July 29, 2025 • 44 mins
What if school weren’t just about earning a diploma, but becoming a whole person? In this episode of The NEXT BIG THING, I sit down with Dr. Ernest Duplessis—Founder & Chancellor of STUDYSS Ministries Christian Academy and Senior Pastor of STUDYSS. Ministry—to explore the power of faith-based education. A 21-year Navy veteran and former Fortune 500 exec, Dr. Duplessis shares how mission, leadership, and spiritual grounding are reshaping how we teach our children. If you’re rethinking what school should be, this conversation is for you.
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio & YouTube @keithdterry
#TheNextBigThing #FaithInEducation #KeithDTerryPodcast #MissionDrivenLeadership #ChristianAcademy #PurposeInLearning #DrErnestDuplessis
Send us your thought on this episode.
Keith D. Terry and JJaed Productions, LLC produced this episode. www.jjaedproductions.com
Please Follow us on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@keithdterry
For podcast guest recommendations, contact kterry@keithdterry.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Keith D. Terry (00:00):
Welcome to the podcast the Next Big Thing.
I'm your host, keith D Terry, aconsultant, a coach and a
serial entrepreneur.
The mission here is to teach,inspire and to motivate.
Today's episode is bold andthought-provoking because we're
diving into a conversation asold as education itself, but
(00:22):
much more urgent the role offaith, mission and purpose in
shaping the hearts and minds ofthe next generation of kids.
Now, before we jump into theconversation, let me level set,
like I always do, but for thisdiscussion, because I've lived
it on both sides.
I'm a formerly publicly electedschool board member.
(00:43):
I've worked inside the publicschool system.
I've seen the power that it canhave when it works well, but
I've also seen it when it fallsshort, especially when it comes
to preparing students for thefuture.
That demand more than just testscores.
Today, I'm also the presidentof the board at Studies Ministry
(01:05):
Christian Academy, a schoolgrounded in mission, character
and spiritual development.
And I'm not alone.
Across the country, more andmore families are turning to
faith based schools, not as anescape, but as a path towards
something more aligned withtheir values.
Path towards something morealigned with their values.
Now here's what most peopledon't realize Religious
(01:34):
institutions were some of thefirst educational providers in
history.
Long before state-run schoolsystems existed, it was the
church Christian, jewish,islamic and others that offered
literacy, moral instruction andcommunity leadership.
In America, many of the oldestuniversities, like Harvard and
Yale and Princeton, were foundedto train ministers to uphold
religious thought, even afterslavery.
(01:55):
It was the Black church thatbirthed schools that educated
generations locked out of access.
But today we're at a crossroads.
Parents are asking is my childgetting a diploma or becoming a
whole person?
Educators are wondering can weteach excellence without losing
our values?
And communities are debatingwhat's school really like for
(02:18):
the 21st century.
So let's get into it To help usunpack this.
I'm honored to have a wonderful,powerful person, dr Ernest
DuPlessis, but let me introduceyou to who he is.
Dr Ernest DuPlessis is thefounder and chancellor of
Studies Ministry, christianAcademy, and he's the senior
pastor at Studies Ministry,which stands for Spending Time
(02:41):
Usefully Developing YourselfSpiritually.
He served 21 years in the USNavy, retiring at the rank of
commander.
From there, he transitionedinto the corporate world,
holding senior, very seniorroles at companies like WW,
granger, kraft Foods and Ibelieve I'm going to say it
right Melinda's International,and in 2014, he co-founded
(03:05):
Studies Ministry along with hiswife, and that ministry soon
became expanded into a fullacademy focused on academic
excellence, character formationand spiritual development.
Today, dr DuPlessis also servesas professor of integrated
marketing and communication atNorthwestern University.
(03:26):
He holds multiple degrees,including a PhD in pastoral
ministry.
But beyond all the titles,here's what I personally know of
Dr DePlessis I've had a frontrow seat to how he leads, not
just from the pulpit but withprinciple.
His leadership is deliberate,transformational and deeply
(03:47):
rooted in purpose, and, I mightadd, he's my pastor.
Dr DuPlessis, welcome to thenext Best Thing.
How are you?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (03:54):
Dr DuPlessis.
Good good, keith, and thank youso much for having us.
We're excited to be here today.
Keith D. Terry (03:57):
Okay, tell my audience a little bit about you.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (04:02):
Dr DuPlessis, we're originally from
Philadelphia, pennsylvania, sowe're living at large now that
the Eagles have won the SuperBowl again.
And we grew up in northernPhiladelphia, so Germantown of
Philadelphia, and then, when Ibecame a high school student, we
transitioned right outside ofPhiladelphia to Willingboro, new
Jersey, where it was the samecity where Carl Lewis the
Olympian lived, so that's ourclaim your name dropped from all
(04:24):
the sports?
Keith D. Terry (04:24):
Yes, absolutely so.
As we get into thisconversation, you know let's
start here.
What inspired you to launch aministry?
You've had such a remarkablecareer, from 21 years as a
navigator to some of the highestechelons in corporate America
to a ministry.
Tell us about thattransformation.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (04:46):
Yeah, so I gave my life to Christ early in
my life and so ministry andservice and kind of spirituality
was always a part of what wedid.
And so when I got out of themilitary and we came here to the
Great Lakes area, actually oneof my professors that I had at
Northwestern when I was still inthe military hired me many
years later to come work incorporate America.
(05:07):
But when we got here, it wasabout 2011 that we really
started to feel this tug thatwe're going to do something
different than just go to achurch and be a part of a church
.
We're always leaders at achurch.
My wife and I, since we've beenmarried, have been in service
within ministry, but in 2011, wereally felt a tugging to kind
(05:28):
of pull away for a while, andthat pulling away lasted for
about three years.
We call it our detox period,where we essentially learned
some new things, but weunlearned a lot of things about
what traditional church is, whatministry has to be specifically
moving forward.
And then I happened to read abook in that time.
It's called the Church in anAge of Crisis.
(05:49):
It's by James Emery White, andin this book there were just
some compelling statistics thathe brought forward about where
ministry is going in the future.
And then I felt the tug.
My wife and I both felt thattug to kind of okay, this is
where God is calling us.
And so in 2014, we set out toestablish Studies Ministries
(06:09):
with kind of some of these corevalues and the notion of it just
can't be about where we've comefrom.
It's got to be about wherewe're going.
Keith D. Terry (06:18):
Wow, wow.
Now was that a long process.
You said it took three years,For three years.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (06:23):
Okay.
And the process was challengingbecause, like I said, when the
Lord called us kind of untohimself, we were part of a
church for eight years, we hadserved well there and we'd still
continue to go in fellowship atchurch.
But what was made clear to uswas that we were not going to go
join someone else's church,that the Lord had a work for us
to do, and so, you know, theLord challenged us.
(06:45):
So why do you do X?
And we would say, well, becausewe always done X.
And they would challenge us tothink about a way that's
different.
For instance, when you read thatbook, one of the things that
you realize is that the churchin general is over-indexed in
facilities.
We have a whole bunch offacilities that are not used
well.
So real estate is one of thosethings, and there's this model
(07:08):
of build it and they will come,and so our model is not that.
Our model is find the need,build it, serve the need.
And so that is the segue aswell into the school.
It was not that we're saying,oh, we want to build a school,
but rather find the need, buildit, serve the need.
And along with that model camesome other different thinking,
(07:29):
for instance, around thefinancial funding of a ministry.
Normally, ministries are basedon t to continue to find the
(07:55):
need, build it and serve theneed, and so there's some
fundamental differences with ourministry.
Keith D. Terry (08:00):
And so you know we can keep along the path of
the church.
At what point did you decide togo into to open a school?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (08:10):
So we the ministry was birthed in 2014.
We decided to open the schoolin 2020.
I had a watershed moment withmy oldest daughter, who came to
me and we had been toying withthe idea of potentially starting
a school but that's a lot ofwork, as you can imagine and my
oldest daughter came to me shesaid Dad, I don't know whether
(08:32):
you're going to start the schoolor not, but I want you to know
that I'm not sending my kidsback to public school.
So you know you'd make adecision on your own.
But that got us really thinking.
And then, just essentially,I'll tell you, a miracle
happened A woman that we knewfrom 25 years ago, who we
worshiped with here in theChicago area when I was
(08:53):
stationed here and we worked inthe base ministry.
They had since moved back to theVirginia area.
She calls us and says I'vestarted a school before.
Have you ever thought aboutstarting a school?
And so then we collaborated andliterally she moved here for
two years to help us get thatschool off the ground and for us
(09:14):
to get an accreditation fromthe state within one year.
That's unheard of.
That is unheard of.
It's like the holy grail ofgetting the state certification.
But it was important for usbecause we wanted people to know
that we're going to operate inexcellence, that academics were
in the forefront, but that therewere so many other benefits
that we could offer in ourparticular niche.
Keith D. Terry (09:35):
Well, let's stay there for a second because I'm
curious now.
I've seen the students thereand I've seen the results.
These kids are brilliant.
You guys are doing some reallygood work.
In the beginning, when you werecentered around mission, you've
come.
You know, you spent 21 years inthe military.
Was it military training thathelped?
Was it the corporate trainingthat helped?
(09:55):
Or was it your doctoral degreeor connection with the church
that helped to set the school up?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (10:04):
Yes, it was all of the above.
And this is what I tell peoplewhen I talk to them about
leadership and careerdevelopment.
First of all, no two careersare ever developed the same.
But what you're trying to thinkabout is, I think about a
career as building blocks thatultimately help you shape
something that you ultimatelyone day look back and go, oh,
(10:24):
I've had a career right.
And so all of the above themilitary really brought into
focus for me mission and vision,because remember, it's not a
for-profit organization.
You learn the altruistic sideof service, you learn the
discipline, I learned theleadership, but that was an
essential building block thatthen I parlayed into corporate
(10:46):
America, into executive roles,where I then learned the
business side of organizations.
We can try to deeplyspiritualize a lot of things or
you could, you know, have thejust altruistic passion for
school or whatever, but there'sa business side to it that has
to be tended to.
So my corporate career helpedme really tend to that, and then
what my kind of spiritualdevelopment and roles helped me
(11:09):
to do within the church thenhelped set the framework for the
culture in which all of thiswould happen.
Look, when you're talking abouta school and you know I'm a
professor at a large universityhere.
Number one it's about academicexcellence, right, we're talking
about.
We have a mission to make surethat our kids are learning and
that they're retaining and thatthey have serviceable skills
(11:31):
academically.
But we have the opportunity.
I mean, look, we're three-partbeings.
We're body, soul, spirit, andmost organizations would tend to
or academic institutionscertainly the mind they're going
to help craft the mind anddevelop the mind.
The body, they have sports andathletics.
We add the third dimension.
(11:52):
The third dimension is thespiritual aspect of who you are
and, by the way, that's whereyour well-being resides.
So when we think about all ofthe challenges that we have in
social, emotional learning thatwe're trying to inculcate into
public schools today, that'salready embedded in how we think
about, how to educate people,gotcha.
Keith D. Terry (12:14):
And so what was the most challenging?
Let's stay on the early partsof starting the school.
It's one thing to say it, it'sanother thing to create it.
You've done two things youstarted a church a thriving
church and you started a school.
So I would assume the paths forboth are different a little bit
(12:35):
, but let's take each oneindividually.
What's the most challengingpart about?
Got an additional certificationwith the National Associations
of Private Schools.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (12:45):
That's just massive administration,
yeah, and getting all of thewickets kind of set up, and in
many ways I think it's set upthat way to be a barrier to
entry, because if you're notserious about doing this you can
(13:08):
get discouraged very quickly.
But then to try to craft thescope of what you're doing so
that you don't overwhelmyourself, right, you could say,
well, I'm going to go in, I'mgoing to offer, from
kindergarten through, you know,doctoral thesis, right, and then
so trying to scope it in a waythat is true to the mission,
(13:29):
your vision, it's true to yourcapability.
Do you have the capability todo what you're doing and then to
align people around the visionso that they can see?
They can see what is the schoolsupposed to mean, what is it
going to mean and why is that?
Keith D. Terry (13:45):
important, and so how did you develop those
values?
I mean, that's a monumentaltask.
Did you sit around with yourteam or did God tell you what
the values are going to be?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (13:57):
I think it was collaborative like with
anything right?
I think that there are.
As a Christian school, there'scertain I just pull Christian
values right, like we're goingto try to be good people and
we're going to try to developgood people and we're not going
to be stealing things and we'renot going to be lying about
things.
So there's some natural values,but I think a lot of the values
come over from the culture ofour ministry.
(14:17):
In other words, we have sevenvalues in our ministry that I
really think set the stage to dosomething like a school.
I mean, you're talking aboutlove unconditionally.
Right, I'll meet you where youare.
I'm not here to judge you andtry to find fault in you.
There's the notion of we needto abide in his word, we need to
(14:39):
pray.
Those are fundamental values ofChristians and part of our
disciplines.
But then we get down to thingslike serving urgently right.
If you don't see what we'redoing with the school as
necessary and urgent, you don'tget what we do.
Because we talk to parents weekin, week out.
We get parents that come in andinterview and they're telling
(15:02):
us about the challenges thatthey have.
70% of our students that wehave came from an environment
where they were bullied rightand severe.
Another 50% probably had socialemotional challenges within
school.
So that's, whether it's asocial interaction or whatever
those things are, and then someof our students have they learn
(15:23):
differently.
So so, as we think about, everychild does not learn the same
way.
Yes, we had to think about.
What should we be to serve,find the need, build it?
Keith D. Terry (15:36):
serve the need, and so you know.
Let me ask this question Is itdifficult publicizing where you
are getting people to come over?
Is that a challenge?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (15:49):
It is.
Awareness is always a keychallenge and um a lot of
different avenues.
I think we have a lot morerunway in the social media space
, but we have a marketing thatwe do.
We have an agency that we workwith.
But remember, we launched aschool in 2020, which was when
(16:11):
COVID really kicked off.
You did yeah, no, and anybody'sopinion would be kind of insane
because the first time I thoughtabout it, you know, from a
business aspect, you know we'regoing to launch it and we're in
COVID it didn't make businesssense.
But as God started to put thepieces together and we get this
woman who's done a school,willing to come here for two
(16:32):
years and live here in our homeand help us develop the school,
get our certifications and allthat, it becomes clear that you
know you have the resources andyou go after it.
But yeah, it is challenging forawareness and year to year,
we're battling with the samethings, and legislation also has
a large part to play as itrelates to that, because if they
(16:54):
cut off funding for privateschools, that says you can't
offer someone who will donate tothe school a benefit of having
tax deductions and things likethat.
So there's a lot of things thatgo into that.
Keith D. Terry (17:07):
OK.
Are there misconceptions thatpeople have over Christian
schools or religious-basedschools versus public schools?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (17:15):
Yes, and I'll mention the number one item
.
There are people who are toldand taught and it's not true
that if we allow the state, forinstance, to subsidize private
schools Nowhere you're goingthat it will take money away
from public schools.
That is just false.
And oh, by the way, the amountof money that goes to
subsidizing scholarships for aprivate school is minuscule.
(17:37):
It's a rounding error as itrelates to what public schools
might get OK.
And then when you look at andthere's a great debate right now
about the the efficacy ofeducation For someone being
educated in Chicago City publicschool system, they're getting
between $17,000 and $20,000,$27,000 a year to educate that
(18:02):
child.
Our tuition is around $8,000.
You can't tell me where,economically, what we're able to
do for the monies that we'reable to garner from that does
not provide efficient, effectivealternatives for what we
currently have.
And remember, we're not tryingto replace the public school
(18:22):
system, right, but there's anotion that everybody does not
learn the same.
Yes, some need smaller sizes,some need more tailored
curriculum to help them learnand experiences, and those are
the sorts of things that we canoffer.
Keith D. Terry (18:37):
And so you know.
This next question that I haveis talking about ensuring
academic excellence.
Is there a conflict betweenacademic excellence and
spiritual development?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (18:50):
No, those cannot be mutually exclusive.
I would argue that they'remutually inclusive.
In other words, if you look atthe life of the young man,
Daniel, or his three friends,Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
who were taken to Egypt and theywere the scripture records,
they were 10 times moreexcellent than their peers.
(19:14):
And so what I would argue toyou is that they're not in
conflict, they rest together,and as we're able to develop
people and give them a bettersense of wellbeing and who they
are in those three components oftheir lives, then we can help
properly put the importance ofeducation in that context.
But really, what helps driveour academic excellence is,
(19:36):
number one, our teacher tostudent ratio.
We can give more attention toour students because we're
smaller.
So if and I'm not faulting ifyou're in a public school and
you've got 30 or 40 kids inthere, it's hard for you to give
them the attention that theyneed.
But we have ratios that areless than 10 to 1.
That's phenomenal.
(19:56):
It allows us to really caterand tailor.
Secondly, we get to develop ourcurriculum.
Now our curriculum has to beaccepted by the state.
Obviously, we have ourcertification, so you're getting
the education that you thinkyou're getting and or you're
probably getting a lot more.
But then we have theopportunity to bring it together
(20:18):
in three powerful ways.
Number one individual learning.
Most of what happens in apublic school is teacher-centric
training Teachers in front,they're giving you the lesson,
you do some homework.
We have a portion that's likethat where it's teacher-centric,
We'll teach you a concept.
But then we have individuallearning, where you go back and
(20:41):
you are now plotting and settingobjectives on how much you want
to cover what you're learning.
You're spending time anddisciplining yourself about how
you set goals.
How do I comprehend material?
And then the third type oflearning that we use is then in
the group.
How do we bring a grouptogether and leverage the
thinking of all of those aroundthe circle to solve the issues
(21:04):
and the problems that ourstudents ultimately will face in
life?
So we're able to bringcurriculum together in a very
powerful and relevant way, andfor my listeners, the school is
K through 12?
Keith D. Terry (21:17):
K through 12.
Pretty impressive and I cantell you seeing some of the
results.
It was a young lady I thinkyour valedictorian at graduation
who was reading three gradesbelow when she walked in the
door to reading a grade abovewhere she is now.
Maybe I have that incorrect,but it was fun.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (21:36):
Well, our valedictorian, when she came she
was not reading because shecame in pre-kindergarten, so
part of the kind of preschooland when she left kindergarten
she was reading at the secondgrade level.
That young lady happened to bemy granddaughter and my
grandchildren go to our schooland so there's going to be
academic excellence, trust me,because I have an investment and
(21:59):
there's going to be a safeenvironment and we're going to
tend to their needs and we'regoing to provide kind of the
leading edge things for them tothink about.
I have a vested interest, butalso I care very much about all
of our student population thatare there.
Keith D. Terry (22:12):
And so let's switch a little bit now and talk
about the state.
Has the state made it moredifficult for you to sustain
yourself and grow yourself, oris it easier?
I mean, the Trumpadministration is trying to.
You know, I don't know ifthey're trying to make it easier
for people to go to privateinstitutions, or let's talk a
little bit about that.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (22:31):
I think well, there's a movement right
now at the national level tomake it easier for parents to
get funding or schools to getfunding for people who want to
use private schools as analternative for public schools.
The state has made it harder,and that's because I've talked
to some state officials and theybought into this concept that
(22:52):
somehow we'll be taking awaymoney from the public school,
and it simply is not true.
And so, from a state standpoint, the state could do a better
job in helping us realizing thatit doesn't have to be a
zero-sum game.
Somebody doesn't have to losefor somebody else to win.
We can all win if our objectiveis to educate our children, the
(23:16):
state's children.
How do we get educated?
Very rarely does one answerever solve every problem.
Keith D. Terry (23:23):
Now what can my listeners do to help correct
that level of ignorance at ourcity?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (23:29):
They can talk to their legislators.
They can leave a voicemail,send them a text, their
legislators.
They can leave a voicemail,send them a text to the
legislators in our area, intheir area, and tell them guess
what?
This notion of funding allowingprivate schools to receive
state funding, as it relates toif a donation is given by an
individual in the state, theycan then deduct that on their
(23:50):
taxes that's important to me.
That's what you would say.
That's important to me.
We need those alternatives.
And oh, by the way, those guyswant to get elected, so they
will listen.
Keith D. Terry (24:01):
And you know I, you know, having been on the
school board, that was a, thatwas an argument at least maybe
it's the issue down in Chicagothat they always took roll call
because it was dependent on.
You know, if I have 100 or10,000 or 500 kids, times X,
that's how much money I get.
But you know, public educationneeds to be, to me, revamped and
(24:21):
how they, how they fund all ofit, because the goal, if the
goal is to educate the kids, andthe money's there, let's
appropriate it, appropriatelyAgreed, you know.
I want to shift now a littlebit to you.
You wear a lot of hats.
You're the chancellor, you'rethe pastor.
Do you wearing both hats get alittle confusing?
(24:42):
How do you wear both hats?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (24:44):
Well, I wear a lot more hats than that,
as you know, right.
So I'm a professor, right.
I have my own consultancy, okay.
So, ceo, professor, pastor,chancellor, husband, father,
grandfather, all those sorts ofthings.
I don't think they becomeconfusing, but I do think that
(25:04):
it requires me to be deliberateabout what hat I'm wearing at
any one time.
So, for instance, I have adaughter who's on the school
board, and so if I'm talkingabout school matters, am I dad
or am I chancellor, or am Iboard member?
(25:25):
That's very important, right,and so for a lot of people they
can't.
That's why I always say theysay, well, what do you want me
to call you?
I say call me Ernest, becausethat at least will center me in
who I am.
Those other things are what Ido, and so it allows me then to
say which hat am I talking toyou in?
There's sometimes I talk topeople.
They come to me as theirpapster and I end up talking to
(25:48):
them as a friend.
That's different, and so I haveto kind of disseminate that way
, and so I have to kind ofdisseminate that way.
Keith D. Terry (25:53):
And so what advice would you give those
folks?
Because you know, I don't knowof anyone who wears just one hat
, right.
And so let's talk a little bitmore, because I'm interested in
how you center yourself.
Is it the deliberate, is itbeing deliberate, or is it
centering yourself that drivesyou towards excellence in each
of those hats that you wear?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (26:14):
It's, it's .
It takes time.
In other words, you have to bemaking sure out of what resource
am I showing up here, right,like today is a little nebulous,
only because I'm talking aboutso many different roles.
Yeah, you are Right, andprimarily, and that's why, even
as we were talking inpreparation for this, I said to
you okay, are we going to focuson school, are we going to talk
(26:36):
about ministry things?
Because that gives me thendeliberate and then I can come
back to you and at least be verycandid and transparent about
how I'm answering you thoseearlier questions about the
state helping or whatever.
That is, my chancellor of theschool hat, right, because these
are the battles that I fight asthe chancellor of the school.
And then there are times whenI'll answer out of, kind of my
(26:58):
ministry perspective, sometimesout of a business perspective.
Somebody called me the otherday it was a member and they
were like look, I've got thispotential real estate thing
going on, and then I had to puton my MBA hat, right, my
business hat.
That relates to that.
As long as the two partiesunderstand, kind of where we're
(27:18):
coming from and what hat we'respeaking from, it's when they
don't that I get themisalignments.
Okay, you know, becausesomebody says pastor said now
they're saying I'm in my pastorhat, I may have been talking to
you as a business person.
That's a terrible idea and youneed to rethink it.
And then it comes across aswell.
Why would you say somethingmean like that to me in your hat
(27:40):
?
So yeah, those are the sorts ofthings I think.
Keith D. Terry (27:42):
Well, let's talk a little bit about leadership,
because I know this podcast isall about excellence and game
changers.
As a leader, are you wearingthese hats?
What leadership principlesguide you?
And I want to talk about theschool.
Really, are there leadershipprinciples that drive you with
the school, with the studentsversus the staff, versus the
(28:04):
administration?
Let's just talk a little bitabout that.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (28:07):
Well, I just taught a leadership seminar
for our leaders at our ministryand we're going to be cascading
that down to other leaders andmembers.
But trying to help themunderstand, I introduced them to
kind of here are the 10leadership styles that you could
have them to kind of.
Here are the 10 leadershipstyles that you could have, and
my whole ethos was, even thoughone or two may be dominant, what
(28:28):
we should be going for is moreof a golf bag approach, and I
have a picture of a guy with hisgolf bag and saying look, we
should all have a golf bagfilled with all these clubs and
those clubs represent differentleadership styles and, depending
on the shot you got to make,you take out the right club.
(28:49):
Too many of the leaders arekind of one.
You know, when I first learnedhow to play golf and I use that
loosely because I still don'tknow how to play that well, but
I was good with the driver, so Iwould take the driver out and I
would whack the ball.
It would go far.
It wouldn't go straight, itwould go far.
But what I learned is that Icouldn't use the driver on every
shot.
At some point I had to learnhow to use the pitching wedge,
(29:10):
and it's the same thing withleadership.
There are times where, inleading the school, it has to be
more of the soft touch.
I'm not trying to drive it 150yards, I'm trying to pitch it
onto the green.
And so how do I thencollaborate with my staff more
than being a more of alaissez-faire type leadership
model where, okay, I trust youguys and you can handle it on
(29:33):
your own.
So for me, it's about theversatility, and I learned a lot
about leadership from themilitary.
It's about the versatility ofwhich style is benefiting me
best in this situation.
Keith D. Terry (29:48):
And you know that's interesting because that
you bring the military in, andthis is going to show my lack of
education there.
I always thought it was thatthere was one type of leadership
style in the military.
Is that true or not true?
It's not true, absolutely nottrue.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (30:06):
I mean you think of it as autocratic,
right?
Yeah, I do.
I'm the general and you do whatI say.
Keith D. Terry (30:11):
Right, right In the order.
Get it done, right yeah yeah,and all right away.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (30:15):
there is a hierarchy and there is a strong
sense of the autocraticleadership, and I think it fits
the military because, forinstance, when we're in battle
and we give an order, there's notime to say, well, let's have a
democratic style.
Do we fire the missile, do wenot?
No, that's not the time for youknow more of that collaborative
style, and so I think it fits.
But if you look at our topleaders in the military and
(30:40):
that's why some of theleadership that we're seeing
today is so frustrating for me,because they lack basic
leadership skills Even peoplewho are leading departments and
they're leading large branchesof our government lack such
basic leadership.
And then you juxtapose themagainst a seasoned military
(31:01):
leader, like if you've ever satdown with an admiral or a
general, uh, I visited myadmiral's house.
There were some emergency thingsgoing on, some crises going on,
and I had to go to his house toget some paper signed, talk
over some issues, and he wasthere in his bathrobe, right A
couple of coffee in his bathrobe, but you knew he was an admiral
.
He had a presence and hecollaborated and he wasn't as
(31:24):
Admiral.
He had a presence and hecollaborated and he wasn't as
and this is what you'll do heunderstood how to talk, he
understood how to bring peoplein, to get buy-in, and so, no,
it's not one leadership style.
It is reflective as heavilyautocratic, but it's a lot lot
more, a lot more, okay.
Keith D. Terry (31:37):
So what surprised you the most in
running a school versus runninga corporation?
I'm curious about that.
What surprised you the most inrunning a school versus running
a corporation?
I'm curious about that.
What surprised you the most?
Well, what surprised me most?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (31:47):
recently is how much influence children
have over their education.
Keith D. Terry (31:55):
Like I used to.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (31:57):
It used to be, and this is the, this is
the issue of agency.
Okay yeah, and so it used to be.
You know, it's like you won'tgo to this school because this
is the best place for you.
And mama said, or daddy said,and now what I hear is well, we
don't know if Johnny's going tocome to school.
Johnny wants to do X or Y, andso the kids have so much more
(32:20):
latitude as well asdecision-making ability when it
comes to their education, which,honestly and transparently, to
me is a little bit scary becausethey're in the formative years.
How much do you really know tomake that level of a decision?
Keith D. Terry (32:37):
Yeah, wow, wow.
Well, as an educator, how doyou stop that?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (32:44):
You don't stop it, you try to influence it
.
There's nothing you can doabout how people raise their
children or the agency that theygive their children.
You try to help the parents.
Look, our school is builtaround the partnership with
parents.
Many parents have come to usand said we feel like the school
is trying not our school, butpublic school is trying to take
(33:05):
away our rights as parents.
The kids they get to do whatthey want, get called what they
want and they can do things andnever tell that.
The parents have been givenessentially guardianship over
these children, stewardship overthe children, and we work
(33:31):
together with them.
Keith D. Terry (33:32):
I know they love hearing that part.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (33:34):
They do and for some of them it has been
kind of such a painful visceralexperience and it works.
A painful visceral experienceand it works Like, for instance,
we had a student that washaving some issues in school and
we went and talked to theparents and it's like, hey, we
noticed that Johnny was kind ofoff, you know, these last couple
of days or whatever, and theysaid that correlates to.
You know this was happening athome or whatever, and so
(33:56):
together we're able to formulatekind of a plan of attack and
get Johnny back on the righttrack.
That's the collaboration thatwe believe is most effective and
it's positive, it's healthy andat the end of the day, it
helped the child.
Keith D. Terry (34:10):
It really is, cause I can tell you that the
family, the home, is part of theeducational process and system.
It really is.
So how important is thecommunity buy-in in launching a
mission-driven school?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (34:24):
Community is important and you know, we
were set, we developed.
Keith D. Terry (34:29):
And I know community can be a number of
different ways.
It could be the churchcommunity, it could be the local
community.
I guess I'm more thinking.
I would assume that the churchcommunity was already bought in.
What about the physicalcommunity of the school?
(34:50):
Because you have to get thekids from that community.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (34:54):
You don't have to.
We have probably about 50% ofour population are not what you
would call Lindenhurst communityGotcha, and so I think of
community as all of oursurrounding areas.
So whether that's Antioch, zion, north Chicago, waukegan,
lindenhurst, lake, villa, gurnee, that's our community Gotcha,
(35:19):
and obviously we'd like buy-in.
But remember, it's so highlycompetitive education-wise and
we're out in Lindenhurst thepublic school system is very
sound, they have a very goodsystem, and so where we tend to
pull from are places where theschool system is not that good,
where their kids areexperiencing challenges and the
(35:40):
education's not that good, andthose sorts of things.
And so, once again, I don'tthink that starting the school
depends on the community and allright away, our demographics in
our community are shifting veryrapidly and so what is today
predominantly a white communityand predominantly retirees is
(36:01):
shifting very quickly to bemulticultural and to be younger,
as it relates to that.
All that favors us where we are.
It's kind of like we werepre-positioned here because the
community that we moved into NowI'll tell you that community in
general has been verysupportive.
In other words, when I went tothe village and we talked about
the vision that we have for theministry as well as for our
(36:22):
school.
Every variance that I appliedfor everything that I needed to
get to help us bring this tofruition, even when it came to
zoning requirements, and allthey were fully supportive, and
so I have nothing but goodthings to say about our village,
our community, our policedepartment, our servants that
are here, public planner thoseguys have been phenomenal.
Keith D. Terry (36:45):
That's great.
That's really great to hearthat, because you need that
support.
I don't have many morequestions, but I do have one.
Many of my listeners dream ofprobably starting a school, and
businesses, and especiallyschools, value-based
organizations.
What one piece of advice wouldyou give them?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (37:04):
I would say first and foremost and
here's the beauty of what I getto do my daughter chided me.
I retired three times now.
I retired from the US Navy.
I retired from corporateAmerica.
I retired from academia.
I still do academic work, but Idid a retirement from doing
full-time there and she goesyou're the busiest retired guy
(37:27):
that.
Keith D. Terry (37:27):
I know.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (37:28):
I said well, I don't use the word
retire, I'm just rebranding.
But the thing about all thethings that I do, I have a
passion right, so it gets me upin the morning and it gets me
going when I get up.
So I would say for those thatto start a business or an
organization just for the money,that can be tenuous and that
(37:48):
might not take you over, butwhen you have a passion for what
it is that you're doing andwhen you're truly trying to
drive greater impact, for me andmy wife that's our life's work.
Keith D. Terry (37:59):
So your passions have driven you to where you
your career.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (38:03):
Yes, everything I do today I have a
passion for.
I was just down teaching atNorthwestern yesterday for a
group matter of fact, aneducational group trying to help
them deal with change,understand how to effectively
communicate change to theirorganization.
I have a passion to do that, soI ramble on for three hours and
I engage them.
Ministry I have a passion forseeing people's lives change.
(38:25):
We were tasked with creatingcommunity, with connecting with
people and serving them and thenultimately getting out of those
chairs and making a difference.
I have a passion to do that Inmy own agency in terms of
helping organizations and theirleaders grow, and because I have
a passion to do that, so I livea great life, because
(38:47):
everything that I do in terms ofendeavor, I have a passion to
do.
Keith D. Terry (38:53):
And you do it well, and you do it well and you
really do it well.
You know just a couple more.
Where do you see the biggestinnovation in private education?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (39:04):
I think who's going to win.
There's a there's a scripturein the Hebrew Bible.
It's over in first Corinthians.
It talks about a group ofstrategists.
So in this particular passageis talking about they're taking
a census of all the militarymight that they have.
So I've got 50,000 people thatcould throw a spear.
(39:26):
I've got 8,000 people thatcould do this.
They get down to the smallgroup of 200.
And it describes them by sayingthey understand the times and
they know what to do.
I think in education we'regoing to have to be playing the
long ball.
Those that are going to win ineducation are going to
understand the times that welive in and have to be playing
the long ball.
Those that are going to win ineducation are going to
understand the times that welive in and how to deliver an
(39:48):
effective education to, as thegroup I worked with yesterday
articulated, to help these youngpeople meet the demands of life
into the future, and right nowour educational system's not
doing that Right.
They're graduating and theydon't know how to meet life's
challenges, and so that's why wetake a very practical stand.
(40:10):
So we have classes like, wehave electives like personal
finance.
I need you to understand that,as my daughter, she calls me up
when she first left home andshe's like dad, this letter came
and it's got my name on it andthey say I owe them, you know,
$50 for using water.
Does water cost money, right?
So this notion of what are thethings that are practical for
(40:32):
them to understand, what are theacademics that they need, but
then how are they going to meetthe demands of life and that
those that figure that out and Ithink we are uniquely
positioned to do that, becausewe can tailor our education to
meet those needs.
Keith D. Terry (40:48):
You know, I think you're you're you're spot
on, because you know I debatethis with some of my friends as
well, but it's at a higher level, I think.
Universities.
There was one point whereuniversities, the value of a
university, was kind of goingdown, you know, and it still
might be.
I still think, I still believein education.
But I do believe that there isa shift going on right now
(41:10):
connecting.
You know, in the past I'm oldenough that I go to school for X
and my career is A, b, you know, I think, and I owe $100,000
for X.
(41:30):
I can only get, you know,$2,000 for A and B.
So do you see a shift?
I mean, I still think wherestudy SMCA is placed is so
critical because it's the earlyyears from K to 12.
You have to get those formativeeducational years inside.
But then when you connect thatto higher education, how do you
(41:54):
think about it, dr DuPlessis,from a totality standpoint, the
value of education at the higherlevel, right?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (42:02):
But here's the way we essentially speak to
parents and to families.
What we want to do, andposition the academy to be able
to do, is that there are fourmajor areas that we think about
your life track could take.
For some that are leaving ourinstitution, it will be for
higher education, and that'sgood, but that's not the only
answer, because there'sentrepreneurship, there's public
(42:23):
service, there's potentiallytrades that are there.
All of those are valid as itrelates.
When I worked for WW Granger 20years ago, they said in 20
years there's going to be ashortage of those in the trades
and they're right.
And oh, by the way, have you hada plumber come out to your
house?
The guy had $150 of my moneybefore he ever stepped foot in
(42:45):
my house.
And so there are.
What we want to do at theacademy is saying, look, we not
only want to give you theacademics so that if you want to
go into college, but college isnot the end, all be all.
Now, look, I'm a collegeprofessor and I'm telling you
it's not the end, all be all.
Yes, today we have students whothey're qualifying in the fifth
grade to begin to take collegecredits at CLC, get dual credits
(43:10):
in high school, get an exposureto that.
They're going to graduate withthat.
We're also partnering wherethey have these other
certificates that you could get.
So say, for instance, you wereinterested in nail care, you
could go get a certificate.
We could provide the timeduring the day or the academic
week and by the time you couldearn a certificate, you could be
working a part-time jobprofessionally doing nails right
(43:33):
.
And so it's got to be thisconcept of we got to understand
the time that there's not someone linear track, linear track.
We hope to open up the aperturefor them to experience all of
these various things and forthem, ultimately, to be able to
build those building blocks tomake a career.
Keith D. Terry (43:50):
Brilliant.
Last question, I want you tocomplete this sentence the
future of education belongs tothose who understand the times
and they know what to do.
Brilliantly said.
Brilliantly said, dr DuPlessis.
Thank you for being a part ofthe Next Big Thing.
I think this has been awonderful conversation, a
masterpiece in purpose-drivenleadership built on conviction,
(44:12):
courage and a refusal to lettradition limit your vision.
So thank you for being a partof the show.
Thanks for listening to theNext Big Thing.
I'm your host, keith D Terry.
If you've enjoyed this episodeand you'd like to support this
podcast, please share it withothers, post about it on social
(44:33):
media or leave a rating and areview.
To catch all the latest from me, you can follow me on my
YouTube channel at Keith D Terry.
If you want to recommend aguest, please email me at info
at TerryPerformanceGroupcom.
This has been produced by yourhost and Jade Productions.
Welcome to the podcast the Next Big Thing.
I'm your host, keith D Terry, aconsultant, a coach and a
serial entrepreneur.
The mission here is to teach,inspire and to motivate.
Today's episode is bold andthought-provoking because we're
diving into a conversation asold as education itself, but
(00:22):
much more urgent the role offaith, mission and purpose in
shaping the hearts and minds ofthe next generation of kids.
Now, before we jump into theconversation, let me level set,
like I always do, but for thisdiscussion, because I've lived
it on both sides.
I'm a formerly publicly electedschool board member.
(00:43):
I've worked inside the publicschool system.
I've seen the power that it canhave when it works well, but
I've also seen it when it fallsshort, especially when it comes
to preparing students for thefuture.
That demand more than just testscores.
Today, I'm also the presidentof the board at Studies Ministry
(01:05):
Christian Academy, a schoolgrounded in mission, character
and spiritual development.
And I'm not alone.
Across the country, more andmore families are turning to
faith based schools, not as anescape, but as a path towards
something more aligned withtheir values.
Path towards something morealigned with their values.
Now here's what most peopledon't realize Religious
(01:34):
institutions were some of thefirst educational providers in
history.
Long before state-run schoolsystems existed, it was the
church Christian, jewish,islamic and others that offered
literacy, moral instruction andcommunity leadership.
In America, many of the oldestuniversities, like Harvard and
Yale and Princeton, were foundedto train ministers to uphold
religious thought, even afterslavery.
(01:55):
It was the Black church thatbirthed schools that educated
generations locked out of access.
But today we're at a crossroads.
Parents are asking is my childgetting a diploma or becoming a
whole person?
Educators are wondering can weteach excellence without losing
our values?
And communities are debatingwhat's school really like for
(02:18):
the 21st century.
So let's get into it To help usunpack this.
I'm honored to have a wonderful,powerful person, dr Ernest
DuPlessis, but let me introduceyou to who he is.
Dr Ernest DuPlessis is thefounder and chancellor of
Studies Ministry, christianAcademy, and he's the senior
pastor at Studies Ministry,which stands for Spending Time
(02:41):
Usefully Developing YourselfSpiritually.
He served 21 years in the USNavy, retiring at the rank of
commander.
From there, he transitionedinto the corporate world,
holding senior, very seniorroles at companies like WW,
granger, kraft Foods and Ibelieve I'm going to say it
right Melinda's International,and in 2014, he co-founded
(03:05):
Studies Ministry along with hiswife, and that ministry soon
became expanded into a fullacademy focused on academic
excellence, character formationand spiritual development.
Today, dr DuPlessis also servesas professor of integrated
marketing and communication atNorthwestern University.
(03:26):
He holds multiple degrees,including a PhD in pastoral
ministry.
But beyond all the titles,here's what I personally know of
Dr DePlessis I've had a frontrow seat to how he leads, not
just from the pulpit but withprinciple.
His leadership is deliberate,transformational and deeply
(03:47):
rooted in purpose, and, I mightadd, he's my pastor.
Dr DuPlessis, welcome to thenext Best Thing.
How are you?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (03:54):
Dr DuPlessis.
Good good, keith, and thank youso much for having us.
We're excited to be here today.
Keith D. Terry (03:57):
Okay, tell my audience a little bit about you.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (04:02):
Dr DuPlessis, we're originally from
Philadelphia, pennsylvania, sowe're living at large now that
the Eagles have won the SuperBowl again.
And we grew up in northernPhiladelphia, so Germantown of
Philadelphia, and then, when Ibecame a high school student, we
transitioned right outside ofPhiladelphia to Willingboro, new
Jersey, where it was the samecity where Carl Lewis the
Olympian lived, so that's ourclaim your name dropped from all
(04:24):
the sports?
Keith D. Terry (04:24):
Yes, absolutely so.
As we get into thisconversation, you know let's
start here.
What inspired you to launch aministry?
You've had such a remarkablecareer, from 21 years as a
navigator to some of the highestechelons in corporate America
to a ministry.
Tell us about thattransformation.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (04:46):
Yeah, so I gave my life to Christ early in
my life and so ministry andservice and kind of spirituality
was always a part of what wedid.
And so when I got out of themilitary and we came here to the
Great Lakes area, actually oneof my professors that I had at
Northwestern when I was still inthe military hired me many
years later to come work incorporate America.
(05:07):
But when we got here, it wasabout 2011 that we really
started to feel this tug thatwe're going to do something
different than just go to achurch and be a part of a church
.
We're always leaders at achurch.
My wife and I, since we've beenmarried, have been in service
within ministry, but in 2011, wereally felt a tugging to kind
(05:28):
of pull away for a while, andthat pulling away lasted for
about three years.
We call it our detox period,where we essentially learned
some new things, but weunlearned a lot of things about
what traditional church is, whatministry has to be specifically
moving forward.
And then I happened to read abook in that time.
It's called the Church in anAge of Crisis.
(05:49):
It's by James Emery White, andin this book there were just
some compelling statistics thathe brought forward about where
ministry is going in the future.
And then I felt the tug.
My wife and I both felt thattug to kind of okay, this is
where God is calling us.
And so in 2014, we set out toestablish Studies Ministries
(06:09):
with kind of some of these corevalues and the notion of it just
can't be about where we've comefrom.
It's got to be about wherewe're going.
Keith D. Terry (06:18):
Wow, wow.
Now was that a long process.
You said it took three years,For three years.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (06:23):
Okay.
And the process was challengingbecause, like I said, when the
Lord called us kind of untohimself, we were part of a
church for eight years, we hadserved well there and we'd still
continue to go in fellowship atchurch.
But what was made clear to uswas that we were not going to go
join someone else's church,that the Lord had a work for us
to do, and so, you know, theLord challenged us.
(06:45):
So why do you do X?
And we would say, well, becausewe always done X.
And they would challenge us tothink about a way that's
different.
For instance, when you read thatbook, one of the things that
you realize is that the churchin general is over-indexed in
facilities.
We have a whole bunch offacilities that are not used
well.
So real estate is one of thosethings, and there's this model
(07:08):
of build it and they will come,and so our model is not that.
Our model is find the need,build it, serve the need.
And so that is the segue aswell into the school.
It was not that we're saying,oh, we want to build a school,
but rather find the need, buildit, serve the need.
And along with that model camesome other different thinking,
(07:29):
for instance, around thefinancial funding of a ministry.
Normally, ministries are basedon t to continue to find the
(07:55):
need, build it and serve theneed, and so there's some
fundamental differences with ourministry.
Keith D. Terry (08:00):
And so you know we can keep along the path of
the church.
At what point did you decide togo into to open a school?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (08:10):
So we the ministry was birthed in 2014.
We decided to open the schoolin 2020.
I had a watershed moment withmy oldest daughter, who came to
me and we had been toying withthe idea of potentially starting
a school but that's a lot ofwork, as you can imagine and my
oldest daughter came to me shesaid Dad, I don't know whether
(08:32):
you're going to start the schoolor not, but I want you to know
that I'm not sending my kidsback to public school.
So you know you'd make adecision on your own.
But that got us really thinking.
And then, just essentially,I'll tell you, a miracle
happened A woman that we knewfrom 25 years ago, who we
worshiped with here in theChicago area when I was
(08:53):
stationed here and we worked inthe base ministry.
They had since moved back to theVirginia area.
She calls us and says I'vestarted a school before.
Have you ever thought aboutstarting a school?
And so then we collaborated andliterally she moved here for
two years to help us get thatschool off the ground and for us
(09:14):
to get an accreditation fromthe state within one year.
That's unheard of.
That is unheard of.
It's like the holy grail ofgetting the state certification.
But it was important for usbecause we wanted people to know
that we're going to operate inexcellence, that academics were
in the forefront, but that therewere so many other benefits
that we could offer in ourparticular niche.
Keith D. Terry (09:35):
Well, let's stay there for a second because I'm
curious now.
I've seen the students thereand I've seen the results.
These kids are brilliant.
You guys are doing some reallygood work.
In the beginning, when you werecentered around mission, you've
come.
You know, you spent 21 years inthe military.
Was it military training thathelped?
Was it the corporate trainingthat helped?
(09:55):
Or was it your doctoral degreeor connection with the church
that helped to set the school up?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (10:04):
Yes, it was all of the above.
And this is what I tell peoplewhen I talk to them about
leadership and careerdevelopment.
First of all, no two careersare ever developed the same.
But what you're trying to thinkabout is, I think about a
career as building blocks thatultimately help you shape
something that you ultimatelyone day look back and go, oh,
(10:24):
I've had a career right.
And so all of the above themilitary really brought into
focus for me mission and vision,because remember, it's not a
for-profit organization.
You learn the altruistic sideof service, you learn the
discipline, I learned theleadership, but that was an
essential building block thatthen I parlayed into corporate
(10:46):
America, into executive roles,where I then learned the
business side of organizations.
We can try to deeplyspiritualize a lot of things or
you could, you know, have thejust altruistic passion for
school or whatever, but there'sa business side to it that has
to be tended to.
So my corporate career helpedme really tend to that, and then
what my kind of spiritualdevelopment and roles helped me
(11:09):
to do within the church thenhelped set the framework for the
culture in which all of thiswould happen.
Look, when you're talking abouta school and you know I'm a
professor at a large universityhere.
Number one it's about academicexcellence, right, we're talking
about.
We have a mission to make surethat our kids are learning and
that they're retaining and thatthey have serviceable skills
(11:31):
academically.
But we have the opportunity.
I mean, look, we're three-partbeings.
We're body, soul, spirit, andmost organizations would tend to
or academic institutionscertainly the mind they're going
to help craft the mind anddevelop the mind.
The body, they have sports andathletics.
We add the third dimension.
(11:52):
The third dimension is thespiritual aspect of who you are
and, by the way, that's whereyour well-being resides.
So when we think about all ofthe challenges that we have in
social, emotional learning thatwe're trying to inculcate into
public schools today, that'salready embedded in how we think
about, how to educate people,gotcha.
Keith D. Terry (12:14):
And so what was the most challenging?
Let's stay on the early partsof starting the school.
It's one thing to say it, it'sanother thing to create it.
You've done two things youstarted a church a thriving
church and you started a school.
So I would assume the paths forboth are different a little bit
(12:35):
, but let's take each oneindividually.
What's the most challengingpart about?
Got an additional certificationwith the National Associations
of Private Schools.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (12:45):
That's just massive administration,
yeah, and getting all of thewickets kind of set up, and in
many ways I think it's set upthat way to be a barrier to
entry, because if you're notserious about doing this you can
(13:08):
get discouraged very quickly.
But then to try to craft thescope of what you're doing so
that you don't overwhelmyourself, right, you could say,
well, I'm going to go in, I'mgoing to offer, from
kindergarten through, you know,doctoral thesis, right, and then
so trying to scope it in a waythat is true to the mission,
(13:29):
your vision, it's true to yourcapability.
Do you have the capability todo what you're doing and then to
align people around the visionso that they can see?
They can see what is the schoolsupposed to mean, what is it
going to mean and why is that?
Keith D. Terry (13:45):
important, and so how did you develop those
values?
I mean, that's a monumentaltask.
Did you sit around with yourteam or did God tell you what
the values are going to be?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (13:57):
I think it was collaborative like with
anything right?
I think that there are.
As a Christian school, there'scertain I just pull Christian
values right, like we're goingto try to be good people and
we're going to try to developgood people and we're not going
to be stealing things and we'renot going to be lying about
things.
So there's some natural values,but I think a lot of the values
come over from the culture ofour ministry.
(14:17):
In other words, we have sevenvalues in our ministry that I
really think set the stage to dosomething like a school.
I mean, you're talking aboutlove unconditionally.
Right, I'll meet you where youare.
I'm not here to judge you andtry to find fault in you.
There's the notion of we needto abide in his word, we need to
(14:39):
pray.
Those are fundamental values ofChristians and part of our
disciplines.
But then we get down to thingslike serving urgently right.
If you don't see what we'redoing with the school as
necessary and urgent, you don'tget what we do.
Because we talk to parents weekin, week out.
We get parents that come in andinterview and they're telling
(15:02):
us about the challenges thatthey have.
70% of our students that wehave came from an environment
where they were bullied rightand severe.
Another 50% probably had socialemotional challenges within
school.
So that's, whether it's asocial interaction or whatever
those things are, and then someof our students have they learn
(15:23):
differently.
So so, as we think about, everychild does not learn the same
way.
Yes, we had to think about.
What should we be to serve,find the need, build it?
Keith D. Terry (15:36):
serve the need, and so you know.
Let me ask this question Is itdifficult publicizing where you
are getting people to come over?
Is that a challenge?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (15:49):
It is.
Awareness is always a keychallenge and um a lot of
different avenues.
I think we have a lot morerunway in the social media space
, but we have a marketing thatwe do.
We have an agency that we workwith.
But remember, we launched aschool in 2020, which was when
(16:11):
COVID really kicked off.
You did yeah, no, and anybody'sopinion would be kind of insane
because the first time I thoughtabout it, you know, from a
business aspect, you know we'regoing to launch it and we're in
COVID it didn't make businesssense.
But as God started to put thepieces together and we get this
woman who's done a school,willing to come here for two
(16:32):
years and live here in our homeand help us develop the school,
get our certifications and allthat, it becomes clear that you
know you have the resources andyou go after it.
But yeah, it is challenging forawareness and year to year,
we're battling with the samethings, and legislation also has
a large part to play as itrelates to that, because if they
(16:54):
cut off funding for privateschools, that says you can't
offer someone who will donate tothe school a benefit of having
tax deductions and things likethat.
So there's a lot of things thatgo into that.
Keith D. Terry (17:07):
OK.
Are there misconceptions thatpeople have over Christian
schools or religious-basedschools versus public schools?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (17:15):
Yes, and I'll mention the number one item
.
There are people who are toldand taught and it's not true
that if we allow the state, forinstance, to subsidize private
schools Nowhere you're goingthat it will take money away
from public schools.
That is just false.
And oh, by the way, the amountof money that goes to
subsidizing scholarships for aprivate school is minuscule.
(17:37):
It's a rounding error as itrelates to what public schools
might get OK.
And then when you look at andthere's a great debate right now
about the the efficacy ofeducation For someone being
educated in Chicago City publicschool system, they're getting
between $17,000 and $20,000,$27,000 a year to educate that
(18:02):
child.
Our tuition is around $8,000.
You can't tell me where,economically, what we're able to
do for the monies that we'reable to garner from that does
not provide efficient, effectivealternatives for what we
currently have.
And remember, we're not tryingto replace the public school
(18:22):
system, right, but there's anotion that everybody does not
learn the same.
Yes, some need smaller sizes,some need more tailored
curriculum to help them learnand experiences, and those are
the sorts of things that we canoffer.
Keith D. Terry (18:37):
And so you know.
This next question that I haveis talking about ensuring
academic excellence.
Is there a conflict betweenacademic excellence and
spiritual development?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (18:50):
No, those cannot be mutually exclusive.
I would argue that they'remutually inclusive.
In other words, if you look atthe life of the young man,
Daniel, or his three friends,Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
who were taken to Egypt and theywere the scripture records,
they were 10 times moreexcellent than their peers.
(19:14):
And so what I would argue toyou is that they're not in
conflict, they rest together,and as we're able to develop
people and give them a bettersense of wellbeing and who they
are in those three components oftheir lives, then we can help
properly put the importance ofeducation in that context.
But really, what helps driveour academic excellence is,
(19:36):
number one, our teacher tostudent ratio.
We can give more attention toour students because we're
smaller.
So if and I'm not faulting ifyou're in a public school and
you've got 30 or 40 kids inthere, it's hard for you to give
them the attention that theyneed.
But we have ratios that areless than 10 to 1.
That's phenomenal.
(19:56):
It allows us to really caterand tailor.
Secondly, we get to develop ourcurriculum.
Now our curriculum has to beaccepted by the state.
Obviously, we have ourcertification, so you're getting
the education that you thinkyou're getting and or you're
probably getting a lot more.
But then we have theopportunity to bring it together
(20:18):
in three powerful ways.
Number one individual learning.
Most of what happens in apublic school is teacher-centric
training Teachers in front,they're giving you the lesson,
you do some homework.
We have a portion that's likethat where it's teacher-centric,
We'll teach you a concept.
But then we have individuallearning, where you go back and
(20:41):
you are now plotting and settingobjectives on how much you want
to cover what you're learning.
You're spending time anddisciplining yourself about how
you set goals.
How do I comprehend material?
And then the third type oflearning that we use is then in
the group.
How do we bring a grouptogether and leverage the
thinking of all of those aroundthe circle to solve the issues
(21:04):
and the problems that ourstudents ultimately will face in
life?
So we're able to bringcurriculum together in a very
powerful and relevant way, andfor my listeners, the school is
K through 12?
Keith D. Terry (21:17):
K through 12.
Pretty impressive and I cantell you seeing some of the
results.
It was a young lady I thinkyour valedictorian at graduation
who was reading three gradesbelow when she walked in the
door to reading a grade abovewhere she is now.
Maybe I have that incorrect,but it was fun.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (21:36):
Well, our valedictorian, when she came she
was not reading because shecame in pre-kindergarten, so
part of the kind of preschooland when she left kindergarten
she was reading at the secondgrade level.
That young lady happened to bemy granddaughter and my
grandchildren go to our schooland so there's going to be
academic excellence, trust me,because I have an investment and
(21:59):
there's going to be a safeenvironment and we're going to
tend to their needs and we'regoing to provide kind of the
leading edge things for them tothink about.
I have a vested interest, butalso I care very much about all
of our student population thatare there.
Keith D. Terry (22:12):
And so let's switch a little bit now and talk
about the state.
Has the state made it moredifficult for you to sustain
yourself and grow yourself, oris it easier?
I mean, the Trumpadministration is trying to.
You know, I don't know ifthey're trying to make it easier
for people to go to privateinstitutions, or let's talk a
little bit about that.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (22:31):
I think well, there's a movement right
now at the national level tomake it easier for parents to
get funding or schools to getfunding for people who want to
use private schools as analternative for public schools.
The state has made it harder,and that's because I've talked
to some state officials and theybought into this concept that
(22:52):
somehow we'll be taking awaymoney from the public school,
and it simply is not true.
And so, from a state standpoint, the state could do a better
job in helping us realizing thatit doesn't have to be a
zero-sum game.
Somebody doesn't have to losefor somebody else to win.
We can all win if our objectiveis to educate our children, the
(23:16):
state's children.
How do we get educated?
Very rarely does one answerever solve every problem.
Keith D. Terry (23:23):
Now what can my listeners do to help correct
that level of ignorance at ourcity?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (23:29):
They can talk to their legislators.
They can leave a voicemail,send them a text, their
legislators.
They can leave a voicemail,send them a text to the
legislators in our area, intheir area, and tell them guess
what?
This notion of funding allowingprivate schools to receive
state funding, as it relates toif a donation is given by an
individual in the state, theycan then deduct that on their
(23:50):
taxes that's important to me.
That's what you would say.
That's important to me.
We need those alternatives.
And oh, by the way, those guyswant to get elected, so they
will listen.
Keith D. Terry (24:01):
And you know I, you know, having been on the
school board, that was a, thatwas an argument at least maybe
it's the issue down in Chicagothat they always took roll call
because it was dependent on.
You know, if I have 100 or10,000 or 500 kids, times X,
that's how much money I get.
But you know, public educationneeds to be, to me, revamped and
(24:21):
how they, how they fund all ofit, because the goal, if the
goal is to educate the kids, andthe money's there, let's
appropriate it, appropriatelyAgreed, you know.
I want to shift now a littlebit to you.
You wear a lot of hats.
You're the chancellor, you'rethe pastor.
Do you wearing both hats get alittle confusing?
(24:42):
How do you wear both hats?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (24:44):
Well, I wear a lot more hats than that,
as you know, right.
So I'm a professor, right.
I have my own consultancy, okay.
So, ceo, professor, pastor,chancellor, husband, father,
grandfather, all those sorts ofthings.
I don't think they becomeconfusing, but I do think that
(25:04):
it requires me to be deliberateabout what hat I'm wearing at
any one time.
So, for instance, I have adaughter who's on the school
board, and so if I'm talkingabout school matters, am I dad
or am I chancellor, or am Iboard member?
(25:25):
That's very important, right,and so for a lot of people they
can't.
That's why I always say theysay, well, what do you want me
to call you?
I say call me Ernest, becausethat at least will center me in
who I am.
Those other things are what Ido, and so it allows me then to
say which hat am I talking toyou in?
There's sometimes I talk topeople.
They come to me as theirpapster and I end up talking to
(25:48):
them as a friend.
That's different, and so I haveto kind of disseminate that way
, and so I have to kind ofdisseminate that way.
Keith D. Terry (25:53):
And so what advice would you give those
folks?
Because you know, I don't knowof anyone who wears just one hat
, right.
And so let's talk a little bitmore, because I'm interested in
how you center yourself.
Is it the deliberate, is itbeing deliberate, or is it
centering yourself that drivesyou towards excellence in each
of those hats that you wear?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (26:14):
It's, it's .
It takes time.
In other words, you have to bemaking sure out of what resource
am I showing up here, right,like today is a little nebulous,
only because I'm talking aboutso many different roles.
Yeah, you are Right, andprimarily, and that's why, even
as we were talking inpreparation for this, I said to
you okay, are we going to focuson school, are we going to talk
(26:36):
about ministry things?
Because that gives me thendeliberate and then I can come
back to you and at least be verycandid and transparent about
how I'm answering you thoseearlier questions about the
state helping or whatever.
That is, my chancellor of theschool hat, right, because these
are the battles that I fight asthe chancellor of the school.
And then there are times whenI'll answer out of, kind of my
(26:58):
ministry perspective, sometimesout of a business perspective.
Somebody called me the otherday it was a member and they
were like look, I've got thispotential real estate thing
going on, and then I had to puton my MBA hat, right, my
business hat.
That relates to that.
As long as the two partiesunderstand, kind of where we're
(27:18):
coming from and what hat we'respeaking from, it's when they
don't that I get themisalignments.
Okay, you know, becausesomebody says pastor said now
they're saying I'm in my pastorhat, I may have been talking to
you as a business person.
That's a terrible idea and youneed to rethink it.
And then it comes across aswell.
Why would you say somethingmean like that to me in your hat
(27:40):
?
So yeah, those are the sorts ofthings I think.
Keith D. Terry (27:42):
Well, let's talk a little bit about leadership,
because I know this podcast isall about excellence and game
changers.
As a leader, are you wearingthese hats?
What leadership principlesguide you?
And I want to talk about theschool.
Really, are there leadershipprinciples that drive you with
the school, with the studentsversus the staff, versus the
(28:04):
administration?
Let's just talk a little bitabout that.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (28:07):
Well, I just taught a leadership seminar
for our leaders at our ministryand we're going to be cascading
that down to other leaders andmembers.
But trying to help themunderstand, I introduced them to
kind of here are the 10leadership styles that you could
have them to kind of.
Here are the 10 leadershipstyles that you could have, and
my whole ethos was, even thoughone or two may be dominant, what
(28:28):
we should be going for is moreof a golf bag approach, and I
have a picture of a guy with hisgolf bag and saying look, we
should all have a golf bagfilled with all these clubs and
those clubs represent differentleadership styles and, depending
on the shot you got to make,you take out the right club.
(28:49):
Too many of the leaders arekind of one.
You know, when I first learnedhow to play golf and I use that
loosely because I still don'tknow how to play that well, but
I was good with the driver, so Iwould take the driver out and I
would whack the ball.
It would go far.
It wouldn't go straight, itwould go far.
But what I learned is that Icouldn't use the driver on every
shot.
At some point I had to learnhow to use the pitching wedge,
(29:10):
and it's the same thing withleadership.
There are times where, inleading the school, it has to be
more of the soft touch.
I'm not trying to drive it 150yards, I'm trying to pitch it
onto the green.
And so how do I thencollaborate with my staff more
than being a more of alaissez-faire type leadership
model where, okay, I trust youguys and you can handle it on
(29:33):
your own.
So for me, it's about theversatility, and I learned a lot
about leadership from themilitary.
It's about the versatility ofwhich style is benefiting me
best in this situation.
Keith D. Terry (29:48):
And you know that's interesting because that
you bring the military in, andthis is going to show my lack of
education there.
I always thought it was thatthere was one type of leadership
style in the military.
Is that true or not true?
It's not true, absolutely nottrue.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (30:06):
I mean you think of it as autocratic,
right?
Yeah, I do.
I'm the general and you do whatI say.
Keith D. Terry (30:11):
Right, right In the order.
Get it done, right yeah yeah,and all right away.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (30:15):
there is a hierarchy and there is a strong
sense of the autocraticleadership, and I think it fits
the military because, forinstance, when we're in battle
and we give an order, there's notime to say, well, let's have a
democratic style.
Do we fire the missile, do wenot?
No, that's not the time for youknow more of that collaborative
style, and so I think it fits.
But if you look at our topleaders in the military and
(30:40):
that's why some of theleadership that we're seeing
today is so frustrating for me,because they lack basic
leadership skills Even peoplewho are leading departments and
they're leading large branchesof our government lack such
basic leadership.
And then you juxtapose themagainst a seasoned military
(31:01):
leader, like if you've ever satdown with an admiral or a
general, uh, I visited myadmiral's house.
There were some emergency thingsgoing on, some crises going on,
and I had to go to his house toget some paper signed, talk
over some issues, and he wasthere in his bathrobe, right A
couple of coffee in his bathrobe, but you knew he was an admiral
.
He had a presence and hecollaborated and he wasn't as
(31:24):
Admiral.
He had a presence and hecollaborated and he wasn't as
and this is what you'll do heunderstood how to talk, he
understood how to bring peoplein, to get buy-in, and so, no,
it's not one leadership style.
It is reflective as heavilyautocratic, but it's a lot lot
more, a lot more, okay.
Keith D. Terry (31:37):
So what surprised you the most in
running a school versus runninga corporation?
I'm curious about that.
What surprised you the most inrunning a school versus running
a corporation?
I'm curious about that.
What surprised you the most?
Well, what surprised me most?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (31:47):
recently is how much influence children
have over their education.
Keith D. Terry (31:55):
Like I used to.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (31:57):
It used to be, and this is the, this is
the issue of agency.
Okay yeah, and so it used to be.
You know, it's like you won'tgo to this school because this
is the best place for you.
And mama said, or daddy said,and now what I hear is well, we
don't know if Johnny's going tocome to school.
Johnny wants to do X or Y, andso the kids have so much more
(32:20):
latitude as well asdecision-making ability when it
comes to their education, which,honestly and transparently, to
me is a little bit scary becausethey're in the formative years.
How much do you really know tomake that level of a decision?
Keith D. Terry (32:37):
Yeah, wow, wow.
Well, as an educator, how doyou stop that?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (32:44):
You don't stop it, you try to influence it
.
There's nothing you can doabout how people raise their
children or the agency that theygive their children.
You try to help the parents.
Look, our school is builtaround the partnership with
parents.
Many parents have come to usand said we feel like the school
is trying not our school, butpublic school is trying to take
(33:05):
away our rights as parents.
The kids they get to do whatthey want, get called what they
want and they can do things andnever tell that.
The parents have been givenessentially guardianship over
these children, stewardship overthe children, and we work
(33:31):
together with them.
Keith D. Terry (33:32):
I know they love hearing that part.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (33:34):
They do and for some of them it has been
kind of such a painful visceralexperience and it works.
A painful visceral experienceand it works Like, for instance,
we had a student that washaving some issues in school and
we went and talked to theparents and it's like, hey, we
noticed that Johnny was kind ofoff, you know, these last couple
of days or whatever, and theysaid that correlates to.
You know this was happening athome or whatever, and so
(33:56):
together we're able to formulatekind of a plan of attack and
get Johnny back on the righttrack.
That's the collaboration thatwe believe is most effective and
it's positive, it's healthy andat the end of the day, it
helped the child.
Keith D. Terry (34:10):
It really is, cause I can tell you that the
family, the home, is part of theeducational process and system.
It really is.
So how important is thecommunity buy-in in launching a
mission-driven school?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (34:24):
Community is important and you know, we
were set, we developed.
Keith D. Terry (34:29):
And I know community can be a number of
different ways.
It could be the churchcommunity, it could be the local
community.
I guess I'm more thinking.
I would assume that the churchcommunity was already bought in.
What about the physicalcommunity of the school?
(34:50):
Because you have to get thekids from that community.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (34:54):
You don't have to.
We have probably about 50% ofour population are not what you
would call Lindenhurst communityGotcha, and so I think of
community as all of oursurrounding areas.
So whether that's Antioch, zion, north Chicago, waukegan,
lindenhurst, lake, villa, gurnee, that's our community Gotcha,
(35:19):
and obviously we'd like buy-in.
But remember, it's so highlycompetitive education-wise and
we're out in Lindenhurst thepublic school system is very
sound, they have a very goodsystem, and so where we tend to
pull from are places where theschool system is not that good,
where their kids areexperiencing challenges and the
(35:40):
education's not that good, andthose sorts of things.
And so, once again, I don'tthink that starting the school
depends on the community and allright away, our demographics in
our community are shifting veryrapidly and so what is today
predominantly a white communityand predominantly retirees is
(36:01):
shifting very quickly to bemulticultural and to be younger,
as it relates to that.
All that favors us where we are.
It's kind of like we werepre-positioned here because the
community that we moved into NowI'll tell you that community in
general has been verysupportive.
In other words, when I went tothe village and we talked about
the vision that we have for theministry as well as for our
(36:22):
school.
Every variance that I appliedfor everything that I needed to
get to help us bring this tofruition, even when it came to
zoning requirements, and allthey were fully supportive, and
so I have nothing but goodthings to say about our village,
our community, our policedepartment, our servants that
are here, public planner thoseguys have been phenomenal.
Keith D. Terry (36:45):
That's great.
That's really great to hearthat, because you need that
support.
I don't have many morequestions, but I do have one.
Many of my listeners dream ofprobably starting a school, and
businesses, and especiallyschools, value-based
organizations.
What one piece of advice wouldyou give them?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (37:04):
I would say first and foremost and
here's the beauty of what I getto do my daughter chided me.
I retired three times now.
I retired from the US Navy.
I retired from corporateAmerica.
I retired from academia.
I still do academic work, but Idid a retirement from doing
full-time there and she goesyou're the busiest retired guy
(37:27):
that.
Keith D. Terry (37:27):
I know.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (37:28):
I said well, I don't use the word
retire, I'm just rebranding.
But the thing about all thethings that I do, I have a
passion right, so it gets me upin the morning and it gets me
going when I get up.
So I would say for those thatto start a business or an
organization just for the money,that can be tenuous and that
(37:48):
might not take you over, butwhen you have a passion for what
it is that you're doing andwhen you're truly trying to
drive greater impact, for me andmy wife that's our life's work.
Keith D. Terry (37:59):
So your passions have driven you to where you
your career.
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (38:03):
Yes, everything I do today I have a
passion for.
I was just down teaching atNorthwestern yesterday for a
group matter of fact, aneducational group trying to help
them deal with change,understand how to effectively
communicate change to theirorganization.
I have a passion to do that, soI ramble on for three hours and
I engage them.
Ministry I have a passion forseeing people's lives change.
(38:25):
We were tasked with creatingcommunity, with connecting with
people and serving them and thenultimately getting out of those
chairs and making a difference.
I have a passion to do that Inmy own agency in terms of
helping organizations and theirleaders grow, and because I have
a passion to do that, so I livea great life, because
(38:47):
everything that I do in terms ofendeavor, I have a passion to
do.
Keith D. Terry (38:53):
And you do it well, and you do it well and you
really do it well.
You know just a couple more.
Where do you see the biggestinnovation in private education?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (39:04):
I think who's going to win.
There's a there's a scripturein the Hebrew Bible.
It's over in first Corinthians.
It talks about a group ofstrategists.
So in this particular passageis talking about they're taking
a census of all the militarymight that they have.
So I've got 50,000 people thatcould throw a spear.
(39:26):
I've got 8,000 people thatcould do this.
They get down to the smallgroup of 200.
And it describes them by sayingthey understand the times and
they know what to do.
I think in education we'regoing to have to be playing the
long ball.
Those that are going to win ineducation are going to
understand the times that welive in and have to be playing
the long ball.
Those that are going to win ineducation are going to
understand the times that welive in and how to deliver an
(39:48):
effective education to, as thegroup I worked with yesterday
articulated, to help these youngpeople meet the demands of life
into the future, and right nowour educational system's not
doing that Right.
They're graduating and theydon't know how to meet life's
challenges, and so that's why wetake a very practical stand.
(40:10):
So we have classes like, wehave electives like personal
finance.
I need you to understand that,as my daughter, she calls me up
when she first left home andshe's like dad, this letter came
and it's got my name on it andthey say I owe them, you know,
$50 for using water.
Does water cost money, right?
So this notion of what are thethings that are practical for
(40:32):
them to understand, what are theacademics that they need, but
then how are they going to meetthe demands of life and that
those that figure that out and Ithink we are uniquely
positioned to do that, becausewe can tailor our education to
meet those needs.
Keith D. Terry (40:48):
You know, I think you're you're you're spot
on, because you know I debatethis with some of my friends as
well, but it's at a higher level, I think.
Universities.
There was one point whereuniversities, the value of a
university, was kind of goingdown, you know, and it still
might be.
I still think, I still believein education.
But I do believe that there isa shift going on right now
(41:10):
connecting.
You know, in the past I'm oldenough that I go to school for X
and my career is A, b, you know, I think, and I owe $100,000
for X.
(41:30):
I can only get, you know,$2,000 for A and B.
So do you see a shift?
I mean, I still think wherestudy SMCA is placed is so
critical because it's the earlyyears from K to 12.
You have to get those formativeeducational years inside.
But then when you connect thatto higher education, how do you
(41:54):
think about it, dr DuPlessis,from a totality standpoint, the
value of education at the higherlevel, right?
Dr. Ernest Duplessis (42:02):
But here's the way we essentially speak to
parents and to families.
What we want to do, andposition the academy to be able
to do, is that there are fourmajor areas that we think about
your life track could take.
For some that are leaving ourinstitution, it will be for
higher education, and that'sgood, but that's not the only
answer, because there'sentrepreneurship, there's public
(42:23):
service, there's potentiallytrades that are there.
All of those are valid as itrelates.
When I worked for WW Granger 20years ago, they said in 20
years there's going to be ashortage of those in the trades
and they're right.
And oh, by the way, have you hada plumber come out to your
house?
The guy had $150 of my moneybefore he ever stepped foot in
(42:45):
my house.
And so there are.
What we want to do at theacademy is saying, look, we not
only want to give you theacademics so that if you want to
go into college, but college isnot the end, all be all.
Now, look, I'm a collegeprofessor and I'm telling you
it's not the end, all be all.
Yes, today we have students whothey're qualifying in the fifth
grade to begin to take collegecredits at CLC, get dual credits
(43:10):
in high school, get an exposureto that.
They're going to graduate withthat.
We're also partnering wherethey have these other
certificates that you could get.
So say, for instance, you wereinterested in nail care, you
could go get a certificate.
We could provide the timeduring the day or the academic
week and by the time you couldearn a certificate, you could be
working a part-time jobprofessionally doing nails right
(43:33):
.
And so it's got to be thisconcept of we got to understand
the time that there's not someone linear track, linear track.
We hope to open up the aperturefor them to experience all of
these various things and forthem, ultimately, to be able to
build those building blocks tomake a career.
Keith D. Terry (43:50):
Brilliant.
Last question, I want you tocomplete this sentence the
future of education belongs tothose who understand the times
and they know what to do.
Brilliantly said.
Brilliantly said, dr DuPlessis.
Thank you for being a part ofthe Next Big Thing.
I think this has been awonderful conversation, a
masterpiece in purpose-drivenleadership built on conviction,
(44:12):
courage and a refusal to lettradition limit your vision.
So thank you for being a partof the show.
Thanks for listening to theNext Big Thing.
I'm your host, keith D Terry.
If you've enjoyed this episodeand you'd like to support this
podcast, please share it withothers, post about it on social
(44:33):
media or leave a rating and areview.
To catch all the latest from me, you can follow me on my
YouTube channel at Keith D Terry.
If you want to recommend aguest, please email me at info
at TerryPerformanceGroupcom.
This has been produced by yourhost and Jade Productions.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.