Dick DeAngelis is well known in Fairfield and the MUM community. He was director of the highly popular All Things Italian Street Festival for ten years, and his latest project is an eight-part documentary titled The Fairfield History Series.

Dick came to MIU in 1975 from Northeastern University in Boston, where he had learned the Transcendental Meditation^®technique three months earlier. He was so fascinated with the idea of a school where everyone meditated that he transferred right away.

He graduated with a BA in business in 1979 and worked as a stockbroker, then as senior vice president at Telegroup and International Trading Group, training over 500 people in sales and marketing. He also started a few of his own ventures and in his free time hosted a radio show telling bedtime stories. Together with his wife Karen, who received a BS in biology from MIU in 1979, they raised five children who all attended Maharishi School.

A couple of years ago Dick became inspired to tell the story of MUM and Fairfield in a documentary series. “I feel very fortunate because I had my MIU education and was able to raise my kids in this town and I wanted to do something to give back,” he said. Although he had never produced or directed a documentary before, he didn’t hesitate to get started.

His experience with Consciousness-Based^SM education made him confident that he could connect any knowledge to his own consciousness. “My education at MIU has always allowed me to be comfortable with any field of knowledge,” said Dick.

Using his networking skills and familiarity with the local community he teamed up with faculty and students at the Media and Communications department, involved the Fairfield Media Center, and soon began production. Dick received a lot of support in the form of over 100 volunteers as well as grants and donations. He has completed two of the films and plans to finish the remaining six installments within five years. His goal is to highlight the connections among people who live and have lived in the area.

Watch a trailer for the series here.

Richard Incorvia earned his master’s degree in education from MUM in 2005. At his first job as an English teacher in an Iowa public school, he quickly learned that students don’t retain knowledge well if the learning experience is boring. That’s when he started having students create videos, posters, and plays, and so his journey in project-based teaching began.

When he joined Maharishi School in 2007, he continued with innovative ideas and found that the school was very supportive. In his middle school journalism class, for example, students created and produced their own newspaper and radio show. Richard also discovered that doing authentic work was just as important as working on projects, because it empowered students.

“Students need to see the intrinsic value of what they are learning and how they are performing a service to someone,” said Richard. “When they see the positive effect in the world around them, they grow as people.”

Richard found that MUM’s education program provided a good example for him to follow. “Everything I did was exciting and it mattered, and they treated me as a colleague,” he said.

Although Richard trained to be an English teacher, he has incorporated his interest in computer programming into his teaching by having students make video games and phone apps. He sees computer programming as the most essential skill students need to learn today.

In 2015 Richard began teaching STEM, an interdisciplinary approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and math at STEMBusUSA, an outreach program that brings STEM to schools. Since 2017 he has been teaching STEM at Anser Charter School in Boise, Idaho, which uses the Expeditionary Learning model, one of the major influences on Richard’s teaching career.

Richard sees his own path as a teacher as an example of what modern education needs to accomplish to prepare students for the real world. “We need people who are flexible, who can do anything, who can adapt quickly,” he said.

Practicing the Transcendental Meditation^® technique since childhood has also contributed to Richard’s adaptability. “TM is a daily reminder to me that what happens inside directly affects the outside world,” he said, “and that should also be the purpose of education. If we are working from the internal world, our life can be happy.”

Watch a documentary about Richard’s project-based teaching at Maharishi School here.

PhD student Ayesha Sengupta took first place in the Academy of Management’s 2018 competition for Most Promising Dissertation Proposal in Management, Spirituality, and Religion. Ayesha received a $1,200 award to attend the 78th annual meeting of the Academy of Management from August 10 to 14 in Chicago, where she presented her proposal.

Ayesha earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Delhi University and a master’s degree in organizational behavior from Amity University Guargaon. For her doctoral dissertation in management, she chose to focus on discovering the role of spirituality in the lives of empowered women in leadership roles and how it influences their work environment.

She will be conducting case studies of women, and will explore the concepts of workplace spirituality, servant leadership, and the idea of creating a nurturing work environment, where companies not only focus on profit maximization but also on individual personal growth.

Her choice was largely influenced by her mother, Sunita Singh Sengupta, a distinguished professor and author who started the Integrating Spirituality and Organizational Leadership Foundation in India. Ayesha has helped her mother organize international conferences since she was in high school. It was also her mother who first brought Ayesha to MUM while she was a guest teacher on campus, and Ayesha became intrigued with MUM’s unique stress-free yet focused system of education.

Another source of inspiration for her research came from the two years she worked as program officer for the nonprofit Amrita Serve, helping villages become self-reliant through organic farming and assisting women to become financially independent by selling their handicrafts.

“Growing up with my mother’s leadership provided me the foundation that helped me see things in a certain light of humility and compassion, which remain my core values,” said Ayesha. “But working at this organization truly broadened my perspective, seeing so many women unfold their potential. This is what truly helped me grow in so many ways.”

In addition to taking classes, Ayesha works at MUM’s Financial Aid office, and finds the practice of the Transcendental Meditation^® technique beneficial in helping her maintain her focus and life balance. “TM connects me to who I am and helps me stay present and grounded,” she said.

Ayesha is also volunteering with the Academy of Management to help popularize their Management, Spirituality, and Religion division and encourage MUM students to get involved.

Alan Phillips is founder and president of Vancouver Institute of Media Arts (VanArts), which offers vocational training in the visual, media, and performing arts. Ranked #5 worldwide for animation, gaming, and design, the school has attracted top talent from Hollywood for instructors, starting with Academy Award-winning animator and director Lee Mishkin as founding director.

Alan graduated from MIU in 1991 with an MBA degree and founded VanArts in 1995. His timing turned out to be excellent, as Vancouver was emerging as an international center for the film industry. With the growth of the industry, the school has also gradually expanded from one class in classical animation to eight one-year diploma programs, including 2D and 3D character animation, game art and design, visual effects, and broadcasting/online media.

Alan is grateful for his MBA education and the essential skills he acquired to run a business. “Preparing a business plan, reading financial statements, preparing budgets, all those practical things we covered in our studies really helped a lot,” he said.

The Transcendental Meditation^® technique has been an important part of Alan’s life and he became a teacher of the TM^® technique at 19. He says it’s an important tool for him as a businessman as well. “Running a business can be very stressful,” he said. “The TM technique has given me an edge to be able to deal with that more effectively and not get so overwhelmed by challenges.”

The Transcendental Meditation technique is also available to the students at VanArts. The school offers regular introductory lectures, and students get partial scholarships towards the cost of instruction.

In spite of the steep and arduous path to success, Alan doesn’t regret his decision to become an entrepreneur. “I would encourage any student who has an idea for a business to learn about what they need to do and launch it,” said Alan. “It’s not easy, but persistence really pays off in the end; it certainly did for me.”

“Are you interested in Consciousness-Based education?” That was the ad Dale Wilke saw on the Internet that prompted him to explore the MUM website, attend a Visitors Weekend, and apply to MUM.

Dale grew up in a small farming community in Illinois and worked for 15 years for a picture framing company in St. Louis, Missouri. After he moved up the corporate ladder and became a manager, he realized he wanted to study plant medicine and focus on personal development. So he resigned his leadership position and worked in sales to free up his brain for research.

His interest in ethnobotany led him to volunteer at the Missouri Botanical Garden. He then studied chemistry at a community college, and his focus turned to nutrition and Ayurveda. That’s when he discovered MUM. He wanted to attend a non-traditional university that focuses on holistic life, and the idea of Consciousness-Based^SM education appealed to him.

“Developing my consciousness has always been important to me even before I came here, even though I didn’t know what that was,” said Dale. He immediately noticed the benefits of the Transcendental Meditation^® technique on his behavior, mood, and sleep, and within six months he learned the TM-Sidhi^® program.

Dale graduated this June with a BA in Ayurveda Wellness and received the Outstanding Student Award from the Department of Physiology. He wanted to further his education so he decided to stay at MUM and enroll in the online MS in Maharishi AyurVeda^SM and Integrative Medicine program because of its Consciousness-Based approach to health. “I have learned that everything revolves around consciousness, including the consciousness of the health practitioner,” he said.

Dale also took some classes in regenerative organic agriculture, and his long-term goal is to open a holistic health center that would offer a combination of Ayurveda, organic agriculture, yoga, and the Transcendental Meditation program.