Adventist educators establish worldview studies center at La Sierra University

The university and Zapara school hosted an opening colloquium and reception at Troesh Conference Center to launch the Daniel and Elissa Kido Center for Worldview Studies. The Seventh-day Adventist couple are instrumental healthcare and education leaders, scholars and philanthropists, whose $500,000 endowment establishes the center as an impactful resource for organizations and individuals, and that contributes to the university’s mission of worldwide service.

“Our mission is to help as many young people as we can to explore worldview." -- Dr. Elissa Kido

The Kido Center will coordinate lectures and conferences that bring thought leaders to campus, will sponsor research publications that benefit business, church and academics, and will foster formal and informal conversations related to worldviews and their development. 

During the colloquium which launched the new center, Daniel Kido, a neuroradiologist, relayed his earlier personal experiences in which he learned that an others-focused worldview would facilitate his career success through putting the interests of others ahead of his own. As examples of successful thought leaders who embody an others-centric perspective, he cited management guru Peter Drucker and outcomes research pioneer Jack Thornberry.

Students at the colloquium were encouraged to participate in a short online poll that gauged their primary factors and career goals, such as earning a high income, pursuing their vocational passion, finding personal fulfillment, or gaining financial security.

Education professor Elissa Kido, who founded the Center for Research on K-12 Adventist Education at La Sierra, spoke to the students about the center’s mission and that of her and her husband’s. She invited the students to get involved in the center’s explorative research and conversations.

“Our mission is to help as many young people as we can in an educational setting to explore worldview and to see whether or not they can find and incorporate into their lives the worldview that is not only going to make them successful in life, but successful in many things and ultimately bring meaning and satisfaction to your personal life,” she said.

“What is worldview? It’s the lens through which you see life,” Kido said. “It’s a set of beliefs or attitudes about the world that serves as a basis for your thoughts, decisions, and actions. We would like to have you participate with us. We want to explore worldviews in the context of scientific, philosophical and ethical explorations of worldview.”

She concluded, “I want you to know that Danny and I have established this center for you, for students, and we hope that you will take advantage of it. We have located it here in the school of business because of the entrepreneurial attitude and perspective that your deans have, that your faculty have.

Worldviews -- particular philosophies and comprehensive perspectives on life – are fundamental to how individuals and organizations interpret reality and act. The Christian worldview is shaped by the Bible and centuries of Christian beliefs.

“Involvement in worldview research will help to express La Sierra’s Seventh-day Adventist heritage of global service and its commitment to excellence,” states a proposal for the center. “Among the center’s primary objectives will be the establishment of a culture of sensitivity to the importance and implications of worldviews across the university and in society.” 

The new center is a confluence of the Kidos’ life work and experiences – Elissa Kido, who holds an Ed.D. from Boston University is a scholar whose research on the benefits of the Adventist education system led to the creation in 2011 of the Center for Research on K-12 Adventist Education (CRAE) at a La Sierra’s School of Education; Daniel Kido, a neuroradiologist, is also vice chair of academic affairs in radiology at Loma Linda University. He has held teaching and research posts at Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis. In 2018, he co-wrote a book that was published by CRAE and which is centered on how an understanding of different world views can lead to better decisions. 

Elissa Kido’s Cognitive Genesis studies conducted under CRAE beginning in 2006 assessed the academic performance of 52,000 students at Adventist academies across the North American Division and showed they outperformed their peers. Another joint research project with Loma Linda University called DecisionGenesis created an instrument that identifies a person’s worldview into one of four basic categories: me first; rules first; feelings first; and others first. 

“Do students with an others-oriented perspective perform academically better? And the preliminary data suggests yes,” said the study’s data scientist Udo Oyoyo. “It's fascinating to see a partnership that bridges education and neuroscience, connecting an abstract but foundational concept like worldview to measurable outcomes such as academic achievement."   

“The Zapara School of Business is honored by the generosity the Drs. Kido have exhibited.” -- Dean John Thomas, Zapara School of Business

The Kido Center for Worldview Studies aims to expand students’ horizons by exposing them to worldview insights, and to build connections with organizations by offering opportunities for leaders to learn methods of effective decision-making and building effective teams, enhancing organizational performance and resolving worldview-related conflicts. 

The center will operate under the purview of a governing board and director and with the guidance of an advisory council that will give direction on strategies, programs and activities. 

“The Zapara School of Business is honored by the generosity the Drs. Kido have exhibited,” said John Thomas, dean of the business school in a release. “The Zapara School community looks forward to the opportunities for intellectual stimulation, growth in understanding, and community impact that will result from the work of the Kido Center.”

Said Zapara school associate dean Gary Chartier, “It's awesome that the Kidos have chosen to support scholarship at La Sierra University in this way. I know that the Kido Center will create new opportunities for research by faculty members and students across campus and that its work has the potential to inform conversations about the values we seek to uphold and transmit as an institution.”

For the Kidos, the work of the center, which is an extension and a gift of their own expansive expertise and experiences, is intended to catalyze lifechanging impact for others and for society. 

“I think so many things that have happened to us are really providential, opportunities that we’ve had, people we’ve met,” Daniel Kido said. “Doors have been opened for both of us and each door has been an opportunity to grow more. God is a big person. His view for us is unimaginable. The greater expertise you have, the more it allows you to share.”