 |
As president of the Association for Continuing Higher Education, I am pleased and honored to invite you to our 71st Annual Conference and Meeting and to the City of Brotherly Love—Philadelphia. It’s a wonderful program in a wonderful location. The Planning Committee, chaired by Tish Szymurski and Sallie Dunphy, are working diligently to provide an exciting slate of speakers, concurrent sessions, workshops, and events. Committee members Paula Hogard and Robin Plumb are securing an outstanding group of vendors and exhibitors, all of whom play a crucial role each year in the success of our conference and organization. ACHE owes these folks, and the entire Planning Committee, its heartfelt appreciation. MSP International Incorporated and the staff of the Sheraton Society Hill will expertly handle the local arrangements. And finally, the efforts of Graduate! Philadelphia, the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame, and the many local higher education institutions will also be crucial to this meeting. The synergy generated by so many people, professionals, and partners is remarkable.
Our conference theme is Unlocking the Transformational Power of Continuing Education. As continuing educators, we transform people. We take students who have limited access to traditional higher education, and we transform them into an educated citizenry. We take unemployed, unskilled, and underemployed workers and transform them into a productive workforce. We take entry-level employees, young professionals, and mid-level managers and transform them into executives and leaders. We take practicing professionals and provide the training that keeps them licensed and up-to-date. We take immigrants and transform them into citizens. We take folks in transition from one life stage to another and transform them to the next: from single to married, from married to divorced, from partners to parents, from parents to grandparents, from full-time workers to retirees.
And we don’t just transform people—we also transform institutions. We make institutions reach beyond their walls. We make institutions stay open past 5:00 pm. We make institutions offer online programs. We make institutions serve our military, serve our communities, serve our children, serve our elderly, serve our workforce. Our business model is copied by consultants, entrepreneurs, and proprietary colleges and universities. In a very real sense, we helped create our own competition because they could move fast when sometimes we could not.
I welcome you to join us in Philadelphia. For those of you with experience in the field of continuing education—thank you for the transformations you have helped guide throughout your career. For those of you just beginning your career— enjoy and please ask me or any other ACHE member how we can help you nurture your own transformations back on your home campus.
Rick Osborn
ACHE President, 2009
