June 26, 2024 • 33 mins
Join host Jeff Yan in an inspiring conversation with Jose Rodriguez, Assistant Vice President of Community and Belonging at College Unbound.
Discover College Unbound's unique educational model, which focuses on community engagement and passion-based projects. Dive into Jose's journey from dropping out of school and incarceration to achieving a bachelor's degree and making impactful changes through non-violent initiatives.
Learn how College Unbound empowers adult learners by recognizing their lived experiences and providing a platform for real-world projects.
Listen to the stories of transformation and the importance of a supportive learning community.
CU, as used in this conversation, means College unbound.
To learn more about our previous conversation with Lizz Colon, see: https://podcast.digication.com/episodes/episode-147-benefits-of-community-based-learning-how-college-unbound-s-unique-approach-empowers-adult-learners-part-1
For more about Dennis Littky, visit https://www.bigpicture.org/presenter/dennis-littky
You can follow Jose Rodriguez on LinkedIn to learn more: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-rodriguez-6592857a
Watch Part One of our Digication Scholars Conversation with Adam Bush, co-founder and Provost of College Unbound: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s1-e25-the-new-college-unbound-turns-chaos-of-life/id1538850043?i=1000518019620
NECHE stands for New England Commission of Higher Education.
#PassionProject #CommunityEngagement #LearningInPublic #CollegeUnbound #NonViolence #CreditForPriorLearning
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Jeff Yan.
In this episode, you will hear part oneof my conversation with Jose Rodriguez,
Assistant Vice President of Communityand Belonging at College Unbound.
More links and information about today'sconversation can be found on Digication's
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of DigicationScholars Conversations.
(00:24):
Can be found on YouTube oryour favorite podcast app.
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Jeff Yan.
My guest today is Jose Rodriguez,Assistant Vice President of Community
and Belonging at College Unbound.
Welcome, Jose.
Glad to be here.
Um, Jose, I, um, I think I, I met youat a, um, Last fall at College Unbound's
(00:54):
inauguration of its second president,uh, Adam Bush, and I got to, um, see
you speak in a number of occasions.
Um, and I was just deeply inspired by, uh,by you, your work and what you stand for.
So I'm very grateful that we got tohave this conversation here today.
(01:14):
I think that people are going toreally love this, you know, hearing
about you, you and your story.
I appreciate that.
So, before we get started, for thoselisteners who don't know anything
about College Unbound, again, Ialready had sort of mentioned it's its
second president's inauguration, whichimplies that it's a fairly new school.
(01:35):
Um, why don't you tell us a little bit,you know, about College Unbound and, um,
you know, where it is, what it does, and,um, And how is, how, why it's so special.
I think it's very special.
So go ahead.
Yeah, I think I got to lead with thefact that it is my Alma mater, right?
So I, I attended College Unbound.
So everything and anything that I sayabout the school is primarily from a
(01:58):
alumni perspective or, uh, or studentperspective or student lens, I should say,
so College Unbound was started, uh, bytwo gentlemen, uh, two Uh, Dennis Littky
and Adam Bush, uh, in and around 2009 andreally it was meant to be a school within
a school at some point where they werepartnering with different institutions
(02:22):
to provide just a different way ofteaching, uh, to a particular population
of students that weren't being successfuland quote unquote traditional schooling.
Um, that humble beginning, uh, through,uh, In 2011, I believe a call to action
was basically put out, uh, via socialmedia where, uh, to both Adam and Dennis's
(02:49):
surprise, the response from the community,uh, was, wow, we've been waiting for
a school like this our whole lives.
And I think that that's really whatstarted the maybe we just can't be a
school within a school, uh, conversation.
And, uh, Adam and, andDennis really started.
(03:09):
Laying down the groundworkfor what was to come.
In 2015, we received stateapproval to be a standalone college
in the state of Rhode Island.
A triumph in itself.
You know, those books aren'treally open that that.
That they're rarely opened.
(03:31):
They were opened for usand we were allowed it.
Um, that opened us up to be able toapply for a regional accreditor, uh,
which is NECHE and in 2020, aftera lot of work, uh, we received,
uh, full accreditation from NECHE.
And now, um, College Unboundoffers a bachelor's degree.
(03:55):
Am I right?
Correct.
So a bachelor's degree inorganizational leadership and change.
Um, and we now just don'toperate in Rhode Island.
We're actually in Chicago, New Jersey,Pennsylvania, uh, and working on Seattle.
And, uh, South, South Carolina.
So, like, yeah, growing themodel is growing because
(04:17):
it's something that's needed.
It's amazing.
And I would love to talk more aboutthe model itself as well in a bit.
But I think that, um, maybe weshould, um, talk a little bit
more about you as well, Jose.
Um, I know that you've had a, um, youhad talked about College Unbound being
set up for people who might not havebeen successful in traditional schools
(04:42):
or traditional sort of, you know, the,the, the, the, the sort of, uh, American
dream model of, you know, going to K 12school and then going to college and then
finish a four year degree and then go onto get a job, that kind of model, right?
Um, And, um, I think that you canprobably speak to that too, because
(05:04):
that's your personal experience.
Now you are, you are analum of College Unbound.
Can you tell us a littlebit about your journey?
Yeah, so I can, it's, it's a somewhatinteresting story with a lot of layers.
So, so I'll try to unlayeras much of it as possible.
Um, I'm what you consider,uh, or what society would have
considered a throwaway kid.
(05:24):
I'm from a single parent home.
Uh, From, uh, quote unquote, the ghetto,the slums of the slums, um, and I
dropped out of school in the sixth grade.
Um, so I had the recipe to not besuccessful or not to be in academia,
um, because of those choices that Imade early on to drop out of school,
(05:46):
um, and to pursue income and in variousways, most of which weren't, uh,
legal, uh, that landed me in prison.
Um, but while in prison, uh, I wasreintroduced to education, I should say.
And I was reintroduced to education ona basic level, meaning I got my GED.
(06:07):
Um, and pretty much after youget your GED in prison, um, there
really isn't anything for you to do.
So I took a couple of the remedial coursesthat our community college, uh, was
offering at the time with the, with thethought or dream of when I am released,
I am going to go to the same communitycollege and I'm going to get a degree.
(06:28):
And that's how I'm going to createchange, not just for me, but
for my family, to my surprise.
And, you know, I jokingly say thisall the time, but it definitely was a
pivotal moment, but it was about 2011.
Um, January of 2011, when I entered.
Our community college as a, as a regularstudent not being incarcerated and I
(06:52):
take, you know, a regular course load.
So full, full time student12, 4 classes, 3 credits each.
And one of the classes, which Ifound was probably going to be
the most interesting to me was.
Public speaking.
Um, why that was interestingto me is because for the, I had
gotten out of prison in 2010.
So it had been about a year and Ihad spent the last year of that time,
(07:13):
the last year working, uh, speakingto kids, you know, uh, violence
reduction, preventative work on.
So at the core of what I was doing fora living now was speaking to public,
maybe not, you know, large groups asif, you know, like a national public
speaker or anything, but to me, itwas an important part of my journey.
(07:37):
And unfortunately, BecauseI speak multiple languages,
sometimes I do mispronounce words.
And I always say this because it'simportant to note that just because I
mispronounce a word, it isn't becauseI don't know the meaning of the word
or I don't know how to say the word.
But for anyone who speaks multiplelanguages, sometimes it, that the
(07:57):
words just get mixed up and, youknow, lost in translation as they say.
Needless to say, my oral presentation,uh, midterm, uh, I didn't do so well.
Um, I mispronounced a bunch of words,but it wasn't that, that, that derailed
me or that, you know, put me on a, ona, really on a path of negativity was
(08:19):
the instructor, quote unquote, and Iuse instructor, the term instructor very
loosely, um, said to me at the end ofthe class, maybe public speaking isn't a
thing that you should pursue because youdon't really sound intelligent when you
speak, you know, and I, and I, and I saythat and, and I wore that You know, as
(08:40):
a, as a, I, I walked with that becauseit was important for me to remember
that if I ever saw that quote unquoteinstructor again, that I'd be able to
tell them how wrong they actually were.
Without that incident, I wouldhave never found College Unbound.
So, in that, uh, maybe about twoweeks after that happened, I had
(09:02):
a chance encounter with Adam Bush.
Um, he was, he was, Uh, we had someCollege Unbound students who were
interning at my place of employment,and Adam just came to check in on them.
And, um, anybody who knows Adam Bushknows he's a very captivating speaker.
Uh, so he could, you know, you, he,he, if he engages you in conversation,
(09:23):
you're buying whatever he's selling.
Uh, so that, that led to me justbeing curious about what College
Unbound could be because, no,it's a different way of learning.
You're going to learn this way.
You know, we're going to give you creditfor the things that you've already done.
Why take classes for thingsthat you've already mastered.
And that really piqued my interest, uh,so, regardless of the experience that
(09:50):
I had at our local community college,I said, you know, I'm going to give it.
I'm just going to try one moretime at this college thing.
And if this doesn't work, then, youknow, I'm just not college material.
And that's just something thatI'm going to have to deal with.
Thankfully, I am college materialand I've was able to keep going.
Uh, get out the other side, but that isthe example as to why this school is so
(10:13):
important, whether in, whether for folkswho look like me or folks or, or, or kids
who are just getting out of high schooland are being told by an instructor,
those words, like they're being limitedby the words of the people who were there
or intended to be there to teach them,you know, and being chopped down in such
(10:33):
a way opened up the space for a schoolthat like College Unbound to exist.
That's, um, that's, that's amazing.
Thank you so much for sharing that, Jose.
It's um, I remember hearing this, hearingyou talk about this and it was, it was
just so inspiring because I also know Adamand, and you're right, he can, you know.
(10:58):
Whatever he say, I, I, hesay jump and I say how high.
And, um, and, uh, and, uh, it was,um, it's just incredible to see how
many individual lives that CollegeUnbound seems to have touched, but
(11:18):
in a, in such an impactful way.
Um, I, I feel like that everyalum, Everyone that I've met with
at College Unbound that have gonethrough the program have something
similar like that to share, right?
Um, that they're, you know, likethe traditional college system,
(11:41):
whether it be a community college ora K 12 school or whatever, whatever
it might be, had failed them.
And that's only amplifiedwhen you're an adult, right?
Um, it's one thing when a systemfails you when you're a traditional.
College age student and you're goingstraight from high school and you got
all these things in place, but it'samplified When you're a working adult
(12:05):
who's simply just trying to obtain adegree to better one's life And it's
a story that we hear over and over andover again to the tune of Folks really
start to believe that, and I say folksbecause I felt that way myself, that, all
right, maybe I'm just not smart enough.
(12:25):
Uh, college isn't for me.
This isn't the time for me.
And you immediately startto beat yourself up.
So it's a.
I'm glad that this space exists.
I'm glad that this school exists.
And that's the reason why, um, becausewhether we were the folks who initiated
the wrong or not, we get to rightwrongs for a lot of folks through this,
(12:47):
through their educational journey.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Now, do you want, would you like to tellus a little bit about, so how, how does
College Unbound, in fact, recognize youfor who you are and let you be successful?
What was that, what is that, like,what's that actually look like?
(13:07):
What does week one actually look like?
Like, what is the thing that they haveyou do that make you feel like, Hold on
a minute, I am inside college material.
So it's this, it's thesense of community, right?
So you're, you're brought into a spacewhere everybody is just loving and caring.
Um, so as an institution, we're askingstudents to bring their all, the good,
(13:32):
the bad, and the ugly, um, and that,To me, it's what community means.
Um, you know, the wordcommunity is in my title.
So everything about communityhas to be, has to be right.
And knowing that also means thatcommunity members aren't perfect, right?
(13:53):
No one in the community is perfect.
So we have to take folks how they are.
And I think that that was the firstthing that I recognized doing are
my first CU gathering and being inthat space, having a communal meal.
With some peers that I would learn tolove in a few, just in just a few weeks
(14:14):
and, um, just being around those folksand their ability or their willingness
to just open up and just be free.
It wasn't easy for me, uh, becauseof my experience from the community
college to actually be as open, ashonest as I could be with folks, right?
I was afraid that I would be judgedand that, uh, People would put me
(14:35):
in a box as to how I got to whereI was and my experiences thus far.
Um, however, um, CU taught meand just like they've taught
others to embrace one story.
I embraced my story.
I just felt a million times more powerful.
(14:58):
And as a result of me feeling that power,I believe at least that I've been able to
open the door for other people to come in,uh, behind me and have similar success.
That's, that's amazing.
Do you remember what was your,what was your project at CU?
What was your first project?
So, uh, And I, and Ialways state this, right?
(15:22):
Because although, uh, I've been referredto as a colorful, uh, extrovert,
I'm an introvert by heart, right?
And the first time that I had anextroverted moment, uh, was during,
uh, And, uh, my, my cohort decidedthat I would be the voice for my cohort
(15:45):
in a debate we were having a debate,um, particularly on gun control.
Um, and I just made a really, I wish Icould remember exactly what I said, but
it was so much in the moment, right?
I said what I said, and I gotpeople clapped and agreed with me.
And I think that that wasa very empowering moment.
(16:07):
And that's when you realize that,Hey, I can't do public speaking.
Yes.
Yes, that was the moment.
But overall, what, uh, as, as faras like my project or things that I
have taken on while being at CU, Istarted a nonprofit barbershop, right?
Um, and in a very crowded market,uh, and CU actually gave me the
(16:28):
tools to be able to, to, to do that.
And the reason why I say it's a crowdedmarket, um, I was giving quality haircuts
to kids for free in a neighborhoodthat probably had 40 barbershops.
Uh, so there, there were a few.
Folks who might have thought I wascutting into their profits by giving
away a free haircut, but the reality was,is that I was doing intervention work.
(16:51):
These kids, um, were what the schooldistrict would consider troublesome.
I wouldn't consider them troublesome,uh, but what the school district
would consider troublesome, youknow, broken homes, no, no, no real,
Finances or anything like that.
So I wasn't taking money from them.
These were kids that weren't goinginto their barbershops to begin with,
(17:12):
because they couldn't afford it.
So I think that we need to break thatdown even a little bit further for folks
because For many of our listeners whomight have been, you know, expecting
a typical college experience where youtake a course, you take, you read a
(17:34):
book on, I don't know, you know, um,community, um, community policies,
or, or, or, or, um, Acts of communityservices, making social changes, etc.
And then you debate and you mightwrite a paper and all of that.
But, but, but what you, what you aredescribing of creating a nonprofit to
(17:57):
go in and service people in the realworld, to work with real kids, like
what you just described is in fact.
The project that you didat CU, is that right?
Yeah.
So every, that's not, that'snot common for all these folks.
I think we need to, I think weneed to like, make sure that they
understand that it wasn't just oneof those, like, hypothetically,
(18:19):
that would be a cool project to do.
You actually went and did it.
And so did everyoneelse did their projects.
So all, all students at College andBowner asked, uh, to come up with a
passion-based project, uh, passion-based,meaning anything that's going to
move their particular community.
And you know, understandingthat community has a different
(18:42):
definition for everybody, right?
So community could be the neighborhoodin which you grew up in, your religious
community, your home community.
I mean, community as you see it.
So come up with a project that'sgonna better your community.
And at the time I was doing violenceinterruption work at a place in Providence
called the Nonviolence Institute.
(19:02):
Well, at the time it was calledthe Nonviolence Institute.
The Institute for the Studyand Practice of Nonviolence.
Um, they changed the name and I think forthe better because it's a lot shorter.
Um, needless to say, I was workingwith kids who, I quote unquote,
were troublesome, but I wouldnotice small things about them.
Meaning, you know, hygiene, personalhygiene wasn't good, and those are things
(19:25):
that are taught, you know, so I figuredthat if I could basically kill two birds
with one stone, I can teach them abouthygiene, give them a quality haircut,
and also, uh, talk to them about violencereduction strategies so that they don't,
they didn't overreact or snap on a teacherwhenever things got rough, and Some of
(19:47):
the things that I learned, one, is thatjust the feeling of being properly groomed
allows you to feel better about yourself.
And if you feel better aboutyourself, your reaction to things
are a little bit different.
And then second, which was something thathit really close to home while working
with that population, was that a lotof these kids get labeled as being bad.
(20:13):
Defiant, Troublesome, but in reality,some of these kids were just hungry,
uh, they would act up on a Fridaybecause they knew that once I eat this
lunch on Friday, I don't know if I'mgoing to have food till Monday morning
when I get to class for breakfast.
Um, so it actually, through thisprogram and just being able.
(20:35):
Through the barbershop and being able tohave just simple conversations with them,
I was able to take those conversations andthen go back to the schools, like, these
are the issues that your kids are facing,and this is the reason why they're acting
the way that they're acting, um, and
in essence, making thecommunity better, right?
(20:58):
I think that, you know, I thinkthat that's one of the things that
makes me so excited and so drawnto what College Unbound is doing.
You know, you never for a moment,
underestimate Your studentsthemselves, and you know, they come
(21:21):
in and you believe that they can dothe work and they can do the work.
They go and actually do the work andthey all prove that they can do it.
College Unbound has an incredibleretention and graduation rates.
Um, and.
And that every student isrequired to do these projects.
(21:44):
And they're not just school projects.
These are real projects that hasreal impact on people's lives.
And some live on, right?
And depending on, you know, what theperson does, I guess, but, but these
are, these are not insignificant things.
They have real, um, theyhave real customers.
They have real people they serve.
(22:04):
They have real, you know, impact.
And those kids that you worked with.
That you gave haircuts to, I'msure had you had possibly changed
their lives in ways that youprobably couldn't even track.
And yes.
And the only reason why I say yes to thatis because, uh, Recently, uh, we, you
(22:29):
know, this past, uh, spring we enrolled,uh, quite a few folks and I'm just
sitting at the start of the cohort, youknow, just giving our spiel, welcoming
everyone and one of the women that wasin, uh, one of our new students who was
in the audience, uh, walked up to me andshe said, Hey, you don't remember me.
(22:52):
And of course I smiled and waslike, of course I remember you.
You're, uh, so she tells meher name and she's like, you
used to give my son haircuts.
And okay.
Like, you know, I, at, at thatpoint I was like, okay, you got me.
I really don't know who you are.
And I used to cut a lot of kids hairs.
(23:13):
So like, give me a little bit more.
She's like, well, he's so and so.
And, uh, you know, he was alwaysgetting, uh, kicked out of, uh, Kicked
out of school, et cetera, et cetera.
But something around the time thatyou were giving them a haircut,
something in his mind shifted.
And, uh, he decided that that'sthe avenue that he wanted to take.
(23:35):
So he became a barber.
I didn't know.
So he became a barber.
And, you know, after the conversationwith her, I did look him up and
he's a very successful barber.
I mean, like a hundred dollarsa haircut type barber, which is.
Remarkable.
Uh, and
I'm actually feeling kind of oldright now cause he was a little
kid and he's already an adult.
(23:56):
But yeah, uh, he also, uh,for back to school does all
kids free at his barbershop.
Kids free.
So that one gesture of giving him a freehaircut has had the trickle effect of
one, him finding a career for himself.
But also him wanting to pay itforward in that kids for school
(24:20):
will get a free haircut at thebeginning of the year from him.
See, I think that this is one of the,one of those things that, and I, I
also want to talk, I mean, I want totalk a little bit about the timeline
in which these things happen in the,in comparison to, um, a regular,
(24:40):
let's say a college experience.
I can tell you, like, this is, you know,obviously a very much of a, a, a, a
summary or, you know, sort of a, a, a, alot of approximation here, but students
in many colleges are now introduced tothings like service learning, where they
go out to the community and do something.
(25:02):
Okay, but they are typically not doingthat until they have been deemed that
they have the basic writing skillsand the basic reading skills and,
and, you know, they have to go througha number of gen ed courses, etc.
So, maybe it's two, three yearsinto it that now you're a sophomore,
you are a junior, you're a senior,you have the opportunity to
(25:23):
go and do it for one semester.
At College Unbound,that's not what it's like.
Can you tell us a little bit aboutthat, sort of that, you know, like, the
equivalent of that in College Unbound?
At what point do you, you know,like, you get in there first,
first, first, first day, right?
(25:43):
And what, at what point areyou doing this kind of project?
Are you welcome?
Are you trusted to dothis kind of project?
Uh, from day one, uh, you come in,uh, from the recruitment process,
you're being taught, uh, throughwhat a project can look like.
So you start to think aboutwhat the possibilities are.
Um, but we're a regionally accreditedcollege, so we have all the same
(26:06):
rigor than any other institution has.
However, um, because we are workingWith adult populations who have had
tremendous success, whether in community,in work, or what have you, they come
with a lot of lived experience andthat lived experience through our
(26:28):
learning in public, uh, departmentgets translated into college credit.
So we've had students who.
have come in with zero creditsand graduated in 18 months with a
bachelor's degree because they wereable to put portfolios together for
all the, all the experience, allthe lived experiences that they had.
I think that the anomaly, uh, orthe expectation for colleges to have
(26:55):
folks take courses on things thatthey've already mastered is redundant.
And we don't do that here.
Our, the, our person who runs the learningfrom experience, uh, department, uh,
Elizabeth Colon is also a person who
the program was kind of developed aroundbecause she was the first person to
(27:17):
benefit from, I think Lizz did it in like14 months, came in with about 12 credits
and in about 14 months had a bachelor'sdegree and was on to getting her master's.
Um, only because she was ableto get through her bachelors
as such a, uh, fast paced.
And I don't mean that to say, uh, tosay it lightly that she made it through
(27:38):
in a fast, fast pace, because shehad put in the work and all the other
things she had done in her life, right?
Uh, we just gave her, uh, credit for it.
And I think that for a lot of ourstudents, once they realize that all their
lived experience actually has a value,Um, that it's not a thing they just did.
It was something actually that theylearned with learning outcomes,
(28:00):
whether they saw it as such or notin the moment, we make sure that
we teach them how to, how to, howto get that out of any experience.
And I think that's a, that's,it's just really remarkable.
I know that the, the audience, the typicalstudent in coming to College Unbound, like
you said, have a rich lived experiencealready, so they can translate that.
(28:24):
And I think that, however, You know,I mean, literally going back to even,
I know Dennis Littky, you know, his,his high school projects, you know,
called the, the, the med school,um, and the big picture by the, I
think it's called the Big PictureCompany that makes the "Big Picture
Learning" that makes the med school.
(28:47):
Draws from a very similar setof, you know, ideas too, right?
The, the, the high school kidsare not, and they were never too
young to go in and start a project.
They were never too inexperienced tosay you're not allowed to do something.
And in fact, I think one of the thingsthat's most, most exciting about it
is that it's almost like you, Youstart your project because that's
(29:09):
something you are so passionate about.
In your case, you, you see that theworld needs a solution for these
unnecessary violence because kids justdid not know how to act otherwise.
So you, you know it.
And it's something that's, it'shard to read about from a book.
(29:30):
It's hard to read about from a bookbecause a book could have mentioned
it, but it would have been a paragraphin, you know, a bigger book somewhere.
Right.
And you don't, you know, there's,it doesn't point you to go and say,
I'm now going to spend the nextcouple of years to go on and make a
difference in this area of society.
(29:50):
Right.
So, I think that that's, it's areally stark difference in my mind.
But then once you have found your passion,once you found some meaning in that.
It makes the idea ofthe way I look at it is
you might have not done well inpublic speaking in that one course
(30:12):
back in a community college.
But you certainly have had to doa lot of public speaking, right?
In with, with either the kids or with,you know, groups of people thereafter.
But because now you're doing it with thatpassion, with that drive, you just do it.
You just have to do it and you,you get it done and you learn it.
(30:34):
And you, I, I believe that peoplelearn things when the drive
comes from a place of passion,a place of purpose and meaning.
They overcome so much more.
They work so much harder.
They do things much faster.
They learn deeper.
I think there is something about that,that makes it possible for College
(30:54):
Unbound graduates to finish to programquicker than a typical four year program.
They are not, they're running, they'renot, they're running the whole time.
They're not sitting aroundwaiting for someone to feed them.
Hey, this is what you might want to take.
But, but it's a matter of.
The word drive, right, sticks out to mein, in, in your comments only because, uh,
(31:16):
for a lot of our students, they come withdrive because they're, you know, we were
working with a particular population, likethey only know work, work, work, and I'm
going to get it done because this is whatI got to do to, uh, provide for my family.
They never see themselves asacademics because no one ever
told them that they were.
So the second that they get acknowledgedas such, you can, It's like an
(31:40):
almost instant aha moment wherethey're like, oh, I can do this.
And once that I can dothis attitude begins.
It's only, no, no one's stopping them.
And I think that for myself andfor others, I think that's the
reason that we go through CU.
We go through College Unboundand all of ourselves all of
(32:00):
a sudden find ourselves in.
Graduate programs.
Um, because now we havebeen empowered to learn.
We have been empowered tounderstand that we can learn.
Um, it was just the institutionthat wasn't right for us.
It wasn't that we weren't right.
Um, and it's, it's always a goodconversation when I'm having
(32:23):
folks who are about to graduate.
Uh, come to my office to ask meabout, Hey, what, what program
do you think I should go to next?
Um, and you know, the, the, uh,bright eyed, uh, and just like
eager to just keep learning.
Here's a preview of what'scoming up next in part two of my
(32:44):
conversation with Jose Rodriguez.
Assistant Vice President of Communityand Belonging at College Unbound.
CU's motto lends itself to being ableto teach wherever there is a need.
If you have a conference room, wecan come in and, you know, that
then becomes College Unbound.
We don't have a building, uh,and I don't think that we're
(33:05):
ever intended to have buildings.
I think that the motto is that wewill always teach in communities.
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Jeff Yan.
In this episode, you will hear part oneof my conversation with Jose Rodriguez,
Assistant Vice President of Communityand Belonging at College Unbound.
More links and information about today'sconversation can be found on Digication's
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of DigicationScholars Conversations.
(00:24):
Can be found on YouTube oryour favorite podcast app.
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Jeff Yan.
My guest today is Jose Rodriguez,Assistant Vice President of Community
and Belonging at College Unbound.
Welcome, Jose.
Glad to be here.
Um, Jose, I, um, I think I, I met youat a, um, Last fall at College Unbound's
(00:54):
inauguration of its second president,uh, Adam Bush, and I got to, um, see
you speak in a number of occasions.
Um, and I was just deeply inspired by, uh,by you, your work and what you stand for.
So I'm very grateful that we got tohave this conversation here today.
(01:14):
I think that people are going toreally love this, you know, hearing
about you, you and your story.
I appreciate that.
So, before we get started, for thoselisteners who don't know anything
about College Unbound, again, Ialready had sort of mentioned it's its
second president's inauguration, whichimplies that it's a fairly new school.
(01:35):
Um, why don't you tell us a little bit,you know, about College Unbound and, um,
you know, where it is, what it does, and,um, And how is, how, why it's so special.
I think it's very special.
So go ahead.
Yeah, I think I got to lead with thefact that it is my Alma mater, right?
So I, I attended College Unbound.
So everything and anything that I sayabout the school is primarily from a
(01:58):
alumni perspective or, uh, or studentperspective or student lens, I should say,
so College Unbound was started, uh, bytwo gentlemen, uh, two Uh, Dennis Littky
and Adam Bush, uh, in and around 2009 andreally it was meant to be a school within
a school at some point where they werepartnering with different institutions
(02:22):
to provide just a different way ofteaching, uh, to a particular population
of students that weren't being successfuland quote unquote traditional schooling.
Um, that humble beginning, uh, through,uh, In 2011, I believe a call to action
was basically put out, uh, via socialmedia where, uh, to both Adam and Dennis's
(02:49):
surprise, the response from the community,uh, was, wow, we've been waiting for
a school like this our whole lives.
And I think that that's really whatstarted the maybe we just can't be a
school within a school, uh, conversation.
And, uh, Adam and, andDennis really started.
(03:09):
Laying down the groundworkfor what was to come.
In 2015, we received stateapproval to be a standalone college
in the state of Rhode Island.
A triumph in itself.
You know, those books aren'treally open that that.
That they're rarely opened.
(03:31):
They were opened for usand we were allowed it.
Um, that opened us up to be able toapply for a regional accreditor, uh,
which is NECHE and in 2020, aftera lot of work, uh, we received,
uh, full accreditation from NECHE.
And now, um, College Unboundoffers a bachelor's degree.
(03:55):
Am I right?
Correct.
So a bachelor's degree inorganizational leadership and change.
Um, and we now just don'toperate in Rhode Island.
We're actually in Chicago, New Jersey,Pennsylvania, uh, and working on Seattle.
And, uh, South, South Carolina.
So, like, yeah, growing themodel is growing because
(04:17):
it's something that's needed.
It's amazing.
And I would love to talk more aboutthe model itself as well in a bit.
But I think that, um, maybe weshould, um, talk a little bit
more about you as well, Jose.
Um, I know that you've had a, um, youhad talked about College Unbound being
set up for people who might not havebeen successful in traditional schools
(04:42):
or traditional sort of, you know, the,the, the, the, the sort of, uh, American
dream model of, you know, going to K 12school and then going to college and then
finish a four year degree and then go onto get a job, that kind of model, right?
Um, And, um, I think that you canprobably speak to that too, because
(05:04):
that's your personal experience.
Now you are, you are analum of College Unbound.
Can you tell us a littlebit about your journey?
Yeah, so I can, it's, it's a somewhatinteresting story with a lot of layers.
So, so I'll try to unlayeras much of it as possible.
Um, I'm what you consider,uh, or what society would have
considered a throwaway kid.
(05:24):
I'm from a single parent home.
Uh, From, uh, quote unquote, the ghetto,the slums of the slums, um, and I
dropped out of school in the sixth grade.
Um, so I had the recipe to not besuccessful or not to be in academia,
um, because of those choices that Imade early on to drop out of school,
(05:46):
um, and to pursue income and in variousways, most of which weren't, uh,
legal, uh, that landed me in prison.
Um, but while in prison, uh, I wasreintroduced to education, I should say.
And I was reintroduced to education ona basic level, meaning I got my GED.
(06:07):
Um, and pretty much after youget your GED in prison, um, there
really isn't anything for you to do.
So I took a couple of the remedial coursesthat our community college, uh, was
offering at the time with the, with thethought or dream of when I am released,
I am going to go to the same communitycollege and I'm going to get a degree.
(06:28):
And that's how I'm going to createchange, not just for me, but
for my family, to my surprise.
And, you know, I jokingly say thisall the time, but it definitely was a
pivotal moment, but it was about 2011.
Um, January of 2011, when I entered.
Our community college as a, as a regularstudent not being incarcerated and I
(06:52):
take, you know, a regular course load.
So full, full time student12, 4 classes, 3 credits each.
And one of the classes, which Ifound was probably going to be
the most interesting to me was.
Public speaking.
Um, why that was interestingto me is because for the, I had
gotten out of prison in 2010.
So it had been about a year and Ihad spent the last year of that time,
(07:13):
the last year working, uh, speakingto kids, you know, uh, violence
reduction, preventative work on.
So at the core of what I was doing fora living now was speaking to public,
maybe not, you know, large groups asif, you know, like a national public
speaker or anything, but to me, itwas an important part of my journey.
(07:37):
And unfortunately, BecauseI speak multiple languages,
sometimes I do mispronounce words.
And I always say this because it'simportant to note that just because I
mispronounce a word, it isn't becauseI don't know the meaning of the word
or I don't know how to say the word.
But for anyone who speaks multiplelanguages, sometimes it, that the
(07:57):
words just get mixed up and, youknow, lost in translation as they say.
Needless to say, my oral presentation,uh, midterm, uh, I didn't do so well.
Um, I mispronounced a bunch of words,but it wasn't that, that, that derailed
me or that, you know, put me on a, ona, really on a path of negativity was
(08:19):
the instructor, quote unquote, and Iuse instructor, the term instructor very
loosely, um, said to me at the end ofthe class, maybe public speaking isn't a
thing that you should pursue because youdon't really sound intelligent when you
speak, you know, and I, and I, and I saythat and, and I wore that You know, as
(08:40):
a, as a, I, I walked with that becauseit was important for me to remember
that if I ever saw that quote unquoteinstructor again, that I'd be able to
tell them how wrong they actually were.
Without that incident, I wouldhave never found College Unbound.
So, in that, uh, maybe about twoweeks after that happened, I had
(09:02):
a chance encounter with Adam Bush.
Um, he was, he was, Uh, we had someCollege Unbound students who were
interning at my place of employment,and Adam just came to check in on them.
And, um, anybody who knows Adam Bushknows he's a very captivating speaker.
Uh, so he could, you know, you, he,he, if he engages you in conversation,
(09:23):
you're buying whatever he's selling.
Uh, so that, that led to me justbeing curious about what College
Unbound could be because, no,it's a different way of learning.
You're going to learn this way.
You know, we're going to give you creditfor the things that you've already done.
Why take classes for thingsthat you've already mastered.
And that really piqued my interest, uh,so, regardless of the experience that
(09:50):
I had at our local community college,I said, you know, I'm going to give it.
I'm just going to try one moretime at this college thing.
And if this doesn't work, then, youknow, I'm just not college material.
And that's just something thatI'm going to have to deal with.
Thankfully, I am college materialand I've was able to keep going.
Uh, get out the other side, but that isthe example as to why this school is so
(10:13):
important, whether in, whether for folkswho look like me or folks or, or, or kids
who are just getting out of high schooland are being told by an instructor,
those words, like they're being limitedby the words of the people who were there
or intended to be there to teach them,you know, and being chopped down in such
(10:33):
a way opened up the space for a schoolthat like College Unbound to exist.
That's, um, that's, that's amazing.
Thank you so much for sharing that, Jose.
It's um, I remember hearing this, hearingyou talk about this and it was, it was
just so inspiring because I also know Adamand, and you're right, he can, you know.
(10:58):
Whatever he say, I, I, hesay jump and I say how high.
And, um, and, uh, and, uh, it was,um, it's just incredible to see how
many individual lives that CollegeUnbound seems to have touched, but
(11:18):
in a, in such an impactful way.
Um, I, I feel like that everyalum, Everyone that I've met with
at College Unbound that have gonethrough the program have something
similar like that to share, right?
Um, that they're, you know, likethe traditional college system,
(11:41):
whether it be a community college ora K 12 school or whatever, whatever
it might be, had failed them.
And that's only amplifiedwhen you're an adult, right?
Um, it's one thing when a systemfails you when you're a traditional.
College age student and you're goingstraight from high school and you got
all these things in place, but it'samplified When you're a working adult
(12:05):
who's simply just trying to obtain adegree to better one's life And it's
a story that we hear over and over andover again to the tune of Folks really
start to believe that, and I say folksbecause I felt that way myself, that, all
right, maybe I'm just not smart enough.
(12:25):
Uh, college isn't for me.
This isn't the time for me.
And you immediately startto beat yourself up.
So it's a.
I'm glad that this space exists.
I'm glad that this school exists.
And that's the reason why, um, becausewhether we were the folks who initiated
the wrong or not, we get to rightwrongs for a lot of folks through this,
(12:47):
through their educational journey.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Now, do you want, would you like to tellus a little bit about, so how, how does
College Unbound, in fact, recognize youfor who you are and let you be successful?
What was that, what is that, like,what's that actually look like?
(13:07):
What does week one actually look like?
Like, what is the thing that they haveyou do that make you feel like, Hold on
a minute, I am inside college material.
So it's this, it's thesense of community, right?
So you're, you're brought into a spacewhere everybody is just loving and caring.
Um, so as an institution, we're askingstudents to bring their all, the good,
(13:32):
the bad, and the ugly, um, and that,To me, it's what community means.
Um, you know, the wordcommunity is in my title.
So everything about communityhas to be, has to be right.
And knowing that also means thatcommunity members aren't perfect, right?
(13:53):
No one in the community is perfect.
So we have to take folks how they are.
And I think that that was the firstthing that I recognized doing are
my first CU gathering and being inthat space, having a communal meal.
With some peers that I would learn tolove in a few, just in just a few weeks
(14:14):
and, um, just being around those folksand their ability or their willingness
to just open up and just be free.
It wasn't easy for me, uh, becauseof my experience from the community
college to actually be as open, ashonest as I could be with folks, right?
I was afraid that I would be judgedand that, uh, People would put me
(14:35):
in a box as to how I got to whereI was and my experiences thus far.
Um, however, um, CU taught meand just like they've taught
others to embrace one story.
I embraced my story.
I just felt a million times more powerful.
(14:58):
And as a result of me feeling that power,I believe at least that I've been able to
open the door for other people to come in,uh, behind me and have similar success.
That's, that's amazing.
Do you remember what was your,what was your project at CU?
What was your first project?
So, uh, And I, and Ialways state this, right?
(15:22):
Because although, uh, I've been referredto as a colorful, uh, extrovert,
I'm an introvert by heart, right?
And the first time that I had anextroverted moment, uh, was during,
uh, And, uh, my, my cohort decidedthat I would be the voice for my cohort
(15:45):
in a debate we were having a debate,um, particularly on gun control.
Um, and I just made a really, I wish Icould remember exactly what I said, but
it was so much in the moment, right?
I said what I said, and I gotpeople clapped and agreed with me.
And I think that that wasa very empowering moment.
(16:07):
And that's when you realize that,Hey, I can't do public speaking.
Yes.
Yes, that was the moment.
But overall, what, uh, as, as faras like my project or things that I
have taken on while being at CU, Istarted a nonprofit barbershop, right?
Um, and in a very crowded market,uh, and CU actually gave me the
(16:28):
tools to be able to, to, to do that.
And the reason why I say it's a crowdedmarket, um, I was giving quality haircuts
to kids for free in a neighborhoodthat probably had 40 barbershops.
Uh, so there, there were a few.
Folks who might have thought I wascutting into their profits by giving
away a free haircut, but the reality was,is that I was doing intervention work.
(16:51):
These kids, um, were what the schooldistrict would consider troublesome.
I wouldn't consider them troublesome,uh, but what the school district
would consider troublesome, youknow, broken homes, no, no, no real,
Finances or anything like that.
So I wasn't taking money from them.
These were kids that weren't goinginto their barbershops to begin with,
(17:12):
because they couldn't afford it.
So I think that we need to break thatdown even a little bit further for folks
because For many of our listeners whomight have been, you know, expecting
a typical college experience where youtake a course, you take, you read a
(17:34):
book on, I don't know, you know, um,community, um, community policies,
or, or, or, or, um, Acts of communityservices, making social changes, etc.
And then you debate and you mightwrite a paper and all of that.
But, but, but what you, what you aredescribing of creating a nonprofit to
(17:57):
go in and service people in the realworld, to work with real kids, like
what you just described is in fact.
The project that you didat CU, is that right?
Yeah.
So every, that's not, that'snot common for all these folks.
I think we need to, I think weneed to like, make sure that they
understand that it wasn't just oneof those, like, hypothetically,
(18:19):
that would be a cool project to do.
You actually went and did it.
And so did everyoneelse did their projects.
So all, all students at College andBowner asked, uh, to come up with a
passion-based project, uh, passion-based,meaning anything that's going to
move their particular community.
And you know, understandingthat community has a different
(18:42):
definition for everybody, right?
So community could be the neighborhoodin which you grew up in, your religious
community, your home community.
I mean, community as you see it.
So come up with a project that'sgonna better your community.
And at the time I was doing violenceinterruption work at a place in Providence
called the Nonviolence Institute.
(19:02):
Well, at the time it was calledthe Nonviolence Institute.
The Institute for the Studyand Practice of Nonviolence.
Um, they changed the name and I think forthe better because it's a lot shorter.
Um, needless to say, I was workingwith kids who, I quote unquote,
were troublesome, but I wouldnotice small things about them.
Meaning, you know, hygiene, personalhygiene wasn't good, and those are things
(19:25):
that are taught, you know, so I figuredthat if I could basically kill two birds
with one stone, I can teach them abouthygiene, give them a quality haircut,
and also, uh, talk to them about violencereduction strategies so that they don't,
they didn't overreact or snap on a teacherwhenever things got rough, and Some of
(19:47):
the things that I learned, one, is thatjust the feeling of being properly groomed
allows you to feel better about yourself.
And if you feel better aboutyourself, your reaction to things
are a little bit different.
And then second, which was something thathit really close to home while working
with that population, was that a lotof these kids get labeled as being bad.
(20:13):
Defiant, Troublesome, but in reality,some of these kids were just hungry,
uh, they would act up on a Fridaybecause they knew that once I eat this
lunch on Friday, I don't know if I'mgoing to have food till Monday morning
when I get to class for breakfast.
Um, so it actually, through thisprogram and just being able.
(20:35):
Through the barbershop and being able tohave just simple conversations with them,
I was able to take those conversations andthen go back to the schools, like, these
are the issues that your kids are facing,and this is the reason why they're acting
the way that they're acting, um, and
in essence, making thecommunity better, right?
(20:58):
I think that, you know, I thinkthat that's one of the things that
makes me so excited and so drawnto what College Unbound is doing.
You know, you never for a moment,
underestimate Your studentsthemselves, and you know, they come
(21:21):
in and you believe that they can dothe work and they can do the work.
They go and actually do the work andthey all prove that they can do it.
College Unbound has an incredibleretention and graduation rates.
Um, and.
And that every student isrequired to do these projects.
(21:44):
And they're not just school projects.
These are real projects that hasreal impact on people's lives.
And some live on, right?
And depending on, you know, what theperson does, I guess, but, but these
are, these are not insignificant things.
They have real, um, theyhave real customers.
They have real people they serve.
(22:04):
They have real, you know, impact.
And those kids that you worked with.
That you gave haircuts to, I'msure had you had possibly changed
their lives in ways that youprobably couldn't even track.
And yes.
And the only reason why I say yes to thatis because, uh, Recently, uh, we, you
(22:29):
know, this past, uh, spring we enrolled,uh, quite a few folks and I'm just
sitting at the start of the cohort, youknow, just giving our spiel, welcoming
everyone and one of the women that wasin, uh, one of our new students who was
in the audience, uh, walked up to me andshe said, Hey, you don't remember me.
(22:52):
And of course I smiled and waslike, of course I remember you.
You're, uh, so she tells meher name and she's like, you
used to give my son haircuts.
And okay.
Like, you know, I, at, at thatpoint I was like, okay, you got me.
I really don't know who you are.
And I used to cut a lot of kids hairs.
(23:13):
So like, give me a little bit more.
She's like, well, he's so and so.
And, uh, you know, he was alwaysgetting, uh, kicked out of, uh, Kicked
out of school, et cetera, et cetera.
But something around the time thatyou were giving them a haircut,
something in his mind shifted.
And, uh, he decided that that'sthe avenue that he wanted to take.
(23:35):
So he became a barber.
I didn't know.
So he became a barber.
And, you know, after the conversationwith her, I did look him up and
he's a very successful barber.
I mean, like a hundred dollarsa haircut type barber, which is.
Remarkable.
Uh, and
I'm actually feeling kind of oldright now cause he was a little
kid and he's already an adult.
(23:56):
But yeah, uh, he also, uh,for back to school does all
kids free at his barbershop.
Kids free.
So that one gesture of giving him a freehaircut has had the trickle effect of
one, him finding a career for himself.
But also him wanting to pay itforward in that kids for school
(24:20):
will get a free haircut at thebeginning of the year from him.
See, I think that this is one of the,one of those things that, and I, I
also want to talk, I mean, I want totalk a little bit about the timeline
in which these things happen in the,in comparison to, um, a regular,
(24:40):
let's say a college experience.
I can tell you, like, this is, you know,obviously a very much of a, a, a, a
summary or, you know, sort of a, a, a, alot of approximation here, but students
in many colleges are now introduced tothings like service learning, where they
go out to the community and do something.
(25:02):
Okay, but they are typically not doingthat until they have been deemed that
they have the basic writing skillsand the basic reading skills and,
and, you know, they have to go througha number of gen ed courses, etc.
So, maybe it's two, three yearsinto it that now you're a sophomore,
you are a junior, you're a senior,you have the opportunity to
(25:23):
go and do it for one semester.
At College Unbound,that's not what it's like.
Can you tell us a little bit aboutthat, sort of that, you know, like, the
equivalent of that in College Unbound?
At what point do you, you know,like, you get in there first,
first, first, first day, right?
(25:43):
And what, at what point areyou doing this kind of project?
Are you welcome?
Are you trusted to dothis kind of project?
Uh, from day one, uh, you come in,uh, from the recruitment process,
you're being taught, uh, throughwhat a project can look like.
So you start to think aboutwhat the possibilities are.
Um, but we're a regionally accreditedcollege, so we have all the same
(26:06):
rigor than any other institution has.
However, um, because we are workingWith adult populations who have had
tremendous success, whether in community,in work, or what have you, they come
with a lot of lived experience andthat lived experience through our
(26:28):
learning in public, uh, departmentgets translated into college credit.
So we've had students who.
have come in with zero creditsand graduated in 18 months with a
bachelor's degree because they wereable to put portfolios together for
all the, all the experience, allthe lived experiences that they had.
I think that the anomaly, uh, orthe expectation for colleges to have
(26:55):
folks take courses on things thatthey've already mastered is redundant.
And we don't do that here.
Our, the, our person who runs the learningfrom experience, uh, department, uh,
Elizabeth Colon is also a person who
the program was kind of developed aroundbecause she was the first person to
(27:17):
benefit from, I think Lizz did it in like14 months, came in with about 12 credits
and in about 14 months had a bachelor'sdegree and was on to getting her master's.
Um, only because she was ableto get through her bachelors
as such a, uh, fast paced.
And I don't mean that to say, uh, tosay it lightly that she made it through
(27:38):
in a fast, fast pace, because shehad put in the work and all the other
things she had done in her life, right?
Uh, we just gave her, uh, credit for it.
And I think that for a lot of ourstudents, once they realize that all their
lived experience actually has a value,Um, that it's not a thing they just did.
It was something actually that theylearned with learning outcomes,
(28:00):
whether they saw it as such or notin the moment, we make sure that
we teach them how to, how to, howto get that out of any experience.
And I think that's a, that's,it's just really remarkable.
I know that the, the audience, the typicalstudent in coming to College Unbound, like
you said, have a rich lived experiencealready, so they can translate that.
(28:24):
And I think that, however, You know,I mean, literally going back to even,
I know Dennis Littky, you know, his,his high school projects, you know,
called the, the, the med school,um, and the big picture by the, I
think it's called the Big PictureCompany that makes the "Big Picture
Learning" that makes the med school.
(28:47):
Draws from a very similar setof, you know, ideas too, right?
The, the, the high school kidsare not, and they were never too
young to go in and start a project.
They were never too inexperienced tosay you're not allowed to do something.
And in fact, I think one of the thingsthat's most, most exciting about it
is that it's almost like you, Youstart your project because that's
(29:09):
something you are so passionate about.
In your case, you, you see that theworld needs a solution for these
unnecessary violence because kids justdid not know how to act otherwise.
So you, you know it.
And it's something that's, it'shard to read about from a book.
(29:30):
It's hard to read about from a bookbecause a book could have mentioned
it, but it would have been a paragraphin, you know, a bigger book somewhere.
Right.
And you don't, you know, there's,it doesn't point you to go and say,
I'm now going to spend the nextcouple of years to go on and make a
difference in this area of society.
(29:50):
Right.
So, I think that that's, it's areally stark difference in my mind.
But then once you have found your passion,once you found some meaning in that.
It makes the idea ofthe way I look at it is
you might have not done well inpublic speaking in that one course
(30:12):
back in a community college.
But you certainly have had to doa lot of public speaking, right?
In with, with either the kids or with,you know, groups of people thereafter.
But because now you're doing it with thatpassion, with that drive, you just do it.
You just have to do it and you,you get it done and you learn it.
(30:34):
And you, I, I believe that peoplelearn things when the drive
comes from a place of passion,a place of purpose and meaning.
They overcome so much more.
They work so much harder.
They do things much faster.
They learn deeper.
I think there is something about that,that makes it possible for College
(30:54):
Unbound graduates to finish to programquicker than a typical four year program.
They are not, they're running, they'renot, they're running the whole time.
They're not sitting aroundwaiting for someone to feed them.
Hey, this is what you might want to take.
But, but it's a matter of.
The word drive, right, sticks out to mein, in, in your comments only because, uh,
(31:16):
for a lot of our students, they come withdrive because they're, you know, we were
working with a particular population, likethey only know work, work, work, and I'm
going to get it done because this is whatI got to do to, uh, provide for my family.
They never see themselves asacademics because no one ever
told them that they were.
So the second that they get acknowledgedas such, you can, It's like an
(31:40):
almost instant aha moment wherethey're like, oh, I can do this.
And once that I can dothis attitude begins.
It's only, no, no one's stopping them.
And I think that for myself andfor others, I think that's the
reason that we go through CU.
We go through College Unboundand all of ourselves all of
(32:00):
a sudden find ourselves in.
Graduate programs.
Um, because now we havebeen empowered to learn.
We have been empowered tounderstand that we can learn.
Um, it was just the institutionthat wasn't right for us.
It wasn't that we weren't right.
Um, and it's, it's always a goodconversation when I'm having
(32:23):
folks who are about to graduate.
Uh, come to my office to ask meabout, Hey, what, what program
do you think I should go to next?
Um, and you know, the, the, uh,bright eyed, uh, and just like
eager to just keep learning.
Here's a preview of what'scoming up next in part two of my
(32:44):
conversation with Jose Rodriguez.
Assistant Vice President of Communityand Belonging at College Unbound.
CU's motto lends itself to being ableto teach wherever there is a need.
If you have a conference room, wecan come in and, you know, that
then becomes College Unbound.
We don't have a building, uh,and I don't think that we're
(33:05):
ever intended to have buildings.
I think that the motto is that wewill always teach in communities.
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