“That’s pretty rare to have someone who already has this amount of international experience when they’re just in their early 20’s graduating unless you’re very very privileged.”
Think about how different the world is from how it was 100 years ago. A century ago we barely had cars, paved roads, or phones. The world wasn’t connected by air travel, television, computers, or the internet. Revolutionary advancements make the modern world unrecognizable from the not so distant past. Yet there are certain places you can go where the impact of progress is less felt. If you were to enroll in a university and go to class a century ago things would flow in a very similar way to how they do today. The clothes and culture would stand out far more than the format of classes and education as a whole. Today’s guest, and the university he works for, is aiming to change that. Laurence works for Minerva University where the progress is the norm, the world is your classroom, and skill mastery is on the agenda. It’s time for revolutionary advancement to come to the world of education.
“If you talk to Ben Nelson, the founder, he had a lot of specific goals around what Minerva could and should be, and it’s definitely in large part a reaction to the current system [and it’s problems].”
“Unlike other places where if you graduated from that place you might wonder, “well, what did a person learn who came here?” and have no idea, even looking at their transcript. When you graduate from Minerva you should have a pretty good idea of exactly what somebody knows.”
Interview Contents
5:10 - The differences between Minerva and a typical university.
5:10 - A global classroom.
6:15 - Active learning.
7:30 - Core foundational learning concepts.
13:10 - Using the world as your campus and classroom.
18:15 - The goal of Minerva and what Minerva aimed to change.
22:00 - The inaugural class at Minerva.
24:30 - The admission process and requirements.
28:20 - The faculty.
30:00 - The degrees that you can earn.
34:00 - The challenges and legal hoops to jump through to start a university.
37:00 - The new world landscape and the challenges that makes for the school.
40:30 - Laurence’s desire to be a part of Minerva.
43:45 - Advice.
46:45 - Acceptance rate and where to check out Minerva.
Links
THIS EPISODE WAS MADE WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Roxanna
Michelle & Jim Wortner
Janelle Swanson
Jimmy Seymour
