What does it mean if someone is intrepid?
Extremely brave. Showing no fear of dangerous situations. Courageous. Audacious, brave, dauntless, fearless.
Intrepid is a very easy word when it comes to its meaning: without any fear. Intrepid is a tricky word, when it comes to usage. It can be used both in a positive context as well as a negative one. And, we have trepidation, a feeling of fear that causes you to hesitate because you think something bad or unpleasant is going to happen.
Like getting stranded on the moon. I'll come back to this.
For the first time, more students have signed up to attend college online (remote) than via a traditional college campus. And 2024 has set a record for High School Students taking college level classes, online. Kids, going to their local High School, taking college courses - from home.
Today's Sunday Blog is a mishmash of thoughts that have a common link: The Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum in New York City.
After World War II, an intense rivalry formed between the United States and the Soviet Union igniting the Space Race. Both countries had one prime objective: to put the first humans on the Moon. On July 20, 1969, the United States won the race. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. This achievement transformed humanity’s understanding of our world and our potential to reach beyond its boundaries. If there was no space race, we might not have cell phones, or laptops, or the internet. Maybe one day we would get them - but not with this speed and adoption. If there was no Space Race, there would be no Amazon, no Netflix, no Apple, no Uber. The Space Race changed history for all of us.
I remember watching the movie "The Right Stuff" and also the movie "First Man" which of course are the Hollywood versions of history. But I also remember being on PURDUE campus and learning about intrepid alumni Amelia Mary Earhart, American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. Amelia held many early aviation records, including first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Oh man, think about all of the training. The massive amount of knowledge transfer during a time without the Internet. Slide Rules, yes. Laptops, no. And no Google, and certainly no 'AI'. All the intelligence was very real indeed, nothing artificial.
If I drive, PURDUE is 739.2 miles away. Figure 10 hours, 49 minutes, give or take. I cannot remember the number of times I made that trip. And, I also flew home to New Jersey a few times. I always thought it was cool that PURDUE had its own airport right on campus.
For the last hundred years or so, if you lived outside of the USA, you would contemplate sending your child to North America for their education. It was common for people to make not only the financial sacrifice, but the emotional sacrifice of sending teenage children away from home, to another country. I think that the level of trepidation to make this decision must be intense. Because quality of life is (and always has been) connected to quality of education. And, there was only one way to get a quality education: on a campus.
At age 17, in 1947, Neil Armstrong began studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana; he was the second person in his family to attend college. Armstrong was also accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but he resolved to go to Purdue after watching a football game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Ohio Stadium in 1945 in which quarterback Bob DeMoss led the Boilermakers to a sound victory over the highly regarded Buckeyes. An uncle who attended MIT had also advised him that he could receive a good education without going all the way to Cambridge, Massachusetts. "No need to travel so far away from home, Neil." Ironic, eh?
Because I run the (now global) Distance Learning Association, I often reflect back on how distance learning became DIGITAL learning and now, today in 2024, it's really just DIGITAL LIVING. Zoom just announced that they can host 1M+ (that's one million) people on a webinar. My mind went to this: would it not be cool to have let's say 900+ people LIVE on the INTREPID, 900K+ LIVE via Zoom Webinar, and 9M+ watching the archives via YouTube or Workvivo. Pushing the boundaries of distance learning. Let's do it!
I think back and reminisce about how I would drive the 739.2 miles from home to PURDUE when I was a teenager. And how my two sons would drive the 162 miles back and forth to UCONN and a few round-trips to Quinnipiac University (110 miles). RUTGERS is 40.7 miles from my home in BOONTON USA. I can only imagine how many times I made that round-trip to the RUTGERS School of BUSINESS. Hundreds of times, easy. Heck, I still do! { but now, for hosting Zoom events FROM campus...}
Aviation changed the world. And the Space Race changed the world - especially the world of EDUCATION. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research changed the world - no matter where you live, and no matter what country you were born.
Viasat and Starlink now provide reliable high-speed internet to 102 countries. Both aspire to provide global mobile broadband. So, soon, you will be able to get a college or university degree from PURDUE UNIVERSITY (or from ANY college or university) from anywhere in the world.
And one day.... from the moon. And beyond.
Thanks Amelia, thanks Neil.
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