In recognition of his vision and work toward providing global access to education, the Austin College Board of Trustees will honor Salman Khan, founder and executive director of the Khan Academy, with the 2013 Posey Leadership Award.
The Austin College Posey Leadership Award was created to promote and recognize service and leadership in a global context. Khan has made basic learning skills possible for people around the globe who have been denied access to education. By providing free and open access to teaching and resources, both teachers and students are benefitting in situations in which the most basic prerequisites for education have been missing.
The award will be given following a presentation by Khan at the Austin College Global Outreach Forum at 7 p.m. on March 21, 2013, at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. Khan also will speak on campus at 11 a.m. that day and interact with student groups.
In addition to providing educational options where there are none, Khan suggests the potential of incorporating digital technology into a rethinking of the basic model of the standard classroom, envisioning online lessons that would open in-class time for interactive learning and true connections.
“There’s an old saying that life is school,” Khan has said. “At every moment, we are both students and teachers; we learn by studying, but we also learn by helping others, by sharing and explaining what we know.”
As digital technology plays an increasingly greater role in education, Khan’s work is seen as innovative and even revolutionary. Austin College President Marjorie Hass applauds this opportunity to have a dialogue around Khan’s efforts to make basic learning skills available world-wide. “I am interested in what we can learn that will help us build on our campus-based approach to education,” Dr. Hass said. She sees his work as one means of enriching college preparation and creating greater access to learning around the world. “His integration of digital technology and learning,” she said, “can transform the way in which students are prepared to succeed in a college education and may hold lessons for what we can achieve in our own classrooms.”
See the GO Forum webpage for more information about Khan, the 2013 events, and seating availability.
The Austin College Posey Leadership Award was created through the generosity of Sally and the late Lee Posey, founder of Palm Harbor Homes. Previous recipients includeWendy Kopp (2006), founder of Teach For America; Dr. Paul Farmer (2007), Harvard professor and physician whose story is told in Mountains Beyond Mountains; Geoffrey Canada (2008), president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone; Greg Mortenson (2009), educational activist and author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools; Muhammad Yunus (2010), Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and founder of Grameen Bank; Zainab Salbi (2011), founder of Women for Women International; and Marian Wright Edelman (2012), founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund.