Executive Vice President’s Letter

Congratulations, Your Education is Now Completed

It seems that everyone in our neighborhood is graduating at some level. The children down the street are moving up to middle school; several neighbors have college grads and excitedly we have a graduate from an architectural program. For the last few months, I have been on a search for just the right card to honor these wonderful educational achievements. To my surprise during a late night search, I came across a card that echoed the title of this letter, “your education is now completed.” That phrase started a cacophony of thoughts about education, and how one cannot function at their highest level without ongoing education in some form or another. The opportunities to learn are all around us. At times, we can feel like we are being bombarded with new facts, but that’s the great part, we have so many choices on how to learn and be educated. Merriam Webster has a great pop up that reads, “You’re never too cool to learn something new.” They define education as “a body of knowledge acquired while being educated.” It’s amazing how the delivery of that body of knowledge has changed in the last few years. One can learn from some of the great academic institutions across the country; or tune in to a series of podcasts that can update us on the latest green, sustainable products. Gone are the days when web-based learning is reserved for those enrolled in formal academic programs. It has been more than a decade since my first online education experience occurred. It was a full 12 college credits that were asynchronous, and I wondered how it was going to work. It was successful, and it turned me into an online learning advocate without knowing the impact it would have years later. One only has to go on Amazon to see the proliferation of new business books that are published daily, so learning has definitely not been stalled. My Kindle is full and last week my seventy second book was completed. It is labeled as my pandemic library and contains everything from developing new business systems to how to work in the virtual environment to engage members. Similar to you, my education is continuous and hopefully no one will ever congratulate me and tell me that my education is now finished. Education, and more so the process of education, is what gets me excited, it always has. To discover something new that our AIANYS education team, both staff specialists and volunteers, can mold into a series of sessions for the membership...there is nothing better than that. It is not unusual for our staff to receive an email about a professional development program that will benefit them and AIANYS. At times, they probably wonder where my expectations are, learning or doing. The answer is simple, you can’t stay current without learning. So please don’t expect a congratulations card from me letting you know how terrific it is that your education is now completed. But do know that in spirit, my congratulations go out to you every time you learn something new, and use it in developing an incredible design, no matter how small it is. Have a great summer, stay safe.

Sincerely,

Georgi Ann Bailey, CAE, Hon. AIANYS Executive Vice President | AIA New York State