Creativity & Innovation

The Creative Courage Cohort- Students

“At its core, creative confidence is about believing in your ability to create change in the world around you. It is the conviction that you can achieve what you set out to do. We think this self-assurance, this belief in your creative capacity, lies at the heart of innovation.”

– David Kelley and Tom Kelley, Creative Confidence

The Creative Courage Cohort- Students

While many people equate creativity with producing artistic masterpieces, creativity is, in fact, a mindset, a way of finding more and richer possibilities for interaction with the things, people, and places in our world. The Creative Courage Cohort is designed to equip students with tools and strategies for creative thinking that they can bring into their future classes and work beyond CC. In the process, they will learn to switch between divergent and convergent thinking and bring playfulness, exploration, and experimentation into their daily lives.

The Creative Courage Cohort experience begins with an immersion session during which students reconnect with their creative selves, explore how productive risk-taking and creativity are intertwined with learning and identity, and learn creative problem-solving Techniques.

Immersion Sessions Academic Year 2024-25

3rd Block Break: November 14, 2024. From 11:00 am - 4:30 pm
Additional Immersion dates will be determined and posted at a later time

Following the immersion session, participants can join additional workshops, discussions, and activities. This is an opportunity for students to bring questions, projects, and ideas from their current courses and personal lives so they might practice using the skills and aptitudes they learned in the immersion session in real-world contexts.

For more information, please contact Kris Stanec, Director of Creativity & Innovation kstanec@coloradocolleg.edu

To Sign Up

To register, simply fill out the form here.

Register for 3rd Block Break (November 14, 2024), by November 12th at 4:00 pm
Additional Immersion dates will be determined and posted at a later time

Student Immersion

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Challenges We Are Trying to Address

Overconcern with performance and perfection
Pressure to be extraordinary
Fear of failure
Impact of curated social media world on social development
Disconnection from self and others
Pressure to be constantly busy to prove self-worth
Competitive mindset
Disconnection from embodied self
Risk aversion
Intolerance of ambiguity
Information overload

Strengths We Want to Cultivate

Curiosity; engagement with process over product
Humility, empathy, grace, and compassion; ability to say, "I don't know"
Embracing failure as part of learning
Sense of connection and belonging
Vulnerability and self-awareness
Making spaciousness for reflection
Collaborative mindset
Embodied learning
Courage to take productive risks
Finding comfort and possibility in uncertainty
Ability to prioritize information

Student Reflections 22-23

"I was able to see the depth of my creativity in a new way and learned how it could be harnessed and translated to different contexts and take new forms."

"My relationship to creativity has changed during this course – especially my relationship to risk and failure. I realize how I’ve been afraid of both and have been challenging myself to embrace failure."

"I’ve come to see how much I value creativity and hold it close to my identity."

"I view creativity as the state of generating many possibilities and having many to choose from. Creativity is not the one thing you decide to express but the many ideas and thoughts that are possible before you choose. Creativity is not the one good idea you settle on but all the possibilities you are able to generate."