New Trans4m Junior Fellow Anthony Dharan begins his Fellowship with Sekem in Egypt
15 March 2017: University of St. Gallen Bachelor Student and Trans4m Junior Fellow Anthony Dharan kicked off his integral research-to-innovation journey with Sekem, participating in a pioneering process on “revolutionizing education” in Egypt
Anthony’s own passion for transforming education set him on the path of contributing to the renewal of this field, joining Trans4m for a Fellowship and its partner organization Sekem in Egypt for about six months on the ground. During this time, he is part of a new educational renewal initiative, embedded within Sekem, and framed in SESC Sekem Environmental Science Center. Spearheaded by Soraya Abouleish, and Trans4m Fellow Maximilian Abouleish, SESC seeks to co-create an educational space and process for children, youth and adults that holistically fosters human development, which comprises also the integral human development of everyone engaged in designing, administering and organizing SESC, including the educational facilitators.
The aim of SESC is to review and renew not only Sekem’s own educational foundation, but to become a driver for educational transformation in Egypt and the Middle East.
Anthony’s contributes to the overall design of the governance structures of SESC with a specific focus to pioneer an “integral skill-batch based salary system” centered around individual and collective purpose of everyone involved and geared to stimulate integrated personal and organizational development. Such a new salary system would draw on latest holistic development theories such as the Integral Worlds approach, Spiral Dynamics and builds on cutting-edge organizational development theory, such as Holocracy.
Anthony will also mentor a group of University of St. Gallen students, enrolled in the 2017 Integral Development course; this group will actively participate in his project.
We thereby also jointly demonstrate how the transformative potential that lies in between integral partner organization (Sekem), Trans4m and the University of St. Gallen can be activated to achieve maximum impact on the ground.
Last weekend, a first SESC Design workshop took place. Building on its own scientific legacy and on the ecological vision, research and practice of Sekem, the new SESC learning approach is rooted in and drawing on nature. As a first practical step, a permaculture garden will be established, where children and youth can learn about the design and design principles of nature through real life experiences. The learning journey, covering about 15 learning stations, intends to also convey the foundations of a circular, no-waste, loop economy.
At the end of the workshop the team came up with a clear strategy and a practical plan for the way forward. Next steps for SESC consist of starting the construction work, completing the learning curriculum, promotion, and – in particular for Anthony – developing an integral salary system.
Read more about Anthony and his story here, and watch this space for more infos as Anthony’s integral research-to-innovation unfolds on the ground, together with the SESC team.
