Creativity & Innovation began in 2011 as the Innovation Institute, which had a distinct entrepreneurial focus. Wanting to broaden the program’s scope and impact, in 2016, the College hired a new director, Dez Stone Menendez, who shifted the focus significantly, most notably to focus on creativity as the fertile ground from which innovation arises. Menendez posed a series of questions to guide the program’s development; these questions continue to inform the program’s growth. 

• How might we empower students with the creative confidence to choose curiosity over fear?  

• How might we create a container for students to take productive risks?  

• What is the relationship between research, play, repairing, and risk-taking?  

• How might we teach students to embrace ambiguity and experiment iteratively with ideas, with a focus on process over final outcomes? 

The resulting re-envisioned Creativity & Innovation proceeds from the premise that creativity is an innate human trait that can be consciously cultivated to help us bring the richness of our whole selves into every aspect of our lives.

The program’s mission now focuses on helping all students build their creative thinking capacities, whether or not they became entrepreneurs. In the program’s strategic philosophy, Menendez and collaborator – Professor Jane Hillberry – noted that, “In general, creativity refers to the ability to explore multiple possibilities to generate novel ideas, while innovation refers to the execution of those ideas. Without creativity, there is no innovation, yet many institutions that promote innovation and entrepreneurship give little conscious attention to the conditions that cultivate creativity. All humans are endowed with creativity, and although many of us have experiences early in our lives that cut us off from our creative sources, they never disappear. With exposure to research about how creativity works, practice in creative problem-solving methodologies, and self-knowledge about their creative processes.”