Stanford is an amazing university. First, the setting is stunning. Every student should be so lucky to attend a school such as this. No matter where you look, the beauty is incredible. Gardens, detailed architecture, design of everything related to everything; one just feels more special, maybe even more intelligent, in this setting.

Dr. Byron Davies, Chief Systems Synthesist, who is in charge of StarShine’s data architecture, graduated with a Ph.D. from Stanford. He was invited along with me to attend a summit of two hundred people to focus on the urgent need to fix K-12 education in America and throughout the world. The Global Education meeting was hosted by the President of Stanford, John Hennessy, and Goldman Sachs (can you believe it?) because they are both saying that for over one hundred years we have ignored K-12 and now if we don’t fix it, America will not be able to survive economically or peacefully. President John Hennessy is calling for every person in America to help K-12 teachers and classrooms as the most pressing economic problem today. He has devoted every department of Stanford to have an initiative focused on K-12. Goldman Sachs predicts that more money will be made in K-12 for a longer, sustained time than in all previous sectors combined in history. They are saying the demand is worldwide and the market has been so ignored for so long it has created an almost unbelievable upside opportunity. And it will save kids and families.

We already knew about it. Maybe it will become the “In” career for the next part of life for the nearly 11,000 people per day, turning 60 years old, with the United States alone having about 78 million baby boomers. This group is the most passionate about saving our education system and is the most educated group on the planet. And according to a recent study, if you make it to sixty years old, chances are 95% that you will make it to eighty-five, so people will need to have something worthwhile to do.

StarShine was the only K-12 school at the conference and we have nine years of statistics to prove and share what we have learned. Our great friend and long-term partner, President Angel Cabrera from Thunderbird Global Management University in Phoenix, was there for the whole time and spent quite a bit of time with us talking about StarShine. We also got to spend time with John Sperling, University of Phoenix founder, and Michael Milken, who spends 100% of his time trying to change medicine and education.

It is going to get exciting around here.

Trish McCarty
StarShine Academy

THE HARP FOUNDATION CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO:

STARSHINE ACADEMY

PROMOTION and AWARDS CEREMONY

Rainbow of Sound Harp and Guitar Recital!

Come delight in the wonderful sounds of the Harp students and support their hard work this year!

Join us on Thursday, June 9th, 2011

5:00pm

Starshine Academy Cafeteria

2801 N. 31st Street

Phoenix, Arizona

Instructor: Jocelyn Obermeyer

Assistants: John Marshall, Helen Duff

In this video I put to music some amazing pictures of amazing people who have contributed to what we call The StarShine Effect: the thing that makes emotion happen and brings everyone to the core of what they perhaps forgot…You are probably in here–if not your picture…your heart.

the-starshine-effect-6411

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” — Anais Nin

When I awoke this morning, this phrase was in my head and it made me think about our graduating class. If you have never attended a StarShine Graduation, you are missing something big for yourself. The students talk about how they managed to graduate and what it was like to grow up in their neighborhood. You only hear the routine “Thank you’s” as a quick courtesy.

Our “Sowie” logo was created by world famous, Lucid Brands CEO, Scott Lerman from NYC. Scott said that “Sowie” is a representative StarShine kid, throwing stars of hope out for everyone else. These kids inspire me every day to do more than the impossible. When I was younger, “Alice In Wonderland” was a favorite book of mine. As I grew up, I used to tell people (quoting Alice’s White Queen) “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Faith makes impossible disappear. These students certainly proved it.