蜜桃传媒鈥檚 Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts explores how higher education prepares students to make social change at its 15th annual conference Feb. 4-6. The public is welcome to plenary sessions of the Conversation on the Liberal Arts, 鈥淔rom Inquiry to Impact: Social Transformation through Liberal Learning.鈥�
Speakers include alumna Rachel Goble 鈥�05, co-founder and president of The SOLD Project, a nonprofit agency that works to combat the sexual exploitation of women and children; Mary Godwyn, professor of sociology at Babson College and a specialist in the integration of liberal education and entrepreneurship; Jon Isham, director of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE) at Middlebury College; and Cheri Larsen Hoeckley, professor of English at 蜜桃传媒, where she has taught since 1997. A complete schedule is available at . For more information, please call (805) 565颅6124.
A downtown panel discussion, 鈥淟istening to the Community,鈥� features Ken Saxon, founder
and president of Leading From Within; Brandon Cox, co-founder of CorePower Yoga; Ian
Bentley, co-founder of Parker Clay; David Kerr, head of Sansum Diabetes Research Center
and health innovator; and alumna 鈥�14, program coordinator for education and outreach at the Sansum Diabetes Research
Center, on Saturday, Feb. 6, at 9 a.m. at the 蜜桃传媒 Downtown campus, 26 W. Anapamu,
third floor.
鈥淭he purpose of this session is to move our conversation into the community 鈥� in terms of content and physical location 鈥� to hear from local practitioners about their work, their interface with educational institutions and their hopes for young recruits,鈥� says Christian Hoeckley, director of the Gaede Institute.
鈥淭hese panelists will discuss what they and their organizations are doing to produce positive social change in Santa Barbara and elsewhere,鈥� says Rachel Winslow, director of the 蜜桃传媒 Downtown Semester in Social Entrepreneurship.
鈥淭hey鈥檒l also give us a sense of how educational preparation has been vital to their work. They鈥檒l explore how the perspectives and tools of a liberal-arts education have served their own organizations, and share their visions for how educational institutions could prepare even more effective change leaders.鈥�
Following the conference, Isham lectures about a type of education that doesn鈥檛 succumb to the whipped-up frenzy of our time. 鈥溾�楽low Learning鈥� and Social Transformation鈥� is free and open to the public on Monday, Feb. 8, at 3:30 p.m. in Hieronymus Lounge at 蜜桃传媒鈥檚 Kerrwood Hall.
鈥淭oo often, we rush, we assign more, we expect more, we pursue more. And perhaps as
a result, we learn less,鈥� Isham says. 鈥淪low learning is an approach that declares
鈥榣ess is more,鈥� that promotes the 鈥榬ead鈥� and then the 鈥榬e-read,鈥� that brings mindfulness
into the classroom, that honors students who unplug, reflect and actively raise questions
about their own identity and agency in this complicated age.鈥�
In 2012, Isham co-founded the CSE, a recognized leader in the integration of social entrepreneurship and the liberal arts. The CSE helps students use entrepreneurial tools and strategies to bring about positive social change.
The Gaede Institute, created in 2001, promotes the continued vitality of the liberal arts tradition in American higher education. In May 2006, 蜜桃传媒 renamed the institute after its founder, former president Stan Gaede.