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Hillsdale College: inspirational environment Leadership Summit delegates & faculty

Stanford University Online High School, and co-founder experiential education, resilience-building, and values-
of Access USA. based learning. Moreover, the workshops were structured
Promoted in 2022 by Ravaglia and Sheila Bauer, an alum to ensure active learning with all speaker presentations
of Cornell University, Access USA has signed up 40 Associ- followed by discussions featuring selected delegates,” says
ate Schools in India to offer their secondary students (class Bauer, also a board member of the Michigan Colleges Al-
IX-XII) online preparatory courses of partner American liance, a consortium of 14 American colleges/universities.
universities. Students who complete the Access USA Diplo- Welcoming the delegates in a video broadcast, Dilip
ma are guaranteed admission into the second-year under- Thakore, Publisher-Editor of EducationWorld, said:
grad programme of US partner universities, saving a year “America is the world’s oldest democracy and India the
of the standard four-year undergrad degree programme. world’s most populous democracy. We are natural partners
Comments Sheila Bauer, CEO of Access USA: “The and allies and it’s fitting that the first unprecedented India-
summit’s six workshops were grouped under two broad USA Global Education Leadership Summit is being held in
themes: ‘Developing Teaching and Learning Excellence’ the US. Access USA and Hillsdale College have taken great
and ‘Avoiding Winning Academically while Losing at Col- pains to shortlist excellent speakers and faculty drawn from
lege and Life’. These two themes reflect the dual priorities across America. I am sure all of you will come back enriched
of academic excellence and career readiness — how school by the insights and perspectives learned at the summit, and
leaders can improve teaching-learning practices and pre- will apply this knowledge to make your schools model in-
pare students for success beyond the classroom — through stitutions for the rest of India.”
The summit workshops were interspersed with award
Access USA's Ravaglia (left) & Bauer: dual priorities ceremonies during which 21 leaders from India’s top-
ranked schools were conferred the Hillsdale College-EW-
Access USA Global Education Leadership Award for sus-
tained commitment to education innovation, excellence and
internationalism (see box p.83).
MAY 22, DAY 1. Delegates registered for the India-USA Global
Education Leadership Summit were welcomed by Access
USA’s Ravaglia and Bhavin Shah, CEO of EducationWorld,
and apprised of the agenda of the three-day summit. After
lunch, they were taken on a tour of the expansive 400-acre
campus of Hillsdale College. Set within the eponymous
township (pop. 8,000), an hour’s drive from Detroit, Amer-
ica’s automobiles manufacturing hub, Hillsdale College
boasts superb academic, sports and recreational facilities
set amidst landscaped gardens and green woods.
Specially mapped by host Dr. Larry Arnn, President

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