Listening as higher education presidents or nonprofit CEOs stand before their faculty, employees, volunteers and state that what they do isn’t “the real world,” is a sad statement.
I don’t find these types of statements sad because I happen to disagree with them.
I find them sad because the statements themselves show a deep lack of understanding regarding the fundamental missions of the organizations these leaders have been selected to guide.
Tell the visibly proud family of a newly-minted first-generation college graduate that their experience isn’t, “the real world.”
Tell the elderly, wheel-chair bound man that the work of a nonprofit’s volunteers to repair the ramp to his front porch which allows him now to leave his small home for the first time in months isn’t, “the real world.”
Tell the student who reads the commendatory recommendation letter for their first job written by a professor they admire that their feelings of self-worth aren’t, “the real world.”
Unlike for-profit companies, educational institutions and nonprofits overall should never be evaluated, first and foremost, by how much financial gain they make.
Because, in the end, our missions are far bigger and more important than simply making more than we spend.
