His full schedule and life are what attracted Solomon to Fielding’s flexible model, but it is the university’s commitment to social justice that inspires him, as does receiving the Institute for Social Innovation Scholarship this year for his submission: “Community Theatre:  A Holistic Mentoring.”

“My scholarship helped me in multiple ways,” Solomon says. “It was a huge vote of confidence from the school I’d fallen in love with (ELC), encouraged me in my work, and helped me formulate my dissertation interest. It has been an honor to be the recipient of one of the ISI awards and I am sincerely grateful.”

Practically speaking, the ISI Scholarship helped Solomon purchase the video equipment for his study: How does theater as a living system act as a mentoring agent for the socialization of African-American young people?

 Now well on the way in his research, Solomon’s Fielding experience has awakened his scholarly voice and his love of lifelong learning. Even more, he says, “I realized I want to be a change agent in my community. The collaborative experience at Fielding has helped me see that beyond my professional goals I have an opportunity to be part of a bigger picture, by addressing some of the needs in the community where I live.”

“I’ll be retiring in a few years. I want to spend the rest of my life giving back to my community which is in dire need of leaders.”

You can help more students like Kevin reduce tuition and other fees, attend session, and pursue deeper study and research opportunities through your gift to a scholarship fund. Your support can make a Fielding education more accessible to students who otherwise may not have the opportunity. Help demonstrate that Fielding is within their reach.

New Founders’ Circle Member

One of the university’s most veteran and beloved personages, Don Bushnell, recently announced that he has named Fielding Graduate University in his estate plans, “to contribute to the longevity of Fielding and its economic security.”

Intimately connected to Fielding from its early years, Don has been an influential force in making the university what it is today. Among his numerous roles, he was founding dean of the School of Human & Organizational Development (HOD), mentoring faculty for many years, and a co-creator of the Center for Innovation in the Nonprofit Sector. He is now a distinguished faculty emeritus and an active contributor to Fielding’s Institute for Social Innovation.

Don’s bequest will help Fielding continue its mission into the future, and sustain what he believes are some of the university’s most valuable attributes.

“For me, Fielding emphatically embraces the five principles of open systems: Collaboration, openness, sharing, integrity and interdependence,” he says.” In all the years that I’ve spent in educational institutions, I don’t know of any that practiced all those principles. They are the core values that make us unique in graduate education.”

Those values have been fundamental to Fielding since its beginnings when Don and the Fielding founders were “interested in leadership styles, flat organizations, democratic organizations, if you will.” From the start, “the faculty was imbued with a sense of equality and an openness of communication,” he notes.

Social action and social entrepreneurship are additional passions of Don’s and another area where he believes Fielding brings value to the world. As founding dean, he guided the School of HOD in that direction. “I started HOD as a training ground for nonprofit directors,” he says, “and loved getting our corporate-sponsored students in touch with the nonprofit sector. They embraced this kind of work.” He is still in contact with alumni who shifted to nonprofit work from the corporate world following their Fielding experience. “I loved working with mature adults who were motivated to make change, which is why they came to Fielding.”

Fielding Graduate University is honored by Don’s lifetime of work on behalf of the university and by his generous planned gift, which will make a difference to Fielding’s future and help preserve the values that we all deeply appreciate.

Gyllenpalm is a 1995 graduate of the School of Human & Organizational Development, a faculty emeritus of that school, and has served two tenures on the Board of Trustees, the latest since 2007.

Elizabeth—Libby—Douvan  was a beloved HOD faculty member for nineteen years.  A feminist scholar, she served on 131 dissertation committees, co-facilitated the Michigan cluster of HOD/PSY students and was a source of inspiration to faculty and students alike.  The Elizabeth Douvan Post-Doctoral Fellowship was created by a handful of alumni In her memory and to preserve her legacy. The annual donor-funded scholarship is awarded to an HOD graduate who is engaged in post-doctoral work that reflects original thinking and is in keeping with the spirit of Libby Douvan’s scholarship which emphasized fun, alternate ways of knowing, and how our view of the world makes a difference.

The latest recipients of the Elizabeth Douvan Post-Doctoral Fellowship include:

Jeff Leinaweaver, PhD 

Dialogues on Sustainability & Self: Embracing the Other as Kin

I am interested in researching the unexamined assumptions of our origin and creation stories to better understand why we frame “the other” as being the stranger instead of kin and why Western society views the Earth in a similar detached way. How can society develop new narratives and mythologies that support sustainability initiatives which embrace all life on this planet? How do we reframe Earth as other into Earth as mother?

Project: Dialogic research via a series of World Cafes as action research events to explore this archetypal theme of “the orphan and the other” in a series of dialogues on sustainability and self. I believe this work will impact individual and community change by increasing the capacity for conversational leadership toward creating a globally sustainable civil society and healing the schisms which keep people feeling isolated and disconnected in an era of great change.

Jaque Goulbourne, PhD

Acculturation to Avert Failure of Medical Students

In my work with university medical students (in Jamaica) I have watched the numbers of intake increase over the past three years, from 100 to nearly 300 students. As the numbers increased, so did the failures. The increase in numbers represents an increase in international students. The school attracts students from Botswana, United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), and the other Caribbean territories. The failure is widespread to include all students but mostly foreign or non-Jamaican students.

To my mind, the failures were not due to academic abilities but more so to the lack of proper orientation and definitely to the absence of a deliberate acculturation process.

Acculturation here means the process of anticipatory socialization for the smooth transitioning into a new or different culture. I realized it was not sufficient to teach these students personal and professional development (PPD) communication skills, they needed a program of orientation and acculturation, which I developed.

Project:  I am creating a booklet that will aid students to study smartly and with less stress for greater success. The book which is also a part of the acculturation process is titled “Learn Most with Least Effort: A Practical Guide to Academic Excellence”. This work in PPD is directly related to my Fielding work. It is an innovation in that no program existed in this form for medical students at my present job. My post doctoral work will honor the memory of, and is in keeping with, the spirit of Libby Douvan because this work not only emphasizes human and organizational development but provides less stressful and fun ways of transitioning. Personally, it brings satisfaction as it underscores how Fielding University has empowered me to make a difference to medical education at UWI Mona. Medical studies have also become fun and achievable as highlighted by many of the students I have helped.

Marilyn Price-Mitchell, PhD

Fostering Citizenship in Young People: Family-School-Community Conversations That Matter

A 2010 graduate of HOD, my dissertation focused on how young people become participatory and justice-oriented citizens. No longer can we view citizenship through the single lens of social psychology, political science, or human development. Neither can we cling to positivist worldviews that limit our understanding of how meaning is derived from transformative civic and life experiences. Like Libby Douvan, I am passionate about understanding the shifting roles of families in America, particularly how they partner with schools and communities to develop engaged young citizens. I believe Libby would agree that adults have a responsibility to foster citizenship during the formative adolescent years. Through story-telling and dialogue, we have the capacity to connect to the meaning of citizenship in new and compelling ways. And we have the power to influence a new generation of engaged youth.

Project:  Using the stories of engaged young citizens from my dissertation research to spark dialogue, I plan to design and conduct 1 ½ to 2 hour public workshops where adult learners focus on one important question: How do families, schools, and communities foster participatory and justice-oriented young citizens? Combining an inspiring presentation that includes photos and video of active young citizens with a World Café discussion to expand and apply learning, these workshops will help generate ideas and knowledge that can meaningfully impact the actions of families, schools, and communities. Small group discussions will be recorded for content, then transcribed and analyzed with qualitative analysis software to glean common themes. If successful, Phase II of the project will include the production of a short, documentary video and Leader Guide that will enable the workshops to be led by facilitators in school communities nationwide.

The fund will provide fellowships for Fielding students and alumni to participate and learn with the Dreamfish cooperative. Through mutual support, the cooperative enables its members to start and grow a micro-business with zero capital, exchange services and resources in an online marketplace, and learn in peer groups and work community.

The first Fielding Dreamfish Fellows to be selected are HOD student Jim MacQueen and alumna Charlyn Fareed Green (HOD 06).

Dr. Charles N. Seashore

The Malcolm Knowles Chair in Adult Learning—Fielding’s first endowed faculty chair—was presented to Charles N. Seashore, PhD, on January 12, 2010.

The award was made at Fielding Winter Session 2010 before an assembly of more than 200 School of Human & Organizational Development (HOD) students, faculty, and alumni from around the globe.

The thoughtful generosity of Fielding alumni, faculty, and students who donated to the Knowles Chair endowment fund—including former students of Malcolm Knowles—helped make this award possible. Earnings from the endowed fund will be used by Dr. Seashore to engage doctoral students in projects that embody the principles and honor the legacy of Malcolm Knowles, who was a founding HOD faculty member and a renowned scholar in the area of adult learning and social change.

Seashore, a Fielding faculty member in the School of HOD since 1985, is a nationally recognized leader in organizational development, group process, and use of self in coaching and consulting. He is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Organization Development Network (ODNet) in recognition of his many accomplishments.

Catherine’s academic concentration in the prevention and treatment of violence led her to focus her dissertation topic on the role of emotional contagion and flooding in the group process of children exposed to domestic violence. “An ultimate goal of this dissertation,” Catherine says, “is to help inform the designing of treatment and intervention programs that will improve the emotional well-being and mental health functioning of children who have been exposed to domestic violence.”

Her demonstrated leadership as a School of Psychology student and the importance of her dissertation topic have earned Catherine two Fielding scholarships. The Baker Foundation Fellowship rewards leadership and scholastic achievement; the Institute for Social Innovation Dissertation Scholarship supports research that blends multidisciplinary theory and professional practice. Both have helped her advance toward her doctorate, relieving financial stress and reinforcing her commitment to her research. “Because the topic is very important to me, I am glad to have it recognized as helpful on a social level.”

With her doctorate in hand this coming year, Catherine plans to conduct clinical work with children and families who are survivors of relational trauma and—as a consequence of her experience with undergraduate and graduate research—devote part of her time to research and teaching. Catherine – and Fielding – extend their gratitude to the generous donors who made her scholarship possible.

Martha’s loyalty extends to her philanthropy as well – she hasn’t missed a year since she started donating to Fielding in 2001, one year before she received her PhD from Fielding.

“I always give to the Elizabeth Douvan Post-Doctoral Fellowship, “ Martha says.  Elizabeth “Libby” Douvan was chair of Martha’s dissertation committee and had an enormous impact on her academic experience. “She was a smart, gentle shepherd. I was one of many lucky students who learned from her.”

Created to honor the revered faculty member upon her death, the fund for the Elizabeth Douvan Post-Doctoral Fellowship provides support to HOD graduates whose work reflects the spirit of Dr. Douvan’s own rigorous scholarship, which included a sense of fun and genuine care for others.

Martha believes she was meant to honor Libby Douvan by donating to the fellowships in support of research, women, and the furtherance of adult learning.  “I feel responsible for the fund. It’s a good way to feel connected,” she says, and adds, “It’s exciting to see the direct impact of what I am giving.”

Indeed, Douvan Fellows are making a difference around the globe. Recent projects include providing  training in life skills and leadership to children in Uganda; storytelling and guided movement exploration with HIV-positive women in the US; and research into the ways survivors of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks in Israel and the West Bank find  meaning and purpose as a result of their experiences.

“This is the way I choose to give, and of course there are many other ways to give to Fielding, including general operating support. Fielding models a set of academic, social, and life values which I hold dear. This is the right community to support.”