We were lucky to catch up with Vernita Glenn-White recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Vernita, thanks for joining us today. What’s one of the most important lessons you learned in school?
I learned an overall lesson from my many years of school. I know a lot of people say they “didn’t learn anything from school” but that’s not entirely true. I’ve learned that many of us need structure, accountability, feedback, observations and “coaching” along the way just like we recieved in school. Being in that type of environment has also taught us that we can do hard things without knowing all the information, when we have big goals we do what we need to do to get it done, and we learned how to take action regardless of fear. However, many of us have forgotten those lessons as adults. We’ve finally reached that 10-20 year goal we had before we went to school and now the feeling of being unfulfilled starts to creep in. Now we feel lost, we haven’t thought about another major goal to pursue or if we did, we’re allowing life to keep is stuck. I like to stay that we need to stop letting the 18-21 year version of us beat the 35+ version. We have way more knowledge and resources we had back then, yet we tend to turn into a shell of ourselves when we have to take new risks. School taught us that there is success in taking risks, taking uncomfortable action and taking the road less traveled. School also taught us that we can and have survived (and in some cases thrived) after the hard/challenging things. School, especially college gets a bad rap but when you look at the overall picture of what took place during those years, there are so many Takeaways that we can use as adults to step into the next phase of our lives. I like to think of it as the University of YOU. When you think of what you’ve accomplished before, then it makes whatever new thing we’re facing in the perspective of “I did this before and I didn’t die “.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I already started working as a consultant but I wanted to expand. As the CEO of Glenn-White Global Solutions and Founder of The School of Brilliance ®. I realized that high achieving, ambitious people, wanted options and they needed a way to blend their personal passions with their professional life. Many educators, trainers, and leaders have a wealth of knowledge to share and are gatekeepers of major ideas that can transform the global system but they don’t know their own power. I wanted to empower individuals to go from theory to practice to professionally powerful by equipping them with systems, strategies and structures to become high conscious leaders in any environment!
After working with professional individuals and groups at companies, I realized something else. These amazing, brilliant people were still getting “stuck” in life even after accomplishing so many great things. I noticed that there wasn’t an emphasis on personal development or inner work.
As the Founder and Director of Glenn-White Global Solutions, a high-level advice company and home of The School of Brilliance ® we teach the high achieving, highly ambitions, and the elite, how to {V.ii.B.E} Vibrate higher in their Influence/Impact/Income, Brilliance, and Excellence as they break their personal glass ceilings to become their most powerful selves in life, career and business.
I’m the Brilliant Solutionist, which is a fancy way of saying Life Expansion Strategist, who studies Brilliantology. I am an expert in brilliant thinking and I help you embrace your brilliance, expand your life, business and income as you explore untapped potential and possibilities in every area of your life.
As a result of working with me you will learn how to dominate every area of your life by owning your brilliance and your breakdowns, accepting your wholeness and incompleteness, and embracing your confidence and insecurities to become your most empowered self personally and professionally.
We aim to attract high level professionals, highly-determined, all-star women and men who are ready to embrace all of who they are to become the person they know they were meant to BE and who desires to live a dynamic life they love while leading, serving and loving those who need them the most.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Everyone needs a STEM degree or at least a few courses related to STEM education. That was my thought for many years as an Educator. However, that changed when I became a college professor at a small, private, Liberal Arts institution. I was there to teach mathematics and HOW to teach mathematics to undergraduate students. Then one day, one of MY students said “these kids” as they were referring to students of color.
Now, you may be thinking “so you never experienced any kind of prejudice or racism when you were in school”? Surprisingly enough, the answer is NO. School was my safe place and I felt “safe” in my intelligence. However, that changed when I enrolled as a Ph.D. student and that was my first obvious encounter where the color of my skin trumped my academic ability.
Where It Was Heading
The struggle was real and I decided to educate myself on what was changing in society and how those changes continued to impact the education system. While I believe that the world would be a better place with all things STEAM where we can solve problems through innovation and creativity, I realized that there is a bigger issue.
We will never get to a level of expansion and innovation if people, our students, educators and leaders, don’t feel safe about their skin color, visible or invisible disabilities, gender, or socioeconomic status. It took me about (3) three years to really dig deep and develop an understanding of what it means to truly create a safe learning space. A place where students, educators and leaders aren’t criticized for being different or thinking differently while given the space to achieve at their highest potential. That place starts on the inside. We TEACH, LEAD and SERVE, who we are at our core. From my first encounter with student beliefs about diversity and inclusion, to my own experiences dealing with injustice and racism, I realized there was a need for Culturally Conscious Leadership and a Cultural Conscious Curriculum. I started working with schools districts and other universities about the importance of knowing your WHY and the need for core values. But I knew there was more.
Yet, I still thought it was an “adult” issue. Surely my college students, ESPECIALLY those who wanted to become future educators and leaders were more open-minded and culturally aware. Majority of my students were White, female, and traditional college aged but I did have students of various ethnicities and socioeconomic background. But, the schools they were assigned included more diversity than most of them had ever seen. I knew in that moment mathematics and STEM had to take a backseat
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Based on my own experiences, research, and focused conversations, I discovered that people were dealing with something I call PTMI-S Post Traumatic Moral Injury of Scholars. This is a combination what we know about PTSD from those who work with Veterans or individuals who encountered other traumatic events along with a dilemma of Moral Injury that occurs in the Nursing Profession and and another form of PTSD from those working in higher educator (Post Traumatic SCHOLAR Disorder). In general, I learned that “Scholars” (anyone who pursues academic and intellectual activities and who may work as a teacher, professor, or researcher) have a difficult time being their best selves, particularly in a professional setting based on unresolved issues based on what someone said or did that impacted their core beliefs and value system. I am working to bring awareness to the complexity of PTMI-S as well as working directly with individuals who may have experienced it.
Now, this is not an official diagnosis. However, many high-achievers, high-performers, and go getters deal with being overlooked, overshadowed, and over overworked which causes many of them to lose their voice, operate out of alignment of their core values, and fear making the transition they need to reinvent their lives when it’s time to shift.
I dealt with this personally and through my own transformational journey, I had to learn how to Embrace my Brilliance. Today, I help other professionals, high-achievers, and top producers do the same.
Contact Info:
- Website: Drvernitaglenn-white.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.vernitaglennwhite
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dr.VGlennWhite/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drvernitaglenn-white
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHOGh3GHKziZrhGR21dpo-A
- Other: Threads https://www.threads.net/@dr.vernitaglennwhite Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@drvernitaglennwhite?_t=8VgUXlvT8CU&_r=1
Image Credits
Chara T. Miller and Ivey Media Group