|
The students at the Maharishi Institute practice the Transcendental Meditation technique and can learn the TM-Sidhi program, to help create invincibility for South Africa while receiving an education.
Dr. Craig Pearson, MUM Executive Vice-President, said, " I have spent most of my adult life in Consciousness-Based Education and have seen its power to enrich people’s lives—but in South Africa I really saw its power to redirect people’s destinies.”
|
|
by Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA, The Review and the Achievements
March 2014
The first group of 27 students enrolled at Maharishi University of Management (MUM) in South Africa graduated in December 2014, with MUM Executive Vice-President Craig Pearson present to give the commencement address and award the degrees.
The students, located at Maharishi Institute in Johannesburg, take their initial course work (86 credits) from faculty at the Institute. They then enroll with MUM for their final two years of course work (42 credits), with MUM faculty delivering instruction online. They receive a BA degree in business administration.
"It was among the most inspiring two weeks of my life—I had no idea how moving it would be," Dr. Pearson said.
Most of the students come from the impoverished townships around Johannesburg, and would not typically have the opportunity to attend college if it weren't for Maharishi Institute.
The Institute offers a program whereby the students can enroll without cost for the first year and a half. They then begin a work-study program, such as manning a call center located at the Institute, to help fund their tuition along with receiving student loans from a local non-profit organization.
"People from the townships may get an education through high school but their opportunities for college education are pretty miniscule," Dr. Pearson said. "Maharishi Institute takes the students who are ready for college and gives them a college education at no cost. One student told me he might be in a gang if not for the Institute."
The students practice the Transcendental Meditation technique and learn the TM-Sidhi program, thereby helping create invincibility for South Africa while also receiving an education.
Maharishi Institute currently has 400 students, 180 of whom are Yogic Flying practitioners. The Institute plans to increase enrollment to 1,000 in 2014. Classes are held in downtown Johannesburg in a nine-story office building donated by Anglo American Corporation.
Dr. Pearson said that while graduations are always moving occasions, this one was bursting with joy, in part because it's rare for township students to attend college. Parents, siblings, and cousins attended, erupting in applause and cheering each graduate.
“These graduates are starting to go into jobs that will enable them to earn far more money than anyone in their families has ever been able to do,” Dr. Pearson said. “They look forward to using their income to support their families—build them better homes, help their brothers and sisters with school, and more.”
Dr. Pearson was also the commencement speaker at the first graduation of students at South Africa's Neotel corporation, a telecommunications firm, where 10 of the company's managers received MBA degrees from MUM. These individuals had been taking the University's MBA program part time for the past several years.
The Institute also receives corporate grants—from the Rockefeller Foundation, for example—as well as private donations. “With the recently enacted Black Economic Empowerment program in South Africa, the Maharishi Institute is also now partnering with a rising number of South African companies,” Dr. Pearson said. “These companies are not only giving them stock, as required by the legislation, but are also becoming inspired to donate professional services.”
“The directors of the Maharishi Institute, Dr. Taddy Blecher and Dr. Richard Peycke, and their team are incredibly dedicated, creative, resourceful, and persistent,” Dr. Pearson said. “It was amazing to be in the middle of what they are accomplishing.”
Dr. Pearson sees a growing momentum of success. “The Maharishi Institute provides a model for the future of the country,” he said. “Millions of people in the country are without jobs, while there are millions of jobs without people to fill them. Education is the missing link, and the Maharishi Institute offers an economic and educational model which, when coupled with its Consciousness-Based approach, shows the way toward the future success and well-being of the country.”
And he sees this model spreading. “Maharishi wanted one of these schools in each province in South Africa, and then in each country in Africa,” Dr. Pearson said. “When you go there, you can really see a future in which Africa’s problems begin to dissolve away and the whole continent rises to be a shining, nourishing light for the whole world.”
© Copyright 2014 Maharishi University of Management
|
