Jean-Jude Lors

I believe the PhD in Educational management at Montemorelos has been a true learning experience for me. I have learned a lot new theories and practices. I have learned a new culture and a new educational system.  I got to learn a new learning modality with different professors in an other language. I encountered true Christian professors and very helpful by all means. The University campus is beautiful and a great place to learn.

My God-given ability is that I am able to speak Haitian-Creole, French and English and now I am learning Spanish on a daily basis together with my students. I use the following languages in the following circumstances:

 

1. I started taking Spanish in October 2015 and July 2017 as an immersion course with Montemorelos.
2. I am currently learning it in school with my school students.
3. I speak and write French in church and when I need to.
4. I speak and write English everyday in my school setting, at home and at church.
5. I also speak Creole on a daily basis with family members and friends and at church.

My first Aulic experience is the immersion class of Summer 2017. This course allowed me to be introduced to the Spanish language by learning basic conversational Spanish. I also got to appreciate the multiethnic cohort group with different nationalities. I was able to get exposure and experienced theMexican culture by going to different shopping malls, museum, parks and state office buildings and even saw state officials. The course was enriching and I got to learn a lot of Spanish words and basic conversation. The foods, the church services, the interaction between professors and students was quite an experience and welcoming.

 

My other and extra Aulic course is the research methodology including the research project. This course allows me to experience what in-depth study is all about from its beginning to the end. It gives me a different perspective about my area of profession. I was able to understand the leadership and administrative aspect of the teaching profession during my investigative phase.  During the course of my study especially in the investigative phase, I learned a lot about people both in the religious and secular worlds. It teaches me how to be patient and humble in order to get the help and support needed from paticipants during the data collection phase. This course also helped me to think critically and analitically through the methodology process. I learned to analyze and compare data in order to interpret people’s behavior and decision process. Finally, I learned the importance and the effect of leadership styles as it relates to job satisfaction and commitment to an organization, and the positive and negative impact it can have based on how a leader applies them. This course is the most important competence of the entire course of study.

My educational experience both academically and professionally have contributed to my personal development as I go back to see what God has done for me. After my graduation in the field of education with a B.S. in Education, I accepted a job as an assistant teacher with the NY City Department of Education. I was given a class to teach and I taught technology education. Then the next school year, I found another teaching position in Brooklyn where I taught science and technology for almost 8 years. During that time I was going to school completing my Master degree in Science Education. Immediately after, I went on to further and completing my education in both science and technology as required by the board of education. I become a certified and fully licensed teacher. Less than two years after, I was tenured. Two and a half years after completing my second Masters (Mdiv) in theology, I returned and secured a technology teaching position.

For the next nine years I continued to take technology courses and workshops to upgrade my skills. 12 years after, I completed my first doctoral degree in ministry.  While in attendance, I was also going for Business Administration in 2015 and 2016. After completing my certificate, in 2017 I was accepted into the PhD in Educational Management program at Montemorelos that I am now completing by the grace of The Almighty.  My PhD educational journey has been quite a true learning experience. It was always my goal to reach the highest level of education. It is now closer than ever, thank God. Through it all, I learned to work with children and adults and be a vessel of change for God’s kingdom and glory. My educational and professional growth were only possible by the mercies and goodness of God.

My educational and professional experiences allow me to see the world, people, language, religion and culture in a different lens.  They allow me to see and appreciate how different cultures with different worldviews and basic belief systems operate. But more so, through interaction with different educational system and learning systems my worldview is shaped and enlarged. Nevertheless, the foundation of my biblical principles and beliefs helped me to be influenced by these different worldviews in a positive and meaningful way. Whatever establishment, organization or environment that I find myself, my key guidance principle for my worldview is my Bible and my belief in God. My life style in everything that I do is guided in a firm and strong belief system in the Creator and his laws. My spiritual worldview has been my guiding light in all the institutions that I have attended and all the school settings and environments that I have been. It is what made me who I am.

 

As Christians and Seventh-day Adventists, in our institutions, whether its church, schools or our hospitals, we have a responsibility to reach every culture through our Christian worldview. The Bible, as E.G. White (Foundation of C. Education) stated, “making the Bible “a textbook in our schools” meant that the Bible should be the “basis of all education.” The Bible should not be inserted into the curriculum “sandwiched in between infidelity,” to merely “flavor” other studies. I have been upholding the Bible as my worldview to help shape me with all other worldview no matter what the culture or belief system is.