SALT LAKE CITY — The fact that it's a small, small world — and getting smaller — was very much on display this week when the ambassador from the African nation of Senegal flew to Utah to see the founder of a Salt Lake City-based software company.
Until Friday, Fatou Danielle Diagne and Dusty Heuston had never personally shaken hands. It only felt like they had.
Diagne is Senegal's newly appointed ambassador to the United States, stationed in Washington, D.C. Heuston is chief executive officer of the Waterford Institute, a Utah company that produces educational models, programs and software for children.
You could say they met on the computer.
They became aware of each other earlier this year when Waterford's vice president of international marketing, Charles Callis, flew to Dakar, Senegal's capital, to make a presentation of Waterford's learning materials.
Accompanying Callis was Jim Parkinson, an educator and Waterford consultant with extensive contacts in Africa.
Parkinson introduced Callin to Diagne, who at the time was the government minister overseeing education for Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade.
Soon, the minister, the president and the Waterford emissaries had a computer surrounded, viewing Waterford's innovative software specially designed for children age 6 and under.
Then something happened unheard of in America's education bureaucracy.
President Wade turned off the computer and said, "I want this for my country."
He asked that a pilot Waterford program be set up immediately.
When word reached Heuston back at Waterford headquarters in Utah, he wondered if it might be a bad connection.
Did he hear that right?
They saw the presentation one time and made a decision?
"This is so unusual, it's almost unbelievable. They did it all in 24 hours. Usually you start with discussions, then presentations, then more discussions," says Heuston, who has presented his materials countless times since he started his Waterford programs 34 years ago.
Heuston's — and Waterford's — philosophy is that for optimum educational development, children need to be stimulated early — by ages 4, 5 and 6 — and that the best way for this early stimulation is with software.
That's because software overcomes so many infrastructure obstacles — the bricks and mortar of the school house, teachers. travel — and connects with children wherever there's a computer.
"It is possible to give a child the best education in every setting," says Heuston. "The speed of light takes this anywhere."
Better yet, Waterford's research shows that no matter who they are or where they are, children using the same software learn equally well and equally fast.
Waterford's software approach to early education struck an instant chord with Wade, a man with a doctorate in mathematics and a law degree who has dedicated 40 percent of Senegal's national budget to education.
As we speak, a pilot program is operating in Dakar. Over time, Waterford's software is projected to stretch border to border, reaching into not just Senegal's major cities but into its 14,000 villages as well.
In time, the goal is to have every village computer-equipped, all part of a nationwide program President Wade is calling "Case des Tout-Petits" (English translation: Early Children's Hut").
"Waterford came just when we needed them," said Diagne, the minister-turned-ambassador, as she toured the Waterford Institute's facilities this week on 900 South. "I came here to show my gratitude to Waterford."
She plans to return again next month, and she'll have President Wade with her.
He, too, would like to personally thank Waterford — and Dusty Heuston — for making the world a smaller, and better educated, place.
Lee Benson's column runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com.