Innovation Forum
February 26, 2016
By Emma Alexander, Honors Communications Intern
The Honors College is a place for innovative students to think creatively and be challenged academically. In the spirit of continuing to provide opportunities for honors students to experience innovative learning, the college has created a scholar living, learning program called Innovator in Residence.
As our Innovator in Residence, Larry is not only living on campus, but is teaching an honors course called “Innovation Forum” this semester. However, this class is different even from other Honors courses offered. Larry explains,
This class has a direct responsibility of putting something in the new Honors College and Residences. You see, in that building that is now under construction, there is a glass corner. And there, we are going to mount something, install something, exhibit something that is accessible 24/7, not only by Honors students, but by anyone who happens through at any given time. It’s for that student who just moved across the country, just began his or her college career. It’s for the student who is scared, nervous, invigorated, or excited. It’s to be something that he or she experiences that is going to move or impact his or her life in some way, shape, or form.
The task at hand for the students currently in this course is no small feat. The bar is set high. But, based on his experience thus far working with Purdue students, Larry is confident. When asked how this teaching experience is different from what he is accustomed to, Larry shared,
I was an Honors student myself, so the mass of intelligence possessed by Honors students was not entirely surprising to me. However, the intellectual acuity of Purdue Students has been thoroughly impressive in a very satisfying way.
Larry says that there are two fundamental things he would like his students to get out of this course. First, he wants them to walk away knowing who they are and what their purpose is in this world. Second, he wants each of them to entirely disappear into the project itself. Though these objectives may seem entirely contradictory, Larry explains,
Steve Jobs [didn't] tell me what to put on my phone. The songs are mine. The pictures are pictures I took. To me, that’s okay. On one hand, you have this framework that is a personal vision. But what happens within that, that’s up to each of us. That’s how I validate those two rather conflicting goals.
That is an interesting thought indeed. Larry is certainly not someone you can have a conversation with without walking away having broadened your perspective on life in some way. I found every aspect of the conversation to be quite thought provoking. However, what was, perhaps, the most relevant of all, was our discussion about innovation. Obviously, this is a term we are all familiar with. The Honors College prides itself in fostering innovation. Larry’s course is quite literally called “Innovation Forum.” But what is innovation?
To me, innovation is any social, cultural, political, or economic breakthrough that has a substantive change in the way people live out their daily lives. A true cultural innovation is comprehensive. Innovation effects everything about our daily lives: the way we eat, the way we sleep the way we fall in and out of love. Oftentimes, this innovation is manifested in a physical technology. However, innovation itself goes far beyond the physical embodiment of the technology that may be associated with it.
For more information about our Innovator in Residence and the Honors College guest speaker series Meet the Innovator, visit our series highlight page.
