Why Us
Who We Are?
Harvest Intercontinental American University, Inc. is a private, non-profit university founded under the visionary leadership of Dr. Darlingston G. Johnson, Presiding Bishop of Harvest Intercontinental Ministries Unlimited (HIM-U), which was founded in Silver Spring, Maryland in 1990.
The organization consists today of nearly 450 churches, schools and orphanages located on six continents, but predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moved by the tremendous poverty and suffering that can be directly traced to lack of education, HIM-U made the strategic decision to do all it can to make quality education accessible to as many students as possible living in the most impoverished nations of the world. It adopted “The Bishop Darlingston Johnson Education Mandate” in 2018 and committed to working towards “a world where no one lives or dies without access to quality education.” It is this critical decision which has led to the establishment of the University.
HIAU aims to help bridge the educational gap that exists between the developed and underdeveloped nations of the world. The University gives access to a high quality, American-based college education to students living in some of the least developed regions of the world, beginning in Sub-Saharan Africa. It will offer both academic degrees and vocational education training (VET), with the goal of equipping its students to be able both to compete for the best jobs available in the global market, and to start and manage their own successful businesses. In this manner, HIAU is seeking to reduce the leading cause of poverty and its associated suffering attributed to lack of access to quality education.
HIAU will rely heavily on virtual learning to be able to deliver quality, accredited education, but it will also offer onsite, in person education where feasible. HIAU’s first onsite campus is located close to Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city, with about one million in population. Classes are scheduled to begin in October, 2024.
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HIAU History
The goal of Harvest Intercontinental American University is to bridge the educational gap between the developed world and the underdeveloped world by bringing the benefits of American education and brainpower to the underprivileged, beginning in Sub-Saharan Africa. We believe this educational gap is one of the primary causes of poverty, sickness, and suffering in under-developed nations. In response, HIAU, as a critical part of the Bishop Darlingston Johnson Education Mandate, is committed to working in collaboration with other groups and institutions to help create “A world where no one lives or dies without access to quality education.”
In September 2020 , Bishop Darlingston Johnson, the Presiding Bishop of Harvest Intercontinental Ministries Unlimited, established an education task force to develop and execute an effective strategy for building schools and delivering quality education alongside our church planting efforts. He charged this task force to identify and review each school currently operating under the Church’s umbrella, to improve existing schools, and to create new flagship schools worldwide, starting with schools in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In June 2021, while leading a Church Conference in Liberia, a unique opportunity presented itself to establish a university to help address the huge need for education in the country. The opportunity was considered prayerfully, and a decision was made to embrace it, along with its challenges. Subsequent discussions were held with leaders of the BDJ Education Task Force, and the planning process began. The property was secured, the HIAU Founding Team and Founding Advisory Board assembled, and the hard work of establishing a first-class university commenced. What began as a concept for a brick-and-mortar in-person university quickly evolved into a concept for a hybrid world-class in-person and virtual university, where people, regardless of where they live, if they have access to the internet, can obtain quality higher education.
Harvest Intercontinental American University (HIAU) will provide quality academic and vocational training to students from the world’s least developed countries through the integration of emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, and development of the whole person in mind, body, and spirit. Our students will obtain the best possible education available, which will qualify them to obtain the best jobs in their chosen fields, but also equip them to be leaders and entrepreneurs capable of starting their own businesses and being the ones who provide jobs to others.
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HIAU - An Economic Necessity
To increase a country’s standard of living, its educational level and productivity must increase, and productivity is gained by innovating products, services, and processes. Governments and private sectors must work together in Sub-Saharan Africa to make its innovative businesses competitive if the region is to increase its GDP, real income and raise the standard of living of its citizens.
Innovation needs capital, infrastructure, and talent to start and grow. Producing graduates with the attributes stated in HIAU’s five pillars will be the primary foundation of HIAU and its role in creating tomorrow’s leaders.
Underdeveloped nations need many citizens with baccalaureate degrees and entrepreneurial skills to close the gap with industrialized countries. In Liberia, for instance, there are 922,000 students enrolled in primary and secondary education. Seventy-five percent of students are in primary school. Of the remaining 25 percent of students enrolled in secondary education, only a small number of them are financially able or academically qualified to enroll at a degree-granting institution. Over the next ten years, Liberia will need about 10,000 more graduates in science and technology programs from higher education than are being produced at present to begin bridging the gap with developed nations. Other Sub-Saharan African countries have very comparable per capita statistics to Liberia.
The lack of affordable quality education in this part of the world contributes to poverty, sicknesses, disease, and dependence on government as a means of survival. In many cases, governments cannot provide their people with the basics leading to even greater dependence on foreign governments.
Harvest Intercontinental American University intends to provide instructions via available e-learning platforms. The Oral Roberts University has agreed to partner with HIAU in making many of the required courses available via the Internet, direct satellite, and advanced cellular technologies.
As an institution dedicated to enabling its students for great success, HIAU students will capitalize on this learning environment to provide access to a curriculum focused on developing students’ knowledge and skills in these vital innovative areas to support global growth. Our mission is not solely about supplying organizations with graduates for today’s growth industries; it is about providing innovative talents and entrepreneurs that have the capability to develop and lead their own companies in the future.
Our Vision
A world where no one lives or dies without access to quality education
Bridging the Gap
HIAU exists to bridge the educational gap between the developed world and the underdeveloped world by bringing the brilliance of American education to the underprivileged, beginning in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In terms of data, we now measure in Petabytes instead of Gigabytes. Google uses 25 billion Petabytes per day, which is equivalent to 100 copies of every book in the Library of Congress. More than 93 percent of data is now digitized, up from 25 percent just 10 years ago. However, only one percent of this digitized data has been analyzed. New industries in data mining, storage, security and analysis are emerging every day to take advantage of the opportunities this data can have on productivity.
Info-structure is the new infrastructure. The Internet is reducing the need for physical proximity to collaborate and be productive. Technology like cloud virtualization, digital decision making and interactive media will change the way we see and apply interpersonal communications.
Harvest Intercontinental American University intends to provide instructions via available e-learning platforms. The Oral Roberts University has agreed in principle to partner with HIAU in making many of the required courses available via internet or direct satellite. It is our hope that HIAU students will not only be able to capitalize on this learning environment but also will be able to have access to a curriculum focused on developing students’ knowledge and skills in these key innovation areas. Our mission is not solely about supplying organizations with graduates for today’s growth industries; it is about supplying innovative talent and entrepreneurs that will eventually lead their own companies in the future.
The Gap
There is a significant gap between the developed and the underdeveloped nations of the world in tertiary education. This gap is significantly worse in Sub-Saharan Africa due to the lack of access to affordable, quality institutions.
Many of the countries in this region are amongst the poorest in the world. While many of these nations do graduate a high number of students from secondary schools, there is an insufficiency in the number of higher institutions of learning ready to absorb students these graduating students. The few available public institutions are already overpopulated, not easily accessible, and often lack the curriculum and staff to provide the high standard available at universities normally found in the developed world. This inadequacy offers an excellent opportunity for HIAU to fill the void with an affordable, accessible, and quality American accredited curriculum tailored for students in this and similar regions of the world.
A partnership with Oral Roberts University, which prides itself on being a world-class research institution that specializes in innovation and technology, will give HIAU instant credibility along with the much-needed tools and E-learning infrastructure necessary for success.
The Opportunity
Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have economies which are currently very volatile, have low economic multipliers, and are too dependent on imports. For example, in Liberia, where our first campus will be situated, to grow and produce meaningful gains in wages, business revenue, and national GDP, absolutely requires a significant increase in access to higher education institutions.
Launched as the only American accredited STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) university in Liberia, HIAU will have the unique opportunity not only to be Liberia’s only American Accredited degree-granting institution, but also to be Liberia’s only Entrepreneurship University.
This critical addition means the university further focuses on developing and engaging its students with a unique curriculum to produce outstanding leaders and entrepreneurs.
Harvest Intercontinental American University will collaborate with partners to engage students in solving real-world problems, gaining hands-on work experience, and engaging in applied research and business leadership opportunities. HIAU will prepare students to assume available leadership positions in business, technology, and the arts and sciences, beginning in Liberia, but aiming for the world.
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