home cover story Henry Shannon, president of Chaffee College, left, talks with Gus Whalen at the Masters in Teaching ceremony. Shannon hopes the communiversity model will help his community bring back lost manufacturing jobs and create a highly skilled workforce. Photo courtesy LSIPhoto.com.
its own communiversity based on the Featherbone model. The model is catching on fast. Also in attendance were several community leaders from Athens, Ga., who were wanting to learn more about the communiversity. “The communiversity exists in most communities, it just has yet to be organized,” says Whalen. Steve Hollis of Power Partners, Inc., was among the Athens group attending the Master Teachers ceremony. Hollis is impressed by what Whalen has been able to achieve with the communiversity. “I’ve been following Gus for decades,” Hollis said. “(Master Teachers) is just the latest evolution in his journey. We wanted to learn more about the collaboration and partnerships that go into this and just ‘live in the moment’ as Gus says. Hollis said there are few people that he can call one of his heros, and Gus is certainly a “hero in action.” “He’s the embodiment of never failing. Failure is not an option for Gus.” But Whalen doesn’t see himself as a hero. He just sees himself as a member of a much larger communiversity, the one he says we all live in. “I would love it that we should think of ourselves as a communiversity city — a phenomenon alive in both place and spirit,” says Whalen. It is possible he says to have a nonpolitical setting with no inhibitions built in. No agendas other than growing communities together. “Since we can do it, we begin to do it. The ideal becomes real.”
“He’s the embodiment of never failing. Failure is not an option for Gus.”
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