Always Lifting

The Future of Education | Always Lifting Ep. 10

• Karen Norheim • Season 3 • Episode 10

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0:00 | 52:34

Today’s guest is Dr. Adelle Shade, Chief Innovation Officer at Alvernia University and founder of Total Experience Learning (TExpL), a framework helping educators create innovative, student-centered learning environments.

We talk about:
- What TExpL is and how it connects student interests to academic standards
- Why teachers are essentially project managers
- What innovative classrooms look like in real life
- Student outcomes, including entrepreneurship and patent-worthy ideas
- Scaling a mission, building culture, and the future of education

Subscribe for more episodes and remember to always lift.

More info:
Connect with Adelle https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelle-schade/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3BAlVYjmoAS%2FSVGNSzTanT1g%3D%3D
Total Experience Learning https://www.alvernia.edu/TExpL
About Alvernia University https://www.alvernia.edu/

SPEAKER_00

Today's guest is one of the most visionary, joyful, and inspiring leaders I know. Dr. Adele Shade is the Vice President of Innovation and Educational Ventures at Alvernia University and the founder of Total Experience Learning, a groundbreaking approach that has transformed how students learn, create, and participate in their own futures. I've had the privilege of getting to know Adele, and she's just an all-around awesome human. Creative, energetic, brilliant, and full of heart. Her journey has grit, imagination, and a whole lot of soul. Adele, I am thrilled that you are here.

SPEAKER_01

Well, thank you, Karen. And I feel joyful today. I do. But I would say I'm right back at you. What an innovative leader you are. And I've been looking forward to this podcast. So thanks for having me on today.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Uh it's been it's exciting to come and see you, to have you come and see me and talk on here, um, both of us being Athena Award winners, which is like such an honor. And having, I think, really met around that time period.

SPEAKER_01

That is when we connected was through the Women to Women for GRCA and the award. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I it's yes, I'm blessed to know you. It's wonderful. Ditto, back at you. Well well, me to start us off for everyone um who's kind of tuned in today, I think it's really important for us to talk a little bit about the work that you do. Do you want to talk a little bit about your role um in your this vice president role that you're doing with Alvernia? And then maybe we can lead into the the program of the total experience learning.

SPEAKER_01

Sure, absolutely. And so my role right now at Alvernia, um, innovation and educational ventures, but it's really the Total Experience Learning Institute at Alvernia University and founded Total Experience Learning. I refer to that as TXPL. TXPL. Okay. As we go through the podcast, I'll probably say TXPL, and that shortens it up a bit. Um but yes, uh, the institute is there. We serve educators and students and really want to support innovative classroom practices and frameworks for entire school systems and districts to be innovative. And that educators and students feel like they have the support to be innovative because setting up innovative environments isn't always an easy thing. Would you agree with that, Karen? It's difficult.

SPEAKER_00

It's difficult, definitely, especially when you have uh sort of a way that things have always been done before, and to try to do something new and and different is hard, especially I would imagine in the educational space.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right. And if you think about education and how traditional it is, it really hasn't changed much in a hundred years. That's remarkable when you think about it. We still have the same schedules for for schools. The classrooms when you walk in, they're starting to change now. Obviously, there's technology in those classrooms now, but some of the rooms you go into, you could take a picture a hundred years ago and it would look almost the same, minus the chalkboard and the dust. But um, you know, and and so changing practices to what's happening and taking a glimpse into your world, and I'm sure it has changed massively if we went back a hundred years. Oh yeah. Right. And so preparing people for that world in an environment which might not have always kept pace with the change, although the educators want the change. Um so how do we support all of them to do those things?

SPEAKER_00

Exciting. When you think of this framework that you're putting in it, like what would uh what does the classroom that is innovative look like in your mind? Like what are some key elements that you would see with the TXPL?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there you go. Um I think what makes it different is uh connecting to every student's interest area while you're still doing what you're supposed to be doing in class. Okay, all those in teacher world eduk, I call it. Everybody has their speak, right? Everybody would say so many acronyms, so many letters, but um ed you speak would say the standards that you need to meet, right? All the test scores you see, those are all on standards, and and you're supposed to meet those. So if you can connect what people love to those standards, they would understand them better, right? When it's in something you're you're interested in. Yeah. But being able to do that's really hard when you're a teacher and you have 30 different kids seven or eight times a day, multiply that out of how many people you see in a day. How do you, as one person, yeah, reach every student's interest and do what you're supposed to do at the same time? And so that's the thing. I took 10 years to study what are some frameworks and strategies to do that. That's what TXPL is. And what I found, what's really interesting, I've um spent a lot of years commuting from here in Brooks County um to Philadelphia, had a variety of degrees there. And at one point, uh Penn at Wharton had business project management workshops running. And I was at University of the Sciences, and we could go um to these workshops. So I went because I knew nothing about it as a teacher. And that was the Eureka. That was that was the light bulb. And I sat in business project management training and said teachers are project managers. No one has ever shown us these skills. So interesting. Yeah. Because you have all of these kids. Yeah, all of these things that they're doing, that's what project management is, right? Taking chaos and trying to definitely, I would make less than class. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, and so putting that framework behind then all the research behind what's best to educate people, I mix those two things. So that's what makes TXPL so different, and and that the outcome of the end at the end, yes. Do we want the education standards met? Absolutely, and they will be. But we want kids to be able to explore, invent, answer questions they have at the same time, it makes it so much more meaningful. Right? The real goal is, should be happy students and teachers walking into a school building every day. Excited to be there. That's the big goal.

SPEAKER_00

I love that, right? I love that. And so let's rewind a little bit. So um, I love, you know, you've given us sort of the idea of what it is, which it sounds like to me, you're you're combining passion with learning for better outcomes, and you've created this framework and tool set that you're able to give teachers, educators, and also work with students on. Does that sound right?

SPEAKER_01

That is, yeah. And it's it's having an actual framework as a teacher, as an educator, and you could do this at any any age group. Doesn't matter how old the student is. We have 65-year-olds in our grab courses learning this way. Um so having that educator feel like it's possible. Because much of the time when a teacher's in that room and has that many kids, they think, I can't manage for them all to be doing all 200 of them to be doing something different. It feels overwhelming. Now, you know, we've kind of put together a framework that that makes them feel comfortable. That's amazing. What it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So you mean you've talked about the moment when you were at Penn and you had this sort of Eureka moment, but I know some of your backstory. Yeah. Take me all the way back to where you even your your path and stepping stones to where you are today. Because I think you have such an incredible journey as an educator yourself. Um, and then getting to this point where you're essentially the founder of a business and even more and a tool and a tech technology, right? Of how to how to do this.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right. Um, so first I'd say there were so many people that helped me along the way because going back, if I go back 15 years, there is no way I would have thought 15 years ago that I would be doing what I'm doing today. And Karen, you and I talk about this sometimes, right? I mean, when if you go back 20 years, would you have identified, hey, I'm gonna bang my own podcast and write a book and you know, all these things, you know? Um, and I think, you know, going back that 15 years, my goal to start was to have a really great after-school science club at Comrade Wiser High School. Um, because I was at Comrade Wiser. Um, I can say that Comrade Wiser for me was such a great place for this to have its foundation and where it was created, because there were um many supports there to actually take risk and be innovative. So I would do want to credit back to back to that. My principal that was there, our administration, superintendent were all great with that and really allowed you to kind of explore.

SPEAKER_00

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, I wanted to have a great after-school club. And and so started with 12 students one summer, and we had a great time, and they did, I mean, the research the research these kids were doing, you know, they were in our classrooms month of July reading 20-page intense published research papers, teenagers in July. I was gonna say, but this is reading papers that adults don't want to read. So, you know, but they were so passionate about it. And I thought, wow, you know, if you if you put opportunity out there, students gravitate towards it. You know, if you if you really find out what they love, they gravitate toward towards it. But how do we make the adults feel like they can handle it? Right. So started there. Um funny story. And and anyone in schools in the early 2000s would relate to this in the audience. Um I'm teaching, and this was the time where you still had tube TVs and there's that big tube TV stationed in the corner of the classroom. Was it on a cart that you roll around? It was actually mounted. Oh that was a step up from the 80s where we'd be driving them through the carways. Um, so this you know, huge TV mounted in the corner, and we were prepping for standardized tests, and at random times in the day, a test question would pop up on the screen, and every class would stop and do this test question. And and, you know, teachers weren't happy, students weren't happy. But it it and it was a great um kind of I'll say attempt at really trying to say, like, hey, these standards are important, we need to do those things. Absolutely. Um, but relating that to what the students are doing, I think was some of the the piece that was missing. So that's that's what I wanted to address. Like, how do how do you bring those things together? Then started changing the way I was operating my classroom. Um was bringing business and industry in a lot. That was also fun. So over time, my students got so accustomed to visitors in that classroom, they would ask me on a Monday, Michade, who's who's coming in this week? Well, is that the CEO of that company? Because aren't the CEOs supposed to come see us? I thought, yeah, sorry, we're there. Um yeah, yeah. So we had all of these business folks coming through. And at one point, um, one of them said to me, I should have signed an NDA before I saw that student's work. And that was the first time we really started to wrap our heads around when students are given opportunity, they can make real intellectual property too. Which was again, did I have that vision? No, that would be a no. But but it was a great byproduct. Yeah. Um, we now this year we're up to 15 patents applied for or received by high school students. It's incredible in the last four years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's incredible in Berks County. That yeah, that's that's awesome. Tell us about some of those patents. Like if you give us some examples of what they were able to create.

SPEAKER_01

I can, yeah. Um, and it blows my mind. But there's one one young lady. Um, we were on the morning show for Fox and Friends about a year, a year and a half ago. Um, she was a Wilson, Wilson High School grad, started working with us in fifth grade. So she had this vision from fifth grade. She had a grandparent with dementia, couldn't remember to take medications. She wanted to make a patch that could deliver those medications through a month so her grandmother wouldn't need to remember to take them, right? But they'd be automatically there in the patch, done. She did that. She made that patch, a pharmaceutical patch that delivers drugs without needles using bioactive glass spheres. She submitted three patent applications on it. She received two. And um just one last summer, New York State's business competition for the entire state, got venture funders. Wow. So now she's 18. She has her own company called Patch Life, trademarked. Of course, we taught her that. Protect everything. Yeah, so we're I'll say that on the pocket. Protect everything that you create, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Um such great advice. And oh my god, you're giving me goosebumps with the story.

SPEAKER_01

So and we can we can teach students that yeah, you know, so yeah, she she has patch life, funding behind it, two out of three patents on this pharmaceutical patch, and she's 18 and started that in fifth grade. Wow. All right, so that's that's one example. We have some other students who figured out a way to make glass, like the glass product out of chicken manure. So great sustainability podcast topic. I love it.

unknown

Chicken poop. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, and and again, it was an interesting. There was a uh speaker we had come into class, the secretary um of agriculture for the state of Pennsylvania. We had a completely separate business partner from Missouri and Bioactive Glasses. There were three sophomore young ladies at the time, heard both, heard our secretary of ag say one of the largest problems to the environment in Pennsylvania is too much chicken manure sitting in all the fields, leaching into our water supply, causing havoc in the Chesapeake. Said, figure out something to do with this manure that's not biofuel or fertilizer. They figured out the chemical. Now you're gonna learn about the chemicals in chicken manure. Hey, are the same as the chemicals in glass. Really? So they said, well, then can't we just because the buy the chemicals to make glass can get expensive. You're buying these pure chemicals and have to mix them. They're like, but if they're the same, can't we just use that? And chicken manure is like $15 a ton. It's probably because a ton of um and and so we went to our signus, they have a glass research lab and we did it. And that that project's still going on under a company now called Gemelina Glass LLC. So those are some examples. Of course, that's not the goal of total experience learning isn't just to get kids to do that. I think the important part of that is when you set up great innovative educational environments, you really don't know how much opportunity you're gonna open up for people. And you'll have things come out of it that you would never ever expect. Yeah. We again, who would plan? Hey, I'm gonna have my class make glass out of chicken manure today.

SPEAKER_00

That uh it's fantastic. Yeah, the the innovation in there to be able to create that space. I like this whole concept too, where you're saying that's not actually the goal, but it's the byproduct of the process, um, which just even solidifies. I mean, you've changed the lives of, you know, it sounds like there's over 15 patents, but there's over, I don't know how many students have gone through your program. You're just talking about two that ended up the reach must the ripple effect must be profound.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes. And and especially when you engage teachers and you think about how many students they see in a day, that that, you know, is exponential.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Then um, you know, one teacher, 200 students in a year, you can multiply that out year by year and how many people you reach that way. Yeah. So it's exciting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. Yeah, you must be very proud just to see all of this and to feel how you're transforming students. And I guess what did they how have the educators that you've worked with and they're learning this? Have you got any s feedback or stories from them on what it feels like to have the right tools and to be able to do this kind of work?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, some great educator stories. And really um, they're the ones driving all of what's happening in TXPL, right? TXPL, I explain this sometimes like a ground-up movement. Right? If you think about education frameworks and movements, and this didn't come down from our, you know, Department of Ed as a mandate. This wasn't, you know, some big hot shot somewhere sitting behind a desk. It started, started, you know, with me at one point in a classroom. I would I was a classroom teacher. That's what it is now, right? So it's all these classroom teachers saying, we're ready to change and we're ready to do it, and let's go. And then their administrators are supporting them. Yeah, you know, we have so many um amazing administrators in education right now as well, ready to take risk. I think COVID opened the door for a lot of this because you had to do things so different. Now there's no going back. You had to change.

SPEAKER_00

You had to change, you had to think differently anyway. So you might as well keep going on the path.

SPEAKER_01

So I think it's just open the door to innovation. Administrators are supporting teachers to be innovative. It's just um moving that way. And I think that that is for me the most rewarding part of this is knowing um I really don't feel like I'm driving it. It's them.

SPEAKER_00

Taking on a life of its own. Yes, that's it.

SPEAKER_01

It's cool. Um we go uh when we have people to that want to come visit and see what it looks like in a in a classroom, and we take visitors to Berks County, we've gotten them from all over the country now coming in um to see what's going on. And so we connect with our local school districts who are doing it and move those visits around to different places. And uh one of the places we take visitors is Governor Mifflin School District, who has a robust um program. Um that district is is very innovative, as as are many others in Burke's.

SPEAKER_00

But what would the classroom there look like? Just to give us a window into it. What is something unique that we wouldn't see?

SPEAKER_01

You would walk in and it first thing you notice is it's not silent, right? Um it's it's people in groups and talking and would not look like the traditional classroom of rows with someone up in front talking. Gotcha. Now, not that you never, you know, have to give again, as you speak calls that direct instruction when you have one person in front talking to a group, like a lecture. Gotcha. Doesn't mean that never happens, but it needs to be really short, right? Six, seven minutes attention span then would be gone. Um, and then you're actually doing something. Um, so being able again to kind of chunk that into pieces and put together something that flows and makes sense for the the educator or the person in charge of the room, it's a lot of work ahead of time and they become less the the the we call them the the guide on the side instead of the sage on the stage. Right. So you become more of a facilitator, then you're going to sit and listen to what I tell you for the next hour. You know, guide on the stage.

SPEAKER_00

A different way. Say versus the sage on the stage. I I love that. Yeah. Those six to seven minutes. I mean, it it sounds to me, and you can tell me if I'm uh um hitting a parallel for you, that there's a bit of I, you know, I I like to talk about storytelling, and there's storytelling in um, because we learn through stories. It sounds to me as if you're almost crafting an experiential story where you're setting up some piece of it, knowing none of us have these long attention spans. I mean, gosh, we're in the world of um, you know, it has to be brief, and there's so much being uh sent to us. Um and then so they're they're getting this this piece, and then they're going in and they're sort of the experience is the actual act of them being in the story themselves as they're figuring it out. Does this feel true to you?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes. And it'll change depending on the class they're in. But I I can give you an example. Um, here's a great example. And if you're from writing at Berks County, it was in the Reading Eagle this year. So you could probably Google this story in in some way. Um, but this was a fourth grade class. Again, I'm going to Governor Mifflin School District. And there's a teacher there, her name's Rachel Sebastian, um, amazing educator. Just she's the librarian there. She created with the fourth grade, um, they recreated an entire city. They had students um by their interest areas break into teams and to start companies. And and they each started a company for the city to operate. Worked with the Greater Reading Chamber. They put this all together for a day and had ribbon cuttings for the business opening. But I'm here's the amazing part. Okay. I walk in um to see them, and I have a fourth grader meet me at the door and say, hello, I'm so and so, right? Don't remember the name, but I'm so and so. And I am the head of communications and marketing. And I thought, I didn't know what that was, so I was like 35 years old, but but um I'm the head of communications and marketing, and I'm going to take you to our human resources area. I thought this is awesome. Yeah, that is awesome. You know, but even the language, so none of that would scare these kids, right? They're being exposed to here's how things operate. Businesses operate in teams. You have people that specialize in areas, right? Understanding those things. Um, but they had to actually make all of those pieces of a company. It wasn't just, hey, we're gonna come up with this idea of like a cookie and we're selling a cookie. This is we had a a group of fourth grade girls um study Caterpillar Incorporated and their equipment. They made sustainability engineering teams within their company and redesigned one of their um pieces so that because they were having trouble with um dry dirt um coming up as they were excavating, they they redesigned that piece so that they had like moisture coming down on the dirt and then a heating unit that would pull up the droplets. I mean, it's this is like real engineering, yeah. They just won a competition in the county for it and are going to Harrisburg to introduce it to the state. Fourth grade, girls, all girls, saying we're engineers and we created caterpillars piece like in fourth grade. Um neat neat to see. But that's an example of what it would be. So so if you take that example, how many subjects you know this because this is what you do every day of your life, how many school subjects would you use making that new piece?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, there's gonna be so many, it's gonna cross over so many different areas. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Being able to read, write, and speak, yes, math, yes. Um and anything else, knowing the history of you know, that piece of land and what happened, and then they were looking at legislation and I mean it because because of the environmental impacts they needed to make sure it was safe. Um all of those things.

SPEAKER_00

That's cool. It it sounds like you know, again, you are creating this movement. I love it, and I love this idea that it's ground up and and sounds like because it is starting with educators, your your the ripple effect you're creating is sustainable. Like it's you know, you do you feel like you're like lighting the fire of uh of all of these people to kind of collectively you know grow even further.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes. And they're all you know, teachers. We collaborate, we talk to each other. And if there's something that helps us, we will tell each other, you know, and that's where I I I said that this is really a uh a bottom-up um movement right now by the the Berks teachers. But this fall we've now expanded TXPL out of Berks County. So we're in the Harrisburg area, we're in Philadelphia, uh, we're up in Allentown, Lancaster, we're in all the counties surrounding Berks now with school districts. That's great and teachers there too. So that's that's been exciting.

SPEAKER_00

Um it sounds like you're going even further. Like you said, you you had people come like across the country um that have been interested. And I know there's been others, even if I'm if I'm correct, I think there's been some businesses or other people who are interested in and how you're applying this. Because it's it sounds like again, this idea around experiential learning is is the key.

SPEAKER_01

That has been an interesting development. And I'll say it's really been able to come about in the last year, which is uh a corporate lens on this. Because again, what we found, you know, when I started this, I was really just thinking about these K to 12 classrooms. Then we've had and people from industry come in to say, I have a whole division of my company that trains my own employees and whatever we need them to know. And sometimes, you know, most of the time, those people aren't trained to be educators. They're people that were good at whatever that skill was who now teach others, but being able to teach someone something is a whole skill in itself. Yeah. Right? There's people we have dedicated our entire professional lives to how do we do that best? It's a science, you know, to know how people's brains actually work. So we're now getting interest from companies and businesses to say, can you help our most of the time it's in the HR, human resources department? Can you help our trainers be more engaging when they're teaching our own employees? You know, we can teach them how to make that experiential. That's great. Well, I said hopefully you're not in your company training, falling asleep or scrolling on your phone.

SPEAKER_00

Um, you know, which I know is the case for for many, many of us out there. And you're I I think it's really awesome that there's a way to kind of evolve, evolve that um for business. So do you any advice for educators who who would be listening or anyone who wants to, you know, what's what's the first crack in getting yourself down the innovative path besides just coming and learning about the TXPL? T XPL, yes. And you know, what is what is um because I imagine that you have, you know, you've had a lot of really great support from the school districts that you've been in and the different people. Is there any sort of advice to someone who's ready to start this journey for for where where they are at?

SPEAKER_01

Sure. Yeah, I think um well, first they could go to Alvernius website anytime. Uh and you'll see Total Experience Learning. There's links at the the top of the homepage for that, uh, and all of our information's there and can reach out anytime um to get involved. So educators, administrators, we have um student programming, we run a robust summer camp. Oh, how many students do you bring? And is it last summer we had 300 students on Alvernia's campus? That's awesome. That's right. Um, and that's for fifth to twelfth grade students. So that's all again online on the website. Um, but anyone could reach out there and get a hold of of us and then we'll direct them into the right area. Um but yeah, that's that's open anytime.

SPEAKER_00

It's great. Well, you're you're creating an ecosystem, I think. You've used this word, I think, before of really kind of lighting the collective fire on all of this. Right. Ah, very cool. Is there anything, you know, uh it this has been a journey for you. And just to kind of go back to to yourself as a leader, I I know how much you view culture being important for your team and what you're working on. Any thoughts on that and how you keep your team energized? Because you're growing thoughts. You're growing at a rapid pace, too. So you are you're both you're both teaching a framework and and figuring out how to keep this piece going, but which is your product, but yeah, at the same time, you're also running a business and you're and you're growing and it's expanding, and I think it's only gonna probably keep growing at uh how fast we are.

SPEAKER_01

We are it it's been a really interesting time, and and would love to even hear, Karen, some of your thoughts as we as we talk about this topic. Yeah. Um it's kind of the topic of being able to scale, right? Uh so we are growing, you know, outside of BRECS this year, um, probably even much further, um, starting next year, and we're starting to look into some other states and how we um go into some other states. And to do that, all the work to be able to do it happens ahead of time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So this past year for TXPL uh for my leadership team, we spent significant time working on the business. Um, you know, and and not like to hear that as much in it, right? Yep. And it was, you know, do we have the right people, right seats, doing the right things with their time? Um are we looking ahead to say, okay, if we do scale this way, where would our workforce be needed in the, you know, for our employees? And then, like you said, the bigger question is when we s when I started and had total experience learning, and at the time it was called Science Research Institute at Comrade Weiser and moved it out of the school to really kind of take this chance. Yeah. I had no idea what would happen, but I did it. Your instincts are spotted.

SPEAKER_00

Your instincts are spot on here as you keep going. I just want you know, your your instincts on, you know, I always like to say it may be foggy, you know you're headed in the right direction. You just make the next three moves, and then as the clouds part, you can you can keep pivoting. Your your instincts have served you so well to get you to where you are here.

SPEAKER_01

Um I I had a lot of help with that. Um a lot of it advising and advisors, but um again, was going to to make that move, and and you really, you know, people ask a lot, well, was that your vision? No. No. And you didn't know if it would if it would work or not. And it and it had the potential not to, you know, to be realistic. It's a you're an entrepreneur, it's it's risk. Um, but that's also what I think is so exciting. So um move that out, and it was just me, one employee, one person, my first hire. Um, her name's Kayla. Um, and she was actually a student of mine at Comrade Weiser and did this her senior year, went to college, was an intern there, came back, and then she was my first hire when I moved this out. She's still with me. So she's been in, I I say she's been with this since her senior year or high school. Um, but it was just the two of us. So go from that to now we're 16 full-time employees, we have over a hundred part-time employees, the culture gets much more difficult. Can you relate? Yes. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

So it's the more you add different things, how do you how do you keep it? How do you, you know, how do you um keep the integrity of your of of the vision of the behaviors? It it's hard when it becomes bigger. You know, definitely.

SPEAKER_01

And it becomes where when you're a small group, some of that just happens naturally, especially when you're in the same space. To we actually now need a strategy and intentional planning behind culture. And that's that's again a spot that we're in because we we we reached that spot where we kind of got through, I'll say startup. Now, past startup, getting ready to expand, I say it and be a real company. That's what I was gonna say. So, how do you get ready to be a real large, right? Larger company.

SPEAKER_00

And it's this has a been a vast journey for you, too. I mean, you've gone from, you know, like the startup phase and and now, you know, really if you're saying you're at 16 but with 100 part-time, I mean, that's yeah, that's a significant size organization. And so now you're probably running into how do I professionalize and put in some standard operating procedures, but you still want to be flexible and you still want to honor what the purpose is, you know, those are real, those are real challenges.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and the operations of that where you where again, when you're so small, you know, one person is doing and knows something, and all three or five of you know because you're all there. And then you say, Oh, now we need an actual process for that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, and it's out and you have to let go of things, right? And and let people help you and yeah, and uh delegate. And those can be things that are really difficult, especially for founders of something.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's challenging. And and um, and and you know, my the the TXPL team is amazing, and they've all been with me and come through this process with me. Um, we wouldn't be doing any of what we're doing without them. Um, and so you know, look looking at that team and the way that they've actually helped manage this, and I shouldn't say help, they they did it. You know, your leadership team does it, does the work. Um, and they're they're the ones that are leading this and you know, checking on the culture and making th sure those things stay in place. And were my first guinea pigs in delegation. So they survived that. You're doing something right. Stock on wood.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, you're doing something right. I feel like the flywheel is turning for you and this perspective um around culture and this idea. You know, I always like to think of it uh as gardening. It's a labor of love, it's something you have to continually work at and continually be planting and and nurturing. And, you know, it's just it sounds like it's top of mind for you, and you're thinking about it. I think that's half the battle is making sure that it's part of the the priority um as well. So then you can work on the great product as well that you are delivering this this uh amazing outcomes that you're having.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And knowing you you um you know that your team has that mindset of startups a unique environment, right? It's a unique mindset of an individual who can um be successful in that kind of environment because you need to be ready to fail often and not see it as failure. Right. Right. You need to be willing to, okay, we're we're starting this up, this is what we're gonna do. Well, this didn't work, we think this will, do it, do it now. And just go, go, go. Yeah. Um, and and be able to do that um and and be okay when things don't work the way you thought they would. Um and it's okay.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, resilience and my you know, my favorite word is grits. It's grit. Yes. It's grit to be able to overcome those obstacles. Um you know, any other big turning points that that kind of are in your mind or that that have happened that you think really led to where you are today?

SPEAKER_01

Um for me personally, it's been the people around me. Um I said it's it when I talk about this and and even being the founder, but it's hard to say you know you know when you are that person that you've you've founded this thing because there was so much help. Right. Um as soon as I started this at Conrabweiser, I had um two individuals, one who's my my uncle, his name's Bud Reit Nower, um, and his friend Tom Sheehan. And and they took me to dinner and sat me down and at that point said, We think you could have something here because yeah, I didn't think that way. I was a classroom teacher. Why would I think about anything different than my club and my classroom? And so they said, We think you have something here, you should protect things you create, and taught me all of that, or I wouldn't I wouldn't be sitting here unless I've known that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Opportunity that they saw opportunity with you and and to to mentor you. I mean, that's such a blessing to have them come in and for you to be open to listen and be like, okay, all right, that's great.

SPEAKER_01

And then they they said the other thing we're gonna do for you is introduce you to other entrepreneurs and leaders, um, and we're gonna surround you with really great people who have character because as you go through this, they they knew it would be hard. I they didn't say that then. They didn't say until this is going to be really, really hard. Um, but um, but worth every moment. But they said, you know, we're gonna surround you with with great people that you can lean on who will look out for you. And surrounding me with great with those people. Um and they were all people with experience, um, and and experience in business outside of education. And so again, I leaned on on them really hard through this time. Um, and I can say every single one of them are still involved now. It's been 10 years. Yeah. Which I can't believe 10 years went by, but it's been 10 years, they're all still involved.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's a testament to what you're doing and a testament to you as an individual, and I think your passion is about this is super infectious. And I think that that, you know, it's not surprising that you're being so successful. And the the point and the insight that you talk about there is none of us are successful by ourselves, right? If anything, whenever, I don't know if if you feel this way, whenever I'm getting stuck, it's usually because I'm trying to do something alone and and I'm not really thinking wider to say, wait, what am I doing? I, you know, there are people who um I work with that can help me, or I don't know. And then also I think the other side of that is when people are seeking help to be willing to step in and help when you feel like it feels um like the right thing to do, like you've just talked about all these wonderful people doing for you.

SPEAKER_01

When you when you look at this, it was all it's all volunteer as well for these people, which stand also stands out to me and I will never forget, which makes me want to do this for the next person. That's great. But it's, you know, I really believe the most precious thing you can give to someone else is your time. If you give someone moments of your life, that is more than any dollar they could give you anything else. And these people have put time in into this. Um it also tells you how important they think education is in this country, right? Um that's that's their focus. It's yeah, let's let's transform education. We we could it could come right out of Bridge County, Pennsylvania. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Here we here we come. I it's it's awesome. Um it's as far as your experience with Alvernia, I know there's a really unique structure that I think is worth sharing for those listening of um a business that's operating under the umbrella of a university like Alvernia. Is there anything you want to share about that higher model just to kind of let people know about what's possible and to think about um for whatever it is that they might be working on?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and it's a really interesting model. And um, in the world of of higher ed, for anyone that's not focused on that right now, it it is a really competitive industry right now. Interesting. Um because our population of people keeps going down. The number of students going for that traditional residential four-year degree continues to go down as well. This year in Pennsylvania, and and this is on a recorded podcast, so I'm not going to disclaimer that I believe this is true, but just in case it bumped down uh two or three spots, I'm gonna give myself an out. No, that's right. We can give it yourself an out of the way. Yes, on the data. But I think the general trend is uh is still important, I think. This is interesting. I didn't know this. Um I believe this year may have been the smallest kindergarten class ever registered, um, I think since the 60s um for Pennsylvania. Wow just showing you the population trend.

SPEAKER_00

Is that so that's saying so that you do you think the reason that that that is going down is just there isn't as many children of that age and people aren't having as many kids. That's okay. So you're thinking that's to just not having as many kids.

SPEAKER_01

So our population of school age children keeps going down, which you go out 18 years means there's not as many college students. And couple that with the the value of a of a degree is going down. Right. So there's questions is this really a great return on investment? People have those questions. Now we have all the data behind, yes, it still does increase your lifetime earnings and you know, all of those things. But there's there's some some questions there, and I think the one of the bigger pieces is having a student go live at a spot for four years and get a traditional undergrad degree isn't for everybody anymore. And that and it used to be you either do that or you have nothing, and it doesn't need to be that way now. So that's changing. But most higher eds relied on just that. That was their business model. Having students move here, live here for four years. And so if you don't have that and your whole industry is based on that, it's time to not be blockbuster. Yeah. Right. So true. So how do you we should probably cut out that I said blockbuster. But um no, I mean I think there are business cases.

SPEAKER_00

I and when I was in business school, we looked at, you know, we looked at the blockbuster as an example of something that they didn't see what was coming, and and they, you know, they're essentially made out of business. And now look at how we consume content is all streaming the heck, but there's a we're we're we're on YouTube right now, or depending on how someone is um listening to this content, it has completely changed. And, you know, they could have been a part of that but but missed it. So yeah, super so you so so you higher education is now more competitive because there's less students coming in, which then is making the the problem of they need to think differently about what they're delivering and/or maybe how they're attracting. Is that is that mean reflecting well what you're saying?

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. So interestingly because you take all of those things going down, and at the end of the day, what that means is revenue continues to go down for higher eds. Pennsylvania is um especially sensitive because we have a large number of higher ed institutions. Again, the northeast of the United States. Is extremely competitive in higher eds. It's one of the hardest areas to operate.

SPEAKER_00

Well, is it also this idea of that they're going to be staying there? Because I know for us at American Ukraine, we have a lot of people come into us from, you know, VoTech or different tech schools, and then maybe they'll continue on and we will actually do tuition reimbursement for them, but they're working for us. So they're not going to go stay at a four-year school. And I imagine there's a lot more opportunities like those existing. Is that part of what's playing into this too?

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. And that's that's where I really appreciate the way Albernia has their entire business model set up. So they um, you know, many years ago uh could see all of these trends and see this coming. And again, just like I talked about TXPL, we had to work this year because you know the growth is happening there. You you couldn't wait right now to this moment till we see all of these colleges closing to make your changes of your institution to be able to you're too late. Right. Right. Yeah. So you know these things happened a a decade ago. Um, but what what they did was create a structure so that they could diversify revenue, right? So that you can have other sources other than relying solely on that undergrad residential. So things like you're talking about, business partnerships, where people can move in and out of education according to what they need to be successful, you know, that's that's something that's really attractive as the new model, right? And that you don't have to think about it as, hey, there's these four years and this is what you do, and then you go back and there's and not that not that that has to go away, but there's still a path.

SPEAKER_00

That's still a path for some absolutely work for.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. We just can't rely on it solely. Interesting, right? And so for TXPL, we're like a company running under the umbrella of you know, it's kind of that kind of um model, which is really interesting because then we can make products. Big higher eds, you know, if you think about the the largest institutions had explored have explored that a little over time. Now I think every higher ed is looking at, okay, how do we bring in new streams of revenue? What are the things we need to do? I think again, too, what's what's really exciting about Alvernia is they are really serious about their mission. So they they uh made sure that anything they would do in that diversification aligned with the mission, which smart strategy why TXPL fits so well there because of our mission to really support and transform education and have the opportunity to innovate, create products, and diversify revenue works under that mission. Um, but that's that's a new thing for higher eds to take a look at. Um if you think about it that way.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you're uh you're changing the world in a whole bunch of different ways, right? From from uh higher education to how your students are getting taught. Like it's super, super interesting.

SPEAKER_01

A world I am just doing things, figuring it out every day and then doing the next day. Yeah, it's well, it's right, it's pretty, pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_00

You know, is there if we can we continue around this and and come back to you know, one of the things I always like to ask, which around what's lifting others or what's lifting you, and I'd like to start by first asking you, what does lifting students, educators, and communities look like or feel like to you? I think this is what this is essentially what you're doing, right? Right. Um what does it feel like?

SPEAKER_01

Was that the question? Yeah, yes. Yeah? Yes. Yeah.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Start there. That's good. Um so I think it feels humbling often. Um I'll describe it this way. There are times now I go on to social media, we'll say Facebook, LinkedIn, you know, one of one of those. And there will be people, I don't even know who they are now, and and I'm reading what they're doing with TXPL. That's exciting. Oh wow, cool. Look at what this person did, and look at what that person did. And I think um it does, it it humbles you to say, okay, we we need to we need to continue to figure out how to support what all of these people are doing. I think it um it drives you, right, to to reigniting your own fire. Yeah, yeah. Um and how and I think it it really makes you look back at your team and appreciate what they've done, right? Because they've taken what started as an idea in your head. And you you may have started it out, like I said, it's a small team um as you went, but they took what was in your head and and made all those things happen and appreciate doing it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, how I don't know if you noticed this, they take it. It's hard to wrap your head around. It becomes something more than you could have even imagined when you when you start amplifying with others. I mean, even if we're as we're in here in this podcast, we were, you know, it's like, oh, look at all, you know, my team made this this space so amazing. It's was it is more than I could have my own thoughts would have had. And here you does this is this kind of a little bit of what you're vibing on there?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. It it and I think think the the words to describe it would be humbled and appreciative, right? I that's that's how I feel. Coming from a place of gratitude, which right after Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, right, right. And yeah, and it sounds to me that this is also what helps you stay so inspired and you know, curious and creative, right? Is is the this whole kind of collective lift that is happening around you and the ripples that you get to see of what it's doing for others.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right. Um and again, going back to as this grows and and how you feel and how messy uh it can get sometimes. Yeah. I think you I also, if I would go back twenty years, if I if I were asked the question, you know, what do you think a CEO does in a day? I would think, well, they must be, you know, all of these amazing meetings and be able to just do whatever they want and write all of these things. If I go back to like 18-year-old Adele. Now, when you when you look at what it is, it it truly is um recognizing problems and fixing them every day. And you never know what the problem's gonna be. Right, right? Yes. Um, but again, like for me, that's exciting. Yep. Um, I love the challenge, and you can see that you're going to, you know, you're going for your mission, you're going for your impact, but it gets messy. And then again, all of those people that help you figure those things out. It's it's not this clean, hey, we've we've thought and we have this detailed plan about how everything's gonna go here. Right. That's not how it works.

SPEAKER_00

No, it isn't. Well, Del, thank you for sharing your story, uh, your vision, heart, and creativity. It's shining through on everything that you're doing. You're lifting students, educators, entire communities through this innovation and imagination that you're creating. And your journey really reminds us that when leaders stare to dream, they create space spaces where others can dream too. And it's just been a pleasure to have you here.

SPEAKER_01

And Karen, thank you for always lifting everyone around you. Thank you. And me. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Adele is truly on the forefront of positive change for the next generation. Her bold new approach is making waves and seeing results. For more about her work and the Total Experience Learning Academy, see the show notes below. Please subscribe if you haven't already, and remember to always live.