have to be tested in courts of law, which could take years by the time it reaches sometimes all the way to the Supreme Court. Some of them are even knocked down on the way to the Supreme Court when they realize this is not constitutional, it's a conflict of laws, and things like that. Now, by the time we regulate these new technologies, not only many years have gone by, but the technologies have changed. The marketing products and services have changed, the abuses have changed, and the criminals have changed. So this is why we're always living in a loosely regulated space when it comes to information technology. And this is an issue of accountability. We're finding this, for example, with information security. If my phone is my hacked, or my computer, my email, is it the fault of Microsoft, and Apple, and Dell, and everybody else? Why am I the one paying the consequences and not any of these companies? Because it's unregulated. So morally speaking, yes. These companies are accountable. Morally speaking also the users are accountable, because we're using these tools because we're incorporating them professionally. Legally speaking, so far, nobody is accountable except the lawyers who submitted briefs that were not correct in a court of law and were disciplined for that. But other than that, right now, it is a very gray space. So in my mind, it requires everybody. It takes a village to do the morally correct thing. It starts with the companies and the inventors. It involves the regulators, who should do their job and make sure that there's no unnecessary harm created by these tools. But it also involves every company executive, every professional, every student, and professor who decides to use these tools. FASKIANOS: OK. I'm going to take—combine a couple questions from Dorothy Marinucci and Venky Venkatachalam about the effect of AI on jobs. Dorothy talks about—she's from Fordham University—about she read something about Germany's best-selling newspaper Bild reportedly adopting artificial intelligence to replace certain editorial roles in an effort to cut costs. Does this mean that the field of journalism communication will change? And Venky's question is: AI—one of the impacts is in the area of automation, leading to elimination of certain types of jobs. Can you talk about both the elimination of jobs and what new types of jobs you think will be created as AI matures into the business world with more value-added applications? MOLINA: Well, what I like about predicting the future, and I've done this before in conferences and papers, is that, you know, when the future comes ten years from now people will either not remember what I said, or, you know, maybe I was lucky and my prediction was correct. In the specific field of journalism, and we've seen it, the journalism and communications field, decimated because the money that they used to make with advertising—and, you know, certainly a bit part of that were in the form of corporate profits. But many other one in the form of hiring good journalists, and investigative journalism, and these people could be six months writing a story when right now they have six hours to write a story, because there are no resources. And all the advertisement money went instead to Facebook, and Google, and many others because they work very well for advertisements. But now the lifeblood of journalism organizations has been really, you know, undermined. And there's good journalism in other places, in newspapers, but sadly this is a great temptation to replace some of the journalists with more artificial intelligence, particularly the most—on the least important pieces. I would argue that editorial pieces are the most important in newspapers, the ones requiring ideology, and critical thinking, and many others. Whereas there are others that tell you about traffic changes that perhaps do not—or weather patterns, without offending any meteorologists, that maybe require a more mechanical approach. I would argue that a lot of professions are going to be transformed because, well, if ChatGPT can write real estate announcements that work very well, well, you may need fewer people doing this. And yet, I think that what we're going to find is the same thing we found when technology arrived. We all thought that the arrival of computers would mean that everybody would be without a job. Guess what? It meant something different. It meant that in order to do our jobs, we had to learn how to use computers. So I would argue that this is going to be the same case. To be a good doctor, to be a good lawyer, to be a good economist, to be a good knowledge worker you're going to have to learn also how to use whatever artificial intelligence tools are available out there, and use them professionally within the moral and the ontological concerns that apply to your particular profession. Those are the kind of jobs that I think are going to be very important. And, of course, all the technical jobs, as I mentioned. There are tons of people who consider themselves artificial intelligence experts. Only a few at the very top understand these systems. But there are many others in the pyramid that help with preparing these systems, with the support, the maintenance, the marketing, preparing the datasets to go into these particular models, working with regulators and legislators and compliance organizations to make sure that the algorithms and the tools are not running afoul of existing regulations. All of those, I think, are going to be interesting jobs that will be part of the arrival of artificial intelligence. FASKIANOS: Great. We have so many questions left and we just couldn't get to them all. I'm just going to ask you just to maybe reflect on how the use of artificial intelligence in higher education will affect U.S. foreign policy and international relations. I know you touched upon it a little bit in reacting to the comment from our Georgetown University colleague, but any additional thoughts you might want to add before we close? MOLINA: Well, let's be honest, one particular one that applies to education and to everything else, there is a race—a worldwide race for artificial intelligence progress. The big companies are fighting—you know, Google, and Meta, many others, are really putting—Amazon—putting resources into that, trying to be first in this particular race. But it's also a national race. For example, it's very clear that there are executive orders from the United States as well as regulations and declarations from China that basically are indicating these two big nations are trying to be first in dominating the use of artificial intelligence. And let's be honest, in order to do well in artificial intelligence you need not only the scientists who are going to create those models and refine them, but you also need the bodies of data that you need to feed these algorithms in order to have good algorithms. So the barriers to entry for other nations and the barriers to entry by all the technology companies are going to be very, very high. It's not going to be easy for any small company to say: Oh, now I'm a huge player in artificial intelligence. Because even if you may have created an interesting new algorithmic procedure, you don't have the datasets that the huge companies have been able to amass and work on for the longest time. Every time you submit a question to ChatGPT, the ChatGPT experts are using their questions to refine the tool. The same way that when we were using voice recognition with Apple or Android or other companies, that we're using those voices and our accents and our mistakes in order to refine their voice recognition technologies. So this is the power. We'll see that the early bird gets the worm of those who are investing, those who are aggressively going for it, and those who are also judiciously regulating this can really do very well in the international arena when it comes to artificial intelligence. And so will their universities, because they will be able to really train those knowledge workers, they'll be able to get the money generated from artificial intelligence, and they will be able to, you know, feedback one with the other. The advances in the technology will result in more need for students, more students graduating will propel the industry. And there will also be—we'll always have a fight for talent where companies and countries will attract those people who really know about these wonderful things. Now, keep in mind that artificial intelligence was the core of this, but there are so many other emerging issues in information technology. And some of them are critical to higher education. So we're still, you know, lots of hype, but we think that virtual reality will have an amazing impact on the way we teach and we conduct research and we train for certain skills. We think that quantum computing has the ability to revolutionize the way we conduct research, allowing us to do competitions that were not even thinkable today. We'll look at things like robotics. And if you ask me about what is going to take many jobs away, I would say that robotics can take a lot of jobs away. Now, we thought that there would be no factory workers left because of robots, but that hasn't happened. But keep adding robots with artificial intelligence to serve you a cappuccino, or your meal, or take care of your laundry, or many other things, or maybe clean your hotel room, and you realize, oh, there are lots of jobs out there that no longer will be there. Think about artificial intelligence for self-driving vehicles, boats, planes, cargo ships, commercial airplanes. Think about the thousands of taxi drivers and truck drivers who may end up being out of jobs because, listen, the machines drive safer, and they don't get tired, and they can be driving twenty-four by seven, and they don't require health benefits, or retirement. They don't get depressed. They never miss. Think about many of the technologies out there that have an impact on what we do. So, but artificial intelligence is a multiplier to technologies, a contributor to many other fields and many other technologies. And this is why we're so—spending so much time and so much energy thinking about these particular issues. FASKIANOS: Well, thank you, Pablo Molina. We really appreciate it. Again, my apologies that we couldn't get to all of the questions and comments in the chat, but we appreciate all of you for your questions and, of course, your insights were really terrific, Dr. P. So we will, again, be sending out the link to this video and transcript, as well as the resources that you mentioned during this discussion. I hope you all enjoy the Fourth of July. And I encourage you to follow @CFR_Academic on Twitter and visit CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for research and analysis on global issues. Again, you send us comments, feedback, suggestions to CFRacademic@CFR.org. And, again, thank you all for joining us. We look forward to your continued participation in CFR Academic programming. Have a great day. MOLINA: Adios. (END)

Reena, Brendan and Jordan have on LGBT filmmaker and educator Robin Kampf to talk about her film Love Wins, The Garden State Film Festival, Pride Events around New Jersey and Much more. National Award-winning filmmaker, writer, producer and field/studio director with extensive experience in all facets of broadcast, cable and corporate digital video production. Writing, producing, casting, locations, crewing, directing, editing and distribution of broadcast quality video productions used for marketing, training, promotional, educational, trade show and fundraising purposes. Experienced in location production in the feature film industry, including location work for Academy-Award winning directors. Prior news anchor/producer/reporter in NJ for central Jersey's first "live" newscast. Creator and owner of RJK MEDIA Productions and adjunct television/production instructor at Montclair State University, Brookdale Community College and Union County College. As of the release of this podcast, Luanne Peterpaul was trailing slightly in a tight race for the democratic nomination. We have a bunch of Improv, Standup Comedy and Storytelling shows coming up. Please go to lnhstudios.com/shows to grab tickets We just released our short films, Knock and 100 Words, for free. go to lnhstudios.com/knock to watch Come take a Comedy class with Brendan or Jordan at lnhstudios.com/classes I am sending you 1π! Pi is a new digital currency developed by Stanford PhDs, with over 25 million members worldwide. To claim your Pi, follow this link https://minepi.com/jfreeeze and use my username (jfreeeze) as your invitation code. Free Crypto https://r.honeygain.me/JORFRFD773Definitely an app worth checking out. Lets you earn crypto free! https://coin.onelink.me/ePJg/9e29869acoinbase.com/join/fried_1w_ Other podcasts are found at lnhstudios.com/podcasts Reena Ezra (@ReenaEzraHere) Reena Ezra is a performer, writer, and producer from Mahwah, NJ. She studied Biology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology where she was a member of The Improv Technicians. She performed at the Del Close Marathon, Steel Stacks Improv Festival, the Hartford Improv Festival, Muchmore's, Montclair Film, Just Jake's, and Rhino Comedy, where she was a founding member of another improv troupe called The Hammerheads. She is also a co-founder of a video and comedy production company called LNH Studios. She currently produces and writes sketch comedy as well as the live, variety show, Circuit Break. Jordan Fried (@JFreeeze) Jordan Fried is a comedian and filmmaker from Warwick, NY. He studied Digital Media Production and English at Tulane University, where he was a member of Cat Mafia Comedy. He's performed at Rhino Comedy, Eastville Comedy Club, Hell Yes Fest, Binghamton Comedy and Arts Festival, New Orleans Comedy and Arts Festival and Northern Virginia Comedy Festival. He produced the comedy variety show, Circuit Break; Late Night Hump at NJ Weedman's Joint; and he is a founding member of the improv troupes, Duly Noted and The Mutts. Brendan O'Brien (@BrendanOhBrien) Brendan O'Brien is a writer, comedian, filmmaker and improv teacher from Warwick, NY. He received his B.A. in Screenwriting from Brooklyn College. He has over 9 years of improv experience having previously performed with the Rockland-based improv troupe "The Plan B Players". He is a founding member of The Rhinos improv troupe and Duly Noted musical improv troupe. He designed and taught the improv curriculum at Rhino Comedy. He is a writer and producer for Late Night Hump and the Circuit Break Variety Show. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sessionswithmaryjane/message

Welcome to Episode 2 of the 2nd season of The R.A.C.E. Podcast. Today I have the honor of speaking with Susan Hairston of Susan Hairston Consulting. She is an elected official and a deeply respected operations executive.  She is someone that you can count on to see the best in everyone and everything while being clear-minded about how to navigate difficult situations with integrity.  Curious about how that works? Invest the time to learn more by listening to our conversation.Meet Susan Hairston:An advisor to nonprofits, an elected official and civic leader, and an accomplished operations executive in philanthropy, reflect the diverse and complementary perspectives that Susan Hairston brings to the table. She lives an unapologetic life of service for the well-being of humanity.As a trusted coalition builder and inspiring leader during tumultuous change, Susan has organized events bringing together government officials and diverse organizations across the globe. She has been appointed to serve on several government and non-profit and educational boards including the County Board of Taxation, the Center for Effective Philanthropy Advisory Board, Union County College's Board of Governors, the Board of Education, and Co-Chair of the Mayor's Forum for Diversity.Susan launched her consulting group in 2020 to leverage her vast experience of strengthening nonprofits that serve marginalized communities. SHC group she leads offers a range of services that include funding strategy development, organizational assessment, strategic planning, change management, financial and project management, and board and leadership training.An organization builder and change management guru, Susan's philanthropy muscles were developed at the Ford Foundation where she had a distinguished career spanning two decades and four expanding roles that culminated in directing the Foundation's $450 million annual grant-making operations team from 1997-2016. Before the SHC group, Susan directed grants management at the JPB Foundation, a national foundation with assets of $4 billion that focus on transformational initiatives that impact people in poverty, sustain the environment, and enable medical research.Listen in as Susan hares:Her identities including her most beloved “Supremacy SlayerThe complexity and often misuse of the Black Woman and PowerColorism and the role it plays in PhilanthropyWhat she would like those doing Racial Justice work to rememberLearn more and connect with Susan Hairston:Website: Hi listener! Please take our short Listener Survey HERE to give The R.A.C.E. Podcast team feedback on the show. We will use the feedback to inform how we approach conversations in the future. Upon completion, you will be entered in our quarterly drawing for a $100 Visa gift card! Your email address will only be used for this purpose. Thanks in advance - we appreciate your feedback.Connect with Keecha Harris and Associates: Website: https://khandassociates.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/keecha-harris-and-associates/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/khandassociates YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCukpgXjuOW-ok-pHtVkSajg/featured Connect with Keecha: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keechaharris/

Welcome back to The Garden State,  the only NJ podcast that gives you all the news you need to know this week.  July 4th has come and gone which means we're in the THICK of summer baby! Which means more and more people out and about which means more and more NEWS! And we got it all for you! This week, we're covering everything from Union County College changing it's name, The whole Costco membership ordeal to get gasoline, a hotline for fed up parents, a man who went on a naked crime spree throughout town, the education system, and progress being made on the Gateway Tunnel Project!  It was definitley a fun one as Chomik decided to drink a coffee at 9:30pm on a Wednesday evening. Let's see how that goes....Thanks for listening and supporting this show! Have an AMAZING weekend!Follow us on all our socials to keep up to date with that and everything else happening. https://linktr.ee/thegardenstate

Alex Bustin '08, senior associate dean, director of transfer, military, and international admission, joins host Vivian Slee to discuss the University's announcement to grow its transfer population from 40 currently enrolled students to approximately 100. And from the archives, a conversation with one transfer undergraduate student, Beianka Tomlinson, on choosing Princeton and her internship experience as a premedical student.    View the transcript. About Alex Bustin '08 Alex Bustin is Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Admission and Director of Transfer, International, and Military/Veteran Admission at Princeton University. Originally from New Jersey, he grew up in Belgium before relocating back to his home state, and receiving his A.B. in chemistry from Princeton University, followed by his master of education from Harvard University. He has worked in Princeton's Office of Admission since 2009, and has served as primary coordinator of recruitment and admission for transfer and military/veteran students since 2016. He also oversaw the recent reinstatement of the transfer admission process at Princeton, which seeks to enroll students from lower-income backgrounds, U.S. military veterans and community college students. In addition to his professional work with veteran students, he is proud of the service members in his family, including his sister who served honorably in the U.S. Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom. About Beianka Tomlinson '24 Beianka Tomlinson moved from Jamaica to the Unite States three years ago and attended Union County College in New Jersey before transferring to Princeton. She plans to concentrate in chemistry and is also thinking about getting certificates in either African American Studies, Global Health and Health Policy, or Spanish. Her interests are mainly focused around providing access to a better quality of life for marginalized children and people of color. More specifically, she is passionate about helping low-income, Black children receive the best education and the best healthcare options. As such, she is involved in advising underrepresented high school students on the college application process, and also participates in clinical research that aims to lessen racial healthcare disparities. This semester, she is a mentor in the Transfer Mentorship Program for new transfer students.   About Beianka Tomlinson '24 Beianka Tomlinson moved from Jamaica to the United States three years ago and attended Union County College in New Jersey before transferring to Princeton. She plans to concentrate in chemistry and is also thinking about getting certificates in either African American Studies, Global Health and Health Policy, or Spanish. Her interests are mainly focused around providing access to a better quality of life for marginalized children and people of color. More specifically, she is passionate about helping lower-income, Black children receive the best education and the best healthcare options. As such, she is involved in advising underrepresented high school students on the college application process, and also participates in clinical research that aims to lessen racial healthcare disparities. This semester, she is a mentor in the Transfer Mentorship Program for new transfer students. About "Meet Princeton!" Co-Hosts: Vivian Slee, senior assistant dean of admission, and Bryant Blount '08, assistant dean of undergraduate students and manager of strategic communications Producers: Vivian Slee and Mary Buckley, associate dean, strategic communications, Office of Admission Editor/Sound Engineer: Nick Donnoli, Orangebox Productions  Sound Engineer: Molly Trueman '24 Logo Design: Esteban Aguas '19, admission officer The theme music to our podcast was created by Molly Trueman '24. Molly plans on majoring in music with a potential certificate in Applications of Computing. Outside of class, she is part of Glee Club, Chamber Choir, and the Tigressions, a contemporary all-female a cappella group. While she has been practicing voice and piano since age six, within the past year—especially during quarantine—she has become more passionate about songwriting and music production, leading her to create music for this podcast.  

In Episode 196, I converse with David Lazarus, Chess Coach at Millburn Short Hills School District, live from the United States Amateur Team East in Parsippany. Prior to teaching chess, David worked as a programmer at Toys R Us, Union County College and elsewhere.  We speak about annual fun at the Amatuer Team East, his friendship with our 180th podcast guest Dr. Richard Lewis, teaching online, using www.lichess.org, benefits of chess as a programmmer,  success in the French Defense, coaching at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, the importance of networking and social media, directing at the Westfield Chess Club, differences of in-person and remote teaching, the importance of game analysis for chess improvement and more. 

Since being named president of Union County College in 2010, Dr. Margaret McMenamin has aggressively pursued an agenda centering on improving student success outcomes. During her tenure at Union, the College has more than quintupled its IPEDS graduation rate and been recognized by the Aspen Institute for Community College Excellence and Association of Community College Trustees. MSCHE Commissioner Mr. Michael Collins interviews Dr. McMenamin, a former Commission Chair, on the success found at her community college and the role of higher education in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Lauren S. Barr is a reporter and editor turned entrepreneur. Lauren owns Gale Force Media, where she serves as the Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of The Westfield Leader and The Scotch Plains-Fanwood Times newspapers and This Is Westfield magazine. She is the first female publisher in the 131-year history of The Leader. Prior to becoming the owner in March of 2020, Lauren was with the publications for 19 years, serving in various capacities including reporter, assignment editor, and arts and entertainment and education editor. The newspapers provide in-depth local news coverage of various governing bodies in six towns in Union County. Lauren is a graduate of Union County College and Thomas Edison State University. Lauren joins Mitch to discuss the news business and what she has been doing to revitalize his local newspaper.  To watch a video of their discussion, visit our YouTube Channel. For more general information about the podcast, send an email to info@beinhakerlaw.com To follow Mitch and the podcast, go to linktr.ee/beinhakerlaw. You can subscribe and listen to episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music and most other directories. Please review us whenever possible and thanks for your continued support! Sponsorships and paid guest appearances are available. Connect with us by email or on social media. The Accidental Entrepreneur is brought to you by Beinhaker Law, a boutique business & estates legal practice in Clark, NJ. To learn about shared outside general counsel services and how to better protect your business, visit https://beinhakerlaw.com/fractional-gen-counsel/ Please support our affiliate sponsors (https://beinhakerlaw.com/podcast-affiliates/). Also be sure to visit our new podcast store (https://beinhakerlaw.com/podcast-store/) to purchase affiliate services, guest merchandise and even podcast merchandise.  Yes, we have merch! Digital Accelerant - the digital business card that generates leads. Get a custom branded digital card with information and links to all your social media, email and other information. Text LAW to 21000 to connect with us and request more details. Fetch Internet. Fetch Pro is an app that creates a secure and high-speed mobile internet connection for laptops and desktop computers. Printify - the on-demand print shop to create your own merchandise without cost or the need to house inventory. The Accidental Entrepreneur is a trademark of Mitchell C. Beinhaker. Copyright 2018-2021. All rights reserved.  

Why are parenting skills important?How does parenting change your life?Stigma of an abused motherFinding help from a support groupWhat goals do you have for your child?RESOURCES/LINKS MENTIONEDRutgers|CAWP New Leadership National Network zYWCA Union County The Aspen InstituteABOUT MARCELA HUERTAS-HENAO Marcella is a great woman who has used her voice to advocate for domestic violence and assault victims. Her survival story is played by WCA in a short story called Empty Place at the table. She also advocates for children, women, and family and is now part of an initiative for pairing impulse secondary Ascend at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC. She also graduated with a social science degree at Union County College and completed a new leadership program in Eagleton Institute, the Center for American Women in politics. She also started and co-run the children's cafe program. They help empower children to become future leaders since 2014, but her most valuable she has been is the mother that she is today.CONNECT WITH MARCELAAscend The Aspen InstituteUnion County Council for Young ChildrenCONNECT WITH USWebsite: www.fireflybyirisjanet.comInstagram: @firefly_ij“Emit your light and attract your desire”

Brazil, Hawai'i, disastrous marketing, and pineapple upside-down cake. Listen to Smart Mouth: iTunes • Google Podcasts • Stitcher • Spotify • RadioPublic • TuneIn • Libsyn Check out all our episodes so far here. If you like, pledge a buck or two on Patreon. Smart Mouth newsletter Smart Mouth IG Katherine Twitter Andrew IG  Andrew Twitter  Yo, Is This Racist?  Music: Pineapple Princess by Annette Funicello  Sources: Indiana University of Pennsylvania  Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science  The Pineapple  Philippine Folklife Museum  Bromeliad Society Bulletin  James D. Dole and the 1932 Failure of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company  Union County College  Smithsonian  Honolulu Star Bulletin  Check out: Your Last Meal  Gayest Episode Ever  Cantaloupe with Lynn Chen

Horace Jenkins an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and several teams in Europe and Israel. Jenkins graduated from New Jersey's Elizabeth High School in 1993. Jenkins played one season at Union County College, before leaving to tend to the birth of his son, Hakeem. Over the next three and a half years, Jenkins worked for the United States Postal Service, as an electrician, and on the back of a garbage truck. Once he saved up some money, he decided he wanted to go back to college, and play basketball. While at William Paterson University, Jenkins was a three-time Division III Player of the Year (1999, 2000, and 2001). He was also a three-time Division III All-American. He holds numerous school records, and also was named 2001 Basketball Times Division III Player of the Year. Jenkins was also the winner of the 2001 ESPN NCAA dunk contest, beating former Division I standout Jeff Trepagnier. USC's Trepagnier, one of the college's most prolific high flyers, missed his last dunk attempt, and the 6'1" (1.85 m) tall Jenkins, had one up his sleeve, wrapping it up with a foul line two-foot leaner. Jenkins attended all three NBA pre-draft camps, but he was undrafted in the 2001 NBA Draft. In the summer of 2001, Jenkins attended rookie camp with the Orlando Magic and also received an invitation to training camp with Orlando. However, he declined the invitation and signed with Cimberio Borgomanero, a team in the Italian second league. He received a guaranteed one-year contract. He spent the 2002 NBA Summer League with the New York Knicks, and the 2003 Summer League with the Seattle SuperSonics. Horace Jenkins got his break in the summer of 2004, playing in the NBA Summer League with the Detroit Pistons. He was previously playing with AEK Athens of the Greek Basket League, with Pistons draft pick Andreas Glyniadakis. Pistons president Joe Dumars was watching a film of Glyniadakis and spotted Jenkins. Jenkins averaged 20.1 points, 3.3 assists, and 1.8 steals in 12 EuroLeague games with AEK Athens. Impressed, Dumars invited Jenkins to summer camp in 2004. In summer camp, he averaged 8.2 points and 2.8 assists per game in 5 games. That was enough to garner a guaranteed contract from the Pistons, which he signed on August 4, 2004. His contract was a one-year deal worth $385,277. Jenkins started the 2004–05 NBA season on the injured list, but he did see NBA game action 15 times. He was on the bench for the raising of the Pistons' 2004 championship banner, as well as the Pacers–Pistons brawl. Rumors circulated that he was being traded to the Chicago Bulls, and also that he was going to leave the Pistons and return to Italy. His NBA debut was a two-minute stint against the San Antonio Spurs. He scored 9 points the next night against the New Orleans Hornets. Jenkins scored a career-high 10 points on December 10, 2004, against the Atlanta Hawks. He was one of only three Pistons to score in double figures in that game. He scored 2 points in his hometown of New Jersey on February 5, 2005. Five nights later, in a rematch of the 2004 NBA Finals, Jenkins scored 8 points, in only 6 minutes against the Los Angeles Lakers. He scored 6 points in 20 minutes in his final NBA game, which was against the Charlotte Bobcats. Although he was left off the playoff roster, the Pistons made the NBA Finals for the second straight year. Jenkins was notable for being one of the oldest rookies in the NBA, and his life story was the subject of a short presentation narrated by Jamie Foxx, on ABC, during the 2005 NBA Finals. Jenkins took the long route to the NBA, working to support his family, and then playing in Europe, before signing his first NBA contract, at the age of 29. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/letssipandtalkwithfrema/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/letssipandtalkwithfrema/support

Union County College gets a record-setting donation and snow disrupts life for many Cranford residents. More on those stories, along with CHS sports and the weekend forecast, in this week's Cranford Radio headlines.

Toni Ann Marcolini Toni Ann Marcolini has been practicing law for 28 years. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Political Science from St. John's University and her Juris Doctorate from Seton Hall University School of Law. Over her career, she has been named to the list of top 100 trial lawyers in New Jersey by The National Trial Lawyers, named a Rising Star on the Superlawyers list published by NJ Monthly magazine, was Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Matrimonial Law Attorney and served as an appointed Panelist in Middlesex County for the court's Early Settlement Panel program. She has taught law at Wagner College in New York and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Business Law at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey and at Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey. Ms. Marcolini has argued cases before the Supreme Court in New Jersey, the United States Federal District Court, the Appellate Division and has extensive trial experience. She presently serves as General Counsel to the prestigious United States Presidential Culinary Museum. Angel Ribo Angel RIBO, known as The CEO Confidant, is an Influencer, International TV Host, Public Speaker, CEO Consultant, Board Member, and Philanthropist.

Doing Something Meaningful for Food Insecurity Doing something meaningful for food insecurity is something we can all do. In the spirit of the holiday season, the Food Institute Podcast welcomed Hugh Welsh, general counsel, secretary, and president of DSM North America, to discuss the company's approach to philanthropic actions across the globe. Welsh shares insights on DSM's pilot programs in Africa to add a nutritional component to food aid, its partnership with Nobel Prize winner the World Food Program, how COVID-19 complicated philanthropic efforts in 2020, and the company's plans for the future to continue is charitable mission. Hosted By: Chris Campbell Audio Recorded: Dec. 2, 2020 Join the Food Institute Today! More About Hugh Welsh: Hugh is the President & General Counsel of DSM North America where he has worked for 17 years. DSM is a global leader in health, nutrition and sustainable materials with operations in 60 countries, 23,000 employees worldwide and $12 billion in sales. In his role Hugh is responsible for operations across 38 sites in the US and Canada. Hugh also serves as the General Counsel and Secretary of a DSM venture in Kigali Rwanda called Africa Improved Foods and serves on the Board of Directors of the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, BIO, the Global Business Alliance, Partners in Foods Solutions, the Seafood Nutrition Partnership and on the Board of Governors of Union County College. To learn more about DSM, please visit: http://www.dsm.com Follow on Twitter! @DSM @HughCWelsh

The 100th anniversary of Negro Leagues Baseball is being celebrated this year, especially by two men who mutually respect each other's talents and passions. The latest guests on SportsJam with Doug Doyle are New York-based musician, playwright and educator Kevin Kane and Black Baseball author and historian Dr. Lawrence Hogan. Hogan is also a Professor Emeritus of History at Union County College. Kane, who taught more than a decade at Wagner College and is now teaching in the New York school system, penned a popular Negro League-version of the legendary poem "Casey at the Bat" called Breaking the Line With the Mudville Nine . The YouTube version of Breaking The Line With the Mudville Nine can be seen and heard right here featuring the saxophone work of Bill Saxton. Kane and Dr. Hogan quickly became friends after a few events together. "I worked with Larry a couple of times at Union College and he would just give me a seed, an idea and I performed a long narrative song about Frederick

Community colleges and their students are wrestling with plenty of challenges this fall, including obstacles related to affordability, childcare and the digital divide. We spoke with two community college leaders to hear what their institutions are doing to help keep students on track. Sue Ellspermann is president of Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana's statewide two-year system. She spoke about how Ivy Tech used its CARES Act funding and what she'd like to see in a future federal stimulus. We also spoke with Margaret McMenamin, president of Union County College in New Jersey. She talked about the pandemic's impact on enrollment and what the college is doing to make sure all students can access online courses. This episode is sponsored by Cengage, from online to hyflex learning, Cengage supports your changing pedagogy at scale. Learn more at cengage.com/institutional.

Real Talk Real Solutions focuses on Minority Mental Health Awareness this episode. Just as any other physical ailment/illness we want to take the stigma off of mental illness and provide advice and resources for the listeners. We can no longer normalize trauma. Be okay with not being OKAY! "Being a strong black woman is killing us". Dashua Hinton Special guest Dashua Unita Hinton is a professional who serves as an educator, mentor, advocate, and counselor. She aspires to impact her community through empowerment and dedication to the helping profession. She has and continues to present various workshops and seminars within her community and is passionate about helping youth to discover their true purpose in life and the resilience that they embody to withstand any obstacle. A native of Newark NJ, Dashua holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Kean University and a Masters from Rutgers University formally, Dashua is an active member of her community and volunteers monthly as an Executive Board member for the Union County Family Support Organization- FSO and with “Sam's House,” She has also dedicated many years as an Advisory Board Member for NAMI-AACT-NOW, an affiliate of the National Alliance of Mental Illness which promotes mental health wellness, outreach and resources within the African American community. Currently, Dashua is employed as a Professional School Counselor with the East Orange Public School District and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Union County College. She has a wealth of experience working in the area of Mental Health and Rehabilitation Counseling and is passionate about her life's calling. Her motto is “The best is yet to come.” Dashua realizes that her gift to inspire and counsel is given by God and to Him be all the Glory.

A presentation on a proposed cell tower on the campus of Union County College has been postponed and a different kind of health and wellness event will take place in town on Saturday. More on those stories, along with a look at what's coming up this weekend, in this week's edition of Cranford Radio headlines.

A public meeting to consider a contentious proposal for a cell tower on the campus of Union County College has been postponed and Cranford cops got a dunking for a worthy cause.A taste of fall is in the air for this weekend's weather and it should make Sunday's downtown street fair very comfortable.More on these stories in this week's Cranford Radio headlines.

Seventh District Congressman Tom Malinowski held a town hall at Union County College in Cranford Saturday afternoon. Audience members had an opportunity to ask the new representative questions on a variety of topics. At the conclusion, Cranford Radio spoke with the representative about the event and his first months in Congress.

Have a sudden urge to serve on the township committee? Check out this week's headlines for what you need to do in the next week if you want to be on the ballot. New Jersey teams may be out of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, but the Union County College women's basketball team is going strong in their quest for a national championship. CHS sports, the weekend weather, and upcoming events round out this week's edition of Cranford Radio headlines.

‘Instead of buying my children all the things I never had, I will teach them all the things I was never taught. Material things wear out but knowledge empowers generations to come.” -Unknown The value of a great education is priceless. Learning how to properly advocate for your child’s educational needs is beneficial for every family. This week MomLife: Yes I Can sat down with Artresia Fryar,LSW to discuss the proper steps and tools on advocating for your child(ren) when it comes to education. Artresia Fryar was born and raised in Plainfield, NJ. She has a Bachelors degree in Business from William Paterson University. Ms Fryar also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a Master’s in Social Work. She has worked with several school outreach programs, correctional facilities for adolescents, and as a high school counselor. Ms Fryar is adamant about giving back to her community and uplifting the youth. She is currently an adjunct professor at Union County College and a Field Liaison that mentors social work students at Rutgers University. In this episode we discuss: Characteristics of a good teacher. How to effectively speak with a teacher who you disagree with. The power of documentation and school chain of command. How to manage school issued devices. Standardized test. How to reduce child anxiety. www.momlifeyesican.com www.facebook.com/MLYIC www.instagram.com/momlife_yesican Questions can also be left on our voicemail 1 (973) 378-1944 Or you can email us at www.momlife.yesican.com    

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Union) and Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi (R-Bergen) held a town hall meeting Tuesday night at Union County College on the issue of affordable housing. The issue has been a hot topic in Cranford with developments on Birchwood and Walnut avenues. Before the meeting, Cranford Radio spoke with Assemblyman Bramnick.

Welcome to spring! (I think) The top Cranford story of the week was the storm that dumped more snow on the town. The good news is the extended forecast has no mention of a fifth nor'easter. The Union County College women's basketball team is in Arkansas competing in the National Junior College Athletic Association's National Tournament. Back in New Jersey, the CHS spring sports will be in action.

If we can make it through some rough weather Friday and early Saturday morning, it looks like a pretty good weekend. In the headlines from the past week, Gabe Bailer has assumed the role of Downtown Director from the retired Kathleen Miller Prunty. The survey for the draft downtown strategic plan is now available for your comments. There will be extended hours for the Cranford Public Library starting in April.  The girls swimming team and the cheerleading squad will be busy this weekend and the Union County College baseball and lacrosse teams are scheduled to start their seasons.

The Cranford Township Committee has made changes to the North Avenue Redevelopment Study concerning the properties that are a part of the study and the use of eminent domain.  The Trinitas School of Nursing held their graduation ceremony in Cranford on Sunday and the Knights of Columbus have made a donation to the Cranford Municipal Alliance. Lots of sports action taking place at both CHS and Union County College and the weekend's looking warmer. You'll hear details on these stories and weekend events in this week's Cranford Radio headlines.

One new member joins the Cranford Township Committee and Cranford digs out and tries to stay warm following a storm. I doubt anyone will feel any warmth listening to the weekend forecast, but you can keep you mind off the weather by taking in a CHS or Union County College sporting event.

It's easy to miss the William Miller Sperry Observatory as you drive around town. After all, it's deep within the campus of Union County College. Every Friday night, a group interested in the skies above Cranford gather there to look at the Moon, planets and stars. Amateur Astronomers, Inc. makes their telescopes available to the public as one part of their multifaceted outreach. President Mary Ducca, Vice President Aaron Zuckerman and member Jim Nordhausen talked to Cranford Radio about AAI and how they promote an interest in the science of astronomy.

This weekend's headlines include the Cranford Township Committee taking action on the Birchwood Avenue site, an endowed scholarship from the Cranford FMBA to Union County College, your weekend weather forecast and some holiday events taking place around town.

Former President Bill Clinton stopped in Cranford to campaign for his wife, Hillary Clinton, in advance of Tuesday's New Jersey primary. Derek Roseman serves as the communications director of Hillary for New Jersey and Cranford Radio spoke with him about the campaign.

In this segment we look at the universal design concepts, techniques and digital technologies that can be applied to online classes. Follow:@BethRitterGuth @coolcatteacher @bamradionetwork #edtechchat #edchat #edtech Beth Ritter-Guth is the Director of Instructional Design and the Director of American Honors at Union County College in Cranford, NJ. Her work using virtual worlds and commercial gaming to teach literature has been recognized by the Chronicle of Higher Education, America Online, Wired Magazine, and USA Today. Beth has received several teaching awards including the NAIS Faculty of the Future Award and the Nobel Teacher of Distinction Award.

Union County College has proposed building a soccer/lacrosse field and track on its Cranford campus. The plan has raised objections from neighbors to the college. In a two-part interview we hear from a representative of the college and a member of Cranford's Environmental Commission. In this part, Dr. Stephen Nacco, Vice President Administrative Service and Executive Assistant to the President, presents the college's views.

Union County College has proposed building a soccer/lacrosse field and track on its Cranford campus. The plan has raised objections from neighbors to the college. In a two-part interview we hear from a representative of the college and a member of Cranford's Environmental Commission. In this part, Steve Jandoli presents views against the proposal.

"A Service and a Commitment". Battalion Chief John Alston, of the Jersey City Fire Department, gives the Keynote Address to the Fire Recruits graduating from the Union County Fire Academy. The ceremonies were held on the campus of Union County College; Cranford Campus.

Across the history of black baseball, ball players and musicians played off each other in a lifetime mutual admiration and inspiration society. They were constantly meeting on their travels, crossing paths as they moved across the country. They enjoyed, indeed loved, what each other did, and they enjoyed each other's company. Larry Hogan and Bob Cvornyek explore the many-pronged connection between black music and black baseball found in the history of both genres.Dr. Lawrence Hogan is Senior Professor of History at Union County College. Dr. Robert Cvornyek is Professor of History at Rhode Island College. Recorded On: Saturday, October 29, 2011