Who is Ian Rowe and What did he say?
Answers
Answer:
Rick Larsen
Ian, with so many areas to cover, I always find it important in these discussions to establish a little bit of a baseline, and specifically, I’d like to cover in sections the importance of how we learn and what we learn. So let’s begin with how we learn, but specifically, tell us about your passion for education and learning. Where did it begin?
Ian Rowe
Well, thank you for that question. It is important to establish the baseline. I think, for most of us, most of where everything begins is within your own family, and my parents immigrated from Jamaica, West Indies. My parents were married for 48 years before my dad passed away. And for my parents, they came to the United States with the traditional American dream. They had aspirations for their own careers and for their two sons, and my dad got his education, and my mom. My dad became one of the first Black engineers at IBM, and my mom worked on Wall Street in the financial services industry for an organization then known as Manufacturers Hanover Trust, which some may know has developed into Chase.
And my parents established education as the great equalizer. They actually knew that the United States… They had encountered discrimination because they had lived in England a few years. They faced challenges, but they knew that even with those challenges, America was a country that their two kids could achieve great things if they had the support of a strong family, a strong faith commitment, and I’ve been very lucky to live that dream. And now, I want to impart those same lessons to kids of all races, because these principles around education, strong family, faith, they’re universal, and accessible to everyone.