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September Update
Hey all,
This month has been crazy! As a quick recap, I left my previous job last month to help start a school as a founding student at Experience Institute, an alternative form of higher education. As a general foundation, we're focusing on the five core competencies of community building, self-awareness, storytelling, operations, and design thinking. In the past couple weeks, we've learned from local leaders in these fields and worked on various projects in the area, such as touring Threadless to learn about community building, designing a bag for young professionals with Stock Manufacturing, and working on our storytelling skills with IC Stars. We've also been researching and finding great companies where we can add value for our first round of apprenticeships.
We've also been learning about how we (the Founding Class) can all work together as a group. Though we all come from various backgrounds and have different educational goals, we've spent a lot of the time getting to know and understand each other so we can support each other over the next year.
The Founding Class above from L-R:
Joe (social entrepreneur), Muffadal (business strategist), me ("designer"?), Jessica (artist), Dane (writer), Carisa (engineer)
Not pictured:
Victor, our fearless Founder-In-Chief who started this school based on his Leap Year Project
Jared, our COO and voice of reason
My, producer and future bubble soccer champ
Chicago had some really lovely fall days with perfect weather, along with the occasional thunderstorm or 90s heatwave. I still can't get over how gorgeous the skyline is. In my occasional instances of spare time, I also checked out the local maker/hacker spaces, which shared collaborative working spaces with resources for people to build their own projects. These are often fantastic places to hang out, since you can learn new skills, get access to expensive machines and tools (usually for a fee), and the maker community is really friendly and helpful as a whole. The cost of access to these spaces range from free to super expensive, non-proft to for-profit. The Chicago Public Library currently has a makerspace that's open to the public for FREE, completely decked out with 3D printers, laser cutters, and other really cool toys (hello Silicon Valley?) Check it out if you're in the area!
HIGHS AND LOWS
We developed a routine of sharing our highs and lows of each day, which we'll continue throughout the year in our weekly Google hangouts. Here are some of mine from the past month.
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Highs: This is going to be a good year. It doesn't mean that it'll be easy, but have a great core team, supported by some awesome people. We've been able to work collaboratively, bounce creative ideas around, and also play to each others' respective strengths in an amazing way. I've been able to talk to and connect with some fantastic thinkers, dreamers, and doers, and that's helped provide focus and inspiration for what I want to do (more updates coming up in the next round). It's been a lot of work, but I'm really excited.
Lows: Still figuring out how to talk to people, write things, and present myself. Constantly speaking with and interacting with new partners/connectors through all these calls and meetings really takes it out of me. I'm definitely not used to it, and I'm not used to putting myself out there and being immediately open. My tendency to think and overanalyze also doesn't help when I have to make decisions on a deadline, and there's some uncertainty about exactly where I'll be in a few weeks. It's been great practice and it's definitely something I want to improve upon, but all this action sometimes makes me want to curl up into a little introvert ball and take a nap.
The fox is our unofficial mascot for now? Two of my classmates have requested a fox-related art logo for their new apartment, so I've been sketching a lot of foxes.
Goals for October: I'll be finalizing what I'll be doing this fall (through more calls and such) and also figuring out a workflow and nicer format for blog posts/sketches. I draw a lot to help organize my thoughts, and I'd like for this newsletter to show that. Any suggestions?
Thanks again so much for all of your fantastic words of encouragement! I just got back to the Bay Area for a bit during our break, and I'd love to hear from any of you, whether by email or in person. I'll be keeping up this newsletter throughout the next year as a way to keep in touch with you guys, but also as a way to keep myself accountable and honest in this new adventure.
Cheers,
-April
P.S. If you want to see more pictures and info of what we did the past couple weeks, check out this tagboard or the links below!
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