December 1, 2023 • 58 mins
Learn more at sattler.edu/entrustment
Ready to be a part of a radical shift in education? President Zack Johnson, Co-Director of Student Life Kristi Mast, and student Hannah Watson unveil Sattler College's revolutionary replacement for tuition called "Entrustment". We're breaking down the walls of traditional financial obligations, and instead fostering relationships built on students' commitment to service and gratitude. This model encourages a culture of financial gratitude, as alumni are inspired to give back, making this opportunity available for the next generation.
We're also delving into what happens when we invest in students and inspire their dedication to succeed. We're sharing the exhilarating journey of a student who worked through college without the burden of tuition, and our audacious goal of global representation by having students from every continent. We discuss our decision to say no to government funding and our commitment to bi-vocational discipleship, placing our trust wholeheartedly in the students.
We're on a mission to recruit those who value the kingdom and want to be equipped for service. We dive into the exciting phase two plan that aligns with student's career goals, providing opportunities for their future. We wrap up with an emphasis on the transformative power of Entrustment and investing in students to fulfill their God-given passions and contribute to the world in a meaningful way.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
President Johnson (00:04):
It is November 28th 2023.
My name is Zach Johnson.
You know who I am, and I'mjoined by Kristi Mast and Hannah
Watson.
Welcome, ladies, and maybe youcan just give me a little bit of
.
We've had you on the showbefore, kristi.
Who are you?
What do you do?
What are you about?
Kristi Mast (00:24):
My name is Kristi Mast.
I am the co-director of StudentLife.
I'm all about discipleship,specifically women's
discipleship and thriving in thekingdom, but not men's
discipleship.
You know, it's just a veryconcerned.
President Johnson (00:38):
Hannah, who are you?
What do you do?
What are you about?
Hannah Watson (00:41):
I am a student, a sophomore, here at Sattler.
I'm studying biblical andreligious studies and I'm also
doing the education majorthrough Indiana and Westland.
President Johnson (00:49):
Double major.
Hannah Watson (00:50):
That's me.
President Johnson (00:51):
Yeah, that's Hannah.
I think you're one of the firststudents to test that out, so
we should actuallywe shouldinvite you back on to talk about
that experience sometime.
I'd love to share and I'm alsojoined in the room by Graham
Weaver, but he's not on camera.
But, ladies, you can wave toGraham and say hi, graham, and
we'll try to bring him in here alittle bit.
So today is an interestingversion of the podcast because
(01:16):
I'm trying to flip it where Iwant to talk and I want you to
interview me.
But it's going to be funnybecause I'm still going to be
reading a few things here aboutsomething called intrustment Ooh
, ooh, whoa, graham, intrustment.
So I thought I'd start off byjust reading a news wire that
(01:41):
our dear friend Clark Ray wroteout, and we're trying to get
this in the news and tell ourstory a little bit here.
And this podcast is just goingto be part of that telling the
story of intrustment and tryingto inject that into the DNA of
the institution.
Sound good, that's awesome.
Any questions?
All right, this is the titleHeadline Sattler College
(02:01):
eliminates tuition withintrustment.
Kristi Mast (02:03):
Whoa, whoa Eliminates.
Yeah, that's crazy.
President Johnson (02:08):
So when you look at our placeholder website,
sattleredu slash intrustmentthe top of the website, it says
intrustment and then we're stilltrying to figure out how to
pronounce this it says tuitionwith its strike through.
Kristi Mast (02:24):
So tuition.
President Johnson (02:26):
Right Tuition , and so I've been really
pushing the marketing team thatthe name of this is not
intrustment tuition, because thetwo are oxymorons.
One is intrustment is replacingtuition.
It's not that we're.
I'm really actually trying totake the word tuition and wipe
it off the institution's faceand stomp on it.
Hannah Watson (02:45):
Oh, wow.
President Johnson (02:46):
Really eliminate it, at least for the
next decade or under mypresidency?
Does that make sense?
Love that All right.
So here we go and then.
So I'm going to, I'm going towalk you through the basics of
intrustment and I'm stilllearning how to talk about this,
but I understand it and so I'vebeen actually in the field
socializing this idea as well,and so I talk about it.
(03:06):
And then I have feedback andI've had some.
I have some notes about somefeedback people have given me
and I hope we can just talkabout it and tell a story.
Sound good.
Doesn't sound good.
So here's the idea Intrustmentis basically where the college,
rather than inting into acontractual relationship with a
student where we say we chargeyou tuition in order to receive
(03:30):
your education, we enter intomore of a relationship with a
student, some would say acovenant, like Hope College in
Michigan.
But we're avoiding the wordcovenant because it's a little
strong and there are severeramifications to covenant
breaking biblically.
That our board is like youshould probably not use that
(03:50):
word, so we didn't use the wordcovenant.
But that is the dichotomy, likecontract versus relationship.
So instead of tuition we'resaying hey, if you get accepted
and you commit to what we wantfrom our students, and that's
basically like dedicate yourselfto academics and be hungry for
(04:12):
discipleship and service.
So if you meet those twocriteria, you're willing to work
hard and you want to reallycommit yourself to God and His
kingdom, we won't charge youtuition, but we'll trust you and
trust you to make two basiccommitments.
One is a commitment to kingdomservice.
(04:33):
This is a nebulous commitment.
At this point I've heardfeedback.
What is kingdom service?
And it's basically a lot ofdifferent things.
It can be from homeschoolingmothers to stay at home moms to
doctors, to businessmen, tocomputer scientists.
So it's a broad scope, but it'svery directed, intentional
(04:54):
decision making with what youwant to do with your life.
So that's one, a commitment tokingdom service, and the second
is a commitment to financialgratitude.
And so this is kind of a uniqueway of saying hey, in order for
the college to actually bearound in 30 years, we need our
alumni to actually give back tothe college.
(05:14):
We're saying give what you canwhen you can to make the
opportunity available for futurestudents.
And so, rather than billingthat to students, we're saying,
hey, give back what you can whenyou can.
Another way of saying it is payit forward.
Except the word pay.
We've thought about this veryintentionally.
(05:35):
There's no legal obligation, soit really is a gift.
Give it forward when you can,what you can, because the
college can't legally come afteranyone that's like, ah, I don't
really want to do that.
So those are the two principles.
Do you want me to keep going?
Any questions?
Kristi Mast (05:53):
So what is the?
What do students actually signup for, like, what are they
actually committing to?
With the interestment model yousaid it's not legal, it's not a
covenant.
President Johnson (06:09):
I call it an agreement, a student agreement.
So all of our students sign anagreement to be part of the
college.
This is not a crazy agreementthat basically says we'll abide
by your community policies.
So we have things in ourstudent agreement.
You've seen it, kristy, becauseyou are the co-director of
student life.
It's like don't break alcoholon campus, don't do drugs, like
(06:34):
a lot of the basics likeagreements.
But this is basically sayinghey, by taking this entrustment
offer, you agree that you'regenerally in line with serving
the kingdom and generally you'rewilling to pay, give back what
you can when you can, and you'rewilling to sort of sign your
name on a line that says I'lltry to do this.
(06:57):
And it's kind of hard becausewe're not trying to handcuff
people, but we're also trying tocommunicate.
We really need you to followthrough on this, and so it's not
like we're binding you to this,but we also really need you for
us to make it in the future.
So does that make sense?
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, and our dream is actually that
(07:18):
over time, our alumni this willbe like an annual thing where
our alumni can get together andbe like hey, remember that time
we spent with each other thatone time in Boston.
Oh, and remember that we allagreed to honor with financial
gratitude or generosity.
Let's remind ourselves of thatand give back.
(07:40):
And we're really.
I've talked to the president ofHope College, so Hope College
calls this Hope Forward.
You should look it up.
They got Malcolm Gladwell tocome and interview about them.
And we're doing something verysimilar, but they're hoping that
their alumni engagement is waystronger than your average
(08:00):
institution, because we'repraying that people are doing
this out of joy and, like I wantto do this because I had such a
good experience.
So it'll actually help uscreate a great program so that
we delight our students, so tospeak, and that hopefully a lot
of our students will actually bemuch more tethered in a good
way back to the institution.
Kristi Mast (08:21):
Yeah, and just as you're describing that,
especially the idea of alumniengagement, there's the two
principles right kingdom serviceand financial gratitude, and
how I'm just thinking about howexciting that is to think of
coming back together with yourclassmates every year, every
five years, whatever theinterval is, and talking about
not only the financial gratitudepiece but also the kingdom
(08:43):
service, Like what are you doingwith your life right now?
And I don't know, I'm justpicturing this like moment of
fresh inspiration and kind ofadrenaline pumped into your
veins of seeing these peoplethat you you had this really
informative experience with andthe ways that they're pouring
out their lives should thekingdom Right and hopefully some
people are doing it together.
President Johnson (09:02):
Yeah, that's the dream.
Yeah, that it's like this is anetwork thing, opportunity, make
connections, go do reallymeaningful things together.
Yeah.
Hannah Watson (09:13):
When I first hear it, I just think like I'm so
honored and valued by the ideathat people want to invest in me
and they, like, think that I'mvaluable enough.
President Johnson (09:21):
That's true.
We do want to invest in you.
Hannah Watson (09:23):
I'm glad that I'm valuable enough that you want
to like pour resources into me,like without any expectations
attached, necessarily outside oflike doing my best and being
committed to like striving hardat school and then wanting to
serve later, and it just likeactually makes me want to give
back more.
When I hear that, I just thinklike, wow, I love this, I love
that I'm being invested in, andthen I want to give it back.
So it totally is inspiring thatin me just to hear it.
President Johnson (09:44):
Great, yeah, well, I'll keep.
I'll go on a little bit more ofa rant and then you can pester
me with questions, sound good.
Kristi Mast (09:51):
That sounds awesome yeah.
President Johnson (09:54):
When you look at our website, one of the
things that the first headlineis it says dedication, not debt.
That he or when.
When I talk about this, a lotof people are actually like they
boil it down.
They're like what I'm hearingyou say is it's free tuition,
it's free F R, e, E.
And I I actually have startedslapping people's wrists very
(10:16):
gently, on my staff and atcampus when they use the word
free, because I'm trying to getat this point that hey, really
in the background there arepeople breaking their backs to
make this happen and it's not.
There's no free lunch, right?
This whole idea that it's notjust a cakewalk.
And so people have been saying,like how are you going to
(10:37):
filter students, who who getthis opportunity?
Because this is for everysingle accepted student.
It's not like we're we'redelineating between one or the
other, and I've just been sayingthat Soutler's program in
general requires some levels ofdedication, true or false.
Hannah Watson (10:55):
Hi levels of dedication.
President Johnson (10:57):
Through Through True, grand, true or
false?
Yeah, there's.
When we do surveys of ourstudent, the one word that gets
used the most is rigorous.
So rigorous, I once said, I've.
Once I said why don't we justcall it tear-jerking academic
stance?
We didn't Soul crushing, but weare looking for students who
are dedicated.
Yeah, and not that a variety ofpeople aren't worthy of
(11:21):
investment, but we're look, ourprogram itself is sort of a
filter.
So when I give a tour ofSoutler, we had Dr Schumann on.
We're the only college in thecountry where Greek and Hebrew
are still part of the corecurriculum, even if you're a
biology student, computerscience, business, which is
different.
So we're, we're hoping thatthat dedication piece is almost
a self-filter for who comes intoit.
(11:44):
And so that's been one questionthat people have raised is like,
are you not just saying how areyou not just going to give this
away to somebody who just kindof wants a degree?
Does that make sense?
That our our acceptance, andwe're not changing our
acceptance requirements oradmissions requirements.
We're keeping it there, butwe're still asking our students
to dedicate themselves, and I'mpraying that not only will it,
(12:07):
will we get students, but ableto enable better dedication,
absolutely when, like, maybepeople won't be thinking about
paying tuition and they'll bethinking about hey, how do I
learn more here?
Not that having a job in apart-time study isn't a good
time, but we're trying to sortof relieve that.
Burden from students Makessense Dedication, not that.
Kristi Mast (12:28):
Yeah, totally, and Hannah, you have.
You've done this.
Actually, you worked in orderto be able to pay your tuition.
I would.
Hannah Watson (12:37):
I don't know if you have any thoughts on that.
Yeah, I went to school beforecoming to Sattler at just a
community college and I workedlike 35 or 40 hours a week and I
would just like pick up randomjobs, like I worked like super
early in the morning for acouple hours and then would run
the classes and cram in a coupleof classes and then sprint off
to work again in the afternoonand then do school all evening
and it was like very stressfuland I also just felt like I
(12:58):
couldn't really engage well withthe academics because there was
just something else on my mindall the time, like I had to be
able to pay for this somehow,and so just knowing that there's
like the freedom to actuallydig deep into classes and not
have that financial burden is abig big deal, big, big deal.
President Johnson (13:13):
You're good, and then I'll just chime in with
my own experience.
I went to a service academywhere I got paid to go to school
, so I was one up.
I'm not being all of you, butthere is this actually idea that
some people are like youcouldn't pay me enough to go
through that experience, becauseit was super intense.
You were up at five in themorning, a lot marching to
(13:36):
breakfast in the snow, and somepeople are like I don't want
that.
That's not exactly what we'retrying to get at with our
students, but it's somewhere inthat spectrum of hey, we're
asking you to take on much moreof a load than your average
student, so we're asking fordedication, but we don't want to
put you in debt.
(13:56):
For it Makes sense, yeah, a lotof sense Good, and then let's
keep going down here.
The other thing I wanted totalk about is our international
students.
All right, we'll think aboutthis.
I haven't written this down butI'm hoping it makes its way
(14:16):
into our next line of thinkingand at a given point in time I
want Siler to be able to say wehave students from every
continent.
Australia is a stretch.
I'm working on it.
Still no anyone knows anyonefrom Australia interested.
And South America is actuallythe next hoping to go recruit
down there.
We have student do any of youcan you list the countries our
(14:40):
students are from currently inthis last round just across the
student body?
Hannah Watson (14:44):
Uganda, Kenya, US , Canada.
Do we have other places?
President Johnson (14:48):
India, Ukraine, Mexico, Canada, All
over the place, Zimbabwe,Zimbabwe.
So we have a really unique goalhere that, when you look at
education, one of the thingsthat people say about a college
degree is they say it's a greatequalizer, that you can take
somebody from Zimbabwe or Kenyaor Uganda, India, someone from
(15:13):
Rochester, Minnesota, someonefrom Hutchinson, Kansas, someone
from Canada, Ontario, Water,Ontario, oh, Water, Ontario's
right Okay.
And that the college experienceequalizes you-ish and then
provides you with similaropportunities.
And so one of the critiques notcritiques are just pestering
(15:36):
that I've received in the fieldis will there be some sort of
mental or I'll call it a socialdebt that a student takes on by
accepting this when they leave,when they're like I am gonna
take a job, that I'm not gonnamake any money and I won't be
able to pay it back?
Is that okay?
(15:57):
When I make the joke, I hopesome students do that, but I
also hope somebody becomes abillionaire.
This gives back a ton of moneyor time because they believe in
what's happening here.
So I'm trying to basically saythat it's okay for different
sets of outcomes on the backendwithout a copious amount of
(16:19):
social debt that's attached to.
I actually can't give back, andsome people have been just
thinking about that.
Even some alumni have beensaying I'm not really sure I
want this lifetime commitmentback and so maybe we can just
torture out how to think throughthis.
Some students I just got off aphone call with a prospective
(16:40):
student.
She said my parents gave memoney to go to college.
Can I just pay it all up frontand be done with it and just not
even have to think about it?
I was like sure, why not waitand sort of go through it?
We're not asking you of that.
So how many think about likethis equalizing effect that this
will have during the collegecareer, the college years, plus
(17:04):
how we as an institution aresort of giving people permission
not to take on purely lucrativecareers, and how to more
equalize and be okay withstudents that go out having
different life paths.
Does that make sense?
Help me think about it and howto communicate it.
Kristi Mast (17:22):
I think for me the kingdom service part is what is
so key here and I know like whenyou hear that you probably
think Bible translator,missionary, that kind of thing.
But I think the way that we'rethat I understand that is so
much broader than that and Ithink if we truly believe that
(17:43):
Christ's kingdom is made up ofthe church, and of his people
everywhere.
then the businessman who is notpracticing extractive business
practices but actuallyproductive in and is doing
business in a way that isadvancing the kingdom by
(18:03):
impacting people's lives andalso making a lot of money and
being able to give back.
That's enabling his classmatewho is going to deepest, darkest
Africa to translate the Bibleinto language that has never
been in before.
And I think part of this isthat we're so used to thinking
very individualistically, inkind of the Western mentality,
(18:25):
but I don't think that's the waythat the gospel teaches us to
think, but it teaches us tothink much, much more broadly
and that we're all moreconnected.
I don't know if that gets atwhat your question is.
President Johnson (18:41):
I think it's more.
I mean it's more of how do you,how do you approach the
students in a way that theydon't have a social debt to
actually take on a job wherethey feel indebted to pay back
financially?
And really trying to hammer inthis idea like it's a paradox,
(19:03):
because I'm saying I don't wantyou to make a decision to make a
lot of money.
If you wanna go be a missionaryin a third world country like
India, ie, we have studentsdoing that, that's good, we want
you to do that.
However, it's also okay if yougo and take on your family's
business and maybe generate morerevenue.
(19:25):
I'm just gonna say, likefinancial revenue and like
really having the conversationswith students, like we like both
of those, but we still need westill will need some people to
contribute back over time, andso it's kind of a there's a
paradox.
There's somebody on staff.
Somebody on staff brought upthe point and they're like in
theory, it's a great idea, butwhat if all your alumni just
(19:49):
pull off the Hudson Taylor moveand they're like I'm not even
gonna make a salary, I'm gonnalive on prayer and will we be
able to sustain the institutionof every single alumni?
Can't give back a dollar and Iwas like unlikely that that will
happen, but we'll still make ithappen.
So help me think about that.
I'm just ranting, yeah.
Hannah Watson (20:10):
I think one thing that you brought up earlier is
like you're dealing with adiverse group of students here
who have like a plethora ofinterests, and so you're gonna
have people who are likegenuinely interested in the
family business for like thesake of doing business.
They love that.
That gives them life.
And then you're gonna havepeople who are really, really
excited about going to Ugandabecause that gives them life and
that's like what Florida'scalled them to.
So I think, like, as youapproach and each student who
(20:30):
comes through the doors as likea unique individual where their
interests are valued and likeencouraged and supported, you're
gonna get people who are goingto pursue all sorts of different
things, because we're different, unique individuals, you know,
got it.
Kristi Mast (20:44):
Yeah, yeah.
I think this makes so much senseto me when I think about it
from first from the perspectiveof the kingdom and then second
from the perspective of finances, because if you truly believe
you're not your own person, butthat at the same time God has
uniquely given you things to doin the world, I think both of
(21:06):
those perspectives and it's notlike you're not your own person,
you're a settler, college'sperson, it's like you belong to
the kingdom of God.
And so my father, for example,is an incredible businessman.
He's made a lot of money acrossthe course of his life and he's
been incredibly generous withthat, and his legacy is schools
(21:27):
in India and one of his dearfriend of his I don't know if
he's ever worked a traditionaljob.
He's been a full-time pastor,missionary, church planter, and
he's able to do that because ofmy father exercising his gifts
to the fullest.
My dad would not make a greatchurch planter person out there
(21:48):
on the frontier, but his friendSam is just incredible with that
work and they've almostpartnered together to make the
kingdom come in India in a waythat my dad could have never
done on his own and Sam couldhave never done on his own.
I think that perspective ofeverybody exercising their gifts
to their fullest is what makesthis vision work for me.
President Johnson (22:11):
Yeah, yeah, and I'm trying to get at this
idea that when I talk aboutsettler, often there's like a oh
, you're a Bible college, likethat's basically what you're
doing.
I talk about like the biblicalcore and people are like, oh,
bible college.
And I'm trying really hard tosay like I understand why that's
(22:33):
the perspective, because ingeneral there's what's happened.
Is there's sort of thisdistinction between Christian
and professional Christian?
and like the professionalChristians would be the type of
people who take Greek and Hebrewand church history and it's
sort of the load is on theirshoulders to Go to seminary, be
(22:54):
pastors, I think.
I think that's not always thecase, but in some worlds there's
that distinction.
But we're trying to like kindof tilt that horizontally and
say, hey, everybody isbiblocational, like everybody,
every student should have thisskill set.
And there he is.
Yeah, it's okay that.
And then so when I'm pitchingthis to like businesses, I'm
(23:16):
trying to say like, hey, if youthat we'll talk about this later
.
But I'm trying to say, what ifyou sponsored a student through
the college and help them payfor room and board?
This is a side conversation andthey come and work for you
afterwards and, like people's,people are starting to think
about, oh, this is an amazingopportunity and.
(23:36):
I'm trying in the future to geteven more investment in these
young years and Like amobilization, so that people are
like wow, I feel like peopleare messing me, I can take
everything on, but does it makesense that in general, like it's
open to a wide swath ofstudents and there's these two
(23:56):
principles of service andgratitude, but then afterwards
we're not like policing whatpeople are gonna do afterwards?
And so we expect doctors, weexpect missionaries, we expect
teachers, computer scientists,right.
Kristi Mast (24:12):
Yeah, and if we trust the education and the
discipleship enough, then I Meanwe we're trusting both our
students and our process right,that we will equip excellent
computer scientists who are ableto go out there and be really
successful, excellentbusinessmen who are gonna be
able to go out there, be reallysuccessful, but also who are not
(24:34):
only gonna be greatprofessionals but they're gonna
be truly bivocational discipleswho also are great citizens of
the kingdom and whose lives areoriented around that and that's
it's.
It's kind of a.
I feel like this is a vote ofconfidence not only in our
students but also in in thewhole Souther experience that we
(24:55):
were trying so hard.
That's our old goal is to makeis to help people become these
bivocational people, and I feellike this this model is is
another vote of confidence inthat direction and and kind of
commitment to that bivocationalStudents and graduates great.
President Johnson (25:14):
Yeah, I agree .
All right, let's talk about thestrings attached, which are
none I so, basically, I thinkpeople are like, oh, what's the
catch for that?
What strings are attached?
And One I just want to beupfront right now, students are
still paying for room and board,unless you're married or like
over the age of 30.
(25:35):
I think is the policy.
So we charge students about$980 a month right now.
Per month, I think.
We charge them for 10 months,so that's 9,800, and they live
down in back bay.
That's a string.
It's not a completely cost-freeenvironment yet.
So, per string any questionsabout that?
(25:56):
That sounds high.
If you don't live in Boston, Ipromise you it's a good deal.
We seller still subsidizes thecost to live downtown for a lot
and we're hoping to Not losemoney on our room and board
someday, but we still do so.
String number one is room andboard.
We're still not giving that outor not giving Granting, yeah,
(26:19):
granting that out.
String number two you have tobe enrolled in an undergraduate
or certificate program at thecollege.
Makes sense, seems fair.
And then An interesting Stringis that we don't have strings to
anybody else, especially thegovernment.
Kristi Mast (26:37):
It's kind of interesting right.
President Johnson (26:38):
So I think I'll talk to the about this
we're.
I was just at a, a conferencefor accreditation.
I won't name any names, butjust a.
I don't know if people want metalking about them.
We're one of the onlyaccredited Christian colleges
that takes zero federal funds,even the Pell Grant, and so some
people, some people are likeyou're crazy, that's free money,
(27:03):
and I still waver on that andwill probably evaluate that
decision.
So and I was also at a meetingwith the, with the state of
Massachusetts, with the governor, and they invited big wig from
Washington to talk about how thegovernment and education are a
linked sort of intrinsically.
(27:25):
And there there's a big threatright now To institutions
locally.
It's because a case went to theSupreme Court about Should
colleges be able to use race andadmissions and went to the
Supreme Court and they got Gotoverturned and so now colleges
can't use a certain standard,and so there's a bunch of people
like, oh, we gotta, we gottareally make sure that the
(27:47):
government and education is likelinked and we're providing all
these mechanisms.
My theory is like, more thanever, we need to be, especially
as a Christian community,doubling down on making sure
that we have institutions thatdon't rely on federal funding,
because the the the word that Ialways that the phrase is if you
(28:08):
take someone's shackles, youtake their shackles, and that's
like not that, that's not like.
I'm not trying to like pointfingers that in the other
institutions they're like, oh,you're shackled to the
government, because I think thatthey're not necessarily.
But we're doing this all fundedby private, private giving
private donations, and None ofit comes from the government,
(28:30):
and so I think that's reallyimportant to talk about that.
We are doing this on our own.
We have accreditationrequirements, we get audited
often and people look at ourfinances, make sure we're okay.
So we still have to abide byset of standards, but that's
exciting too.
Yeah, any yeah so any thoughtson those strings or non strings?
Kristi Mast (28:51):
I think what's also exciting especially about the
last item about Shackles andshackles right where this is
usually institution is intrusting themselves to Students,
to alumni, to graduate right,and that's, I think, also a
powerful, a powerful, a step oftrust in in our students and in
(29:14):
our alumni and our graduatesthat we're not depending on, but
that we're depending on on youto keep to keep the college
moving forward.
And that's just really excitingto me to give that, that power
in that Authority to, to ourgraduates.
Hannah Watson (29:31):
Yeah, yeah.
I think there's like this ideaof like this big diffusion of
responsibility when you havelike big linkages with people
that can provide Resources andit's like, oh, that's their job,
not my job, and hearing that,no, actually, once I leave
Sattler, like there's a needhere that I can give and support
.
Like that's something I want tobe a part of because I love
Sattler right, and I want tosupport that.
President Johnson (29:51):
So I wanted to just talk a little bit more
about funding, because peoplehave questions how does Sattler
fund this initiative?
So let's think about this.
I I I recently interviewedanother institution who were I
was very inspired by thisinstitution I'm not gonna name
its name and in order to switchtheir whole campus over to this
(30:13):
Pay it forward model I'll usethat as a placeholder they had
to raise up, or they need toraise, a billion dollar
endowment.
Oh how?
Because of how reliantInstitutions of higher ed have
been on tuition revenue, and sowe're at a point in our journey.
We were it's 2023.
We were proved in 2016.
(30:35):
First class showed up.
2018 were five years in and sowe're not.
We were looking at the numbers.
We could basically say we coulddo this next year if we play
our cards right and flipeverybody onto this like
overnight, and that's reallyimportant to me, that every
single person gets invited intothis and the way that we are
doing it.
I just thought I'd tell youabout it because it's also
(30:56):
important to me.
Our, our revenue or ourcontributions come primarily
from a Company that was it'svery profitable, but they follow
a and non accumulation profitmodel, where their profits are
sent to a something called adonor advice fund, and Then that
(31:17):
donor advice fund it's aChristian donor advice fund then
Exams a series of nonprofitsthat that money that gets
distributed to, and so weactually have an irrevocable
pledge from a company to fund usand Make this possible and a
lot of people.
What I want to talk about isthat some people think that I'm
(31:41):
gonna be try to be a little bitnebulous here without naming
names, because I don't want toget into names that think that
there's somebody who says I Getto, I get to fund this out where
, or I don't, and they make thatdecision sort of four times a
year.
It's actually a illegal,binding, illegally like binding
gift.
It's called an irrevocablepledge, and so that's as.
(32:02):
It's actually as good as as a,if not better than, tuition in
my mind.
Hannah Watson (32:08):
Mm-hmm.
President Johnson (32:08):
And so that's how we're funding it and it's
it's sort of through the effortsof a lot of people At yet the
people who get to decide wherethe profits go.
That's obviously made possiblethrough our founding, our
founding team, and I think it'san incredible opportunity.
Any questions about thatfunding mechanism and how we're
making it happen?
Kristi Mast (32:29):
Yeah, you said it's better than tuition.
I think I'm missing theconnection as far as is more
reliable than tuition.
President Johnson (32:35):
So I I got on the call with a college
president a Massachusettscollege president, and I was.
I was basically Explaining oursituation and how I can begin to
give people confidence and oursustainability, and I explained
this pledge and and he's likethat's Really better than a lot
(32:56):
of colleges have when they relyon Can students make the
payments on a regular basis?
Can they not, will theywithdraw?
And so we are not reliant ontuition never have been and so
we're very Sustained by a verycommitted structure and we
actually, in a weird way it'sit's good and bad because we
(33:17):
have we've been able to makewhether the storm of like, we
don't have like 80 students topay tuition To cover all our
costs, and so, in my mind, it'smore resilient than tuition.
However, it's a consolidatedsource and so there are pros and
cons of like, oh like.
What happens if, like World Warthree, like there's all these
(33:38):
scenarios that are like, is thissustainable?
And so I'm gonna talk aboutSustaining it in the future, but
I just wanted to talk about howwe make it possible in the
present and, yeah, any questionsabout that?
Kristi Mast (33:50):
No, that makes a lot of sense, yeah.
President Johnson (33:53):
And so you?
Another important thing to knowis we are approved by
accreditors and the state ofMassachusetts to operate, and I
don't think a lot of peopleunderstand how, how much work
goes into being approved bythose regulating authorities.
Yeah, and so I often like tosay like, hey, every year I sit
(34:15):
down with some intense peopleTwo of two sets of people over
actually adding a third hereSome time in the third and they
like look at our books and ouraudits and they're like are we
sustainable?
They're like, oh, yeah, yousustainable.
So I like to give people a voteof confidence in that and that,
and so for the future, I dohave more goals that up to this
(34:36):
point, I think we've had like 25individuals who have
contributed to the college overits lifetime.
My goal is that entrustment isactually gonna really increase
the, the quantity ofcontributors.
So I Think every student I wantto be contributing.
(34:57):
So, in trust minutes, like givewhat you can when you can.
I want every staff member to becontributing and every board
member to be contributing, andso we're really trying to say,
hey, this is sort of a I'm not,I'm gonna be worth a crowd
source.
It's a little bit of a dirtyterm, but this is really gonna
be sourced through the wholecommunity as opposed to so.
In the future, I'm hoping togrow that, that quantity, and I
(35:20):
think.
I think if we have a goodproduct, that it's gonna work.
Kristi Mast (35:23):
Yeah, yeah and then yeah, I think it is.
It's like the proof.
The proof is in the pudding, asthey say.
And if I know as a settler grad, my experience here was
phenomenal and if I know thatsettler Once and is asking for
my investment, then it's reallypowerful to be able to get back
(35:44):
and and pay it forward right the.
President Johnson (35:47):
The other thing I want to talk about is In
our language, when we announcedthis, the thing that threatens
that we're most it's it'sactually ironic.
It's finding the right studentsto fit the institution.
When I explain what settler hashappened here, we were one of
the only institutions thatdidn't grow out of our backyard.
(36:10):
So a lot of colleges they startand then they recruit locally
and then eventually they expand.
There's a few exceptions tothat.
We have, like I Think, only onehomegrown Massachusetts student
is.
That is that right there.
There might be a couplestudents here there who families
live here now.
But and so last year I like totalk to people that that my year
(36:33):
, last year, was really decidingto be a non-affiliated
Christian school that doesn'taffiliate with any single church
, and so we'renon-denominational.
I like to use the wordinterdenominational.
Now I've read it in an article.
I'm like I like that a littlebit better than
non-denominational, becausethere are, there's a set of,
(36:53):
there's a set of doctrines thatbind the people together that
would come here, but how, how dowe find the right people To
come here?
Grant that.
So I'm asking, like the, I'masking what we asked everybody
that's a cabin recruit the rightstudents to this and yeah.
I did want to just kind ofcommunicate on the podcast that
(37:16):
when you look at our board, wehave sort of a conservative and
a Baptist constituency.
That's very obvious throughoutthe institution.
And then we have a I don't evenknow a Parallel set of people
that align really well with someof what the early in a Baptist
thought.
Like the church I attendAttendance would be in this
(37:37):
group of it's called fallersaway.
It's like parallel but not thesame and can collaborate well.
And then we have this newbranch of people that I'm really
trying to to go after.
That's like, hey, I want to findstudents who hold the Bible in
a high esteem and and we'rewilling to sort of engage more
broadly, a little bit morebroadly without doing going too
(38:00):
broad in terms of students we'rerecruiting here.
Does that make sense thatthere's like generally, we're
not trying to just serve oneconstituency, we're trying to
open this up to more people.
Any questions there?
It is a big question.
I just want to make sure thatpeople understand we're we're
trying to grow the diversitywith of our institution a little
(38:22):
bit more than we'vetraditionally seen any questions
.
So it's it's open to morestudents is what I'm trying to
communicate.
Kristi Mast (38:29):
Yeah, do you have any more descriptors?
Descriptors for that kind oflike third group, that's broader
, like what?
Who are the students?
Who are the people that you'relooking for there?
President Johnson (38:38):
Yeah, it's, it's really hard to write it
down.
I would say it's the kind ofstudent that Kind of has a
radical approach to Christianityand it's like, yeah, I'll go
learn Greek and Hebrew, oh, andLike, if I see a woman wearing a
dress and a headache covering,I won't run away.
In the opposite direction, it'sthe kind of person that likes
(39:00):
to entertain I some ideas theymight have heard about, about
like, what does it mean to loveyour enemies, christians and
politics?
Maybe we, maybe the kingdom,wasn't born to be in the left or
the right.
Maybe it's supposed to besomething different.
So it's someone that's sort ofwilling to entertain these ideas
but not necessarily committedto them before they show up.
(39:23):
It's not like so that's anotherthing.
We don't have anybody, we don'tenforce church requirements or
standards.
We don't do any of that here atthe college, and so it's more
of like an openness to Ideas andthe high esteem for the Bible,
mm-hmm.
And then I would even chime inlike the Bible as not being like
(39:43):
a Topic of Latter-dayRevelation, that like we should
be progressing with society andculture.
It's more of like this fightfor original truths of hey, the
truth is unkillable.
It was handed down by Jesus andthat's basically the set of
people.
But I would even say that, like, a lot of our faculty fit that,
(40:04):
fit that category of people.
So that's, if you can thinkabout our faculty, mm-hmm, a lot
of our faculty members kind oflooking at that type of person.
Go look at who teaches here,and that should give you a good
glimpse.
Does it make sense?
Kristi Mast (40:18):
Yeah, that's super helpful.
Yeah, that makes a lot of senseand I think it.
We talked about this Fewepisodes ago when I was on the
podcast.
Before that, we're not.
This isn't like a place that weare trying to like punch out
these molds of.
Indoctrinate indoctrinatestudents.
Right like we.
We do want this to be.
It's obvious that there's.
(40:38):
I mean, you look at ourfounding precepts.
They're unique among thebroader kind of evangelical
world, so there's gonna beunique flavor and unique twist.
But it's not like we're lookingto have cookie cutter graduates
that all line up exactly tothis right and exact standard.
President Johnson (40:57):
That word's kind of a dirty word
indoctrination but it's actuallya use, it's actually kind of
what Christ it's calling us todo.
So you don't want to like stepaway from it too much, because
there are lines that were likethis is there are black and
whites that we stand for, notthat, but you.
That's exactly right, chrissy,that we don't have to like agree
(41:17):
to all these things to be astudent here.
But you kind of have to like belike I want to learn more and
be an environment thatchallenges me, and things like
that Make sense.
Canada, that makes sense.
Yeah, graham, makes sense.
All right, the next thing Iwant to talk about is a Little
(41:38):
bit of a story, and when Iannounced this as a student body
, I said this was phase one andI want to talk a little bit
about phase two and some some ofthe things I'm dreaming about
for the future.
Just as I pitched this to you,this is more like a dream, not a
promise.
So this next conversation isnon-binding, non-promising.
(41:59):
Can you give all the like this?
Just give all the disclaimersnow?
So originally last year inFebruary, the board came up with
a, a proposal that they werebasically going to be three
tracks through the college.
One was going to be yourtraditional Free, free agent
student you pay, you get to thedegree, you leave, we give you
(42:19):
financial aid, ba-ba-ba-ba, nice, like very traditional.
The second was going to becalled what we were going to be
calling like a oh man, I can'teven remember the word for it
because there wasn't a good wordit was like a bound to your
home church Through the college.
You're not a free agent.
(42:40):
You have a commitment tosomebody who's like blessing you
to come and you return thereand there's like, and there's
sort of an agreement between youand a home community that
you're not just like leavingwhat you came from and you're
like we're still interconnected.
Does that make sense?
What's a good word for that?
It's like Sent yeah, I'mmentioning yeah, sent.
(43:01):
So and then the third track waswhat was called a service track,
where we basically said thistrack is gonna be for a group of
students who make some sort ofagreement with, like, an
organization or a church or abusiness or a nonprofit, and
They'll actually fund yourtuition in exchange for some
(43:23):
sort of commitment on the tailend after you graduate.
And so Basically, this year theboard tried to just simplify it
and say, all right, let's juststart by, entrustment will be
the baseline, and then phase twois where I'm approaching people
and saying, all right, hey,what if you were to approach a
(43:43):
business, a church, a mission,or I approach them I know it's
it's hard to level this purelyon the students and Will fund
the college, will fund thetuition, cost of tuition.
What if, like, a group fundsthat cost a room and board and
that the student gets this wholepackage deal where they're
barely Maybe not paying a dollarout of their own pocket, but
(44:05):
then they commit to somethingMore specific on the back.
Then a little bit more concreteabout like, hey, I want to go
work at this business for fouryears or I want to go be a
doctor.
Is that becoming your reactionto this whole, like it could be
like an eight-year commitment,which is kind of scary.
It could be.
You could negotiate it a littlebit differently, but some
(44:28):
students have made agreementsthat go teach at different
schools coming through and I'mlike man, I want more about to
happen because I think it's agood deal.
Any reactions to that idea?
Kristi Mast (44:38):
It's counter-cultural, but then it
also flows with the culture,because people make eight-year
commitments all the time whenthey decide that they're gonna
be a doctor or you know allthese other kind of rigorous
career paths.
It's counter-cultural, culturaland the fact that it we're not
used to making big commitmentslike that, or long those, those
(44:59):
commitments can feel really long.
But I also think that so manyyoung people are trying to
figure out what in the world todo with their lives and this
could be really, really freeingto say I am gonna decide now and
I'm gonna commit to doingreally good work for business,
for a school, for a, anorganization.
(45:22):
And I get excited about thatidea, especially that if
students have the option to dosomething like that, that's huge
, both for organizations and forindividuals.
Hannah Watson (45:34):
Yeah, for me, the idea of being able to be
connected with something that isgonna like align with what I
want to do, anyway, it's reallyexciting.
So, if there could be aconnection with I want to teach,
so if there could be aconnection with like, yeah, you
could go teach at this schooland they'll fund your room and
board, whatever, that is reallyexciting because it's really
facilitating the thing I wouldhave to do anyway and giving me
a jumpstart even on thatopportunity.
That's like, that's reallyreally exciting.
President Johnson (45:56):
Right now is my wife will probably she's
probably annoyed me because I'llwake up in the middle of the
night and I've got an idea.
I've got an idea work.
So my parents were missionariesand self-supported missionaries
.
And there's actually anotheridea that students you could
imagine raising support to paythe cost of room and board.
It's not that crazy of a cost.
(46:18):
If it 980, 9,800 times 4,that's I will under 40k.
That's feasible to raise for astudent in like four years.
If you didn't want to work inthat Sede in exchange for this,
I'll do XYZ.
So I just think it's possibleto even like hone in on this
(46:39):
even more, and one of mypassions is that More young
people will be mobilized intheir best years to be doing
Very formative work that willstick with them forever and
Hopefully they'll they'll likelatch on to it.
I always think about othersystems in the world.
(46:59):
You look at the military.
They're investing it in 18 yearolds and they're pouring so
much money into them, so muchtime, so much training, and then
People are like oh, it makessense, because our nation's
security depends on this, andthat's kind of where I'm trying,
really, as an institution, tostart thinking about this a
(47:21):
little differently, where it'slike hey, hey, christians who
care about the, the commissionand our role, let's like invest
in these years a ton more thanwe currently are and Expect that
there'll be like a bunch ofgood things that come afterwards
.
Does that make sense?
And there's some churches outthere.
I like to talk about the MormonChurch and it's like they're.
(47:43):
I think they're phenomenal andtheir mobilization and their,
their reach on the planet.
Anyway, I I was inspired myselfby the Mormon Church and their
two-year service Requirementsfor a lot of their young people
and I was like man, they'retaking over the world.
Yeah, we got.
We got a jump in there.
Anything I missed?
(48:05):
I Think we hit a lot of the big, the big things Intrustment.
Souther college eliminatestuition with entrustment.
Kristi Mast (48:19):
Yeah, makes sense, yeah, makes sense.
I would love to hear a littlebit more about, like why now and
why Sadler?
Like, why does this fit withspecifically with Souther's
mission and why, in thisspecific moment in time, is this
, is this compelling?
President Johnson (48:36):
for me.
Well, so why now?
And why Sadler?
So I've been having this idea.
When I look at charging peopleTo it money for character
formation, it's verycounterintuitive to me because I
think a little of this comesout of my own DNA, where I Told
the story when my middle sister,when my parents were still in
(49:01):
Ecuador.
My middle sister got acceptedinto a very expensive private
Christian school in Texas Iwon't even name the name and
they sent the bills down to usand we lived on like zero
dollars.
We went, my parents went intodebt to pay for my sister to go.
So I was a freshman when thatwas happening and so I Noted to
myself I was like I will neverask my parents for a dime to go
(49:25):
to college.
I just said I won't do it justbecause I saw the sort of the
back end of like what hightuition does so for me it's a
very personal thing, and so Ispent like a ton of my time
trying to figure out what's anopportunity where I can sort of
pave my own path.
So I chose a military which.
(49:45):
So so that's my own sort oflike hey, christian formation
shouldn't be something,shouldn't necessarily have this
bill.
Mm-hmm attached to it.
This should be something thatthe church is like, hey, this is
great.
And so for me, when I thinkabout Sattler and Me is me and
(50:05):
like I spoke around a role aspresident in August of 2022 I've
been dreaming about this thewhole time I've been here that I
really want to like nail, likeDrive that cost even lower and
lower.
So Sattler's original three C'sare core curriculum, which
(50:27):
Corresponds to a problem, corecurriculum, christian character
formation, then cost.
And so I looked when I think ofthat, see, I'm like man, I just
want to, don't want to paintthat with a bullseye and just
like go at it.
And so for me, it's like thisis a great step to really say,
hey, we really take thisseriously.
I even I even think thatthere's this line from
(50:51):
Bonhoeffer that I Think about Ithink you've heard it where in
World War two, bonhoeffer waslike Looking at all the Nazis
and how impressive they were.
And so he he took his friend toa hill and he they were like
looking at a Nazi base and youcan imagine like, well, it's
impressive, all the discipline,organization, mobilization.
He says the Christian churchneeds to be better than that.
(51:14):
He's like pointing down and Ijust generally think that that's
true, that we need to bebuilding these things that
invest in people that Accomplishbig goals, and so Sattler's a
microcosm of that, because I'mhoping we can get to 300
students in like 10 years.
But 300 students is very small,that's like 75 a year, and so
(51:37):
this can't be for everyone, buthopefully we're leading the
charge to invest in a set oflike spectacular young people,
and so that's that's part of itfor me, and then as an
institution and even in theworld, this is like even broader
.
I'd like to start thinking alittle bit more about hey,
what's?
A lot of us can name all thethings that are wrong with the
(51:57):
world.
I mean, you can, yeah, youcould probably name some things
wrong with the world.
Right, there's Israel, hamas.
Right now there's a almost agenocide in Sudan.
Our own turf politically islike kind of insane, and so I
like the institution to say, hey, what's right with Christ?
It's like Mm-hmm, what, what'swrong with the world?
(52:18):
Or we can look at that and saywhat's right with Christ?
Let's focus in on that andlet's develop people based on
these things and then trust thatthey'll They'll know how to
deal with these problemsdownstream.
Does that make sense?
I know it's a big question, butwhy now?
Is because like we can.
Yeah, we looked at it, we wereinspired and we're like we can
do this and now we can we do it.
(52:39):
I think we can be some of theother institutions who are
bigger and larger and we're morenimble.
So I'm like now is the righttime.
I also want to grow theinstitution.
So I just I want to attract, Iwant to be an institution that
attracts Excellent students,yeah, that are like really
looking to make an impact on theworld.
Yeah.
(53:00):
And then Boston is also areally interesting place where I
think about we chose to be inBoston because we think that big
cultural things happen here.
We know they do and so.
And so people are like, why'dyou choose Boston?
It's crazy, it's like it's oneof the more, it's one of the
more blue I'll just use the wordblue cities in the country, and
(53:22):
they're like why are doing this?
It's expensive, and so I'mreally trying to make it
possible with this decision.
I also care about students.
I, when I talked to students,usually when I was recruiting,
it was like I'd love to comethere, but and finances usually
(53:42):
Become part of that conversationoh, it sounds awesome, but this
, yeah, and so that's a bigthing for me.
It's like I hate that.
I'm like, oh yeah, I want tomake sure to do everything I can
to help solve that.
And then, on the Even further,there's this question where when
you talk to like a freshmanentering college, they usually
say something like I want to dothis.
(54:05):
They're like an 18 year old.
If you would have asked me, itwould have been like I want to
do disaster relief with Like mydad did.
And then something happenswhere your bill tuition and then
you're like maybe I should just, maybe I should just get a job
and pay my bills and.
I really want to eliminate thatas much as possible, that shift
(54:28):
away from what people want to doversus what they end up doing,
and so I hope that Sattler canbe a stepping stone For students
into doing what they want to do, and I'm hoping that
Communities can rally and belike man watch we have every
student get a mentor, so I wantSattler to be celebrated by by
different communities where ourstudents are from and Things
(54:51):
like that, and I think this is astep in that direction where
we're saying, hey, we, we wantyou, we invite you to invest in
students with us, we want yourpartnership, and things like
that.
Kristi Mast (55:02):
I mean, and trustment just I think makes
more and more sense to me theterm, because there's trust on
so many levels and it is andit's investment into students
and it's trusting that theirGod-given desires, their
God-given passions are betterthan us telling them what to do,
(55:23):
and that truly like trustingand making those bloom and grow
and to send them out into theworld to do those things that
God has given them to do.
That's a big step of trust onthe college's part, that and
it's kind of like a big step oftrust in the Holy Spirit that's
in them, that's urging them onto do all those things and that
(55:47):
gives me really excited.
I'm excited about it.
Hannah Watson (55:49):
Yeah, it's incredible.
It's an incredible life-givingopportunity to be told like
we're going to equip it.
And how are you to go and serveJesus without this big bill on
your back?
President Johnson (56:00):
Yeah, and it's only going to get better.
I'm just kidding.
We went a little bit over, butI'm going to start wrapping us
up here.
Anything else?
Any other comments, questions,things, topics that we should
cover before?
No, All right, so how can youhelp?
(56:21):
So obviously we're looking at.
When I go around talking topeople, I'm always like, what do
you do?
Yeah, it's actually kind of it'slike I look for students, I
look for people, I look formoney and I look for partners.
It's basically the fourcategories.
It's very simple.
But to support and trustment,we've actually expanded how
(56:47):
people can support this into thecollege.
We can give to the college andwe're looking to grow an
endowment to make this a littlebit more resilient.
So you can go to settlereduslash give.
We have three.
You can support entrustmentendowment, which will basically
be a fund that we grow over timeto make sure that this grows.
(57:11):
It's kind of like building up apool of money to weather
different storms.
You can support internationalliving grants.
That's something I'm verypassionate about right now
because we want to continue tomake it an opportunity for
international students to comeand have the same opportunity
and we need to actually raisemoney for that.
(57:31):
Or you can just trust me andgive to the general funds and
I'll make decisions about whereyour dollar goes.
It'll be a dollar we'll spend.
I heard that people don't knowwe have a store, is that?
Hannah Watson (57:44):
right, yeah, I had no idea my sweater half zip
is really appealing to me.
Kristi Mast (57:48):
I didn't even know my sweater came from the store.
President Johnson (57:50):
So I'm just saying, settleredu, top line,
there's a button called store.
You click it and boom, there itis.
Kristi Mast (58:00):
I will say this is one of the softest sweaters that
I own.
Yeah, a nice sweater, it isreally good.
President Johnson (58:06):
So if you're looking into some settler merch,
there's the one I'm wearingright there.
Looks good, right?
Yeah, grant, maybe I should getyou one for the next podcast.
Okay, do you like it?
I like that.
I actually have it on myChristmas wish list, wow, great.
And then I'd also like to saystudents can apply to one of the
(58:26):
49 openings, so we can't take amillion students.
Fall 2024, we're launching thisfall 2024 at applysattleredu.
Thank you, chrissy for joining,thank you, hannah for joining,
graham, thank you as well, andthat's a wrap.
Sattler College eliminatestuition with entrustment.
Hannah Watson (58:45):
Woo, bada, thank you Woo, bye, bye.
Save holes in your wall 대congratulations.
It is November 28th 2023.
My name is Zach Johnson.
You know who I am, and I'mjoined by Kristi Mast and Hannah
Watson.
Welcome, ladies, and maybe youcan just give me a little bit of
.
We've had you on the showbefore, kristi.
Who are you?
What do you do?
What are you about?
Kristi Mast (00:24):
My name is Kristi Mast.
I am the co-director of StudentLife.
I'm all about discipleship,specifically women's
discipleship and thriving in thekingdom, but not men's
discipleship.
You know, it's just a veryconcerned.
President Johnson (00:38):
Hannah, who are you?
What do you do?
What are you about?
Hannah Watson (00:41):
I am a student, a sophomore, here at Sattler.
I'm studying biblical andreligious studies and I'm also
doing the education majorthrough Indiana and Westland.
President Johnson (00:49):
Double major.
Hannah Watson (00:50):
That's me.
President Johnson (00:51):
Yeah, that's Hannah.
I think you're one of the firststudents to test that out, so
we should actuallywe shouldinvite you back on to talk about
that experience sometime.
I'd love to share and I'm alsojoined in the room by Graham
Weaver, but he's not on camera.
But, ladies, you can wave toGraham and say hi, graham, and
we'll try to bring him in here alittle bit.
So today is an interestingversion of the podcast because
(01:16):
I'm trying to flip it where Iwant to talk and I want you to
interview me.
But it's going to be funnybecause I'm still going to be
reading a few things here aboutsomething called intrustment Ooh
, ooh, whoa, graham, intrustment.
So I thought I'd start off byjust reading a news wire that
(01:41):
our dear friend Clark Ray wroteout, and we're trying to get
this in the news and tell ourstory a little bit here.
And this podcast is just goingto be part of that telling the
story of intrustment and tryingto inject that into the DNA of
the institution.
Sound good, that's awesome.
Any questions?
All right, this is the titleHeadline Sattler College
(02:01):
eliminates tuition withintrustment.
Kristi Mast (02:03):
Whoa, whoa Eliminates.
Yeah, that's crazy.
President Johnson (02:08):
So when you look at our placeholder website,
sattleredu slash intrustmentthe top of the website, it says
intrustment and then we're stilltrying to figure out how to
pronounce this it says tuitionwith its strike through.
Kristi Mast (02:24):
So tuition.
President Johnson (02:26):
Right Tuition , and so I've been really
pushing the marketing team thatthe name of this is not
intrustment tuition, because thetwo are oxymorons.
One is intrustment is replacingtuition.
It's not that we're.
I'm really actually trying totake the word tuition and wipe
it off the institution's faceand stomp on it.
Hannah Watson (02:45):
Oh, wow.
President Johnson (02:46):
Really eliminate it, at least for the
next decade or under mypresidency?
Does that make sense?
Love that All right.
So here we go and then.
So I'm going to, I'm going towalk you through the basics of
intrustment and I'm stilllearning how to talk about this,
but I understand it and so I'vebeen actually in the field
socializing this idea as well,and so I talk about it.
(03:06):
And then I have feedback andI've had some.
I have some notes about somefeedback people have given me
and I hope we can just talkabout it and tell a story.
Sound good.
Doesn't sound good.
So here's the idea Intrustmentis basically where the college,
rather than inting into acontractual relationship with a
student where we say we chargeyou tuition in order to receive
(03:30):
your education, we enter intomore of a relationship with a
student, some would say acovenant, like Hope College in
Michigan.
But we're avoiding the wordcovenant because it's a little
strong and there are severeramifications to covenant
breaking biblically.
That our board is like youshould probably not use that
(03:50):
word, so we didn't use the wordcovenant.
But that is the dichotomy, likecontract versus relationship.
So instead of tuition we'resaying hey, if you get accepted
and you commit to what we wantfrom our students, and that's
basically like dedicate yourselfto academics and be hungry for
(04:12):
discipleship and service.
So if you meet those twocriteria, you're willing to work
hard and you want to reallycommit yourself to God and His
kingdom, we won't charge youtuition, but we'll trust you and
trust you to make two basiccommitments.
One is a commitment to kingdomservice.
(04:33):
This is a nebulous commitment.
At this point I've heardfeedback.
What is kingdom service?
And it's basically a lot ofdifferent things.
It can be from homeschoolingmothers to stay at home moms to
doctors, to businessmen, tocomputer scientists.
So it's a broad scope, but it'svery directed, intentional
(04:54):
decision making with what youwant to do with your life.
So that's one, a commitment tokingdom service, and the second
is a commitment to financialgratitude.
And so this is kind of a uniqueway of saying hey, in order for
the college to actually bearound in 30 years, we need our
alumni to actually give back tothe college.
(05:14):
We're saying give what you canwhen you can to make the
opportunity available for futurestudents.
And so, rather than billingthat to students, we're saying,
hey, give back what you can whenyou can.
Another way of saying it is payit forward.
Except the word pay.
We've thought about this veryintentionally.
(05:35):
There's no legal obligation, soit really is a gift.
Give it forward when you can,what you can, because the
college can't legally come afteranyone that's like, ah, I don't
really want to do that.
So those are the two principles.
Do you want me to keep going?
Any questions?
Kristi Mast (05:53):
So what is the?
What do students actually signup for, like, what are they
actually committing to?
With the interestment model yousaid it's not legal, it's not a
covenant.
President Johnson (06:09):
I call it an agreement, a student agreement.
So all of our students sign anagreement to be part of the
college.
This is not a crazy agreementthat basically says we'll abide
by your community policies.
So we have things in ourstudent agreement.
You've seen it, kristy, becauseyou are the co-director of
student life.
It's like don't break alcoholon campus, don't do drugs, like
(06:34):
a lot of the basics likeagreements.
But this is basically sayinghey, by taking this entrustment
offer, you agree that you'regenerally in line with serving
the kingdom and generally you'rewilling to pay, give back what
you can when you can, and you'rewilling to sort of sign your
name on a line that says I'lltry to do this.
(06:57):
And it's kind of hard becausewe're not trying to handcuff
people, but we're also trying tocommunicate.
We really need you to followthrough on this, and so it's not
like we're binding you to this,but we also really need you for
us to make it in the future.
So does that make sense?
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, and our dream is actually that
(07:18):
over time, our alumni this willbe like an annual thing where
our alumni can get together andbe like hey, remember that time
we spent with each other thatone time in Boston.
Oh, and remember that we allagreed to honor with financial
gratitude or generosity.
Let's remind ourselves of thatand give back.
(07:40):
And we're really.
I've talked to the president ofHope College, so Hope College
calls this Hope Forward.
You should look it up.
They got Malcolm Gladwell tocome and interview about them.
And we're doing something verysimilar, but they're hoping that
their alumni engagement is waystronger than your average
(08:00):
institution, because we'repraying that people are doing
this out of joy and, like I wantto do this because I had such a
good experience.
So it'll actually help uscreate a great program so that
we delight our students, so tospeak, and that hopefully a lot
of our students will actually bemuch more tethered in a good
way back to the institution.
Kristi Mast (08:21):
Yeah, and just as you're describing that,
especially the idea of alumniengagement, there's the two
principles right kingdom serviceand financial gratitude, and
how I'm just thinking about howexciting that is to think of
coming back together with yourclassmates every year, every
five years, whatever theinterval is, and talking about
not only the financial gratitudepiece but also the kingdom
(08:43):
service, Like what are you doingwith your life right now?
And I don't know, I'm justpicturing this like moment of
fresh inspiration and kind ofadrenaline pumped into your
veins of seeing these peoplethat you you had this really
informative experience with andthe ways that they're pouring
out their lives should thekingdom Right and hopefully some
people are doing it together.
President Johnson (09:02):
Yeah, that's the dream.
Yeah, that it's like this is anetwork thing, opportunity, make
connections, go do reallymeaningful things together.
Yeah.
Hannah Watson (09:13):
When I first hear it, I just think like I'm so
honored and valued by the ideathat people want to invest in me
and they, like, think that I'mvaluable enough.
President Johnson (09:21):
That's true.
We do want to invest in you.
Hannah Watson (09:23):
I'm glad that I'm valuable enough that you want
to like pour resources into me,like without any expectations
attached, necessarily outside oflike doing my best and being
committed to like striving hardat school and then wanting to
serve later, and it just likeactually makes me want to give
back more.
When I hear that, I just thinklike, wow, I love this, I love
that I'm being invested in, andthen I want to give it back.
So it totally is inspiring thatin me just to hear it.
President Johnson (09:44):
Great, yeah, well, I'll keep.
I'll go on a little bit more ofa rant and then you can pester
me with questions, sound good.
Kristi Mast (09:51):
That sounds awesome yeah.
President Johnson (09:54):
When you look at our website, one of the
things that the first headlineis it says dedication, not debt.
That he or when.
When I talk about this, a lotof people are actually like they
boil it down.
They're like what I'm hearingyou say is it's free tuition,
it's free F R, e, E.
And I I actually have startedslapping people's wrists very
(10:16):
gently, on my staff and atcampus when they use the word
free, because I'm trying to getat this point that hey, really
in the background there arepeople breaking their backs to
make this happen and it's not.
There's no free lunch, right?
This whole idea that it's notjust a cakewalk.
And so people have been saying,like how are you going to
(10:37):
filter students, who who getthis opportunity?
Because this is for everysingle accepted student.
It's not like we're we'redelineating between one or the
other, and I've just been sayingthat Soutler's program in
general requires some levels ofdedication, true or false.
Hannah Watson (10:55):
Hi levels of dedication.
President Johnson (10:57):
Through Through True, grand, true or
false?
Yeah, there's.
When we do surveys of ourstudent, the one word that gets
used the most is rigorous.
So rigorous, I once said, I've.
Once I said why don't we justcall it tear-jerking academic
stance?
We didn't Soul crushing, but weare looking for students who
are dedicated.
Yeah, and not that a variety ofpeople aren't worthy of
(11:21):
investment, but we're look, ourprogram itself is sort of a
filter.
So when I give a tour ofSoutler, we had Dr Schumann on.
We're the only college in thecountry where Greek and Hebrew
are still part of the corecurriculum, even if you're a
biology student, computerscience, business, which is
different.
So we're, we're hoping thatthat dedication piece is almost
a self-filter for who comes intoit.
(11:44):
And so that's been one questionthat people have raised is like,
are you not just saying how areyou not just going to give this
away to somebody who just kindof wants a degree?
Does that make sense?
That our our acceptance, andwe're not changing our
acceptance requirements oradmissions requirements.
We're keeping it there, butwe're still asking our students
to dedicate themselves, and I'mpraying that not only will it,
(12:07):
will we get students, but ableto enable better dedication,
absolutely when, like, maybepeople won't be thinking about
paying tuition and they'll bethinking about hey, how do I
learn more here?
Not that having a job in apart-time study isn't a good
time, but we're trying to sortof relieve that.
Burden from students Makessense Dedication, not that.
Kristi Mast (12:28):
Yeah, totally, and Hannah, you have.
You've done this.
Actually, you worked in orderto be able to pay your tuition.
I would.
Hannah Watson (12:37):
I don't know if you have any thoughts on that.
Yeah, I went to school beforecoming to Sattler at just a
community college and I workedlike 35 or 40 hours a week and I
would just like pick up randomjobs, like I worked like super
early in the morning for acouple hours and then would run
the classes and cram in a coupleof classes and then sprint off
to work again in the afternoonand then do school all evening
and it was like very stressfuland I also just felt like I
(12:58):
couldn't really engage well withthe academics because there was
just something else on my mindall the time, like I had to be
able to pay for this somehow,and so just knowing that there's
like the freedom to actuallydig deep into classes and not
have that financial burden is abig big deal, big, big deal.
President Johnson (13:13):
You're good, and then I'll just chime in with
my own experience.
I went to a service academywhere I got paid to go to school
, so I was one up.
I'm not being all of you, butthere is this actually idea that
some people are like youcouldn't pay me enough to go
through that experience, becauseit was super intense.
You were up at five in themorning, a lot marching to
(13:36):
breakfast in the snow, and somepeople are like I don't want
that.
That's not exactly what we'retrying to get at with our
students, but it's somewhere inthat spectrum of hey, we're
asking you to take on much moreof a load than your average
student, so we're asking fordedication, but we don't want to
put you in debt.
(13:56):
For it Makes sense, yeah, a lotof sense Good, and then let's
keep going down here.
The other thing I wanted totalk about is our international
students.
All right, we'll think aboutthis.
I haven't written this down butI'm hoping it makes its way
(14:16):
into our next line of thinkingand at a given point in time I
want Siler to be able to say wehave students from every
continent.
Australia is a stretch.
I'm working on it.
Still no anyone knows anyonefrom Australia interested.
And South America is actuallythe next hoping to go recruit
down there.
We have student do any of youcan you list the countries our
(14:40):
students are from currently inthis last round just across the
student body?
Hannah Watson (14:44):
Uganda, Kenya, US , Canada.
Do we have other places?
President Johnson (14:48):
India, Ukraine, Mexico, Canada, All
over the place, Zimbabwe,Zimbabwe.
So we have a really unique goalhere that, when you look at
education, one of the thingsthat people say about a college
degree is they say it's a greatequalizer, that you can take
somebody from Zimbabwe or Kenyaor Uganda, India, someone from
(15:13):
Rochester, Minnesota, someonefrom Hutchinson, Kansas, someone
from Canada, Ontario, Water,Ontario, oh, Water, Ontario's
right Okay.
And that the college experienceequalizes you-ish and then
provides you with similaropportunities.
And so one of the critiques notcritiques are just pestering
(15:36):
that I've received in the fieldis will there be some sort of
mental or I'll call it a socialdebt that a student takes on by
accepting this when they leave,when they're like I am gonna
take a job, that I'm not gonnamake any money and I won't be
able to pay it back?
Is that okay?
(15:57):
When I make the joke, I hopesome students do that, but I
also hope somebody becomes abillionaire.
This gives back a ton of moneyor time because they believe in
what's happening here.
So I'm trying to basically saythat it's okay for different
sets of outcomes on the backendwithout a copious amount of
(16:19):
social debt that's attached to.
I actually can't give back, andsome people have been just
thinking about that.
Even some alumni have beensaying I'm not really sure I
want this lifetime commitmentback and so maybe we can just
torture out how to think throughthis.
Some students I just got off aphone call with a prospective
(16:40):
student.
She said my parents gave memoney to go to college.
Can I just pay it all up frontand be done with it and just not
even have to think about it?
I was like sure, why not waitand sort of go through it?
We're not asking you of that.
So how many think about likethis equalizing effect that this
will have during the collegecareer, the college years, plus
(17:04):
how we as an institution aresort of giving people permission
not to take on purely lucrativecareers, and how to more
equalize and be okay withstudents that go out having
different life paths.
Does that make sense?
Help me think about it and howto communicate it.
Kristi Mast (17:22):
I think for me the kingdom service part is what is
so key here and I know like whenyou hear that you probably
think Bible translator,missionary, that kind of thing.
But I think the way that we'rethat I understand that is so
much broader than that and Ithink if we truly believe that
(17:43):
Christ's kingdom is made up ofthe church, and of his people
everywhere.
then the businessman who is notpracticing extractive business
practices but actuallyproductive in and is doing
business in a way that isadvancing the kingdom by
(18:03):
impacting people's lives andalso making a lot of money and
being able to give back.
That's enabling his classmatewho is going to deepest, darkest
Africa to translate the Bibleinto language that has never
been in before.
And I think part of this isthat we're so used to thinking
very individualistically, inkind of the Western mentality,
(18:25):
but I don't think that's the waythat the gospel teaches us to
think, but it teaches us tothink much, much more broadly
and that we're all moreconnected.
I don't know if that gets atwhat your question is.
President Johnson (18:41):
I think it's more.
I mean it's more of how do you,how do you approach the
students in a way that theydon't have a social debt to
actually take on a job wherethey feel indebted to pay back
financially?
And really trying to hammer inthis idea like it's a paradox,
(19:03):
because I'm saying I don't wantyou to make a decision to make a
lot of money.
If you wanna go be a missionaryin a third world country like
India, ie, we have studentsdoing that, that's good, we want
you to do that.
However, it's also okay if yougo and take on your family's
business and maybe generate morerevenue.
(19:25):
I'm just gonna say, likefinancial revenue and like
really having the conversationswith students, like we like both
of those, but we still need westill will need some people to
contribute back over time, andso it's kind of a there's a
paradox.
There's somebody on staff.
Somebody on staff brought upthe point and they're like in
theory, it's a great idea, butwhat if all your alumni just
(19:49):
pull off the Hudson Taylor moveand they're like I'm not even
gonna make a salary, I'm gonnalive on prayer and will we be
able to sustain the institutionof every single alumni?
Can't give back a dollar and Iwas like unlikely that that will
happen, but we'll still make ithappen.
So help me think about that.
I'm just ranting, yeah.
Hannah Watson (20:10):
I think one thing that you brought up earlier is
like you're dealing with adiverse group of students here
who have like a plethora ofinterests, and so you're gonna
have people who are likegenuinely interested in the
family business for like thesake of doing business.
They love that.
That gives them life.
And then you're gonna havepeople who are really, really
excited about going to Ugandabecause that gives them life and
that's like what Florida'scalled them to.
So I think, like, as youapproach and each student who
(20:30):
comes through the doors as likea unique individual where their
interests are valued and likeencouraged and supported, you're
gonna get people who are goingto pursue all sorts of different
things, because we're different, unique individuals, you know,
got it.
Kristi Mast (20:44):
Yeah, yeah.
I think this makes so much senseto me when I think about it
from first from the perspectiveof the kingdom and then second
from the perspective of finances, because if you truly believe
you're not your own person, butthat at the same time God has
uniquely given you things to doin the world, I think both of
(21:06):
those perspectives and it's notlike you're not your own person,
you're a settler, college'sperson, it's like you belong to
the kingdom of God.
And so my father, for example,is an incredible businessman.
He's made a lot of money acrossthe course of his life and he's
been incredibly generous withthat, and his legacy is schools
(21:27):
in India and one of his dearfriend of his I don't know if
he's ever worked a traditionaljob.
He's been a full-time pastor,missionary, church planter, and
he's able to do that because ofmy father exercising his gifts
to the fullest.
My dad would not make a greatchurch planter person out there
(21:48):
on the frontier, but his friendSam is just incredible with that
work and they've almostpartnered together to make the
kingdom come in India in a waythat my dad could have never
done on his own and Sam couldhave never done on his own.
I think that perspective ofeverybody exercising their gifts
to their fullest is what makesthis vision work for me.
President Johnson (22:11):
Yeah, yeah, and I'm trying to get at this
idea that when I talk aboutsettler, often there's like a oh
, you're a Bible college, likethat's basically what you're
doing.
I talk about like the biblicalcore and people are like, oh,
bible college.
And I'm trying really hard tosay like I understand why that's
(22:33):
the perspective, because ingeneral there's what's happened.
Is there's sort of thisdistinction between Christian
and professional Christian?
and like the professionalChristians would be the type of
people who take Greek and Hebrewand church history and it's
sort of the load is on theirshoulders to Go to seminary, be
(22:54):
pastors, I think.
I think that's not always thecase, but in some worlds there's
that distinction.
But we're trying to like kindof tilt that horizontally and
say, hey, everybody isbiblocational, like everybody,
every student should have thisskill set.
And there he is.
Yeah, it's okay that.
And then so when I'm pitchingthis to like businesses, I'm
(23:16):
trying to say like, hey, if youthat we'll talk about this later
.
But I'm trying to say, what ifyou sponsored a student through
the college and help them payfor room and board?
This is a side conversation andthey come and work for you
afterwards and, like people's,people are starting to think
about, oh, this is an amazingopportunity and.
(23:36):
I'm trying in the future to geteven more investment in these
young years and Like amobilization, so that people are
like wow, I feel like peopleare messing me, I can take
everything on, but does it makesense that in general, like it's
open to a wide swath ofstudents and there's these two
(23:56):
principles of service andgratitude, but then afterwards
we're not like policing whatpeople are gonna do afterwards?
And so we expect doctors, weexpect missionaries, we expect
teachers, computer scientists,right.
Kristi Mast (24:12):
Yeah, and if we trust the education and the
discipleship enough, then I Meanwe we're trusting both our
students and our process right,that we will equip excellent
computer scientists who are ableto go out there and be really
successful, excellentbusinessmen who are gonna be
able to go out there, be reallysuccessful, but also who are not
(24:34):
only gonna be greatprofessionals but they're gonna
be truly bivocational discipleswho also are great citizens of
the kingdom and whose lives areoriented around that and that's
it's.
It's kind of a.
I feel like this is a vote ofconfidence not only in our
students but also in in thewhole Souther experience that we
(24:55):
were trying so hard.
That's our old goal is to makeis to help people become these
bivocational people, and I feellike this this model is is
another vote of confidence inthat direction and and kind of
commitment to that bivocationalStudents and graduates great.
President Johnson (25:14):
Yeah, I agree .
All right, let's talk about thestrings attached, which are
none I so, basically, I thinkpeople are like, oh, what's the
catch for that?
What strings are attached?
And One I just want to beupfront right now, students are
still paying for room and board,unless you're married or like
over the age of 30.
(25:35):
I think is the policy.
So we charge students about$980 a month right now.
Per month, I think.
We charge them for 10 months,so that's 9,800, and they live
down in back bay.
That's a string.
It's not a completely cost-freeenvironment yet.
So, per string any questionsabout that?
(25:56):
That sounds high.
If you don't live in Boston, Ipromise you it's a good deal.
We seller still subsidizes thecost to live downtown for a lot
and we're hoping to Not losemoney on our room and board
someday, but we still do so.
String number one is room andboard.
We're still not giving that outor not giving Granting, yeah,
(26:19):
granting that out.
String number two you have tobe enrolled in an undergraduate
or certificate program at thecollege.
Makes sense, seems fair.
And then An interesting Stringis that we don't have strings to
anybody else, especially thegovernment.
Kristi Mast (26:37):
It's kind of interesting right.
President Johnson (26:38):
So I think I'll talk to the about this
we're.
I was just at a, a conferencefor accreditation.
I won't name any names, butjust a.
I don't know if people want metalking about them.
We're one of the onlyaccredited Christian colleges
that takes zero federal funds,even the Pell Grant, and so some
people, some people are likeyou're crazy, that's free money,
(27:03):
and I still waver on that andwill probably evaluate that
decision.
So and I was also at a meetingwith the, with the state of
Massachusetts, with the governor, and they invited big wig from
Washington to talk about how thegovernment and education are a
linked sort of intrinsically.
(27:25):
And there there's a big threatright now To institutions
locally.
It's because a case went to theSupreme Court about Should
colleges be able to use race andadmissions and went to the
Supreme Court and they got Gotoverturned and so now colleges
can't use a certain standard,and so there's a bunch of people
like, oh, we gotta, we gottareally make sure that the
(27:47):
government and education is likelinked and we're providing all
these mechanisms.
My theory is like, more thanever, we need to be, especially
as a Christian community,doubling down on making sure
that we have institutions thatdon't rely on federal funding,
because the the the word that Ialways that the phrase is if you
(28:08):
take someone's shackles, youtake their shackles, and that's
like not that, that's not like.
I'm not trying to like pointfingers that in the other
institutions they're like, oh,you're shackled to the
government, because I think thatthey're not necessarily.
But we're doing this all fundedby private, private giving
private donations, and None ofit comes from the government,
(28:30):
and so I think that's reallyimportant to talk about that.
We are doing this on our own.
We have accreditationrequirements, we get audited
often and people look at ourfinances, make sure we're okay.
So we still have to abide byset of standards, but that's
exciting too.
Yeah, any yeah so any thoughtson those strings or non strings?
Kristi Mast (28:51):
I think what's also exciting especially about the
last item about Shackles andshackles right where this is
usually institution is intrusting themselves to Students,
to alumni, to graduate right,and that's, I think, also a
powerful, a powerful, a step oftrust in in our students and in
(29:14):
our alumni and our graduatesthat we're not depending on, but
that we're depending on on youto keep to keep the college
moving forward.
And that's just really excitingto me to give that, that power
in that Authority to, to ourgraduates.
Hannah Watson (29:31):
Yeah, yeah.
I think there's like this ideaof like this big diffusion of
responsibility when you havelike big linkages with people
that can provide Resources andit's like, oh, that's their job,
not my job, and hearing that,no, actually, once I leave
Sattler, like there's a needhere that I can give and support
.
Like that's something I want tobe a part of because I love
Sattler right, and I want tosupport that.
President Johnson (29:51):
So I wanted to just talk a little bit more
about funding, because peoplehave questions how does Sattler
fund this initiative?
So let's think about this.
I I I recently interviewedanother institution who were I
was very inspired by thisinstitution I'm not gonna name
its name and in order to switchtheir whole campus over to this
(30:13):
Pay it forward model I'll usethat as a placeholder they had
to raise up, or they need toraise, a billion dollar
endowment.
Oh how?
Because of how reliantInstitutions of higher ed have
been on tuition revenue, and sowe're at a point in our journey.
We were it's 2023.
We were proved in 2016.
(30:35):
First class showed up.
2018 were five years in and sowe're not.
We were looking at the numbers.
We could basically say we coulddo this next year if we play
our cards right and flipeverybody onto this like
overnight, and that's reallyimportant to me, that every
single person gets invited intothis and the way that we are
doing it.
I just thought I'd tell youabout it because it's also
(30:56):
important to me.
Our, our revenue or ourcontributions come primarily
from a Company that was it'svery profitable, but they follow
a and non accumulation profitmodel, where their profits are
sent to a something called adonor advice fund, and Then that
(31:17):
donor advice fund it's aChristian donor advice fund then
Exams a series of nonprofitsthat that money that gets
distributed to, and so weactually have an irrevocable
pledge from a company to fund usand Make this possible and a
lot of people.
What I want to talk about isthat some people think that I'm
(31:41):
gonna be try to be a little bitnebulous here without naming
names, because I don't want toget into names that think that
there's somebody who says I Getto, I get to fund this out where
, or I don't, and they make thatdecision sort of four times a
year.
It's actually a illegal,binding, illegally like binding
gift.
It's called an irrevocablepledge, and so that's as.
(32:02):
It's actually as good as as a,if not better than, tuition in
my mind.
Hannah Watson (32:08):
Mm-hmm.
President Johnson (32:08):
And so that's how we're funding it and it's
it's sort of through the effortsof a lot of people At yet the
people who get to decide wherethe profits go.
That's obviously made possiblethrough our founding, our
founding team, and I think it'san incredible opportunity.
Any questions about thatfunding mechanism and how we're
making it happen?
Kristi Mast (32:29):
Yeah, you said it's better than tuition.
I think I'm missing theconnection as far as is more
reliable than tuition.
President Johnson (32:35):
So I I got on the call with a college
president a Massachusettscollege president, and I was.
I was basically Explaining oursituation and how I can begin to
give people confidence and oursustainability, and I explained
this pledge and and he's likethat's Really better than a lot
(32:56):
of colleges have when they relyon Can students make the
payments on a regular basis?
Can they not, will theywithdraw?
And so we are not reliant ontuition never have been and so
we're very Sustained by a verycommitted structure and we
actually, in a weird way it'sit's good and bad because we
(33:17):
have we've been able to makewhether the storm of like, we
don't have like 80 students topay tuition To cover all our
costs, and so, in my mind, it'smore resilient than tuition.
However, it's a consolidatedsource and so there are pros and
cons of like, oh like.
What happens if, like World Warthree, like there's all these
(33:38):
scenarios that are like, is thissustainable?
And so I'm gonna talk aboutSustaining it in the future, but
I just wanted to talk about howwe make it possible in the
present and, yeah, any questionsabout that?
Kristi Mast (33:50):
No, that makes a lot of sense, yeah.
President Johnson (33:53):
And so you?
Another important thing to knowis we are approved by
accreditors and the state ofMassachusetts to operate, and I
don't think a lot of peopleunderstand how, how much work
goes into being approved bythose regulating authorities.
Yeah, and so I often like tosay like, hey, every year I sit
(34:15):
down with some intense peopleTwo of two sets of people over
actually adding a third hereSome time in the third and they
like look at our books and ouraudits and they're like are we
sustainable?
They're like, oh, yeah, yousustainable.
So I like to give people a voteof confidence in that and that,
and so for the future, I dohave more goals that up to this
(34:36):
point, I think we've had like 25individuals who have
contributed to the college overits lifetime.
My goal is that entrustment isactually gonna really increase
the, the quantity ofcontributors.
So I Think every student I wantto be contributing.
(34:57):
So, in trust minutes, like givewhat you can when you can.
I want every staff member to becontributing and every board
member to be contributing, andso we're really trying to say,
hey, this is sort of a I'm not,I'm gonna be worth a crowd
source.
It's a little bit of a dirtyterm, but this is really gonna
be sourced through the wholecommunity as opposed to so.
In the future, I'm hoping togrow that, that quantity, and I
(35:20):
think.
I think if we have a goodproduct, that it's gonna work.
Kristi Mast (35:23):
Yeah, yeah and then yeah, I think it is.
It's like the proof.
The proof is in the pudding, asthey say.
And if I know as a settler grad, my experience here was
phenomenal and if I know thatsettler Once and is asking for
my investment, then it's reallypowerful to be able to get back
(35:44):
and and pay it forward right the.
President Johnson (35:47):
The other thing I want to talk about is In
our language, when we announcedthis, the thing that threatens
that we're most it's it'sactually ironic.
It's finding the right studentsto fit the institution.
When I explain what settler hashappened here, we were one of
the only institutions thatdidn't grow out of our backyard.
(36:10):
So a lot of colleges they startand then they recruit locally
and then eventually they expand.
There's a few exceptions tothat.
We have, like I Think, only onehomegrown Massachusetts student
is.
That is that right there.
There might be a couplestudents here there who families
live here now.
But and so last year I like totalk to people that that my year
(36:33):
, last year, was really decidingto be a non-affiliated
Christian school that doesn'taffiliate with any single church
, and so we'renon-denominational.
I like to use the wordinterdenominational.
Now I've read it in an article.
I'm like I like that a littlebit better than
non-denominational, becausethere are, there's a set of,
(36:53):
there's a set of doctrines thatbind the people together that
would come here, but how, how dowe find the right people To
come here?
Grant that.
So I'm asking, like the, I'masking what we asked everybody
that's a cabin recruit the rightstudents to this and yeah.
I did want to just kind ofcommunicate on the podcast that
(37:16):
when you look at our board, wehave sort of a conservative and
a Baptist constituency.
That's very obvious throughoutthe institution.
And then we have a I don't evenknow a Parallel set of people
that align really well with someof what the early in a Baptist
thought.
Like the church I attendAttendance would be in this
(37:37):
group of it's called fallersaway.
It's like parallel but not thesame and can collaborate well.
And then we have this newbranch of people that I'm really
trying to to go after.
That's like, hey, I want to findstudents who hold the Bible in
a high esteem and and we'rewilling to sort of engage more
broadly, a little bit morebroadly without doing going too
(38:00):
broad in terms of students we'rerecruiting here.
Does that make sense thatthere's like generally, we're
not trying to just serve oneconstituency, we're trying to
open this up to more people.
Any questions there?
It is a big question.
I just want to make sure thatpeople understand we're we're
trying to grow the diversitywith of our institution a little
(38:22):
bit more than we'vetraditionally seen any questions
.
So it's it's open to morestudents is what I'm trying to
communicate.
Kristi Mast (38:29):
Yeah, do you have any more descriptors?
Descriptors for that kind oflike third group, that's broader
, like what?
Who are the students?
Who are the people that you'relooking for there?
President Johnson (38:38):
Yeah, it's, it's really hard to write it
down.
I would say it's the kind ofstudent that Kind of has a
radical approach to Christianityand it's like, yeah, I'll go
learn Greek and Hebrew, oh, andLike, if I see a woman wearing a
dress and a headache covering,I won't run away.
In the opposite direction, it'sthe kind of person that likes
(39:00):
to entertain I some ideas theymight have heard about, about
like, what does it mean to loveyour enemies, christians and
politics?
Maybe we, maybe the kingdom,wasn't born to be in the left or
the right.
Maybe it's supposed to besomething different.
So it's someone that's sort ofwilling to entertain these ideas
but not necessarily committedto them before they show up.
(39:23):
It's not like so that's anotherthing.
We don't have anybody, we don'tenforce church requirements or
standards.
We don't do any of that here atthe college, and so it's more
of like an openness to Ideas andthe high esteem for the Bible,
mm-hmm.
And then I would even chime inlike the Bible as not being like
(39:43):
a Topic of Latter-dayRevelation, that like we should
be progressing with society andculture.
It's more of like this fightfor original truths of hey, the
truth is unkillable.
It was handed down by Jesus andthat's basically the set of
people.
But I would even say that, like, a lot of our faculty fit that,
(40:04):
fit that category of people.
So that's, if you can thinkabout our faculty, mm-hmm, a lot
of our faculty members kind oflooking at that type of person.
Go look at who teaches here,and that should give you a good
glimpse.
Does it make sense?
Kristi Mast (40:18):
Yeah, that's super helpful.
Yeah, that makes a lot of senseand I think it.
We talked about this Fewepisodes ago when I was on the
podcast.
Before that, we're not.
This isn't like a place that weare trying to like punch out
these molds of.
Indoctrinate indoctrinatestudents.
Right like we.
We do want this to be.
It's obvious that there's.
(40:38):
I mean, you look at ourfounding precepts.
They're unique among thebroader kind of evangelical
world, so there's gonna beunique flavor and unique twist.
But it's not like we're lookingto have cookie cutter graduates
that all line up exactly tothis right and exact standard.
President Johnson (40:57):
That word's kind of a dirty word
indoctrination but it's actuallya use, it's actually kind of
what Christ it's calling us todo.
So you don't want to like stepaway from it too much, because
there are lines that were likethis is there are black and
whites that we stand for, notthat, but you.
That's exactly right, chrissy,that we don't have to like agree
(41:17):
to all these things to be astudent here.
But you kind of have to like belike I want to learn more and
be an environment thatchallenges me, and things like
that Make sense.
Canada, that makes sense.
Yeah, graham, makes sense.
All right, the next thing Iwant to talk about is a Little
(41:38):
bit of a story, and when Iannounced this as a student body
, I said this was phase one andI want to talk a little bit
about phase two and some some ofthe things I'm dreaming about
for the future.
Just as I pitched this to you,this is more like a dream, not a
promise.
So this next conversation isnon-binding, non-promising.
(41:59):
Can you give all the like this?
Just give all the disclaimersnow?
So originally last year inFebruary, the board came up with
a, a proposal that they werebasically going to be three
tracks through the college.
One was going to be yourtraditional Free, free agent
student you pay, you get to thedegree, you leave, we give you
(42:19):
financial aid, ba-ba-ba-ba, nice, like very traditional.
The second was going to becalled what we were going to be
calling like a oh man, I can'teven remember the word for it
because there wasn't a good wordit was like a bound to your
home church Through the college.
You're not a free agent.
(42:40):
You have a commitment tosomebody who's like blessing you
to come and you return thereand there's like, and there's
sort of an agreement between youand a home community that
you're not just like leavingwhat you came from and you're
like we're still interconnected.
Does that make sense?
What's a good word for that?
It's like Sent yeah, I'mmentioning yeah, sent.
(43:01):
So and then the third track waswhat was called a service track,
where we basically said thistrack is gonna be for a group of
students who make some sort ofagreement with, like, an
organization or a church or abusiness or a nonprofit, and
They'll actually fund yourtuition in exchange for some
(43:23):
sort of commitment on the tailend after you graduate.
And so Basically, this year theboard tried to just simplify it
and say, all right, let's juststart by, entrustment will be
the baseline, and then phase twois where I'm approaching people
and saying, all right, hey,what if you were to approach a
(43:43):
business, a church, a mission,or I approach them I know it's
it's hard to level this purelyon the students and Will fund
the college, will fund thetuition, cost of tuition.
What if, like, a group fundsthat cost a room and board and
that the student gets this wholepackage deal where they're
barely Maybe not paying a dollarout of their own pocket, but
(44:05):
then they commit to somethingMore specific on the back.
Then a little bit more concreteabout like, hey, I want to go
work at this business for fouryears or I want to go be a
doctor.
Is that becoming your reactionto this whole, like it could be
like an eight-year commitment,which is kind of scary.
It could be.
You could negotiate it a littlebit differently, but some
(44:28):
students have made agreementsthat go teach at different
schools coming through and I'mlike man, I want more about to
happen because I think it's agood deal.
Any reactions to that idea?
Kristi Mast (44:38):
It's counter-cultural, but then it
also flows with the culture,because people make eight-year
commitments all the time whenthey decide that they're gonna
be a doctor or you know allthese other kind of rigorous
career paths.
It's counter-cultural, culturaland the fact that it we're not
used to making big commitmentslike that, or long those, those
(44:59):
commitments can feel really long.
But I also think that so manyyoung people are trying to
figure out what in the world todo with their lives and this
could be really, really freeingto say I am gonna decide now and
I'm gonna commit to doingreally good work for business,
for a school, for a, anorganization.
(45:22):
And I get excited about thatidea, especially that if
students have the option to dosomething like that, that's huge
, both for organizations and forindividuals.
Hannah Watson (45:34):
Yeah, for me, the idea of being able to be
connected with something that isgonna like align with what I
want to do, anyway, it's reallyexciting.
So, if there could be aconnection with I want to teach,
so if there could be aconnection with like, yeah, you
could go teach at this schooland they'll fund your room and
board, whatever, that is reallyexciting because it's really
facilitating the thing I wouldhave to do anyway and giving me
a jumpstart even on thatopportunity.
That's like, that's reallyreally exciting.
President Johnson (45:56):
Right now is my wife will probably she's
probably annoyed me because I'llwake up in the middle of the
night and I've got an idea.
I've got an idea work.
So my parents were missionariesand self-supported missionaries
.
And there's actually anotheridea that students you could
imagine raising support to paythe cost of room and board.
It's not that crazy of a cost.
(46:18):
If it 980, 9,800 times 4,that's I will under 40k.
That's feasible to raise for astudent in like four years.
If you didn't want to work inthat Sede in exchange for this,
I'll do XYZ.
So I just think it's possibleto even like hone in on this
(46:39):
even more, and one of mypassions is that More young
people will be mobilized intheir best years to be doing
Very formative work that willstick with them forever and
Hopefully they'll they'll likelatch on to it.
I always think about othersystems in the world.
(46:59):
You look at the military.
They're investing it in 18 yearolds and they're pouring so
much money into them, so muchtime, so much training, and then
People are like oh, it makessense, because our nation's
security depends on this, andthat's kind of where I'm trying,
really, as an institution, tostart thinking about this a
(47:21):
little differently, where it'slike hey, hey, christians who
care about the, the commissionand our role, let's like invest
in these years a ton more thanwe currently are and Expect that
there'll be like a bunch ofgood things that come afterwards
.
Does that make sense?
And there's some churches outthere.
I like to talk about the MormonChurch and it's like they're.
(47:43):
I think they're phenomenal andtheir mobilization and their,
their reach on the planet.
Anyway, I I was inspired myselfby the Mormon Church and their
two-year service Requirementsfor a lot of their young people
and I was like man, they'retaking over the world.
Yeah, we got.
We got a jump in there.
Anything I missed?
(48:05):
I Think we hit a lot of the big, the big things Intrustment.
Souther college eliminatestuition with entrustment.
Kristi Mast (48:19):
Yeah, makes sense, yeah, makes sense.
I would love to hear a littlebit more about, like why now and
why Sadler?
Like, why does this fit withspecifically with Souther's
mission and why, in thisspecific moment in time, is this
, is this compelling?
President Johnson (48:36):
for me.
Well, so why now?
And why Sadler?
So I've been having this idea.
When I look at charging peopleTo it money for character
formation, it's verycounterintuitive to me because I
think a little of this comesout of my own DNA, where I Told
the story when my middle sister,when my parents were still in
(49:01):
Ecuador.
My middle sister got acceptedinto a very expensive private
Christian school in Texas Iwon't even name the name and
they sent the bills down to usand we lived on like zero
dollars.
We went, my parents went intodebt to pay for my sister to go.
So I was a freshman when thatwas happening and so I Noted to
myself I was like I will neverask my parents for a dime to go
(49:25):
to college.
I just said I won't do it justbecause I saw the sort of the
back end of like what hightuition does so for me it's a
very personal thing, and so Ispent like a ton of my time
trying to figure out what's anopportunity where I can sort of
pave my own path.
So I chose a military which.
(49:45):
So so that's my own sort oflike hey, christian formation
shouldn't be something,shouldn't necessarily have this
bill.
Mm-hmm attached to it.
This should be something thatthe church is like, hey, this is
great.
And so for me, when I thinkabout Sattler and Me is me and
(50:05):
like I spoke around a role aspresident in August of 2022 I've
been dreaming about this thewhole time I've been here that I
really want to like nail, likeDrive that cost even lower and
lower.
So Sattler's original three C'sare core curriculum, which
(50:27):
Corresponds to a problem, corecurriculum, christian character
formation, then cost.
And so I looked when I think ofthat, see, I'm like man, I just
want to, don't want to paintthat with a bullseye and just
like go at it.
And so for me, it's like thisis a great step to really say,
hey, we really take thisseriously.
I even I even think thatthere's this line from
(50:51):
Bonhoeffer that I Think about Ithink you've heard it where in
World War two, bonhoeffer waslike Looking at all the Nazis
and how impressive they were.
And so he he took his friend toa hill and he they were like
looking at a Nazi base and youcan imagine like, well, it's
impressive, all the discipline,organization, mobilization.
He says the Christian churchneeds to be better than that.
(51:14):
He's like pointing down and Ijust generally think that that's
true, that we need to bebuilding these things that
invest in people that Accomplishbig goals, and so Sattler's a
microcosm of that, because I'mhoping we can get to 300
students in like 10 years.
But 300 students is very small,that's like 75 a year, and so
(51:37):
this can't be for everyone, buthopefully we're leading the
charge to invest in a set oflike spectacular young people,
and so that's that's part of itfor me, and then as an
institution and even in theworld, this is like even broader
.
I'd like to start thinking alittle bit more about hey,
what's?
A lot of us can name all thethings that are wrong with the
(51:57):
world.
I mean, you can, yeah, youcould probably name some things
wrong with the world.
Right, there's Israel, hamas.
Right now there's a almost agenocide in Sudan.
Our own turf politically islike kind of insane, and so I
like the institution to say, hey, what's right with Christ?
It's like Mm-hmm, what, what'swrong with the world?
(52:18):
Or we can look at that and saywhat's right with Christ?
Let's focus in on that andlet's develop people based on
these things and then trust thatthey'll They'll know how to
deal with these problemsdownstream.
Does that make sense?
I know it's a big question, butwhy now?
Is because like we can.
Yeah, we looked at it, we wereinspired and we're like we can
do this and now we can we do it.
(52:39):
I think we can be some of theother institutions who are
bigger and larger and we're morenimble.
So I'm like now is the righttime.
I also want to grow theinstitution.
So I just I want to attract, Iwant to be an institution that
attracts Excellent students,yeah, that are like really
looking to make an impact on theworld.
Yeah.
(53:00):
And then Boston is also areally interesting place where I
think about we chose to be inBoston because we think that big
cultural things happen here.
We know they do and so.
And so people are like, why'dyou choose Boston?
It's crazy, it's like it's oneof the more, it's one of the
more blue I'll just use the wordblue cities in the country, and
(53:22):
they're like why are doing this?
It's expensive, and so I'mreally trying to make it
possible with this decision.
I also care about students.
I, when I talked to students,usually when I was recruiting,
it was like I'd love to comethere, but and finances usually
(53:42):
Become part of that conversationoh, it sounds awesome, but this
, yeah, and so that's a bigthing for me.
It's like I hate that.
I'm like, oh yeah, I want tomake sure to do everything I can
to help solve that.
And then, on the Even further,there's this question where when
you talk to like a freshmanentering college, they usually
say something like I want to dothis.
(54:05):
They're like an 18 year old.
If you would have asked me, itwould have been like I want to
do disaster relief with Like mydad did.
And then something happenswhere your bill tuition and then
you're like maybe I should just, maybe I should just get a job
and pay my bills and.
I really want to eliminate thatas much as possible, that shift
(54:28):
away from what people want to doversus what they end up doing,
and so I hope that Sattler canbe a stepping stone For students
into doing what they want to do, and I'm hoping that
Communities can rally and belike man watch we have every
student get a mentor, so I wantSattler to be celebrated by by
different communities where ourstudents are from and Things
(54:51):
like that, and I think this is astep in that direction where
we're saying, hey, we, we wantyou, we invite you to invest in
students with us, we want yourpartnership, and things like
that.
Kristi Mast (55:02):
I mean, and trustment just I think makes
more and more sense to me theterm, because there's trust on
so many levels and it is andit's investment into students
and it's trusting that theirGod-given desires, their
God-given passions are betterthan us telling them what to do,
(55:23):
and that truly like trustingand making those bloom and grow
and to send them out into theworld to do those things that
God has given them to do.
That's a big step of trust onthe college's part, that and
it's kind of like a big step oftrust in the Holy Spirit that's
in them, that's urging them onto do all those things and that
(55:47):
gives me really excited.
I'm excited about it.
Hannah Watson (55:49):
Yeah, it's incredible.
It's an incredible life-givingopportunity to be told like
we're going to equip it.
And how are you to go and serveJesus without this big bill on
your back?
President Johnson (56:00):
Yeah, and it's only going to get better.
I'm just kidding.
We went a little bit over, butI'm going to start wrapping us
up here.
Anything else?
Any other comments, questions,things, topics that we should
cover before?
No, All right, so how can youhelp?
(56:21):
So obviously we're looking at.
When I go around talking topeople, I'm always like, what do
you do?
Yeah, it's actually kind of it'slike I look for students, I
look for people, I look formoney and I look for partners.
It's basically the fourcategories.
It's very simple.
But to support and trustment,we've actually expanded how
(56:47):
people can support this into thecollege.
We can give to the college andwe're looking to grow an
endowment to make this a littlebit more resilient.
So you can go to settlereduslash give.
We have three.
You can support entrustmentendowment, which will basically
be a fund that we grow over timeto make sure that this grows.
(57:11):
It's kind of like building up apool of money to weather
different storms.
You can support internationalliving grants.
That's something I'm verypassionate about right now
because we want to continue tomake it an opportunity for
international students to comeand have the same opportunity
and we need to actually raisemoney for that.
(57:31):
Or you can just trust me andgive to the general funds and
I'll make decisions about whereyour dollar goes.
It'll be a dollar we'll spend.
I heard that people don't knowwe have a store, is that?
Hannah Watson (57:44):
right, yeah, I had no idea my sweater half zip
is really appealing to me.
Kristi Mast (57:48):
I didn't even know my sweater came from the store.
President Johnson (57:50):
So I'm just saying, settleredu, top line,
there's a button called store.
You click it and boom, there itis.
Kristi Mast (58:00):
I will say this is one of the softest sweaters that
I own.
Yeah, a nice sweater, it isreally good.
President Johnson (58:06):
So if you're looking into some settler merch,
there's the one I'm wearingright there.
Looks good, right?
Yeah, grant, maybe I should getyou one for the next podcast.
Okay, do you like it?
I like that.
I actually have it on myChristmas wish list, wow, great.
And then I'd also like to saystudents can apply to one of the
(58:26):
49 openings, so we can't take amillion students.
Fall 2024, we're launching thisfall 2024 at applysattleredu.
Thank you, chrissy for joining,thank you, hannah for joining,
graham, thank you as well, andthat's a wrap.
Sattler College eliminatestuition with entrustment.
Hannah Watson (58:45):
Woo, bada, thank you Woo, bye, bye.
Save holes in your wall 대congratulations.
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