Sachin H. Jain: An ambitious goal to a group of attentive eighth graders

Sachin H. Jain, President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Thirty years ago, I sat in a Hackensack auditorium as part of the induction ceremony for the third class of the Bergen County (NJ) Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology, a startup magnet high school. The lights were dim and a short, chubby man stood at the front of the auditorium and issued an ambitious goal to a group of attentive eighth graders:

‘My dream is that one day, one of you will win a Nobel Prize.’

The man at the front of the room was John Grieco, then the Superintendant of the Bergen County Technical Schools. Grieco was the visionary, controversial leader who dreamed that Bergen County could do better for its students. He imagined a school whose capabilities, teachers, and curriculum modeled the future in which they would live. He, and the teachers he assembled, emphasized entrepreneurship, technology, scientific discovery, and real world experience and impact. Grieco was the CEO of his own education ‘startup.’

Grieco’s startup is all grown up now. What was then a controversial experiment is now a collection of specialized schools and programs for students with specialized interests and abilities. The Bergen County Academies have graduated thousands of students whose lives have been indelibly changed and shapes by the experience of attending a school by a leader who dreamed to ‘think different.’ Many have gone on to positions of leadership in medicine, academia, business, and technology.

Years later, when we reflect on Dr Grieco’s bold ambition, his instincts toward creative disruption–we are cured of any cynicism or complacency. Though Dr Grieco suffered an untimely death in 2004 before any of his students could achieve his goal, he taught all of his students one of life’s most important lessons. When they puts their mind to it, one person can actually make a difference.”

Source: Sachin H. Jain/LinkedIn