KIDO RECEIVES WENIGER AWARD

Elissa Kido was one of two recipients of the Charles E. Weniger award at the Charles E. Weniger Society’s annual awards ceremony on January 18. The award honors individuals for their contributions to their communities, the church, and the broader world. During her keynote address she described the results of the CognitiveGenesis study and its impact on Adventist Education. Dr. Kido states that she is deeply grateful and also humbled to receive the Weniger award and believes that the honor really goes to the excellence of Adventist Education. She was privileged to be the one who was instrumental in bringing its outstanding characteristics to the attention of the church and the general public.

ADVENTIST STUDENT PERSONNEL ASSOCIATION PRESENTATION

ASPA, the international association for Seventh-day Adventist student personnel professionals, invited Elissa Kido to be one of their keynote speakers at their 3-day conference held on the campus of La Sierra University March 10 to 13. The title of her March 11 presentation was “­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Success is a Group Project (The CognitiveGenesis Study).”

KIDO SPEAKS AT NORTH AMERICAN ASIAN PACIFIC PASTORS CONVENTION.

The North American Asian Pacific Pastors Convention was held this year at Ontario, California. On February 25, Dr. Kido spoke at their plenary session on “Pastors and Their Critical Role for the Survival of Adventist Education.”  She told the group that in the North American Division nearly half of the young people are leaving the church and saying “no” to the Adventist way of life. Recent research conducted by CRAE shows that pastors are the one most powerful factor influencing families to give their children an Adventist Education. Value Genesis research has shown that there is a positive correlation between attending an Adventist school and church membership. Kido described the latest CRAE research that is using proprietary software to help pastors and educators implement strategies to increase enrollment of Adventist children in Adventist Education and to reverse the declining trend.

ATLANTIC UNION JOINS BSAE USING ABSM SOFTWARE

Atlantic Union has joined Southeastern California and Central California Conferences in the Building Support for Adventist Education (BSEA) initiative to help them with educational strategic planning. The heart of the BSEA initiative is the use of the Agent-Based Stakeholder Model (ABSM) software developed by Claremont Graduate University. The ABSM software requires specific procedures for gathering various types of data that form a “picture” of the educational conditions in the union, including, but not limited to the people who are in a position to effect change, their position on pertinent issues, and the amount of influence they can exert for or against a proposed change. This set of data forms a “picture” that is identified as a “landscape” and is entered into the ABSM software along with the a desired change. The software analyzes the information to determine if a specific change is viable and predicts approximately how long it will take to effect changes.

Following phone and video conferences, Elissa Kido, Noemy Cruz, and Udo Oyoyo, met with Atlantic Union Conference personnel in Utica, New York, on February 10, during their Spring Leadership Council. The day was spent with administrators and educational, ministerial, and youth directors. The team from CRAE presented a model of the current Atlantic Union Conference landscape based on data that had been collected during the preceding months. In turn, the AU leaders gave the analyst courses of action that they would like analyzed by the ABSM software using their landscape. He will test the various proposals on the software and provide a report that will provide AU Conference with the information necessary to make informed decisions regarding Adventist Education in their union.

We are privileged to join over 450 organizations such as The World Bank, CIA, Department of Defense, and the United Nations that are using this powerful software tool. CRAE has matching funds available for an additional union or conference to take advantage of this decision-making tool for the 2014-2015 school year.

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS & ACTIVITIES

January 25. Paramount Spanish Church, Bellflower, CA. Elissa Kido speaker for the church service.

February 18-22. Bermuda Conference, Hamilton, Bermuda. Elissa Kido speaker for the workers meeting, board of education and church service.

February 25. NAD Asian/Pacific Pastors’ Conference. Elissa Kido was a speaker discussing the importance of pastors and their role in the survival of Adventist Education.

March 11. Conference of Adventist Student Personnel Association: Riverside, CA. Elissa Kido spoke at the conference with her presentation “Success is a Group Project (The CognitiveGenesis Study)”.