In President of the College Ronald D. Leibowitz’s inaugural speech in 2004, he said that to be true to the College’s history “we must, first, preserve those parts of the Middlebury culture that encourage creativity and foster innovation.”
As a step towards making these goals a reality, the Project on Creativity and Innovation (PCI) opened in 2007. PCI provides programming and other forms of support for students who want to tackle projects that fall outside of the classroom curriculum.
PCI’s two main components are MiddCORE and Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship, yet programs offerred also include the Old Stone Mill, TEDx Middlebury, MiddStart, Davis Projects for Peace, Tree House Fund, New Millennium Fund, MiddChallenge and the Midd Venture Community. The expanse of PCI’s programs is part of what makes it such a unique entity on campus. In the past five years over 800 students have participated in PCI’s programs. This week, the Campus is profiling these programs and offering faculty, staff and student perspectives.
Projects supported through PCI programs are largely student-initiated. According to Director of Project on Innovation in the Liberal Arts Liz Robinson ’84, PCI provides three things to students who come in with an idea: mentors, space and funding.
“When students come into our offices with an idea we try to set them up with a alumni mentor,” said Robinson. “We want to help students take risks and not be afraid to fail.”
How does PCI fit into a liberal arts curriculum?
PCI’s goals to foster creativity in an academic environment have not been received positively by all members of the community.
“I think that some faculty don’t understand what PCI is,” said Director of the Project on Innovation in the Liberal Arts Liz Robinson ’84. “What they need to know is that it is funded entirely by alumni donations. The school isn’t spending any money on this.”
When explaining his doubts about PCI, Associate Professor of Mathematics John Schmitt cited his belief that students should prioritize learning that takes place in the classroom.
“I [am] concerned that academic exploration in the classroom [is] being replaced or pushed aside by the amount of time that these [PCI] activities might take,” said Schmitt. “In my mind, there’s an order in which things have to happen —not just because someone with deep pockets said [a different approach] was a good idea.”
Schmitt emphasized that learning based in academic courses should precede actions taken in the community.
“Both [experiential and classroom learning] are important, but the pursuit of knowledge must precede the entrepreneurial or apostolic journey that someone takes,” said Schmitt. “Both journeys will be life-long, but you undermine the apostolic one if you don’t know the canon first.
“It’s not enough to go out into the world and say you’re going to save it if you don’t have the tools to do it,” added Schmitt.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy Kareem Khalifa also shares concerns about PCI.
“[PCI] was created with very little faculty input, and I’d like to see a more candid discussion about how [the PCI programs] tie back to a rigorous liberal arts education,” he said. “Much of the teaching at Middlebury satisfies the following standard of quality control: you teach about X only if you’re a scholar of X. It’s not clear to me that all of PCI’s initiatives satisfy this standard.”
The staff at PCI believe that while its programs may not be an obvious part of a liberal arts education, the programs can complement the goals of the College in a way that helps to contextualize academics.
“PCI is for students who look [at] what’s happening [in the world] and want to be a part of idea creation and problem- solving,” said Robinson.
Ghosh also believes that the center’s goals go hand-in-hand with a liberal arts education.
“The diversity of the projects that come through the center is an example of why the liberal arts are important,” said Ghosh. “You’ve got all these people with diverse interests wanting to [enact] social change, and it may not be associated with their major, but they’re using those skills that they’re learning in the classroom [and] applying them out in the field in a social change project. It’s great to see.”
TEDx Middlebury
Hudson Cavanagh ’14 saw TEDx Middlebury for the first time as a first-year. He was so inspired by what he heard that he sent the student coordinator an email to congratulate her on the conference. Now, two years later, he is the one organizing the event.
“Little by little, I got more involved in TEDx and at this point I feel like I have a lot of ownership over it,” said Cavanagh. “I feel a lot of pride over what we do, who we bring in and the general quality of the product we’re going to put out.”
TEDx Middlebury has made multiple changes since last year’s talks. TEDx will increase the number of tickets offered by threefold, selling 300 as compared to last year’s 100. In addition, the organizers have switched the event location to the Seeler Concert Hall in the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts.
TEDx Middlebury will also add a student speaker, who will be chosen from a competition held in the McCullough Student Center on Nov. 8. Additionally, the TEDx organizers will be bringing in a professional camera crew to record the talks. There will also be fewer speakers this year — last year, the event featured 16 speakers. Cavanagh explained that the number was pared down to give attendees a break.
“By the end of the day, you are just so exhausted from processing so much information,” said Cavanagh. As a student very involved in a variety of organizations on campus, Cavanagh says that these take priority.
“I generally put more effort and time into student organizations than I do into my homework,” said Cavanagh. “Not to say that homework isn’t important though.”
Cavanagh also stressed the importance of students getting a taste of the real world while in college.
“I think it’s such a cool thing to train people for the real world and that it’s such an important piece of a liberal arts education,” said Cavanagh.
The Old Stone Mill
Middlebury’s Old Stone Mill (OSM) serves a variety of roles for its student tenants. For Geoffrey Genova ’15, the OSM is a studio where he creates splatter paint artwork. For Veronica Coates ’14, the OSM is a business headquarters where she is working with other students to establish a hair salon that will cater to women of color. For Sara Dinkin ’13, who is experimenting with molecular gastronomy — a type of modernist cooking — the OSM is a test kitchen. For Elias Alexander ’13, the OSM is a recording studio where he is creating music along with other student musicians.
The OSM is a program sponsored by the College’s Project on Creativity and Innovation (PCI). Every semester, students submit applications for a space in the OSM or its annex in the basement of Proctor dining hall. Those that are accepted are given space to work and funding from the College to support their efforts.
“[The OSM] is such a great opportunity for students to really step outside of their academic mindset and just be creative. It gives them a chance to pursue things other than their academic interests,” said Fabiana Benedini ’15, a former Old Stone Mill tenant and current member of the student board that oversees OSM operations.
Benedini was granted a space in the OSM’s annex last spring to work on her project: creating mosaic artwork using recycled materials.
Since the College purchased the Old Stone Mill, the space has been reserved for student use, and specifically as a venue for PCI to directly support student initiative in fostering a spirit of creativity on campus.
Amanda Wiggans ’14.5 has been involved with the OSM since her first spring on campus, when she became a tenant and began working with linoleum printing. Wiggans became a member of the OSM Board after finishing her project, and now works as an intern for Liz Robinson ’84, director of Project on Innovation in the Liberal Arts.
Wiggans has extensive experience working with a range of PCI programs — she has served on the TEDx Middlebury Board, as well as the board for MiddChallenge.
Wiggans said that of all of PCI’s programs, the OSM is unique because of the high degree to which students determine the course of their own projects.
“Of all the PCI’s programs, Old Stone Mill is definitely the most student-driven,” Wiggans said. She added that the OSM has had a disproportionate impact on the College, citing several student initiatives that were created by the OSM tenants, including Middlebury’s Quidditch team, the M Gallery located on the OSMl’s first floor, Middlebury Geographic magazine and Middlebury’s Solar Decathlon group.
“[OSM] basically gives you money and space to do whatever you want to do,” Wiggans said. “It’s a non-academic space. People go there to get away from the rest of campus, but also to do work on things that they might really care about. People hang out [there]; it’s just a really cool, beautiful building that I think is a very valuable resource for the campus.”
Wiggans said that despite the OSM’s impact on her own college experience, many students still are unaware of the program
“We’d like [OSM] to become more of a presence of campus. It’s a huge program on campus and hardly anybody know what they do. One of the goals is to reach out to more students, and a wider range of students as well,” she said.
“I hope awareness starts growing,” Benedini added, “but first we need to start doing things other than [sending] emails and putting up flyers.”
Many point to student awareness as PCI’s biggest obstacle in expanding its impact on campus.
Wiggans said that there is already a high level of creativity on campus, and PCI only needs to tap into that resource, and connect students with the appropriate programs to help realize their ambitions.
“If you want to do something, the PCI is where you turn,” said Wiggans.
MiddCORE
For most students, winter term consists of weekday trips to the Snowbowl, Netflix marathons and extended meals at Proctor, but for others, the month of January provides them with a unique opportunity to develop ideas and solutions to social problems through experiential learning.
MiddCORE, which began in 2008, is an intensive course designed to empower students to pursue their passions during winter term. Students involved spend 40 hours each week learning from mentors and professionals in various fields.
The program focuses on three main components: mentor-based, experiential and skill-building learning. The specific skills that students develop include strategic thinking, idea creating and persuasive communication, among others.
Over three years, MiddCORE has expanded and will offer three sections of the class this January, one of which will be located at the Monterey Institute.
New to the program this summer was the addition of MiddCORE Plus. Students who have taken the winter term course are eligible for this eight-week summer internship, funded by the program. Additionally, MiddCORE offers workshops for students in the fall and spring semesters that are not able to take the course in January.
Associate Professor of Economics and MiddCORE Director Jessica Holmes believes that MiddCORE has grown in popularity due to the unique set of skills that participating students receive from the project.
“We throw a lot of challenges at them that are way outside their comfort zones,” said Holmes. “It forces them to become more resourceful and to gather information from places other than the Internet and the library. We are teaching them how to collaborate, and we’re giving them opportunities to think about their own communication style.”
Holmes believes that MiddCORE is a complement to the liberal arts education, and does not replace classroom work, but rather enhances a student’s regular course schedule.
“The beauty of MiddCORE is that it fits perfectly within a liberal arts setting, taking advantage of all different perspectives, harnessing the lessons learned from across the disciplines,” said Holmes.
Since its inception, MiddCORE has had 23 different majors represented in its program. The interest from many departments in PCI organizations has encouraged the development of a Creativity, Innovation and Enterprise minor, which is currently being discussed. At least 15 faculty members from different disciplines have expressed interest in the potential minor. Holmes sees programs associated with PCI as resources that interested students should take advantage of.
“The students [involved in PCI programs] are coming up with new ideas for social ventures that will then feed into the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship. All of the resourses at PCI provide the base to help them develop their ideas further.”
MCSE
The College’s mission statement, which was approved by the Board of Trustees in 2006, charges students to “engage the world.”
Professor of Economics and Faculty Director of Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship (MCSE) John Isham hopes that students will utilize the resources at MCSE to do just that.
“The center should be a place where people can come and test ideas and meet people with ideas and get resources — literally, incubate,” said Isham.
The MCSE, which opened in October 2011, offers academic courses, symposia, a Friday Speaker Series and a weekly two-hour collaborative called “MLab.” The center also runs a Social Entrepreneurship Grant Challenge during the summer months. This past year, MCSE provided five students with funding for social entrepreneurship projects.
This fall, Isham is teaching a first-year seminar, Social Entrepreneurship and Social Justice, along with two independent study courses. Isham will also offer a class, Social Entreprenuership in the Liberal Arts, during winter term.
Isham views these classes as “complements” to the offerings at MCSE. He cautions against separate social entrepreneurship classes, as they can create the illusion of portraying social entrepreneurship as a separate subject. Instead, Isham argues, students should “apply the ideals of social entrepreneurship to their major.”
“What we’re finding out is that it actually doesn’t matter what you’re majoring in,” said Isham. “Through the lens of your major and the modes of analysis you learn in that major [you can] begin to test them and apply them through some of our resources.”
Program and Outreach Associate Jaya Ghosh ’12 described the duties of the center as connecting students to resources outside of the classroom.
“[MCSE] is exposing social entrepreneurship to people who have never heard about it before who want to learn more,” said Ghosh. “There’s also the side of the center that supports students [that already have] ideas through meetings with professors and other students and through resources such as mentors, academics and funding.”
Isham emphasized that the initiatives at MCSE are not looking to replace the learning that students undergo in the classroom.
“Students have to know that the measure of [their] success as students is how they succeed in their major and in the classroom,” said Isham. “In turn, the measure of our success is how we help them do that, thereby helping them to address what I consider the greatest task of the liberal arts: helping students to reflect on the meaning of their lives and then to act accordingly.”
Isham discusses the tension between experiential learning and classroom learning in a video for the center.
“It is tempting to abandon Plato and the great books… to say that hands-on learning is triumphant,” says Isham in the video. “It’s tempting, but my students and I have concluded that it would be dead wrong. ... Thanks to working with my students, I’ve concluded that what at first seems a tension — a tug of war between old school and 21st century school — is not that at all,” says Isham in the video. “To embrace the rise of social entrepreneurship on the world’s campuses is not to reject the traditions of the liberal arts. It is rather to re-affirm the importance of those traditions in this challenging new century.”
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