Latest news with #Project100
Sky News AU
15-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
'It was a wake up call': Mark Bouris, 68, opens up about his secret health scare and the costly mistake he made by ignoring the warning signs
Australian entrepreneur and media personality Mark Bouris has opened up for the first time about a serious health scare he faced in 2009. The 68-year-old shared the personal revelation in a candid new blog post, reflecting on the experience and what it taught him about valuing his health. "I didn't slow down. I thought I didn't have a choice," Bouris wrote. "I worked myself into the ground, and it landed me in hospital with a serious illness." The experience, he said, "was a wake-up call". "I'm sure you've also heard stories of people suffering serious physical and mental consequences from burnout. I became one of them." Born and raised in Punchbowl, Sydney, to a Greek father and Irish-Australian mother, Bouris credits his father- a factory worker- for instilling in him a strong work ethic. In 1996, he founded Wizard Home Loans, which became one of the country's largest non-bank lenders. Three years later, he launched Yellow Brick Road, a financial services company aimed at supporting suburban Australians. Just two years into building his second company, Bouris found himself seriously ill in hospital, worn out from overwork. "I often tell business owners that prioritising your health is non-negotiable," he reflected, now nearly two decades later. "We're so worried about charging our phones but forget to recharge ourselves. "Rest doesn't mean heading to the pub or replying to emails after hours. It means giving your body and mind real time to unwind." In September, the father-of-two launched Project 100, a podcast dedicated to exploring the science and secrets behind living a longer, healthier life. He also hosts Straight Talk and The Mentor, interviewing leading entrepreneurs, business figures, and politicians. Despite advocating for balance, Bouris remains a prolific figure in the business and media worlds. He's authored two books, fronted The Apprentice Australia and The Celebrity Apprentice Australia, and regularly weighs in on key financial issues. Recently, he urged Australians to rethink their retirement expectations amid the rising cost of living and increasing life expectancy. "If you're 20 now, you won't be retiring until you're 80, maybe 90," he said on his Mentored podcast. "If you think you're going to retire at 65 or if you think you're going to have enough money to retire at 65, you've got another thing coming." As of 2025, Bouris' net worth is estimated to exceed $200 million.
The Hindu
09-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
DEEP initiative shows spectacular result in Class 12 examinations in Nagapattinam district
Through coordinated efforts by the School Education Department and the district administration under the District Educational Excellence Programme (DEEP), Nagapattinam district has recorded a significant improvement in Class 12 public examination results, climbing from 37th to 11th place in the State rankings — out of 38 districts in Tamil Nadu. The district's overall pass percentage rose from 91.19 in 2023–24 (37th rank) to 96.03 in 2024–25 (11th rank), marking one of the most notable year-on-year improvements in recent years. The district was previously ranked 33rd in 2022–23 with a pass percentage of 90.68 and 28th in 2021–22 with 92.31. Chief Educational Officer M.K.C. Subhashini attributed the progress to a sustained and joint effort. 'Several government school teachers and headmasters dedicated themselves selflessly to support students, especially from marginalised backgrounds.' she said. A major component of the success was 'Project 100', a special initiative under DEEP, which identified 30 consistently low-performing schools over the past three years. In these schools, meetings were held with all stakeholders — including teachers, School Management Committees, panchayat presidents, and village administrative officers — to trace long absentees and give them focused attention. Unique approach While all districts in Tamil Nadu distributed minimum learning materials (MLMs), Nagapattinam adopted a more focused and differentiated strategy for extremely weak students. The district handpicked its best subject teachers to author custom MLM content, forming dedicated WhatsApp groups for all 13 subjects to coordinate efforts. What set Nagapattinam apart was its deliberate simplification of these materials —compressing them further than standard MLMs — to ease anxiety among struggling students. 'We observed that bulky revision notes created fear in weaker students. So we gave them extremely concise, focused notes and repeatedly tested them on just that. This reduced their stress and boosted confidence,' said a government school teacher. The MLM authors collaborated directly with school subject teachers through online meetings to refine content and address doubts. Repeated revision, doubt clearance, and subject-specific mentoring were prioritised for these learners, especially in the final weeks leading to the exam. From last year June onwards, government schools implemented daily 15–25 mark tests and monthly assessments to build writing practice and overcome exam fear. 'By the time students faced the final exam, they were confident and well-prepared,' she added.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Worcester County names two finalists for next superintendent of schools. Meet them here.
The Worcester County Board of Education has announced the names of the two finalists for the next Worcester County Superintendent of Schools. Each finalist will participate in a 'Day in the District' experience later this month. Here are the finalists, in alphabetical order, and their biographies provided by Worcester County Public Schools. Annette Wallace – A graduate of Worcester County Public Schools, Annette Wallace currently serves as WCPS Chief Safety Officer and Academic Officer for grades 9-12. With a history of impactful leadership, Wallace served as principal of Pocomoke High School from 2012-2018, where she doubled AP enrollment while significantly improving student pass rates and launched Project 100 to increase access to post-secondary education, all of which led to the school becoming the district's highest performing. Since her appointment to Chief Operating Officer in 2018, Wallace has demonstrated leadership in school construction, food services, technology, special education, all academic content areas, human resources, and student services. She holds degrees in Mathematics, School Leadership, and Educational Leadership, is actively involved in her community, and has presented as a thought leader at local, state, and national education conferences. Monique Wheatley-Phillip – Monique Wheatley-Phillip brings over 30 years of experience in education, including 17 years in Title I schools as a classroom and special education resource teacher. She has led medium and large sized schools and annually supervised over 30 principals who served in diverse communities. As the Baltimore County Public Schools Division Chief of Research, Accountability, and Assessment, she supervised the development of the eight-year strategic plan, which identified annual goals and specific targets for the system. A strategic thinker and planner who understands the importance of collaboration and gaining consensus, Wheatley-Phillip's expertise in the use of evidence-based instructional practices and data analytics narrowed achievement gaps and increased performance across student groups. In her current role as a Consulting Administrator, School Operations, Wheatley-Phillip supports schools by managing the utilization of $11 million dollars of extracurricular and co-curricular activity funds. Additionally, she manages seven million dollars in Title II grant funds that support educator development. She holds degrees in education as well as certificates in Leadership and Reading. 'The search process to find a new educational leader in Worcester County has been a top priority for this Board. We are pleased with our progress in the search so far, and we are excited to announce our two highly qualified finalists,' Board of Education President Todd Ferrante said. 'We greatly appreciate the investment our community is making by participating in the upcoming focus groups and providing input to the Board. We look forward to making a final decision soon and helping our new Superintendent create a vision and plan for transitioning into this leadership role.' The Board's goal is to choose the top candidate for superintendent this month and vote to appoint the chosen candidate in May. The new superintendent would begin on July 1, 2025. Shore has new businesses all around: New businesses galore: Insomnia Cookies, BBQ/sushi spot, juice shop | What's Going There In January, Superintendent Lou Taylor announced he would not seek another reappointment to another four-year term, choosing instead to retire after his 41 years of service to the school system. Following Taylor's announcement, the Board of Education contracted with the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) to conduct the search process. Public input was gathered in February to inform the search process for a new superintendent. Participants were asked to describe the characteristics they sought in a new Superintendent. This Superintendent profile was used when reviewing candidate qualifications. In March, the superintendent opening was posted widely so that qualified local, state, and national candidates could apply, with the first consideration of applications on March 26. The Board conducted interviews to select the finalists who will participate in the extensive interviews April 22 – 23, with various stakeholder groups. These groups will provide input to the Board as it prepares to choose a new superintendent. Each of the finalists' 'Day in the District' will include time to meet with local officials; interviews with panels of CentralOffice leaders, principals, teachers, support staff, business leaders, parents and community leaders; lunch with students;time to meet with members of the media; and dinner and discussion with the Board of Education. Player of the Week nominees: Here are the Delmarva Now Player of the Week nominees for Mar. 31-Apr. 6 This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Meet Worcester's two finalists for next superintendent of schools
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Suppose the Pentagon underwent a physical exam
Jan. 29 (UPI) -- It is common sense that annual physical examinations are essential for individuals to determine their health and well-being. Why then does government not submit to annual physicals to determine how healthy or unhealthy it may be and what is needed to correct or cure any deficiencies? Assuming this is a good idea, let's start with the Pentagon and Department of Defense. Title X of the U.S. Code directs the Department of Defense to "train, man and equip" the services to prepare for the "conduct of prompt sustained operations incident to combat." The National Defense Strategy defines the aims of operations to "compete/contain; deter; and if war comes, defeat or prevail over a number of potential adversaries." Assume these are the equivalents of vital signs for people, such as blood pressure, temperature and pulse rates. The first order questions are how well or how badly the Pentagon is doing in "training, manning and equipping" for peace and war. Unlike blood pressure that is measured specifically, such as 120/68, or temperature, no exact metrics exist to evaluate these categories of defense. That means qualitative standards apply. Using "train, man and equip" as the vital signs, how well or badly is the Department of Defense doing for each? Training to compete. contain, deter, and if war comes, defeat, should be the standard. But where and how are we competing with China and Russia? That has no metrics. So the evaluation is uncertain. About manning, aside from the Marine Corps, the other services have not been able to man fully the forces and meet the necessary requirements. Pay and benefits for service personnel generally exceed peers in the private sector. Yet, that is not sufficient. And among the cohort of 17-to-25-year-olds who form the recruiting base for the DoD, more than half are not physically, mentally or legally qualified for service. A similar number are not interested in military service. Given these constraints and the seeming inability of pay and benefits to make a difference, can recruitment be improved? Obviously, qualifications can be reduced. This was tried during the Vietnam War with Project 100,000, which lowered the standards for service at a time when the draft was still in place. It did not work. And reinstalling the draft or imposing national service does not appear to be politically viable or practical. So manning must be given a failing grade. Equipping is also highly problematic. Buying new weapons systems and having sufficient repair and maintenance capability are good metrics. But consider some of the high value items such as aircraft and ships. Currently, the U.S. shipbuilding base is only capable of building 1.2 nuclear submarines a year. The time it takes to build a nuclear aircraft carrier takes years, if not a decade. And surface warships likewise take several years to build. Only about 150 F-35's stealth fighters are built a year, that is insufficient to meet the demand. If war were to come, attrition would demand increasing production of warships and aircraft by at least an order of magnitude. Yet, the United States is incapable of surging production, due to the lack of skilled personnel workers and building facilities. And repair of battle damage takes time. Two destroyers, USS Fitzgerald and McCain, were involved in separate collisions. It took 2 1/2 years for these destroyers to be repaired and return to active duty. In war, many units would be damaged and need repair. A review of maintenance and readiness also shows serious shortcomings in the availability of repair parts and replacement equipment. Hence, the overall grade for equipping is not good, and in some areas, such as if a long war were fought, is unsatisfactory. Further, the effect of real, uncontrolled annual cost growth of every defense item, from precision weapons to people to pencils, is about 5 to 7%. Given inflation, of an annual defense budget about $900 billion, an additional $70 billion to $100 billion is required just to stay level, let alone grow the force. The qualitative analysis leads to three options. The first is to spend sufficient money to maintain the force at recommended numerical and readiness levels. The second is to defer tough choices. And the third is to change the strategy to meet resource realities and constraints. But first, it is necessary is to allow the physical examination to take place. And from that examination, whatever action is needed to rectify and correct these deficiencies must be taken. However, will we? Harlan Ullman is UPI's Arnaud deBorchgrave Distinguished Columnist, senior adviser at Washington's Atlantic Council and principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. His next book, co-written with General The Lord David Richards, former U.K. Chief of Defense and due out late next year, is Insanity: The Absence of Sound Strategic Thinking in a World on Fire. The writer can be reached on Twitter @harlankullman.
