Who Is Dr. John Eggers?

John is now fulfilling his life long dream of directing a variety of projects for his business, Envisioning Your Future Institute, a venture devoted to helping others find meaning in life as well as fulfill their dreams.

Many of the these projects center around one of John's passions; public speaking. John is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop leader. Since the Institute's creation in 1992, John has taught numerous workshops on public speaking as well as taught under graduate classes in public speaking for NTC in Bemidji. He is a recipient of the Gold Star award from International Toastmasters for his achievements in public speaking. John's public speaking workshop motto is "Improved Public Speaking, Guaranteed."

John also teaches graduate level classes and offers in-service with the following titles: "Brain Based Learning", "Bringing About Change", "How To Teach Anybody, Anything, Any Time", "Reading to Improve Teaching and Student Performance", "Healthy Kids and Healthy Classrooms", "Classroom Projects Via The Internet", and "Great Teachers, Great Teaching".

John was probably the first college instructor in Minnesota to teach a graduate level class entirely over the Internet designed for teachers. In the past several years, John has taught over 500 graduate students using the Internet as the delivery system.

John Eggers is a current member of the Peace Corps Crisis Corps. He was selected to go to San Salvador in July of 2001 to assist in a reading program for earthquake victims but had to decline due to a myriad of commitments in the United States.

Education Adventures

John holds three graduate degrees from Mankato State, Temple University, and the University of Northern Colorado including a doctor's degree in educational change and innovation. He has toured schools in the former Soviet Union and he has also studied at Harvard.

Writing Adventures

During the past seven years, he has written more than three hundred and fifty articles pertaining to teaching, living, and learning as well as published several books. John's most recent publication is: How to put the WOW into teaching.

Past Adventures

John was one of fourteen to be selected to develop sports programs as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uruguay. His first public school experience involved teaching ESL in the inner city of Camden, New Jersey. He also served as a Spanish, physical education teacher and coach in an International school in Teheran, Iran. One of John's most memorable experiences involved teaching at Mankato Wilson Campus school, which, at the time, was considered to be the most innovative school in the United States.

John enjoys helping teachers teach better. To this end, he supervised over 700 student teachers as a university professor for the University of Northern Iowa in the 1970's and 1980's. His over 30 years of teaching experience have taken place in Minnesota, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Uruguay and Iran. Much of his experience has centered around creating innovative programs and teaching in alternative kinds of education schools in culturally diverse settings such as on the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations. He has also been teaching about the brain since the 1970's.

John's experience in working with students from the inner city to Iran enabled him to create learning experiences with all teachers in mind.

From 1985-1992 John served as high school principal of Red Lake High School - the largest totally American Indian school in Minnesota. His programs on two occasions won Governor Star awards for the most innovative programs in Minnesota. Among our most successful programs at Red Lake was the Four Winds Alternative School, which graduated over 90% of its students before he left in 1992. This was a significant achievement for American Indian schools. For the general student population, his staff helped increase the graduation rate by more than 30%.

John has led workshops in many states, served as a director of Future Studies in Colorado, directed a future problem solving program for the state of Iowa and participated in extensive principalship programs for the Blandin and Bush foundations. During the summer of 1996, John served as a volunteer for the summer Olympic games in Atlanta.

Personal Data and Other Current Adventures

John and Kathy live in a log home on the edge of the woods where John gets his inspiration. They enjoy their Edge of Woods Antique shop and their one room schoolhouse museum.

John lives in a log home on the edge of the woods at 3024 Sunnyside of the Street NE in Bemidji, Minnesota with his wife, Kathy. John and Kathy have two children. Caroline is studying to be a youth pastor and John-Carlos is a drummer with a band: The Fifth Sun.

Kathy and John manage an antique shop, walk in their woods and take frequent trips to Guatemala where they are involved in a Sister Parish project. They recently renovated a 1902 log cabin that now contains a one room school house museum.

John is chairman of the board of directors for Lutheran Campus Ministry at Bemidji State , active in his church, Calvary Lutheran, and a member of Bemidji Lions and Bemidji Rotary. He is also presently involved in creating a "Star of the North" k-12 school in the Bemidji area.