In this episode of Redefining Society podcast, we explore how Western Governors University is changing the landscape of higher education by providing affordable, high-quality education to underserved adult learners. Our guests, Rick Benbow and Asia Bajaña, discuss the unique competency-based model of education offered by WGU and how it is helping students pursue their higher education endeavors.
Guests:
Asia Bajaña, Software Engineering Student at Western Governors University [@wgu]
On LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/asiabajana
On Twitter | https://www.twitter.com/asiabajana
Rick Benbow, Regional Vice President (Pacific West) of Western Governors University [@wgu]
On LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/rbenbow3/
Host: Marco Ciappelli
Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
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Episode Introduction
"In this episode of Redefining Society podcast, we explore how Western Governors University is changing the landscape of higher education by providing affordable, high-quality education to underserved adult learners. Our guests, Rick Benbow and Asia Bajaña, discuss the unique competency-based model of education offered by WGU and how it is helping students pursue their higher education endeavors."
Hello listeners, and welcome to another episode of Redefining Society podcast. Today, we have an interesting topic to discuss - education. Our guests for today are Rick Benbow, Regional Vice President (Pacific West) of Western Governors University, and Asia Bajaña, a software engineering student at Western Governors University. Asia is a Certified Nonprofit Professional pursuing her second bachelor's degree in Software Engineering at Western Governors University.
During this episode, we will be exploring Western Governors University and how it is changing the education landscape. We will be discussing how WGU is removing barriers to education for adult learners and creating a new model for higher education. Rick Benbow will discuss how WGU provides affordable, high-quality education to underserved adult learners and develops partnership relationships to optimize student success.
We will also be hearing from Asia about her experience at WGU and how she is combining her values and competencies obtained when studying nonprofit management, mass media, and entrepreneurship with the design and software engineering skills she's currently developing to innovate and create a positive social impact using technology.
Education is an essential aspect of our society, and we must stay updated to prepare ourselves for the future. Our guests today are helping us understand how education can be accessible, affordable, and flexible for adult learners. So, let's get started!
Remember to share this episode with your friends and family, and also subscribe to Redefining Society podcast to stay updated with our latest episodes.
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Resources
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Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording as errors may exist. At this time we provide it “as it is” and we hope it can be useful for our audience.
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SPEAKERS
Marco Ciappelli, Rick Benbow, Asia Bajaña
Marco Ciappelli 00:00
Okay, here we are redefining society and other episodes and other topics that it's now completely new. We talk about education quite a bit on the show. And I feel like that's really something that has to do with society, because that's how we prepare ourselves when we were young studying and maybe keep studying as we were going through life and stay updated, especially nowadays with technology in our, in our router in everything that we do, and you just cannot learn something and then say, okay, I know everything. I feel like we need to stay updated on things and sometimes even change our path during our life. So all of these say that today we're talking about education. And we have Rick Benbow in Asia Bajaña with us. And we're going to talk about some interesting programs that come from the Western Governors University, from both the administrative side, let's say, Rick, representing the University in Asia being on the side of the students as she just joined, not too long ago, the courses so we're going to start with Asia. And you can give us a little background about yourself and what brought you to join, this course with the university.
Asia Bajaña 01:30
So hi, my name is Asia Bajaña, and I'm a software engineering student at Western Governors University. I grew up in Florida and currently live in California. I'm passionate about music design and technology and my areas of interest are human centered AI, data privacy and security and open source technology. My goal is to work on tech projects that are inclusive ethical by design and have a positive social impact. So I actually graduated with a first bachelor's degree in nonprofit management from the University of Central Florida in May 2020. And earned my certified nonprofit professional credential about a year later. I finished my degree in the early stages of the pandemic when the entire world was pretty much locked down. So instead of entering the workforce, I decided to pivot into tech since that was originally what I want to go to school for. I started college full time at 16 as a dual enrollment students at Valencia College with the intent of getting a CES or IT degree. I took a few programming and it courses and liked them a lot. But I was extremely burnt out by the end of my senior year and didn't think I was cut out for reverse STEM degree anymore. I was always considered bright and intelligent and definitely capable. But I struggled most of my life with anxiety and depression due to undiagnosed autism and chronic pain due to migraines and endometriosis. I graduated high school in 2016 and only needed like three classes to finish my associate's degree but I decided to take a gap year instead. So I could focus on my health and figuring out what wanted to major in why went back to school. So I lost my health insurance during my gap year when I turned 19 and wasn't really ready to go back to school since I couldn't really do anything about my health. But I finished my eighth anyway and transferred to UCF in fall 2018. I picked nonprofit management because I thought it would be fulfilling to working in a field where I could serve communities in need and advocate for good causes. But I realized when it was too late that I hated the idea of working in a people facing role where I would have to heavily mask and pretend I'm super extrovert extroverts in order to do my job. During lockdown, I started researching more about social entrepreneurship and different types of social enterprises and thought that the world needed more tech companies like protonmail or signal, for example, which have strong social values and creates digital products and services that don't exploit people's data or right to privacy. I felt inspired and motivated since I didn't want to let my first year you could go to waste sorry. So I started taking programming UX design courses on Coursera and was accepted into massive entrepreneurship program at UF in the fall 2021. My goal with grad school was to learn the business side of things so I could someday you start my own tech B Corporation or nonprofit but unfortunately had to withdraw after a semester after I was hospitalized for three days due to complications of a suspected autoimmune disorder and the extreme brain fog that lingered for months after that.
Marco Ciappelli 04:26
Well, do you have a lot of stories here. Let me stop you because maybe we want to dig into it as we go into this, this conversation. But I feel like I could have already asked you a million questions going from, you know, the diversity side of things to the neuro divergences to your interest in artificial intelligence which I could have an entire store just for that. But before we go there, let's give the word to Rick and Rick, a little bit about yourself. What is your role? with the, with the university, and then, you know, we can chat about how these two sides meet together.
Rick Benbow 05:09
Fantastic. Marco, let me just start off with saying thank you for the opportunity to talk about W GU. It's not very often that we get the opportunity to interact with the student on an interview to hear their story and see how WVU is impacting their lives. And essentially, that is what we do. That is our mission to impact lives for the better are changing lives for the better through education. And we do that by removing barriers for students to pursue higher education. And I think you've heard from Asia story, some of the hurdles or barriers that she had. On her journey along her way to WGU. WGU is the nation's first and largest competency based university, we were founded 25 years ago by 19, western state governors really develop to address the needs of those students who weren't necessarily served well by traditional universities, and removing those barriers just in terms of financial flexibility. Again, as a competency based university, we allow our students to progress as they can demonstrate mastery and skills or specific competencies. And we believe that model, along with our six month flat tuition rate gives students the ability to actually see the end of their journey, understanding the time commitment, understanding the financial commitment, a semester at WVU, Western Governors University is a little over $4,000 per six month term. And so again, the competency based model, we allow our students to complete as many courses within that six months without the price of that tuition increasing for that six month term. Again, this gives a little bit of ownership to those students who can leverage prior learning experience control costs and control time in their education endeavors. And ironic that your podcast is termed redefining society, we absolutely believe that we are helping redefined a society by again, giving those students who weren't necessarily will serve the opportunity to pursue their higher education endeavors. And then this is just one example of how we're doing that how we're removing barriers. And again, giving people the opportunity to enhance their skill set, increase their value in the workforce, and ultimately reinvigorate the promise of higher education, which is a job opportunity of resilient job opportunity at the end of that journey, and opportunity to advance overall, the society, we absolutely believe that as a society, we all do better if we can all pursue that opportunity from an equitable standpoint. And so this is our mission. And this is what we're here to do. And again, just happy to join the podcast and talk a little bit more about some of the exciting scholarships and things that we're doing to help remove those barriers.
Marco Ciappelli 08:01
And that's exactly what we are going to do in Asia. I mean, you said something at the beginning, as you were explaining your kind of change of heart or interest from one career to another. And you said, and catch my attention. It was too late. And I know what you were referring because you were already into that course. But what I what I feel it's like now with technology and with this different approach to education. I don't know if he's ever too late. Maybe we want to talk about that. I think we are allowed in this society nowadays to to change our careers or anytime. I mean, I'm 54 years old and I feel like I'm keep changing. I don't know what I want to do when I grew up. So Asia, what was that made you change your mind and your heart into choosing a different a different career?
Asia Bajaña 09:00
Um, so I chose nonprofit management because honestly, like it wasn't really that intellectually, like, challenging, I guess like I kind of needed that break from like, having to think too hard. Just because I was really burned out like from high school and like, dealing with like, undiagnosed, like autism and stuff like that. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 24 years old last year. So it kind of put into perspective like, why my experiences were like those growing up and like why I had and I also have ADHD as well. So that was also like another reason why I found it really difficult to do work that was that required a lot of like, mental energy and stuff. Um, so yeah, the reason I said it felt too late at the time was because I was already really deep into my program was maybe like, one year left, like a couple of semesters left in my first bachelor's degree. I'm like, Well, I'm already made it this far. So I'm Hisle finish it out type thing because otherwise I would have had to I go back to school to like, do all the four year program for like prerequisites and stuff like that again. Um, so when I moved to California, I'm like, you know, I don't really want to go back to grad school against, it's not really that flexible. So I'm still working on like, a typical semester school scheduled time. So when I was doing research on like, you know, I still want it like a formal STEM degree. But I also wanted something that was still flexible enough where I could, you know, manage my doctor's appointments and therapy sessions, and like, just kind of breaks, I needed to kind of just recuperate, and stuff like that. Um, so I decide to run WGN, October 22, because of their flexibility. And I graduated from an online high school that operated as a relay. So it's nice being able to work on my own time and pace again. Yeah,
Marco Ciappelli 10:53
that's very good. I think Rick, I guess you may have something to say about the way that you structure the courses and this vision to make it more accessible, more flexible for people to join the college, the university.
Rick Benbow 11:11
Absolutely. Again, our founders were ingenious in helping us establish Western Governors as a competency-based university 25 years ago, and really establishing ourselves as a nonprofit university. Being very, very student-centric, meeting students where they're where they are,
Marco Ciappelli 11:31
can you tell, for the audience, what does exactly mean to be a nonprofit university,
Rick Benbow 11:38
the nonprofit is we're not in this for the profit, we're not answering the shareholders, our shareholders, our students, we want to ensure that we can deliver on the promise of making sure that they earn or acquire or attain the skills in high demand fields, we work very closely with employers to make sure that our courses are structured, in which we have the latest skills and competencies associated with specific courses, again, leading to that, that the demand of skills in the workforce. And so we've restructured in that way, and I think Asia spoke to it earlier that she can go at our own pace, one of our founders were founders just in general, based upon skills and competencies. And again, as students master those skills and competencies associated with a course they can advance. And so again, those students who are determined and motivated can accelerate as fast as we'd like, or those individuals who may have time constraints, family obligations, or you know, different work hours, they can choose to attend courses on their time, take exams on their time, was makes it again, a very flexible, accessible model, in which we think students, again, who are not well served by traditional highridge, who have more rigid schedules and timeframes. It makes higher education a possibility, they don't have to choose between, you know, taking care of themselves, taking care of their families taking care of, you know, financial obligations, and going to college or pursuing higher education. Again, we've tried to remove those barriers and make it as accessible and flexible to our student population as possible. And so yeah, again, just being very, very student-centric and mindful of some of the friction points that our students would experience at a traditional university.
Marco Ciappelli 13:32
And this makes just perfect sense for Asia to feel more comfortable in this kind of course, than then would have been in another way. Let's talk Asia about the again your choice in love for technology and open source and artificial intelligence, all of that I love to, to know what is motivating you I talk about technology and humanity a lot and I always feel like what serving what we actually have a show called redefining technology when I say you know, we need to use technology to make our life our society better. So you know, there is a redefining society, and a redefining technology in order to serve that. So I'm curious, you know, what is driving you to study this field?
Asia Bajaña 14:22
Um, so I have noticed that like, when apps you know, are first like incepted, like, I'm sure like, things like Facebook at the time, for example, it was initially meant to just like connect with people, like friends and family and like co-workers and like, just people like in your general network, right? But now it's kind of metastasized into like this multibillion-dollar like you know, very, like invasive like, pretty much advertising company, posing as a social media company where like 92% of like the revenue just from data Uh, like tracking people online, like their data and targeted ads and all that. And I feel like, you know, if we were to give people like informed consent about, like, you know, what they're actually doing with your data, and stuff like that, um, you know, people mean, oh, give an opt in option or something like that. But I don't think a lot of people realize like, how much of their like, personal life is being monetized from like, data companies and stuff like that?
Marco Ciappelli 15:34
Yeah, you're talking about and I completely agree, I'm going to jump in myself. I mean, this, the company, many times they're born with the founders idea that they need to serve a certain purpose, but then the purpose becomes the money and the shareholder and all they want. Yeah. And so they kind of like, move their vision. And I don't know, if you want to talk about Google, I remember, their mantra was do no evil. And a lot of people like now makes sense about that. Because it feels like maybe there's a little bit of evil there. So I agree with you, I agree with you.
Asia Bajaña 16:12
Things like tick tock, where they're kind of engineer to kind of keep you hooked on the app. Same with Instagram and stuff like that. Um, and I don't think we really realized like how much these addictive types of apps are, like, affecting especially like, impressionable, like children's stuff like that. was causing more depression in people. And again, like, I'm sure, in the beginning, when someone first thought of this idea, it was intentionally to just be like, Oh, you can make videos online, but they're always, at some point when apps start making money, like becomes public, and like shareholders start having to say like, it just becomes like this kind of capitalist monster that like, you know, turned into something that like, you know, wasn't really the original, really mission or purpose in the first place? I guess?
Marco Ciappelli 17:07
No, I agree. So technology to serve again, as I said, before, humanity, and so what come first? Are we following the blinking lights? Or are we saying, This is what we need? Let's build the technology to do this. And I'm gonna go back to Rick here because your courses do if I understand correctly, and tell me if I'm not I do focus on technology. And also I'm assuming you do use technology, technology yourself to give better chances to students to participate or don't leisure. I mean, I go back, and I think, many, many years ago, without the internet, there wasn't really an option. I mean, so tell me maybe about the role of technology and the value that that a more advanced way to see education may bring to everybody.
Rick Benbow 18:01
Fantastic, thanks, again, Marco. I should probably state that we have four different colleges, and 60-degree programs, both at the bachelor's and master's levels, and high demand fields. And so we have our School of Education, our Levitt School of Health, our College of Business, and, of course, our College of Information Technology. It just so happens that today we're talking about tech. And
Marco Ciappelli 18:26
thank you, thank you for explaining that. But
Rick Benbow 18:30
just in general, you're absolutely right. Again, we were invented 25 years ago, just as the internet was coming on board. And I think this is probably one of the more innovative things that W GU did 25 years ago was really leveraging the technology to meet students where they are and coming up with a model of education, where students can access it in an effective and flexible and affordable way. Again, removing those barriers and opening up opportunities to more students to pursue higher education. Even those adult learners who have some college and no degree and because of some circumstances had to drop out, there was no viable pathway that allowed them to kind of like pursue education. Just a little anecdotal story as I kind of like reflect on by W GU for me. I commuted from Long Beach to a well known University here in Los Angeles, the 28 mile commute. 20 Miles actually took two hours both ways. And one of the thoughts I had on my way to work and even home and just kind of stuck with me. If I'm looking to upskill and improve my circumstances and education is that surest way to the next opportunity in that dynamic of having to support a family and work two hours away. What educational opportunity is it if I just look at it from the lens of the traditional model It became very difficult to even consider enrolling in a traditional school just kind of given the time commitment of traffic, the time commitment to get to the campus, the time commitment to sit through a four-hour class three or four days a week, and then ultimately, the commute at home only to start the cycle over again, the prospect of the time commitment and the mental stress of dealing with all that pursuing additional degree upskilling, taking additional courses, became an insurmountable task, just kind of given the nuances of that, that that dynamic was contacted by W GU. And learned a little bit more about online competency. Accessing courses on your time leveraging what you may already be learning on your job, to help you accelerate to courses and material that you may already know. So you have more time to focus on the things that you don't know. That became the answer in terms of anybody dealing with those types of circumstances, be it time commitment, limited time because of family obligations or work obligations, taking care of your mother taking care of your children, or financial constraints, those barriers have been removed with W GU, us being student-centric, being nonprofit, lowering our tuition to the point where it's just a little over $4,000 per six-month term. And the ability to take as many courses as you can finish within that six-month term, and still be able to control the price to meet that opens up the door to a number of students who find themselves grappling with how do I improve my circumstances, understanding that education is the surest pathway to that opportunity. W GU is that way, it gives you that opportunity, it gives you the chance to improve your circumstances. And again, just happy and grateful that I have the opportunity to try to make this available to all and we help again, mitigate some of those financial obligations to specific scholarships.
Marco Ciappelli 22:16
Now let's talk about that because there is an equal opportunity. Now I want to hear Asia on this as well with your background Asia in all the stories that you're telling, the difficulty that you had to deal with, and how this may meet your need. But you know, there is an equal opportunity from a financial, social demographic perspective, but then there is an equal opportunity that we talk more and more, and I don't think we're talking enough about it on how women access technology, women in cybersecurity women in tech and in giving, you know, this opportunity, not because we, we think it's important to facilitate that, but because we've been doing things wrong for a long time. Right. So I think you actually got into this course through a scholarship. So maybe together the two of you can tell me about this scholarship and how the grant the women in tech program comes to play. So as a first-year perspective on women in tech, why are we still talking about it?
Asia Bajaña 23:27
Yeah, so one of the main like reasons why I joined WGU because I got an email from an enrollment counselor about this scholarship opportunity because I'm already in a lot of student debt for my grad program that I wasn't even able to finish because I got sick so I know how to take out some more money out to be able to go back to school but definitely getting a scholarship that was especially catered towards women, female like my situation where you know, I'm Asian and Latina and I'm neurodivergent and you know, I don't come from like, like a wealthy background or like someone that comes from a generational wealth so definitely you scholarships have are very helpful and you know, being able to you know, improve my situation in a way that still works for me because I went to all in high school from ninth to 12th grade I graduate from an online high school and I liked being able to just you know, get through classes as quickly as I like, could or like as take as long as I need to get my classes so going to like a regular college was going back to like that kind of strict. You have to finish from this time. Like schedule type thing, like it was not really good for my mental health. So I don't really work on other people's time like that. So yeah, finding WGA and that scholarship especially, has been great for me, because I honestly wish I had known about WSU when I graduated high school. So I would have gone there the first time around and just been, you know, done with my degree and like, probably in like a career already. But, you know, I'm 25. And I kind of feel like a late bloomer a little bit, but I feel like now it was kind of like, I have a clean slate and a second chance now to kind of do I feel like the path I should have been on this entire time.
Marco Ciappelli 25:35
Well, that's, that's great. That's, that's great. And trust me, I mean, I don't think 25 or even 35, it's too late. But, you know, I mean, how many times a week we look back, and you're like, I only knew then what I know now. It's easy, right? But how do you prove it? I don't know how, how do you foresee the future? And I know, it's, I'm not asking you to put you know, thin foil hat on it. But the university you make this partnership, you create this scholarship? Where do you see and who does decide? What are the important group of people to help and facilitate and, and how do you select your partners in doing this?
Rick Benbow 26:25
Well, again, it's ironic that we're on a podcast called redefining society, there is a reason for that. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think when you look at the makeup of those individuals who are in technology, you know, you have black, Latina, and Native American women account for 16% of the population, but only 4% of them are in the computing workforce. You know you look at the CEO levels of fortune 500 companies, almost are completely absent of women of color in these positions. And so, we've identified a need for more representation, coming from black Latina and Native American women. And we joined with reboot representation to address this need and created this scholarship. So thus far, we've awarded 60 scholarships $2,500, each 12 150 from a donor and the other 1200 50 We match from WVU for a total of $150,000. And again, when you I mean, on its face in the traditional sense, $2,500 doesn't sound like a lot. But again, given our little over $4,000.06 month tuition schedule, that's a 50% tuition scholarship, with the ability to accelerate at your pace. And so you can have all of that, you know, the $4,000 have half of your tuition covered if you're determined and motivated to complete the program. So again, we've identified this gap, and we've partnered with the reboot representation. And we belong to a coalition of other partners who feel the same way that we need to address this need. So our partners in this effort are, as you say, members of the coalition including Walmart, Amazon, Salesforce, Verizon, Comcast, NBC, Universal, LinkedIn, Adobe, and Microsoft. Those are some very influential companies that are committed to increasing diversity in the tech space, particularly for women of color. And again, this is just part of our ethos at W GU where we serve, you know, traditionally underserved students, because of our tuition model because of our nonprofit status. Because it seems to be more accessible for those individuals who are constrained by the traditional model. 70% of our students come from one or more underserved backgrounds, their rural residents, low-income earners, first-generation college students, or students of color. Again, it is just part of the fabric of our DNA and who we are as a university, again, increasing those pathways for those individuals who just don't the traditional route is not serving them well. And so this is just another example. And just hearing a story of how we continue to make a difference, how we continue to create pathways for individuals to pursue the things that they want to do. And I'm just excited to hear about ages background of the things that she would like to do, and to be part of her journey at WVU, because just hearing our story I know that she will carry on the tradition of W GU of making an impact in her community. And in do it in a way where she represents not only herself, but W GU Well, and again, just happy to be part of their journey and help her pursue her passions through this scholarship.
Marco Ciappelli 30:17
And I would like to take your lead on these and pass the ball to Asia. And you know, we've got about five minutes left maybe on the conversation and maybe start projecting into the future into this vision that Rick kind of, you know, hinted to and Asia what is your goal once you or your inspiration, your vision for what do you want to do? Once you once you're done, with the education part what how would you like to become part of and contribute in the I know, isn't the technology field, but any, any vision for your future?
Asia Bajaña 30:58
Um, I think my ultimate, like professional goal, is to probably just own my own tech company someday, um, I live in Silicon Valley. No, so I'm surrounded by like a bunch of tech bros, and like, a lot of those CEOs here just like, you know, like white men, there's not really a lot of female representation or like, executive positions in tech or anything like that. So I think it would be kind of really cool one day to, you know, be someone you know, that, you know, is a minority and a woman and comes from like a, you know, has like a neurodivergent as well. And like being able to be in a leadership position in that way that kind of breaks the mold and like the stereotype that people kind of have in their minds when they think of like, someone that's a CEO, or like, you know, big like tech, hotshot, something like that, you know,
Marco Ciappelli 31:56
that's wonderful, I completely support that. And I hope that's going to be part of your path. I mean, I converse with people that I've their own business, women of colors, women of Asian provenance, even somebody from Eastern Europe not too long ago, and they're all part of there is an artificial intelligence group of women that are investors, or they have started up in that, in that area, CES in Las Vegas just happened less than a month ago. And we talked to some women leading the pace in Europe, in Switzerland, and so forth, and working on what is known as a tech for good or business for good, where you, you do something good for the environment for the health or society in general. And you also make money and you give jobs to people. So that's, that's really nice. Ah, I'm curious, you mentioned artificial intelligence in one of the open sources and one of your initial presentations, your initial presentation, what is fascinating you the most about artificial intelligence? You're afraid of it? Are you welcoming it?
Asia Bajaña 33:15
I think it could be used for things that aren't bad, but I definitely think we should present human-centered artificial intelligence. So you know, pretty algorithms and like things that like, where it serves us and not, like goes against us or is used to exploit, you know, people in society in general. Yeah, like, for example, like everyone's talking about, like a judge, chat, and GPT now, and I actually use chat GPT to help make like user profiles for my UX, user experience design, of course, as like a, an eight so helpful, like, like, oh, like helped me come up with like, the user profile for, you know, a 30-year-old woman is a marketing manager wants to go on vacation here, for example. And it helped create something like that for me. And I think it's interesting how like, things like that can be used as, like AIDS or tools to help, you know, make your workflow go a little faster, for things that you know, you don't really, really want to focus on so you can work on other things that are you know, require more of your time, for example.
Marco Ciappelli 34:35
I love that and I agree with that. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of people are scared. A lot of people make sensational headlines. There are no more writers because AI is gonna take cover writing Chuck did up in this case for everyone. And I'm like, Well, maybe if you're a very mediocre writer, you may be scared about it. But if you're good at what you do, I don't think you're gonna have The problem, but again, I agree with the fact that AI and technologies should support what we do not take our place but help us to focus on what is maybe more important. So that's, that's beautiful.
Asia Bajaña 35:12
Yeah, there definitely needs to be like, you know, like an ethics community, like governments also the kind of like, make regulations about, like, how artificial intelligence can be used, like, on a large scale. To avoid things like, you know, like conspiracy theories, saying like, Oh, like AI is gonna, like, college mass human extinction one day, something like that. Right? Yeah,
Marco Ciappelli 35:40
right? Well, there is a lot of conversation going on right now. And I'm sure we're gonna keep talking about that, like even disciplines like philosophy. Now, they are much more relevant when we talk about how we do interact, with artificial intelligence and technology. And sometimes I look back and like I should have used, go and study philosophy back in my days, but, you know, you can still study now and be, you know, keeping the rhythm of all the change, because technology is really changing so much. I'd like to finish here given an opportunity for Rick to maybe make one call for other students, maybe like Asia that can find a good path and a good course that may fit their schedule on the university on the governor University.
Rick Benbow 36:36
Fantastic Marco, I just want to say that our goal with this effort is really in partnership with reboot representation that by 2025, we want to support 552, Black Latina, Native American women in the computing Tex tax base, and help them pursue their bachelor's degree, and completion a W GU, that'll be a 251% increase in 2020 2025, compared to the baseline year of 2021. We're looking for other individuals, just like Asia, who find themselves in circumstances in which the traditional route is not serving them well, to reach our goal, again, of creating a new pipeline of talent, for women of color in the technology, space, and welcome the opportunity to be a part of those journeys, as well, as we look for and continue to carve out equitable pathways for all in helping them reach their desired goals or their desired outcomes. And I would invite anybody who is interested, if it's not technology, maybe there's something in business, if you're passionate about teaching, or even passionate about the healthcare industry, again, we have four different colleges that cover those different fields and 60-degree programs. And I would invite individuals who are interested or find themselves in circumstances, they want to pursue higher education and don't think it's possible to do a traditional means or traditional pathway to visit our website@www.wku.edu. And again, we're here to help and serve. And one thing I will mention that kind of makes us unique and differentiated different from other universities is that we have program mentors that are with that students from the moment they enroll to the moment that they graduate. And I think that's just another component in which we're being very student-centric. And we help that journey or help that student along their journey to completion. And again, it's just something that we do to try to help ensure that our students are successful.
Marco Ciappelli 38:51
That's great, AJ, anything you want to add before we say goodbye to our audience?
Asia Bajaña 38:58
Um, I just want to say that I'm just glad that the school exists. Like, I really do wish that I was just able to do this, right after high school. Clay This is honestly like the only, you know, type of school that you know, I've ever been comfortable. So
Marco Ciappelli 39:24
Wow, there couldn't be a better review break than this one thing to think. I think it's perfect.
Rick Benbow 39:33
Absolutely. And again, just grateful that we can be a part of our journey and help her achieve her goals.
Marco Ciappelli 39:41
That's fantastic. And I want to close here by thanking you both for bringing the perspective of the university and the student. And I wish both of you the best and I invite the audience to learn more about The University there will be notes and ways to get in touch with Rick and AJ if she wants to share her social media or whatever we're not, but you should check the notes and share the conversation maybe there are people now you know, they will be very interested to join this kind of opportunity. So again, this was redefining society education is an was it will be also always a topic that we need to cover, as very important for creating the society that we want. And that's what we're trying to do here and redefining society. So Rick, again, thank you so much, Asia. Thank you so much. And for everybody listening. Take care. Stay tuned for another episode of redefining society on ITSPmagazine.