In 2019 I attended Acton University and sat in Dr. Justin Beene’s talk on city transformation. His presentation resonated so much with my work with university students in Southern Africa that I made a brave decision to invite him to South Africa and speak. He shared how BGU had equipped him and how their programs would be relevant to my leadership development and vision. I immediately started with my application, and Dr. Yvonne McKenzie who was actually on leave at the time responded to my inquiry and helped me complete the process. After completing the Personal Assessment module, I realized Bakke Graduate University was not about prestige in the title and qualification but the transformation of the individual and their impact on communities. There was a confirmation in my spirit that I was in the right university to equip my purpose and call.

Enrolled in the MATL (Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership), my second module turned out to be Vision, Values, and Culture which was an Executive MBA (EMBA) module. I had always thought about business in the context of profit, but Dr. Lynn Bell Jackson’s program was different. The module had an emphasis on transformational leadership and turning the workplace into a platform for human flourishing. When people flourish, the planet flourishes and the nation prospers. It was this focus on mutuality that drew me into the EMBA. I had been carrying this vision of flourishing, and `I had found the language to articulate it and a strategy to bring impact and multiply leaders that would do the same.

I find the EMBA to be forward-looking and presenting the means for innovative solutions to the interrelated crisis the world is facing.

My vision is to address the problem of knowledge in education. Realignment in education is key in producing leaders to shape societal systems towards human flourishing. I believe what is considered knowledge should not only be what is empirical and quantifiable but also the intangibles such as purpose, virtue, God. BGU is a model of such knowledge and approach to education. The EMBA is equipping me with the framework to engage transformation at this level.