Also, Wheelock now offers international service learning trips. For a week or two, students examine education and child welfare in a foreign country in exchange for doing socioeducational and community development projects while they’re abroad. This school year, trips are scheduled for Benin, Ghana, Mexico and Northern Ireland.
“Our students come back from these experiences changed,” Jenkins- Scott says. “I want them graduating Wheelock as global citizens.”
Jenkins-Scott, who was president and chief executive officer of a communitybased health and human services center for 20 years, says her Wheelock tenure “has helped me stay connected to the issues I’ve always cared about.”
Mills, who’s often contacted by outsiders inspired by his career change, says many of them mistakenly believe “this is like the movie ‘Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,’ that it would be charming and romantic to go back to college.
“I tell them it’s worth considering if they want to improve a college. Otherwise, they shouldn’t bother. Leading one of these institutions isn’t for everyone.”
But with many baby boomer presidents poised to retire in the next few years, nontraditional candidates are likely to get strong consideration to replace them. “What’s most important is talent and confidence,” Jenkins-Scott says. “Everything else is background music.”
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