HIghlight on Nathan Schwagler, 2008 Graduate

Nathan Schwagler
Graduation year: 2008
Home: Tampa Bay, FL
Website: LinkedIn profile

Teaching: Deliberate Creativity in the B school.

Prior to completing the MS in Creative Studies, Nathan entered graduate business school in a Master of Science degree program titled: Entrepreneurship in Applied Technologies – a fancy degree title that basically means: how to launch a technology company. Essentially, it was a 10-course blend of tools and skills to assist the person who thinks they want to get involved in the creation and implementation of something new.

While reading the textbooks, he couldn’t help but notice all of the instances that the terms creativity and innovation were being used. Consequently, he started flagging page corners and realized this was something worthy of further investigation.

Since then, he’s come to believe that entrepreneurs – as well as the greater business community – know that they need to be creative; they just have limited understanding of what to do about it.

Simply doing the basics professed at the ICSC, such as: steadfastly using affirmative judgment when evaluating ideas (even when it hurts); applying facilitation best-practices during team-based exercises; and promoting the deliberate separation of divergence and convergence, professors began asking him to come in and speak to classes about how the students could re-connect with their own creative thinking skills to become more effective business professionals (read: better thinkers).

This recently turned into an opportunity to join the USF Saint Petersburg College of Business as an adjunct instructor of a course on Creativity in Entrepreneurship (imagine CRS 559 with an emphasis on business vocabulary).

What really makes the opportunity special is that the administrators of the Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation Alliance believe that creativity is so important for successfully launching and sustaining a venture, that they’ve decided to make the creativity course foundational and mandatory – meaning everyone must take it!

This foresight has resulted in an opportunity for Nathan to also serve the program as “Creative-In-Residence”, tasked with providing curriculum consultation around integrating creative thinking tools/skills into the remaining courses.

Nathan is absolutely interested in any insights the creative studies community might offer to support the initiative(s); and he would like you to kindly consider sharing your unique wisdom and experience with him. Thank you!!

Highlight on Janice Francisco, 2007

Highlight on Janice Francisco, 2007 (Ottawa, Canada)


Creativity in government?
Yes, it's possible: innovation consulting isn't just for private business, it's also been put into play by the Canadian Federal Government to drive movement, change, and creativity and innovation internally. In recognition of her work to drive innovation within the Canadian Federal Government, Janice was invited to join the 2010 judging committee for the GTEC (Government Technology Exhibition and Conference) (GTEC) Distinction Awards Program.


The Distinction Awards recognizes innovation as a creative approach, using Information Management / Information Technology applications and/or technology, to advance government policy frameworks, service delivery, organizational transformation, use of customer-centered services, public consultation and participation, and competition in the global economy. Honorees are recognized for having outstanding achievements or actions that are clearly above and beyond what would normally be required or expected in government.


For the past 17 years, the Awards have been the pre-eminent public sector recognition program in Canada, for the use of information technology and information management in government service delivery. Each year, the Distinction Awards judging committees conduct an extensive nominations, evaluation and judging program for hundreds of projects submitted by federal, provincial and municipal government teams.

Janice must have made an impression on her fellow judges. They've asked her back for 2011 and to facilitate dialogue on how they could improve the criteria by which they judge innovation.

Find out more about GTEC Awards of Distinction at

http://www.gtec.ca/distinction-awards/general-information.php

For more information on Janice, check out her website at:
http://www.bridgepointeffect.com/about-us/associates/

Highlight on Marci Segal

Highlight on Marci Segal

Marci Segal, 2001 Graduate of ICSC, has been:


1.) Working with NASA Langley Research
Center's innovation team to help them develop innovation program to use throughout
the organization. She recently presented a keynote presentation, "Winning with
Innovation" to a group of 200 scientists, engineers and technologists to inspire
their new thinking.

Read more about Marci on her websites: http://www.marcisegal.com and
http://www.creativityland.net

2) Presented a day-long workshop, Language to Leverage Creative
Thinking, for police officers advancing their command careers at the
Peace Officer Standards and Training Command College in California.
Have been written into their program as an adjunct instructor.

3) A longstanding client recently won Media Agency of the Year from
Strategy Magazine. In the article, attached, they site our program,
Passport to Innovation, as a catalyst for sparking and sustaining
their creativity.

4) Recent blog-post went viral! Entitled "Intellectual Hide-and-Seek
taught at schools" it reveals research from Ron Beghetto at the
University of Oregon. This post alone received close to 3500 hits.
http://wp.me/pURBb-I8

Creative Studies Alumni Achievement Award

History of the Alumni Award 1984-2008The Creative Studies Alumni Achievement Award was conceived as a means to recognize service to an educational program that has greatly influenced the lives of its students and instructors. Founded in 1984 by Gary Gorski with the support of Innovation Resource Associates founders Diane Foucar-Szocki and Roger Firestien as well as other Creative Studies faculty and the ICSC community, the first award was presented to Ed Zilewicz. The award originally included a small monetary gift funded completely by former students and past and current staff members of the ICSC.

From 1984 to 2008, all current students of the International Center for Studies in Creativity Masters program who completed at least one full semester and all recent graduates of the program were eligible for the award. In addition to being recognized for the individual’s achievements to date, the award recognized the potential of the individual to utilize his/her degree in creativity and contribute to society in the future. It also provided a small amount of monetary support as traditionally funding for students and recent graduates of the master’s degree were almost non-existent at the time.

The award winners from the inception of the award through 2008 were:
Ed Zilewicz 1984
Patrick Colemont 1985
Gerard Puccio 1986
Jon Michael Fox 1987
Susan M. Keller 1988
Barbara A. Piwko 1989
Kenneth J. Lauer 1989
Carol Speser 1989
Suzanne K. Vosburg 1993
Christopher Grivas 1995
Andrew J. Dutcher 1996
Robert J. Hookey 1997
Russell A. Schoen 1998
John A. Sharkey 1999
Russell A. Wheeler 2000
David Gonzalez 2001
Cynthia A. Argona 2002
Diane M. Steele 2003
Kristin Daley 2004
Hector Ramos 2005
Jennifer Haggerty 2006
Nathan Schwagler 2008


2009 Re-Conceptualized Alumni Award
With the creation of three new endowed scholarships at the International for Center for Studies in Creativity in the names of Sid Parnes & Ruth Noller, Mary Murdock and the Firestien Family, both monetary support and recognition for ICSC students grew. In 2008, it became apparent that the Alumni Achievement Award had a unique place in ICSC awards as the first and longest running Creative Studies award with 22 award winners spanning 24 years. It was at that time that the award was reframed to focus on a long-term view of contributions of alumni.

Awarding of the 2009 Alumni Achievement Award to Marci SegalWith that change in purpose, the Alumni Award was given in 2009 to Marci Segal, M.S. in Creativity who was also ICSC’s first graduate of the undergraduate minor program in creativity in 1977 and a co-founder of World Creativity Week. Marci’s work in the field of creativity spans 33 years of studying, applying and influencing others to bring creativity to the forefront of society. Her keynote address at the Expert-to-Expert Conference in the spring of 2010 as the award winner highlighted her expertise and her ability to be provocative as she challenged the thinking of the community to work toward a set of ethics for creativity professionals.

A call for Nominations for the 2011 Alumni Achievement Award
With the new focus of the Creative Studies Alumni Achievement Award in mind, we invite nominations for the 2011 award recipient. The purpose of the award is to recognize the recipient’s long-term commitment to nurturing and developing creativity and modeling the ideals of living as a creative learner, creative producer, and creative leader. The winner’s influence could be local or global, yet the person makes a strong impression on their community, provides leadership in understanding and disseminating knowledge of creativity and has a demonstrated history of generating rich outcomes that endure.

The next award will be given out in the spring of 2011 at the Expert-to-Expert conference. Starting with the fall of 2010 and continuing each year going forward, a call for nominations will go out in the middle of the fall semester with an end of the calendar year deadline. The selection committee, which is made up of the Award Chair, Department Chair, faculty and immediate past alumni award recipient, will notify the winner by January in anticipation of the winner participating in the award ceremony the following spring. On a year-to-year basis there may be slight variations to the schedule outlined above.

A Call for nominations goes out to the entire Creative Studies Community, including faculty, alumni, current students and colleagues of Creative Studies. Nominations may be submitted by anyone associated with the Center, including the prospective award nominee. The nominated person must be a graduate of the Master’s of Science in Creativity, Certificate Program in Creativity and Change Leadership, the Creative Studies Undergraduate Minor program or the Creative Studies Undergraduate Leadership Program. Full time faculty in the Creative Studies Department are not eligible for the award.

Documentation from the nominator should contain a description of approximately two to three pages that includes past and current activities of the nominee as well as the nominator’s reasons for nominating the person. The description should also include how the nominee demonstrates a long-term commitment to nurturing and developing creativity and modeling the ideals of living as a creative learner, creative producer, and creative leader. Additionally, address in the description how the person makes a strong impression on his/her community and provides leadership in understanding and disseminating knowledge of creativity and bringing to society rich outcomes that endure. Supporting documentation outlining the person’s achievements is encouraged (e.g. vitae or resume, letters of support, links to websites, bibliographies or other documentation of creative productivity and influence) but not essential. The ideal candidate is a creative leader who embodies a creative spirit and is a positive force in society.

The award committee will base its selection on the submitted nomination, personal knowledge of the nominee’s achievements and any recommendations received by the due date. The award has three components: (1) The recipient’s name will be added to the ICSC wall plaque listing all recipients of the award; (2) an engraved plaque presented to the recipient; and (3) the person will be asked to present his/her current thinking to the Creative Studies community at the Expert-to-Expert Conference in May. Nominees who are not selected for the award are automatically considered in the pool of nominees for future cycles.

During the open nomination timeframe, nominations can be emailed or mailed to Gary Gorski, Award Chair, or submitted to a Creative Studies Faculty member.
Alumni Achievement Award c/o Gary Gorski, S-536 Four Rod Rd., Alden, NY 14004 gmgorski@aol.com
Nominations for the 2011 Alumni Achievement Award are due by 1/21/1