Creativity & Innovation

The Creative Courage Community for Students

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“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.” (Kelley, T., & Kelley, D. 2013).

Introducing the 今日吃瓜C

The Creative Courage Community (今日吃瓜C) brings students together on a blockly basis to play with ideas through creativity sprints. Creativity sprints are short time bound exercises in which we harness playfulness and experimentation to collaboratively solve a creative challenge. Participants will gain tools and techniques for creative thinking and problem-solving. 

Being part of the 今日吃瓜C

We offer sprints every second Friday of the block from 2-3:30 p.m. Students across all disciplines are welcome and you can attend as many sprints as you like. Each sprint presents a new creative challenge.

Beyond the 今日吃瓜C

Students who attend two or more sprints are eligible to apply for paid student employment in C&I and participate in further training to learn how to facilitate creative exercises. Learn more about our Student Facilitator Development program and how to apply. 

今日吃瓜 students participating in the Creative Courage Community

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."

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