Tag Archives: Social Entrepreneurship

Of Great Things and Sacred Spaces–A Summer 2025 NOVA Lab Update

NOVA Lab, over five years, has initiated numerous impactful projects, merging education with community service. A standout effort this year is the Joe and Zoe Trail Signage project, which offers educational signage on local ecology. This embodies the principle of Purpose Driven Learning, emphasizing meaningful, community-oriented education beyond traditional classrooms.

NOVA Lab: A Class in Flux

Since 2019, NOVA Lab has utilized Fluxspace, an innovative educational space, for project presentations and learning. The class evolved from a focus on design-thinking to more social initiatives, leading to concerns about diminishing entrepreneurial vigor. Insights from critique panels at Fluxspace prompted reflections on curriculum adjustments to restore a design-centered focus. Revisions aim to emphasize tangible outcomes, community partnerships, and enhanced student engagement.

Future Deja Vu 

NOVA Lab students engaged in a 24-day project focused on futures thinking, inspired by PBS’s “A Brief History of Time.” They explored proactive community-building, envisioning achievable protopias instead of typical dystopian narratives. While reflecting on their participation, students expressed responsibility towards the future, recognizing the urgency for change amidst systemic failures. Their engagement aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting the need for visionary action.

From Design Thinking to Futures Thinking (part 1)

In which we explore our class’s shift from a focus on Design Thinking to incorporating Design Thinking with Futures Thinking and its attendant skills in Scenario Planning, Foresight, Signal and Trend spotting, and Protopian thinking.

“Well,How Did I Get Here?*” Or … Thank You.

I am not an entrepreneur. I do not own a business. Serial startups are not my thing. I am however, entrepreneurially minded. After almost 25 years of living, breathing, and evolving my understandings of creativity–from self-expressive to problem solving to problem finding and the applied creativity of design–I’ve come to enjoy the risks of startingContinue reading ““Well,How Did I Get Here?*” Or … Thank You.”

Back to the Future: Human Centered (Re)Design for the Future of Towns & Cities

These initiatives consider their impact on a much larger geography (the world) and a much larger time frame (designing for the future). Such forward thinking is indicative of people who are concerned about the great good, who understand the necessity for all people to act within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and who are interested in making the world a better place.

The Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat: Cassidy Lichtman’s “P/ATH” and Sport as a Good Thing

A look at a small but determined initiative using sports in a focused and determined way to achieve one’s goals as well as a way to develop a solid sense of self and a care for a larger key community.