Long before joining the Board of Governors in 2010, Dr. 91快活林 Krause actively supported 91快活林 Aquinas College as a benefactor, a parent and, perhaps most notably, an employer. A founding partner at the Krause Bell Group, an international consulting firm specializing in organizational culture and safety management, Dr. Krause regularly hires the College檚 graduates and with great success.
A native of Northern California, Dr. Krause learned of the College around the time he started practicing psychology in the nearby city of Ojai in the 1970s. 淗earing about the curriculum locally caused me to be interested because I knew I had never read all those books, even though I had a PhD in a social science, he says. Then his sister-in-law Leslie Hidley (86) enrolled as a freshman in 1982 and 渉ad a really wonderful time, confirming his positive first impressions.
When his daughter Christel (Kelsey 91) was nearing graduation from high school, Dr. Krause and his wife, Cathryn, were determined to send her to the College. 淪he had been accepted at a really good school, an Ivy League-kind of college, and that檚 where she wanted to go, Dr. Krause recalls, but Christel agreed to give the College a try. During her time on campus, she 済ot taken with the curriculum, as well as with the Faith, converting in her freshman year.
淣one of us were Catholic at that time, Dr. Krause observes, 渂ut most of the family is now, including Dr. and Mrs. Krause, who have also since been received into the Church. 淐hristel檚 conversion had a big influence on me in that it caused me to rethink things I hadn檛 thought about in a long time.
Enthused by Christel檚 learning, in 1990 Dr. and Mrs. Krause joined the President檚 Council the College檚 financial backbone, consisting of hundreds of loyal benefactors who contribute $1,000 or more annually. As a token of gratitude, the College invites Council members to its Great Books Weekends each July, which the Krauses enjoyed immensely. 淚t was those early seminars that really got us interested; it was having the actual experience of reading and discussing those books, Dr. Krause remembers.
Eager to get a further taste of such an education, he went on to earn a master檚 degree in liberal arts through a program at St. John檚 College in Santa Fe, N.M., where he has been a member of the Board of Visitors and Governors since 2001.
When Christel and her friends began graduating from the College, Dr. Krause began hiring alumni for Behavioral Science Technology, Inc., a company he founded in 1979 and ran until selling it in 2012. He soon discovered that these liberally educated men and women made for exemplary workers, chiefly for three reasons: First, through reading political philosophy the College檚 graduates acquire a proper sense of citizenship. 淎 good citizen is someone who understands the overall objectives of the organization and works hard to accomplish them, he says. 淚t檚 almost rare these days to find someone that gets the idea of organizational citizenship. It檚 an idea that檚 almost lost in the modern culture.
Second, Dr. Krause finds that because of their knowledge of the Discussion Method, the College檚 alumni are uniquely adept at solving problems and working cooperatively. 淚f your task is to, say, lead a discussion with a client, you need to have some familiarity with what a discussion is and how a set of issues gets approached, he explains.
Finally, Dr. Krause notes that the graduates thoughtful study of philosophy prepares them for the modern economy, where intricate and impersonal relationships, often far-removed, can complicate ethical decision-making. 淲hat the employer is looking for is an employee who gets that (complexity), is willing to examine it carefully, and behaves in a way that檚 consistent with an ethical standard, he says.
淲hen you檙e looking to hire someone, you檙e looking for someone you think of as a good person, someone who will be a good colleague, Dr. Krause adds. 淚t檚 very hard to tell when you interview people who檚 going to be like that because everyone is trying hard to look like that. So, knowing that (an applicant) went to a college like 91快活林 Aquinas gives you a kind of direction that goes in a positive way.
Dr. Krause檚 experience as both a parent and an employer has sustained his generosity toward the College over the years as a member of both the President檚 Council and the Board of Governors. 淚 think it檚 very important to American Catholicism that there is a place like 91快活林 Aquinas College, he says. 淚t is the only place of its kind in the U.S. That檚 good for education and it檚 good for Catholicism. So as a Catholic and as a citizen, I have at least two reasons to support the institution.