1. Commerce, Education & Community
in the 21st Century
Zen Benefiel, MA, MBA
ZenBenefiel.com

2. Premise:
– Natural Order is Universal Order, which
can be experienced in a community.
– Our Natural Design is to function as One
within a community arrangement.
– What we do not know we can learn with
the common sense intuitive questions.
– Holistic Educational Practices Evolve
through sensing and prototyping
Fingertip Exercise – Feel/Think

3. • Vision & Mission Revisited
• 21st Century Education
• Spectrum Vision & Mission
• Culture and Normative Beliefs
• Holistic Charter School & Village
• Community Technology Centers
• Collaborative Alliance & Stakeholder Incentives

4. • Why do you need to know this?
• How does it affect our community?
• What are the results of status quo?
• What potentials exist for new communities?
• What can be done collaboratively?
• How do we continue to… ?

5. Spectrum Academy leads learning and
living communities in assisting ‘at-risk’ to
‘at-hope’ youths and adults to heal their
emotional, intellectual, physical, and
spiritual wounds which create positive
and profound changes in community
development and sustainability.

6. Provide an alternative state-of-the-art
holistic educational and living
environment for youth and adults to
find direction and purpose using
proven programs that result in
healthy and productive young and
aged adults who contribute to society.

7. Ten Educational Trends Shaping School Planning and Design
– The Lines of Prescribed Attendance Areas Will Blur
– Schools Will Be Smaller and More Neighborhood Oriented
– There Will Be Fewer Students Per Class
– Technology Will Dominate Instructional Delivery
– The Typical Spaces Thought to Constitute a School May Change
– Students and Teachers Will Be Organized Differently
– Students Will Spend More Time in School
– Instructional Materials Will Evolve
– Grade Configurations Will Change
– Schools Will Disappear Before the End of the 21st Century
(Or Will They?)
Kenneth R. Stevenson, Ed.D.
Department of Educational
Leadership and Policies
College of Education
University of South Carolina
September 2002

8. – Aptitude and Ability
– Multiple Intelligences
– Emotional Intelligences
– Holistic Understanding
– Free Play & Special Needs
– Systems Thinking Awareness
– Holistic Systems Understanding

9. • School
• Holistic Design – Body, Mind, Spirit, Earth
• Academics - character, communication,
consciousness
• Aquaculture, Horticulture, Permaculture
• Residential
• Behavior, emotions and character development
• Natural cycles and processes for community
• Natural amphitheater/Gathering place
• Community Technology Center
• Data Center – Connected, Storage & Delivery
• Co-working and Incubator Areas
• Community Meeting Space

10. • Cottage Industries
• Holistic economies and entrepreneurship
• Multi-generational activities - OJT
• Extended community integration – shops, et al
• Residential Housing Development
– Concentric Circle Configuration
• 1st Phase – Students and Staff
• 2nd Phase – Family Residences
• 3rd Phase – Student-built infrastructure
– Multi-family housing, single units, common areas,
gardens, landscaping, bike/walk and waterways

12. Potential to include alternative energy production using
Biomass, Solar, Tesla, Wind, Water
Domed, Rammed Earth, Biomass Materials, Formed/Poured
Waterways as well as bike and walkways

13. • Holistic education/understanding
• Emotional & Multiple Intelligences
• Communication / negotiation skills
• Critical thinking development
• Live & Technology-based curriculum
• Individualized supplemental instruction

14. • Facilitates Growth of…
– Emotional - Perception
– Intellectual – Critical Thinking
– Artistic - Expression
– Creative - Imagination
– Social - Communication
– Physical – Athleticism
– Spiritual - Visioneering

15. • 13 Structures – Natural Materials
• 6-8 students per residence
• Counseling & Group Circles
• Peer Community Development
• Rites of Passage and Celebration
• Mentoring Programs
• On-going Support Systems
• Family Involvement

16. • Develop Appreciation for Creativity
• Learn New Approaches to Solve Problems
• Positive Reinforcement Applied in Win-Win
• Exposures to Critical Thinking Opportunities
• Mentoring and Peer Tutoring Experience
• Preparation - Higher Levels of Independence

17. • Instructional Capacity
– Entrepreneurial training
• Community Interface
– Access to Opportunity
• Data/Profit Center
– E-curriculum
– Distance Learning
– Adult Ed
– Web-based services
Co-Working & Incubator Space

18. • Power
– Tesla Tech
– Solar
– Water
– Wind
– Discoveries
• Construction Design
– Archology Inclusion
– Energy-efficient
– Environmentally friendly
– Frequency familiar
– Reflective of Nature
– Carbon sequestrating
– Agri- & Aqua-culture

19. • Peer Community Relationships
• Scientific and Spiritual Coalesce
• Direct Experience of Connectedness
• Experimental Nature of Discovery
• Needs-Centric Agility and Responsiveness
• Ability to Scale Operational Improvement
• New Kinds and Types of Deliverables

20. • Establish core relationships
• Create common goals and objectives
• Design synergistic activities
• Produce tracking mechanisms
• Review and revise programs
• Develop scalable applications
• Create metrics for measurement

21. • Youth Preparedness for Life/Work
• Higher Functional Employees
• Choice of Continuing Education
• Capable Citizenry for Change
• Higher Participation in Community
• Facility funding - CTC Operations
• Replicable Model for Deployment

22. • Offer Critical Review/Questions
– Check for understanding
• Further Contacts / Resources
– Expands the Network Capacity
• Donors and Funding Opportunities
– Tax credits, Grants, Fed/State programs
• Letters of Support / Recommendation
– Increase opportunities for collaboration

23. • What kind of future do we want
immediately for ourselves and for our
children’s children’s children?
• How can we work together to achieve it?
• What is human nature redefined as One?
• How can we include a new living
awareness in the organic development of
community from concept to occupancy?

24. • Team Development
– Urban designers, architects, landscape architects,
transportation engineers, urban planners, industrial
designers, instructional designers, leadership
• Location & Setting
– Region, climate, culture, adjacent communities
• Benefactors & Funding
– Architectural drawings, business plan, presentations

25. What’s missing in the concept and creation of such a community?
What would this look like in a community development scenario?
What is the natural best fit? How do we focus on flow vs push/pull?
What are the barriers to development? How could local materials be incorporated?
How would Tesla technology and other Earth-centric sources work as energy sources?
How to include FREE PLAY? How to co-create a holistic environment?
How to include a multi-cultural approach?
How to co-create curriculum that matches the students’ independent and collective needs?
How to develop metrics and reporting? How to develop Multi-Generational bridges?
How to coordinate Architects, Contractors, Designers, Engineers et al, working as ONE?
How to develop a Dream Team of collaborators? What are the ‘next steps’ ?

26. Zen Benefiel
– Coach@BeTheDream.com
– 01-480-633-7179
– SpectrumAcademy.org (outdated)
– Linkedin.com/in/zenbenefiel
– Facebook.com/zenbenefiel
– hylo.com/all/members/37930
– More info: ZenBenefiel.com