my name is marios and I am a baby boomer
I don’t look like millennial at all I’m
going to be sharing life true life
stories that I experienced as a baby
boomer as an educator or baby boomer
with my student millenials throughout
the years and especially in the region
here baby boomers many definitions about
the age group they are the most accurate
one from the 1940s to the early 60s the
Millennials from 1980s to early 2000
obviously I am in the first group
millenials a very I would say mistaken
group demographic in us the baby boomers
basically spoiled them I have two
daughters one is a millennial the other
one is a Generation X well the
Millennial is spoiled as parents because
we had to go through hard times growing
up we wanted the best for our students
whatever they needed whatever they asked
yes you will have it a statistic which
is kind of surprising
the Millennials actually make 27 percent
of the world population today and just
to mention one example of the country of
India almost 400 million are Millennials
in India as I said I’m going to be
sharing some stories with you
let me see by the show of hands how many
of you are using this mobile this model
today anybody I’m not surprised I used
to use this five years ago one of my
female students Academy University came
to
and she said I cannot really accept the
fact that my professor is using
technology from the previous century and
she gave me these as a gift and I said
this is very complicated it has
something that says doors up there what
is that she said well you travel you go
to Cyprus where I come from you come to
Qatar so it’s better to use two SIM
cards instead of having just one and
then exchanging it I said okay I was
using my beautiful Nokia before and
sorry all I wanted to do it was to send
messages receive messages talk and
that’s it now why are you complicating
my life with these doers all but you are
going to store a lot of information and
it’s going to have viber and whatsapp I
said what are these I’ll train you don’t
worry I had to go through a training
session which was not very pleasant I
was resisting change she took me out of
my comfort zone she was a millennial I
was a baby boomer anyway I still have it
I’m using it efficiently and effectively
I might say and I learned from the
Millennial student the second story 12
years ago was my first experience
exposure to an Islamic country teaching
at the University in the Gulf the class
was strategic management Monday
Wednesday I knew a few things about
Islam that Muslims pray five days I mean
five times a day and cetera etc so a
student comes to me on Monday and he
said dr. mario’s I need to go and pray
and I’ll be back in ten minutes
I said Mohammed sure please go Mohammed
went and came back on Wednesday
and I said Mohammed please tell me what
happened you told me 10 minutes he said
listen doctor
we are 36 units in the class plus you 37
it took me 48 hours to pray for all of
you for all of us in clue
I said okay next time you go and pray
just pray for yourself forget the rest
I really appreciated his approach his
sense of humor and I told him so I know
he was joking and if I took a different
approach by being very very strict that
well you will never be allowed to go and
pray anymore and if you say ten minutes
is going to be 10 minutes forget it I
was going to lose him as a person and as
a student this is a statistic and it’s
not mine but it was a study that was
conducted in 2016
the sample population close to 19,000
and it was really surveying people over
the age of 16 in 23 countries around the
world take a look at the statistics take
a look at the at the blue the
Millennials that 54% of the people
surveyed said well they are tech-savvy
fair enough if you take a look at the
other characteristics materialistic
selfish lazy arrogant all of them
negative all of them take a look at the
baby boomers we are angels take a look
respectful works entry community
orientated well-educated and ethical all
of the above these are some of the
stereotypes that we are using about the
baby I mean sorry about the Millennials
spoiled by parents as I said earlier
then I experienced that with a low
self-esteem impatient I had a student
who graduated he came back and he said
dr. Mario’s I just wanted to come and
talk to you about my job I said yes I’ve
met please tell me well I didn’t get any
promotion yet I said how long have you
been working ten months
be patient ten months do you know it
really not about the organization does
the organization really know about your
competencies not yet just be patient
sooner or later it will come but I
wanted to happen sooner well you have to
be patient and the yarra detect our
detect to technology in one of the rules
I have in class is students you enter
the class you are not going to use your
mobile phones just silence them put them
away and they are really they don’t like
that at all but when I ask them now it’s
time to use technology to do some
research either mobile access the
internet and everything you see a white
smile up to here
I said haha now we are talking that’s
if we take advantage of their addiction
code and code to technology we can
really perform miracles with with the
Millennials and I really honestly have a
true respect for them because they are
really part of our educational system
and yes I am a baby boomer a generation
away but do we really expect ourselves
to go backwards as boo baby boomers or
go forward and follow the flow as far as
technology is concerned they are going
to teach us if we want to get out of our
comfort zone and I did with the example
of the mobile to some extent superficial
friendships I remember one of my
advisors at the PhD level when I was
studying in the United States
Hasan Oz began he came and into the
classroom in a ph.d seminar and he asked
all of us how many friends do you have
everybody was proud to say 10 11 12 20
he said the wrong answer you might have
maybe two three including yourself and
you better be a friend to yourself the
other one or two you basically are
people
you call at three or four o’clock in the
morning and you say I want to talk
please listen to me because I need to
talk what I have found out with with my
students mostly they are really at the
superficial level not really in depth
that they are willing to listen to each
other but with social media they
communicate anyway and they convey the
message that they want but face-to-face
is becoming more and more difficult for
them with the low self-esteem a true
story again that involved Millennials I
was teaching a course I had a student
with special needs and he was 99.9%
blind and I asked him I said Ali I would
like you to present together with your
group members and he said after mario’s
I have been at Callan University for
four years I have never presented I said
why not
you can talk you have never missed a
class you are highly intelligent and I
really want you to present along with
your team members and I talked to the
team members and I said here is a
challenge for you would you be willing
to help Ali present they could have said
no it’s none of our business we don’t
want to do it leave us alone we want to
get a good grade who cares
on the contrary they motivated him they
helped me helped him to present of
course he couldn’t see the screen but
from the bullet point when he was his
turn to present they were telling him
okay this is the topic and Ali was
explaining it
this happened in one semester the second
semester the same situation with Ali he
presented again with the help of more or
less the same people in the group this
has a lot to do with taking one step
further which is to me is social
responsibility big time and I will talk
about it in a few minutes as well
before I get into this there was another
story that one of the rules again that I
have in class is after 15 minutes I’m
going to put a sign outside the door
saying please do not enter class session
in I mean class in session thank you
Mario’s room number 2 when you come to
class forgets sunglasses and number 3
forget your mobiles silence them
one student because she wanted to test
me she walked in the classroom instead
of 8:15 at 8:25 wearing sunglasses and
texting she was walking I said fat man
you have violated all three rules come
on doctor it’s the first time please
never not going to happen again I said
do you know what a u-turn is she said
yeah well I said make a u-turn please
and leave are you serious I said I am I
am serious so she did that she learned
from that she was never late again I
know I was strict but you have to really
teach the Millennials some discipline as
well for me to be able to approach them
there are certain methods certain
approaches that I use just to really you
know build the bridge to minimize that
gap between the two generations at the
personal level you can easily have
team-based exercises in class where they
can really really work on their
leadership skills and leadership skills
believe it or not is the number one
requirement by employers that the
potential employees should have really
leadership skills that’s one plus it’s
you know they cultivate they develop
communication as well they listen which
is very important to listen not to just
talk and I usually tell them God gave us
two years to listen more and talk less
that’s what my mother told me academic
ensure that students have the hands-on
approach with the material theories are
great but asking them to really again
get out of their comfort zone go outside
find identify an organization where
there is for-profit or not-for-profit
and go in and interview and survey and
make appointment it’s challenging and
you are going to learn this way how to
communicate how to make appointments how
to design a survey questionnaire in
cetera et cetera it’s challenging sure
because they come back and they complain
they say well doctor they are busy they
don’t care about us from the companies I
said sure you are not number one
priority
they are your number one priority for
your final project so welcome to the
real world go again and be persistent
and you somebody is going to really
respond at some point these real life
stories that I just shared with you I
share them with the students the first
week of class every semester the same
stories and they relate to them because
they are Millennials and these stories
come from their age group as well to ask
them to share their own experiences in
class even though they are younger than
me because everybody expects that they
are going to learn everything from the
professor and I tell them you are wrong
all I have is more years on my shoulders
I have a PhD you have less years you
don’t have a PhD it doesn’t make me more
intelligent than you it makes me more
experienced
I would like to know about your
experiences as well whether they are
live personal professional academic
whatever some of them do some of them
don’t but at least this is something to
approach them as well to get closer to
them to understand them I found out that
some students have the courage to come
to my office and share their experiences
and some of them are very personal and
they asked me to to really keep them
confidential and I do that and that’s
why some students call me papa Mario’s
I’m like their father figure which I’m
these social responsibilities in their
projects yes I do ask them to do that
where there is a strategic plan or a
business plan for for example because I
teach in the business school and the
story that I shared with you earlier
with the students assisting a student
recognize them for meeting goals and
targets usually we have the tendency of
reprimanding them and you didn’t meet
the deadline and you’re going to be
punished and all these but I found out
that if you really appreciate and
recognize what they have done and they
have submitted something really on-time
and it’s of high quality above average
they really really appreciate it a lot
I strongly believe in the Millennials
and they really really make me feel much
younger I I really mean that
and it’s the passion that I have to be
in the classroom that if you take me out
of the classroom is like taking a fish
out of the water I will die and I
strongly believe in them they are the
largest demographic as I told you they
are young they are bright they are
energetic they are very entrepreneurial
they are very innovative
they are the future it’s the future
generation and they are great assets
which the world must harness and use
thank you very much [Applause]
I don’t look like millennial at all I’m
going to be sharing life true life
stories that I experienced as a baby
boomer as an educator or baby boomer
with my student millenials throughout
the years and especially in the region
here baby boomers many definitions about
the age group they are the most accurate
one from the 1940s to the early 60s the
Millennials from 1980s to early 2000
obviously I am in the first group
millenials a very I would say mistaken
group demographic in us the baby boomers
basically spoiled them I have two
daughters one is a millennial the other
one is a Generation X well the
Millennial is spoiled as parents because
we had to go through hard times growing
up we wanted the best for our students
whatever they needed whatever they asked
yes you will have it a statistic which
is kind of surprising
the Millennials actually make 27 percent
of the world population today and just
to mention one example of the country of
India almost 400 million are Millennials
in India as I said I’m going to be
sharing some stories with you
let me see by the show of hands how many
of you are using this mobile this model
today anybody I’m not surprised I used
to use this five years ago one of my
female students Academy University came
to
and she said I cannot really accept the
fact that my professor is using
technology from the previous century and
she gave me these as a gift and I said
this is very complicated it has
something that says doors up there what
is that she said well you travel you go
to Cyprus where I come from you come to
Qatar so it’s better to use two SIM
cards instead of having just one and
then exchanging it I said okay I was
using my beautiful Nokia before and
sorry all I wanted to do it was to send
messages receive messages talk and
that’s it now why are you complicating
my life with these doers all but you are
going to store a lot of information and
it’s going to have viber and whatsapp I
said what are these I’ll train you don’t
worry I had to go through a training
session which was not very pleasant I
was resisting change she took me out of
my comfort zone she was a millennial I
was a baby boomer anyway I still have it
I’m using it efficiently and effectively
I might say and I learned from the
Millennial student the second story 12
years ago was my first experience
exposure to an Islamic country teaching
at the University in the Gulf the class
was strategic management Monday
Wednesday I knew a few things about
Islam that Muslims pray five days I mean
five times a day and cetera etc so a
student comes to me on Monday and he
said dr. mario’s I need to go and pray
and I’ll be back in ten minutes
I said Mohammed sure please go Mohammed
went and came back on Wednesday
and I said Mohammed please tell me what
happened you told me 10 minutes he said
listen doctor
we are 36 units in the class plus you 37
it took me 48 hours to pray for all of
you for all of us in clue
I said okay next time you go and pray
just pray for yourself forget the rest
I really appreciated his approach his
sense of humor and I told him so I know
he was joking and if I took a different
approach by being very very strict that
well you will never be allowed to go and
pray anymore and if you say ten minutes
is going to be 10 minutes forget it I
was going to lose him as a person and as
a student this is a statistic and it’s
not mine but it was a study that was
conducted in 2016
the sample population close to 19,000
and it was really surveying people over
the age of 16 in 23 countries around the
world take a look at the statistics take
a look at the at the blue the
Millennials that 54% of the people
surveyed said well they are tech-savvy
fair enough if you take a look at the
other characteristics materialistic
selfish lazy arrogant all of them
negative all of them take a look at the
baby boomers we are angels take a look
respectful works entry community
orientated well-educated and ethical all
of the above these are some of the
stereotypes that we are using about the
baby I mean sorry about the Millennials
spoiled by parents as I said earlier
then I experienced that with a low
self-esteem impatient I had a student
who graduated he came back and he said
dr. Mario’s I just wanted to come and
talk to you about my job I said yes I’ve
met please tell me well I didn’t get any
promotion yet I said how long have you
been working ten months
be patient ten months do you know it
really not about the organization does
the organization really know about your
competencies not yet just be patient
sooner or later it will come but I
wanted to happen sooner well you have to
be patient and the yarra detect our
detect to technology in one of the rules
I have in class is students you enter
the class you are not going to use your
mobile phones just silence them put them
away and they are really they don’t like
that at all but when I ask them now it’s
time to use technology to do some
research either mobile access the
internet and everything you see a white
smile up to here
I said haha now we are talking that’s
if we take advantage of their addiction
code and code to technology we can
really perform miracles with with the
Millennials and I really honestly have a
true respect for them because they are
really part of our educational system
and yes I am a baby boomer a generation
away but do we really expect ourselves
to go backwards as boo baby boomers or
go forward and follow the flow as far as
technology is concerned they are going
to teach us if we want to get out of our
comfort zone and I did with the example
of the mobile to some extent superficial
friendships I remember one of my
advisors at the PhD level when I was
studying in the United States
Hasan Oz began he came and into the
classroom in a ph.d seminar and he asked
all of us how many friends do you have
everybody was proud to say 10 11 12 20
he said the wrong answer you might have
maybe two three including yourself and
you better be a friend to yourself the
other one or two you basically are
people
you call at three or four o’clock in the
morning and you say I want to talk
please listen to me because I need to
talk what I have found out with with my
students mostly they are really at the
superficial level not really in depth
that they are willing to listen to each
other but with social media they
communicate anyway and they convey the
message that they want but face-to-face
is becoming more and more difficult for
them with the low self-esteem a true
story again that involved Millennials I
was teaching a course I had a student
with special needs and he was 99.9%
blind and I asked him I said Ali I would
like you to present together with your
group members and he said after mario’s
I have been at Callan University for
four years I have never presented I said
why not
you can talk you have never missed a
class you are highly intelligent and I
really want you to present along with
your team members and I talked to the
team members and I said here is a
challenge for you would you be willing
to help Ali present they could have said
no it’s none of our business we don’t
want to do it leave us alone we want to
get a good grade who cares
on the contrary they motivated him they
helped me helped him to present of
course he couldn’t see the screen but
from the bullet point when he was his
turn to present they were telling him
okay this is the topic and Ali was
explaining it
this happened in one semester the second
semester the same situation with Ali he
presented again with the help of more or
less the same people in the group this
has a lot to do with taking one step
further which is to me is social
responsibility big time and I will talk
about it in a few minutes as well
before I get into this there was another
story that one of the rules again that I
have in class is after 15 minutes I’m
going to put a sign outside the door
saying please do not enter class session
in I mean class in session thank you
Mario’s room number 2 when you come to
class forgets sunglasses and number 3
forget your mobiles silence them
one student because she wanted to test
me she walked in the classroom instead
of 8:15 at 8:25 wearing sunglasses and
texting she was walking I said fat man
you have violated all three rules come
on doctor it’s the first time please
never not going to happen again I said
do you know what a u-turn is she said
yeah well I said make a u-turn please
and leave are you serious I said I am I
am serious so she did that she learned
from that she was never late again I
know I was strict but you have to really
teach the Millennials some discipline as
well for me to be able to approach them
there are certain methods certain
approaches that I use just to really you
know build the bridge to minimize that
gap between the two generations at the
personal level you can easily have
team-based exercises in class where they
can really really work on their
leadership skills and leadership skills
believe it or not is the number one
requirement by employers that the
potential employees should have really
leadership skills that’s one plus it’s
you know they cultivate they develop
communication as well they listen which
is very important to listen not to just
talk and I usually tell them God gave us
two years to listen more and talk less
that’s what my mother told me academic
ensure that students have the hands-on
approach with the material theories are
great but asking them to really again
get out of their comfort zone go outside
find identify an organization where
there is for-profit or not-for-profit
and go in and interview and survey and
make appointment it’s challenging and
you are going to learn this way how to
communicate how to make appointments how
to design a survey questionnaire in
cetera et cetera it’s challenging sure
because they come back and they complain
they say well doctor they are busy they
don’t care about us from the companies I
said sure you are not number one
priority
they are your number one priority for
your final project so welcome to the
real world go again and be persistent
and you somebody is going to really
respond at some point these real life
stories that I just shared with you I
share them with the students the first
week of class every semester the same
stories and they relate to them because
they are Millennials and these stories
come from their age group as well to ask
them to share their own experiences in
class even though they are younger than
me because everybody expects that they
are going to learn everything from the
professor and I tell them you are wrong
all I have is more years on my shoulders
I have a PhD you have less years you
don’t have a PhD it doesn’t make me more
intelligent than you it makes me more
experienced
I would like to know about your
experiences as well whether they are
live personal professional academic
whatever some of them do some of them
don’t but at least this is something to
approach them as well to get closer to
them to understand them I found out that
some students have the courage to come
to my office and share their experiences
and some of them are very personal and
they asked me to to really keep them
confidential and I do that and that’s
why some students call me papa Mario’s
I’m like their father figure which I’m
these social responsibilities in their
projects yes I do ask them to do that
where there is a strategic plan or a
business plan for for example because I
teach in the business school and the
story that I shared with you earlier
with the students assisting a student
recognize them for meeting goals and
targets usually we have the tendency of
reprimanding them and you didn’t meet
the deadline and you’re going to be
punished and all these but I found out
that if you really appreciate and
recognize what they have done and they
have submitted something really on-time
and it’s of high quality above average
they really really appreciate it a lot
I strongly believe in the Millennials
and they really really make me feel much
younger I I really mean that
and it’s the passion that I have to be
in the classroom that if you take me out
of the classroom is like taking a fish
out of the water I will die and I
strongly believe in them they are the
largest demographic as I told you they
are young they are bright they are
energetic they are very entrepreneurial
they are very innovative
they are the future it’s the future
generation and they are great assets
which the world must harness and use
thank you very much [Applause]
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