Welcome to my blog. My name is William, but people know me better as BJ (Bill John). I created this blog as both a portfolio and showcase for my professional and educational works related to my Masters of Science in Organizational Leadership (MSOL), and Masters of Education (M.Ed) studies. Additionally, I create and post content relevant to the topics of education, leadership, and my health/fitness journey respectively.
Professionally, I have earned a masters of education (M.Ed) degree, a masters in organizational leadership (MSOL), a bachelor’s in human services, and an associates in business administration with a focus on non-profit leadership. As a leader, I value the relationships and connections that we foster among ourselves. As a scholar, I have always had a profound interest in the humanities and what makes “us” “tick”. As a result, my education has been focused strongly on leadership, education, and the humanities.
I have a deep passion for leadership and helping people grow into the best versions of themselves – nothing is truly more rewarding than watching someone grow into their potential. I have worked in the field of higher education since 2018 and have honed my skills in data analytics, curricular assessment, curriculum alignment, and instructional design; focusing on online learning environments and the online learning experience.
Why a dual masters? Why earn a M.Ed degree after my MSOL? Well, my love for empowerment, leadership, and technology all intersect at instructional design and online learning. I get the best of all my worlds and passions with this profession. As both a professor and department leader, these two degrees are my passions, and because of them I get to live my passions 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
About Me:
I am a servant leader. The term servant leader, first coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970, is defined by leadership traits focused on service to others. As a servant leader, I seek to help people to the best of my ability regardless of their need, race, gender, or orientation. I desire to teach or inspire others to grow, and give others the capacity to be confident in any and every aspect of their lives where possible.
My commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion in academia and the workforce is grounded in my own personal experiences and my leadership education. I am a first-generation college graduate. I did not have many financial resources available to me and I had to pay my own way through college. There were a lot of emotional, social, and financial barriers that I had to overcome both in the classroom and out. Times often got tough and there were days where I had to choose between work, sleep, or school. These experiences all shaped me to be who I am today, as I have a deep commitment to the removal of barriers in education wherever possible. The stress of affording my textbooks each semester, and the stress of trying to manage my time to pay for all of those expenses so I could better improve my life and live my dream at times, felt insurmountable.
My dream today is to lessen this burden wherever possible for the next generation of college students and my current efforts continue to reflect my commitment to enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion. Gender, age, race, orientation, and wealth all affect the student learning experience because these traits in part define us. As a person and instructional designer, I am an advocate for open educational resources (OER) to reduce cost to students and to increase accessibility of content for everyone. And as a designer, I work to remove barriers to the learning experience by following general universal design (UDL) principles so we can better engage students and allow students to demonstrate their knowledge in ways that connect with them.
In my 11 years in undergraduate and graduate education both as a student and employee in the field of higher education, I have directly observed the many ways that diverse teams make academia stronger. I have been fortunate to work alongside talented, creative, and insightful students, staff, and faculty to solve complex problems. I have been inspired by the resolve of a student base who overcame many obstacles to attend a university, students that eventually graduated and are committed to being life-long learners themselves.
The world is moving so fast today. It is so easy to get caught up in all the chaos that we forget to cherish moments as they are unfolding. Cameras are always out recording or taking photos, social media is always buzzing, information is always flowing. We are so connected, that sometimes we need to disconnect to ground ourselves. This is why I strive to live in the moment and just take everything in. Time is truly non-refundable, so I do my best to enjoy every second I have as those precious seconds pass. 
The world is moving so fast today. It is so easy to get caught up in all the chaos that we forget to cherish moments as they are unfolding. Cameras are always out recording or taking photos, social media is always buzzing, information is always flowing. We are so connected, that sometimes we need to disconnect to ground ourselves.
In life, doors open and close all the time, and time is such a precious commodity. So, when a door opens, it is so important to walk through that door and seize that opportunity.
Setting goals is one of the essential keys to leadership growth, and a core orientation to being gritty. I have a very competitive mindset, so I like to set goals as a way to inspire perseverance within myself. I am always looking for a number or a benchmark so I can meet or exceed the standard. I recently took another self-evaluation tool from Gallup called the Clifton Strengths Assessment, where I had my five core strengths measured and defined by the assessment platform. My third strongest core strength according to the assessment tool is that of activator. Activators are known for setting up rivalries with a take-charge style, often creating opportunities where I or others, can vie for the top prize.
As a leader, I want to relate to others and allow others to relate back to me, so people can understand my own journey, and maybe be inspired to take a journey themselves. Relators naturally want to self-improve not only for personal growth, but also so relators can help others self-improve too.
Self-improvement is a driving factor in my life. I do not come from a family of wealth or opportunity. Overhearing conversations about money and making rent was a common occurrence in my childhood. My parents did their best to shield me from their worries and had these conversations in private, but I picked up on it. When I was in high school, I was artificially assigned a value and worth, and a ceiling was placed over my head.
I shattered that ceiling and chased my dreams. I am intrinsically motivated by the negative experiences I had in high school. I don’t like being told there is a limit to what I can do in this world. How far I can go, and choose to go, is for me to decide; and a large part of why I am so engaged as a scholar is because back in high school, it was implied that I would not go far in life, and that college was not for people like me. This motivation has shaped my entire outlook on life. I am competitive, but not against other people, I am competitive with myself. I see a goal, a bar, a threshold, and I challenge myself to meet it and exceed it. I want to see what I can achieve, and set my own baseline, instead of allowing someone else to predetermine that for me. Powerful motivators, emotions and feelings can be.
The stress and time demands of being a working professional in graduate school had an unfortunate side effect in that I gained significant weight over the course of my studies. I want to lose weight and live a happier, healthier life with the energy to tackle my passions as fiercely as I did before my graduate studies; this time taking what I learned about myself during my studies, and applying it to my life goal of simply living in, and seizing the moment. Carpe Diem! This starts now.
I want to explore teaching in higher education. I am good at, and thoroughly enjoy, instructing people or training them. I have a natural strength that allows me to break down complex processes and explain them into easy-to-understand chunks of information. I would love the opportunity to explore the possibility of teaching given this innate ability and passion. My goal is to teach my first course before 2023 ends.
I want to further continue my education. I am very interested in obtaining a doctoral in education. An EdD is natural continuation of my educational journey given my leadership and education studies thus far. Longer term, I would like to go back for my doctorate around 2030 as my current focus is on life and my career.
My dream today is to lessen this burden wherever possible for the next generation of college students and my current efforts continue to reflect my commitment to enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion. Gender, age, race, orientation, and wealth all affect the student learning experience because these traits in part define us. As a person and instructional designer, I am an advocate for open educational resources (OER) to reduce cost to students and to increase accessibility of content for everyone. And as a designer, I work to remove barriers to the learning experience by following general universal design (UDL) principles so we can better engage students and allow students to demonstrate their knowledge in ways that connect with them.
In my 11 years in undergraduate and graduate education both as a student and employee in the field of higher education, I have directly observed the many ways that diverse teams make academia stronger. I have been fortunate to work alongside talented, creative, and insightful students, staff, and faculty to solve complex problems. I have been inspired by the resolve of a student base who overcame many obstacles to attend a university, students that eventually graduated and are committed to being life-long learners themselves.
Personal Mission Statement:
My mission is to simply “live in the moment”.
The world is moving so fast today. It is so easy to get caught up in all the chaos that we forget to cherish moments as they are unfolding. Cameras are always out recording or taking photos, social media is always buzzing, information is always flowing. We are so connected, that sometimes we need to disconnect to ground ourselves. This is why I strive to live in the moment and just take everything in. Time is truly non-refundable, so I do my best to enjoy every second I have as those precious seconds pass.
Personal Value Statement:
My personal value statement is expressed in three simple words: “Peace, love, and truth”.
The world is moving so fast today. It is so easy to get caught up in all the chaos that we forget to cherish moments as they are unfolding. Cameras are always out recording or taking photos, social media is always buzzing, information is always flowing. We are so connected, that sometimes we need to disconnect to ground ourselves.
Personal Leadership Statement:
My vision statement is to simply “seize the moment”.
In life, doors open and close all the time, and time is such a precious commodity. So, when a door opens, it is so important to walk through that door and seize that opportunity.
Competencies:
Grit
I have identified grit as a major strength. Grit is essentially the measurement of how much a person can persevere. According to the grit scale self-evaluation as designed by Angela Duckworth, my grit level is a 4.0 out of a possible 5.0. I scored higher than 70% of American adults according to the self-evaluation tool, making grit a measured personal strength of mine.
Goal-Oriented
Setting goals is one of the essential keys to leadership growth, and a core orientation to being gritty. I have a very competitive mindset, so I like to set goals as a way to inspire perseverance within myself. I am always looking for a number or a benchmark so I can meet or exceed the standard. I recently took another self-evaluation tool from Gallup called the Clifton Strengths Assessment, where I had my five core strengths measured and defined by the assessment platform. My third strongest core strength according to the assessment tool is that of activator. Activators are known for setting up rivalries with a take-charge style, often creating opportunities where I or others, can vie for the top prize.
Organization
Another strength of mine is my ability to break down complex processes or ideas, and sort complex processes or ideas into easily understandable chunks of information. I was also able to validate this strength, as according to the Clifton Strengths Assessment, my fifth strongest strength on the strength finder was that of input. One defining trait of the input core strength is the ability to translate complex tasks or ideas into easily understandable chunks of information.
Optimist
What I consider to be my greatest strength, is my positive mindset. People cannot control what happens in life, but people can control how people choose to react. As such, I choose to always remain positive even in the most stressful of moments. A positive mindset helps alleviate stress, and is an essential component to happiness. Choosing how to respond to a situation and remaining positive, is deeply rooted in the field of psychology and is the foundation for the psychotherapy process known as cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). CBT is a self-talked based therapy with the goal of modifying behaviors by changing the thought process of a person.
Motivations
As measured by the Clifton Strengths Assessment tool, my number one core strength is that of the relator. Relators share deep connections with others, and are naturally curious about people and how people operate. Relators like to be close with people, and are often comfortable with vulnerability as a means of growth and relationship enhancement.
As a leader, I want to relate to others and allow others to relate back to me, so people can understand my own journey, and maybe be inspired to take a journey themselves. Relators naturally want to self-improve not only for personal growth, but also so relators can help others self-improve too.
Self-improvement is a driving factor in my life. I do not come from a family of wealth or opportunity. Overhearing conversations about money and making rent was a common occurrence in my childhood. My parents did their best to shield me from their worries and had these conversations in private, but I picked up on it. When I was in high school, I was artificially assigned a value and worth, and a ceiling was placed over my head.
I shattered that ceiling and chased my dreams. I am intrinsically motivated by the negative experiences I had in high school. I don’t like being told there is a limit to what I can do in this world. How far I can go, and choose to go, is for me to decide; and a large part of why I am so engaged as a scholar is because back in high school, it was implied that I would not go far in life, and that college was not for people like me. This motivation has shaped my entire outlook on life. I am competitive, but not against other people, I am competitive with myself. I see a goal, a bar, a threshold, and I challenge myself to meet it and exceed it. I want to see what I can achieve, and set my own baseline, instead of allowing someone else to predetermine that for me. Powerful motivators, emotions and feelings can be.
Current Leadership Action Plan:
Health & Fitness: Now
Teacher: 2023 (Achieved, January 2023!) I am now an adjunct professor in addition to my role as an eLearning Designer)
I want to explore teaching in higher education. I am good at, and thoroughly enjoy, instructing people or training them. I have a natural strength that allows me to break down complex processes and explain them into easy-to-understand chunks of information. I would love the opportunity to explore the possibility of teaching given this innate ability and passion. My goal is to teach my first course before 2023 ends.
Doctorate: 2030
I want to further continue my education. I am very interested in obtaining a doctoral in education. An EdD is natural continuation of my educational journey given my leadership and education studies thus far. Longer term, I would like to go back for my doctorate around 2030 as my current focus is on life and my career.
Digital Citizenship Statement:
I believe technology should be approachable, intuitive, and accessible to all. As an instructional designer, it is my goal to help build bridges where there are barriers in technological literacy wherever and however possible so that anyone can have equal access and equal opportunity to pursue knowledge and education freely and unabated.Want to connect? Follow me on LinkedIn!