If you’ve ever been in my office in Fishburn, you probably noticed my bulletin board. Half of it is designated as an “Idea Shelf” — where I jot down creative thoughts to use for later. The other half prominently features a Busch Gardens park map. Let me explain. Months ago, as our office brainstormed through a big grant opportunity, we were discussing the college’s strengths, weaknesses, and wicked problems. I let my corny humor take over. As legendary ad exec David Ogilvy once said, “The best ideas come as jokes.” So I started drawing. When I think about Virginia Western, I immediately think of bridges … especially since we have a giant bridge over Colonial Avenue. So when I started sketching out bridges to all of our programs and connections with our community, my sketch started to look like a theme park map. And I love a good theme park. Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando are among my favorites. Soooo … please forgive my crude doodles, but I tried to imagine Virginia Western as if we were a theme park: Some questions I had to consider as I drew my map: How would we design… Continue Reading If Virginia Western were a theme park …Read More
It’s my favorite time of year — Halloween! — so I thought I’d discuss wicked problems. Wicked problems are complex, social problems that are constantly changing — which are exactly the kind of problems we face at Virginia Western. Design thinking is a methodology that can help us address these wicked problems (and write grants to tame them). I love this approach because it puts the human — the student — in the center of design. This means more than just deploying student surveys. We should be interviewing and observing students, yes, but we should also be going through the same experiences as students and potential students (websites, forms, processes, etc.). Empathy is key, and it’s only the first step. I’ve been reading about design thinking and creative problem solving for over a decade, so I could shower you with all kinds of information. But I will limit this post to just a few treats, which you can use in the classroom and in your own life: 1. For an overview of how design thinking applies to higher ed: Start with this summary, Using Design Thinking in Higher Education (I especially like the Montgomery Community College example). This more recent… Continue Reading We face wicked problems, personally and professionally. Design thinking can help.Read More
One of my favorite genres of articles involve creativity in the schools, which are usually about K-12 initiatives that stretch way beyond our standardized-testing mania. I can’t resist sharing some of my favorite ideas I’ve learned about in the last few months: Grand Rapids Public Museum School, where a struggling school district opened a school *inside* a struggling museum. The museum’s collections are folded into the curriculum, and students learn through hands-on, community-based activities, including a local river-revitalization project. ( More )An outdoors-oriented Forest Kindergarten program at a public elementary school in Georgia, which builds its curriculum around year-long research projects at each grade level. ( More )Tiny Trees, an outdoor preschool program in Seattle, which partners with the city’s parks and recreation program to provide hands-on, nature-based experiences. ( More ) Collecting these kind of innovative ideas is critical to my role in grants, as I’ve explained before. Just last week, I stumbled upon this article: How Schools Can Stop Killing Creativity (which is really just an excerpt from a new book called “Pushing the Limits.”) I recommend reading the entire story, but there was one nugget, way down in the article, that relates directly to an issue we are struggling… Continue Reading Let’s ask students: How might Virginia Western boost enrollment and retention?Read More
About Shelley
Shelley Lyons is glad to be back on campus as she is a Virginia Western alum, and has served as the Administrative Officer for Grants Administration at Virginia Western since early 2022. Prior to VWCC, her career focus was within the Human Services and Arts fields. She wrote her first grant in 1996 on a whim and has continued to plan and learn since that time. She most enjoys seeing a well-planned project come to fruition, where funder, project manager and beneficiaries can all feel success and see impact.
Recent Posts
- Why Try An LOI? May 10, 2024
- Grant Nerds Unite! March 12, 2024
- The Power of Collaboration November 17, 2023
- Time to Innovate October 4, 2023
- How to tackle grant season? August 14, 2023