For decades, innovation has been a buzzword that triggers images of slick Silicon Valley start-ups or prestigious research universities in the East; however, the most recent cover of Forbes features Stewart Butterfield, a philosophy major with a start-up company worth almost three billion dollars.
The entire Forbes issue percolates on the growing realization that a liberal arts education provides a phenomenal foundation for innovative start-ups.
Colorado College is, in fact, highlighted in the issue, sitting third on Forbes’ list of top entrepreneurial colleges. This list of “start-up schools” nods to the changing climate of innovation and entrepreneurship, to which the “fertile soil” of liberal arts institutions plays a crucial role.
Patrick Bultema, Executive Director of CC’s Innovation Institute, agrees that tech start-ups “crave liberal arts majors” for the creativity and versatility of liberal arts thinking, problem solving, and communicating.
According to Bultema, the key is not simply recognizing the value of a liberal arts education but also unlocking that value and applying it to inventive spaces and the start-up economy. CC’s Innovation Institute helps provide the support, knowledge, and resources to “unlock” students’ educations.
While many colleges and universities sustain some sort of innovation program, many of these programs are associated with a school’s college of business or engineering, or reserved exclusively for graduate-level study. CC’s Innovation Institute is unique in that its reach is college-wide.
“The Institute believes innovation and creativity are just as relevant to a philosophy or art major as they are to an economics major,” said Bultema.
The other growing realization, explains Bultema, is that increasingly, the most interesting opportunities in society are in the innovation sector.
“Innovation is opportunity, and not just in the economic sense—but opportunity to change the world on the social side,” said Bultema.
Innovation was an important theme in President Tiefenthaler’s strategic plan in the past few years and the Innovation Institute is currently one of the three major areas of emphasis in the college’s Capital Campaign, along with the new library and scholarships for students.
The Innovation Institute’s mission statement reads: “Ideas into action for impact in the world,” and program director Jill Lange muses that the Institute is currently living its mission statement. The Innovation Institute is only in its second year at CC; its first year marked the idea stage, while this year marks the action stage.
This year, the Institute plans to launch a certificate program that complements a student’s major and contains explicit elements of creative problem solving and innovation.
The certificate program resembles a substantive but flexible independently designed major, and students wishing to pursue the certificate work with the Innovation Institute to assemble relevant courses and to encourage co-curricular and extracurricular learning.
The certificate program also contains a capstone element- a final innovative project that could be either an extension of a Big Idea project or something entirely new. Both the Big Idea competition and Innovation Thursdays workshops/lectures will continue this year as well.
While the incredible resources and support of the Innovation Institute certainly influenced CC’s ranking in the country’s top entrepreneurial colleges, Bultema believes the type of students CC attracts play an equally important role.
“The legacy of CC attracts students with an adventuresome spirit,” said Bultema. “[We’re] off the beaten path, and there’s a bit of adventure and risk-taking in coming here.”
He also nods to the Block Plan’s intense, all-in style of learning that closely resembles the style of start-ups—although start-ups take a bit longer than three and a half weeks. The Block Plan further conditions those students who are attracted to a fast-paced and immersive sort of living and thinking.
“The Innovation Institute’s Big Idea competition, for example, encourages students to develop ideas over a relatively short period of time—as is characteristic of the Block Plan—into polished business pitches of the highest quality,” said Jeremy Harlam, a recent CC graduate who has competed in the Big Idea since its inception three years ago.
Harlam describes his experience with entrepreneurship at CC as one of the most valuable and gratifying experiences of his undergraduate study.
“CC’s spot in the top three entrepreneurial colleges serves as “a testament to the individuality, drive, and creativity of [its] students,” said Harlam.