Creativity & Innovation

The Creative Courage Community for 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 

Introducing the 91Â鶹ӳ»­C

The Creative Courage Community (91Â鶹ӳ»­C) brings students together to play with ideas through creativity sprints. This gives students tools and techniques for creative thinking and problem solving that they can bring into both personal and academic endeavors. While many people equate creativity with producing artistic masterpieces, creativity is, in fact, mindsets, ways of opening yourself up to and finding more and richer possibilities for interacting with the peoples, places, and things in our world. 

 

Being part of the 91Â鶹ӳ»­C

The 91Â鶹ӳ»­C takes place on the second Fridays of each block during which participants connect with their creative selves and each other. Harnessing playfulness and experimentation, they will explore how creativity intertwines with their lives. 91Â鶹ӳ»­ students across all disciplines are welcome.

We kick of in Block 2 with TWO 91Â鶹ӳ»­Cs: the 1st and 2nd Fridays, Sep. 26 and Oct. 3, 2025 from 2:00 - 3:30pm.  to reserve your spot! You can come to one or both. 

Interested students then also have opportunities to attend Student Facilitator trainings and apply for paid student employment in C&I. 

91Â鶹ӳ»­ students participating in the Creative Courage Community
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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."