Guiding Questions

The guiding questions that Menendez posed all the way back in 2016 continue guiding our program today:

• How might we instill in students 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? 

C&I Re-Envisioned

The resulting re-envisioned C&I 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.”