Spotlight on ICSC Graduate: Patrick Colemont

When Patrick Colemont from Belgium started the graduate program in 1986, he was the first European student at ICSC. He received the Creative Studies Alumni Foundation Award in 1987 and completed his Masters degree in 1990. His Master’s project consisted of the planning and organizing of the Second European Conference on Creativity and Innovation in The Netherlands. Patrick continued to be a pioneer and professional in the field of creativity and innovation and he was nominated “universal ambassador” by the European Association for Creativity and Innovation in 2001.

In the first decade of the new millennium Patrick developed a new career as creative consultant in communication and campaigns in politics. In 2008, he became part-time parliamentary collaborator of two Belgian senators. Later on, Patrick has continued his passion for creative thinking in a variety of domains, including mental health and peace making initiatives. He currently is active as ‘co-creative-partner’ and is in the process of writing a publication on “The Code, a conceptual design for co-creativity”.

Patrick will be participating and presenting at the 11the European Conference on Creativity and Innovation in Faro, Portugal from 14-16 September, 2011. He recently has entered a contest to contribute a seven minute speech at the Creativity World Forum 2011 in his hometown of Hasselt. You can see his pitch talk on the internet: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QgXNpUmU2U

Patrick is a proud father of Antoine (14) and Amarine (10) who live with their mother Anne-Sophie in Paris. With his partner Krisje, he enjoys playing golf and spending quality time with the children when they stay in Hasselt. Patrick can be contacted at: patrick.colemont@telenet.be

Links:
www.co-creative-partner.be
www.eaci.net/eccixii
www.flandersdc.be/en/events/cwf11

Highlight on Alicia Arnold

Alicia Arnold graduated in 2010 with an MSc in Creative Studies. In 2011 she will be starting a publishing company and offering three titles. The first, Creativity Unscripted, originated during Alicia's first summer session at Buffalo State when Blair Miller introduced the Lucky 7's to a problem finding exercise using the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. The positive feedback about the approachability and simplicity of using nursery rhymes as a teaching tool led to the concept for the book. Creativity Unscripted uses a behind-the-scenes look into the Land of Nursery Rhyme and the characters Jack and Jill to teach CPS. The book blends the dryness of learning fact with the pleasure of reading fiction to create a business fable focused on teaching creativity. Her next two titles, geared towards children, are part of a series. With the Mack & Cally titles, Alicia introduces "The Letterman’s" – sibling crime solvers with a phonics bag of tricks. Readers can follow 8-year old Cally and 7-year old Mack through a series of adventures as they recover the Mona Lisa, search for the stolen Hope Diamond and return a Faberge egg to its rightful owner. The Letterman’s uses an engaging problem solving format to teach literacy. While solving crimes, Cally finds herself in precarious situations. Luckily, she has the Linking Letters to help her out. The letters come to life and form what they spell – that is, if Cally spells and pronounces them correctly. The Letterman’s stimulates imagination and promotes literacy by focusing on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Each story will feature phonics blends, letter sounds, and other phonics relationships to reinforce concepts learned in school. If you would like to read the manuscripts and and provide a review, feel free to contact Alicia at alicarnold@yahoo.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @alicarnold.