Posts (page 2)
Hi Laguna Scholars!
Just a reminder about our meeting at UNM on Monday, November 17th at 6pm in Mesa Vista Hall, Conference Room.
Look forward to seeing you.
Mike Conant, Director
LEF Higher Education Program
And a hearty hello to everyone!
I returned from a great trip to Boston this past week and had the wonderful opportunity to meet with a few of our incredible scholarship students from the area. We enjoyed a fine dinner and had the chance to catch up about home. I look forward to visiting more of our Foundation scholars on future trips around the country!
Next Up:
Our 4th Annual Art Gala and Silent Auction
Saturday, November 15
The Albuquerque Museum
6:00pm to 8:00pm
FREE EVENT! (Donation suggested)
Seriously! Tell your friend, tell your neighbors, tell random people on the street! We want to make this year the best ever!
Okay, not so much of an adventure like Indiana Jones, but a great time nonetheless!
Mr. Mike Conant and I traveled south this past Sunday night to have a wonderful meeting with our students and scholars at New Mexico State. We were thrilled to be joined by our very own LDoE Superintendent, Dr. Anthony Fairbanks, a former professor at State, who thanked the students for coming and let them know they were always welcome to visit us at LDoE.
We want to give a huge (super huge!) thanks to Mr. Joe Graham, the Director of Indian Resource Development, who was a gracious host for this first-of-its-kind event!
Next up: the University of New Mexico! That's right Lobos, we didn't leave you out in the cold. We will be throwing our UNM get together on Monday, November 17 at the Native American Student Center at 6:00pm. Come on down for free pizza and snacks. Contact Mike Conant for further details (or leave a comment here and we will get back to you.)
And don't forget:
Our 4th Annual Art Gala and Silent Auction
Saturday, November 15
The Albuquerque Museum
6:00pm to 8:00pm
FREE EVENT! (Donation suggested)
Let's make this year our best ever. Please come support life-long learning and the Foundation!
Well, we were away for a bit, as often happens to blogs, but now we are back for your enjoyment. Some quick updates to get this thing going again.
* We just completed our first ever Volleyball Tournament at the Laguna Middle School this weekend. We had teams from all over the western half of the state and all of the teams that participated were insanely good and good sports to boot! We, on the other hand, were a bit underprepared. We expected teams that would have trouble getting the ball over the net. Absolutely not the case. The players this weekend had trouble keeping the ball under Mach 2! Anyway, we know what to expect the next time and look forward to having everyone back! ALSO: huge props to Ms. Batrez (our LES/LMS Principal) who refed all the games (save one), which amounted to a total of eleven hours on the stand! She was awesome!
* Say hello to Mike Conant everyone! The Foundation is pleased to welcome Mr. Conant as our new Higher Education Director. Previously with Partners For Success, Mr. Conant joins us as a way to streamline our scholarship process and provide better services to our grads, undergrads and pre-college young people. He will also be working on our new alumni/education association, and will take the time to post here occasionally. Say hi to him when you get the chance!
*For our NMSU Scholars and students: we will be on campus the evening of November 2 from 6pm to 8pm giving YOU free pizza. Leave us a comment if you think you will be stopping by. Seriously, come by and say hello!
* UPCOMING EVENTS: Mark your calendar for these LEF Sponsored Events!
November 15 - Art Gala and Silent Auction (Albuquerque Museum: 6 pm to 8pm, FREE!)
December 16 - An LEF Evening of Music And Letters (TBD: 8pm to 10pm, $20 per ticket)
AS ALWAYS, YOUR DONATIONS HELP US KEEP DOING OUR GREAT WORK! YOU CAN DONATE TO THE FOUNDATION BY CLICKING THE LINK BELOW (PayPal Online). THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Today we completed the LEF Laguna Summer Youth Corps 2008!
Kind of bitter-sweet for yours truly since I have worked with many of these young people for a number of years. Now they are off to school and then on to take over the world.
Anyone out there who would like to see what we have been up to this summer can follow the adventures of the Summer Youth by following the neighborhood links from this blog.
It has been an amazing experience and I hope we are able to continue with the efforts these young people have put in motion!
~Lee IV
(Lee Francis IV, Executive Director)
I have not had the chance to comment on each reflection of leadership, but I have looked over what has been written and am very impressed with the level of thinking taking place. Leadership is very complex and finding the connections between leader and leadership takes a great deal of critical thinking. Today, there are two aspects that I want to explore.
First, I want to play a game called: Build A Leader. You need to choose the five most important (to you) traits or characteristics that make a good leader. Rank them. Explain why you chose those five.
Second, as was addressed yesterday, the role of women in leadership (and history) is often overlooked. So your second blog for the day is to: A) Read this article about Women Nobel Prize winners here. Reflect on what you find interesting, B) Look up the book: Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America. Choose one of the women profiled, research a bit, and write about her, C) Reflect on why you think the role of women in leadership is largely ignored.
Keep up the good work.
Leader and Leadership are very complicated words. So complicated that it took a semester of college work to try and scratch the surface about the meaning of leadership.
We begin that today.
Reflect and post on your thoughts about leadership. What does it mean? How do you define leadership? What is a leader? In the post, also create a word bank, words associated with leader and leadership. Finally, give me an example of a time you exhibited leadership.
BTW Good posts from everyone yesterday!
'Philanthrocapitalism' Stirs Debate
Wealthy donors increasingly are applying business principles to their charitable donations — and thinking of them as "investments" — but some experts caution that a strict bottom-line approach to philanthropy can create its own problems, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports.
While the basic concept of "philanthrocapitalism" has been around since the days of John D. Rockefeller, the idea of seeking a quantifiable return on one's philanthropic investments has been embraced by a new generation of wealthy donors, many of whom made their fortunes in finance and technology. For example, when South Dakota businessman T. Denny Sanford donated $400 million in February 2007 to what became known as Sanford Health, he laid out specific goals for the healthcare system to meet, including building five revenue-generating pediatric clinics and identifying one disease to focus on and find a cure for within his lifetime (Sanford is seventy-two).
While there is nothing inherently wrong with taking a business approach to philanthropy, says William Schambra, director of the Hudson Institute's Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal, donors should be careful not to insist on measuring things that, by their nature, cannot be measured. "It's a good thing when [donors] push for effectiveness and results," said Schambra, "but it can be harmful if they say everything has to be measured. There is something about human affairs that resists that kind of measurement."
Other experts, including Michael Edwards, director of governance and civil society at the Ford Foundation, are even more critical of the trend, arguing that there is little evidence to support claims that business methods are superior in achieving social goals. In his recently published book Just Another Emperor? The Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism, Edwards advises donors to "believe in the people you give money to, and let them get on with the work because they're closest to the problems."
Still, many entrepreneurs-turned-philanthropists, including In2Books founder Nina Zolt, are confident that tried-and true business practices can be translated successfully to the work of bettering society. "Having come from a business background, I'm all about impact," said Zolt. "As a businesswoman, my view [is] that there is no problem that's not solvable."
Martin, Jeff. “A Business Approach to Philanthropy.” Sioux Falls Argus Leader 6/01/08.
Primary Subject: Philanthropy and Voluntarism
Location(s): National
FC01202
