How Entrepreneurial Spirit Shapes Career - Audrey Parker

In Chapter 2 of 21 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, entrepreneur Audrey Parker answers "What Made You Realize That You Were an Entrepreneur at Heart?" Parker first accepts the "entrepreneur" identity after co-founding her company, CLEAResult; however, upon reflecting upon her past experiences, Parker recognizes she has been happiest when she is creating something. She recalls helping a woman start fter graduating from college, Parker helps to start an insurance agency. While in college, she helps to start a women's a cappella group. Parker is currently on a one-year sabbatical. Parker co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm. In 2010, CLEAResult ranked #144 in the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies. In late 2010, CLEAResult was sold to General Catalyst Partners. Parker graduated from Wake Forest University.

Courtney Spence on What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder

In Chapter 2 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?" She finds it harder to find and manage time, as increasing responsibilities and interests are pressuring her to better prioritize and schedule. Spence is finding relationships easier to navigate and manage as she comes to accept as you get older and have less time, you realize everyone else is in same boat. As a result, she finds keeping up with her college friends more manageable than previously thought. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World - http://studentsoftheworld.org - a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What is getting easier and what is getting harder in your life?

Courtney Spence:  Wow.  Well, it is getting harder to find time, I think.  That’s something – I think back to even just my college years and all of the things I was able to do, and volunteer, and go to church, and still have time to work out every day, and hang out with friends, and bake cookies for people.  And do, I mean it was – I had, you know – I had all this time, and then you know, you make the transition into the workforce and the workplace, and you realize, okay, my time is a bit more limited.  But particularly, for me in the past year, I just – I can’t seem to find the time. I have found more and more things that I’m interested in doing and learning about and knowing about, so there’s – it’s almost like my horizons keep getting wider, but my time somehow seems to be a little bit less.  So that’s hard. 

I think it’s – at the same time, I guess I would say what’s getting easier is this concept of relationships in a sense that, you know, most recently this year, I was able to reconnect with some friends from college that I hadn’t seen since we graduated, so its been over ten years, and we picked up like it had been yesterday that we are at Duke, and there was just this sense of awe that I had that, you know, I was sort of worried about some of these friendships and these relationships, and what would it be like, I haven’t seen them in so long, and it was – it was incredible, and I think there is something I have understood as you get older and you don’t find that you have the time that you want to put into relationships.  You realize that everybody else is in that same boat and that more often than not, if you have had a period in your life where you’ve been close to people, you will always be able to go back to that foundation.  So it’s not to say that you don’t have to work at relationships and friendships because you do, but I think there is this sense that, you know, everybody is going through their own battles, everybody is going through their own struggles, and you know, if you ever had a connection, you can still find that connection again.

Courtney Spence on How to Make Student Filmmakers Non-Profit Advocates

In Chapter 13 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence shares how to leverage the passion of college student program participants to help non-profits non-governmental organizations (NGOs) thrive. Spence notes how student energy and enthusiasm complements a sense of mission and purpose working with the NGOs, ultimately becoming a champion or advocate of the cause. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World, a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How has the college student perspective advanced the cause of your NGO program partners?

Courtney Spence:  I think one of the really wonderful things about working with college students is this ‘can do’ spirit and this sense of optimism and a real desire to contribute. You know, college is a time where you are being inspired consistently through courses, through new friendships, through professors, through internships.  At its best college is, you know, it’s four years of incredible inspiration and stimulation in ways that – and challenging you to think in ways that you haven’t thought before. 

So when you take people that are in this moment in time, in their growth as a person that we’re they’re, you know, they’re able to apply things that they learned in theater class to what they’re, you know, learning in their public policy class, in ways that they wouldn’t have seen overlap, they’re seeing it, and when you apply that kind of person and throw them into a program where their whole purpose is to go listen, partake in stories, and then kind of regurgitate those in ways that can make a difference.  It’s a perfect match because what happens is these students come in, they are willing to rough it.  Will sleep in barns.  Will sleep on floors.  I wanna work with the family.  I wanna plant beans.  Just throw me, I will do anything.  I wanna learn.  I wanna be a part of this.  And there is just this sheer enthusiasm and energy, and then yet, there’s a real sense of like mission and purpose, and here is what we’re here to do. 

But what happens is, you know, the relationships that I have seen that our students have forged with the organizations and the individuals on the ground are really, really profound because, you know, they’re not worried about a gazillion other things that they have to do.  More often than not, they know more about the organizations than a lot of the volunteers and staff that they’ll meet on the ground because, for three months, they have been so excited in preparing and reading everything that they can get their hands on. 

So what we’re able to do for our organization is to say we’re not just sending you a team to come in for a week and do, you know, a five-minute video for you, we’re sending you seven, very optimistic, very energetic, very talented creative young people that wanna come in and more or less dedicate a year of their life to your organization, to understanding it, to telling your stories, and then being a champion and advocate for your cause, and that’s not found many other places, and, you know, we’re lucky that we’re able to do that because, you know, this is how Students of the World started.  It has been a very organic growth as an organization, but that, I think, is something that we’re able to give to our organizations that I really only in the past year have started to really appreciate.

Courtney Spence on How to Improve College Internship Programs

In Chapter 14 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers "What have you learned about designing a more impactful college internship program?" Spence shares what she has learned about designing more impactful college internship programs. Using training, benchmarks, deliverables, and feedback interviews, she creates a more structured and measurable 10-week internship program. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World, a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What have you learned about designing a more impactful college internship program?

Courtney Spence:  I have learned a lot.  So you know, this year we went, you know, and formalized the Students of the World experience to be a ten-week internship and really formalized it more so in the spring and in the fall, so in the spring our students have deliverables and benchmarks, both research and creative that they have to hit every month. You know, last year was the first year we did, you know, three-, four-day trainings with each team, and that was tremendous. You know, we invested so much more in the student experience last year because we made that hard decision to go from seven to three teams and really had to trim down, but, you know, by doing less we were able to do so much more.  And we were able to do exit interviews with our students when they left at the end of the summer, and it was – it was really incredible because I think, you know, our students, the feedback that we got was overwhelmingly positive, the work that we got was overwhelmingly positive.  Problems that we would have encountered every year prior to last year in the field weren’t there as frequently.  There were still problems but they weren’t there as frequently.  

And I think one of the important things that we have learned is really, you know, at the very beginning, the way that you communicate with students is extremely important and understanding that you need to set goals and benchmarks, and here are our values, and here is what we do, and here is what we don’t do, and communicating that all up front, and being able to say this is what we – at minimum, this is our best hope for you guys in terms of the work that you’ll produce, but we know you’re gonna, you know, shoot for the moon.

And, you know, one of the things that we did this last year, which was sort of a learning year for us was, you know, we had all of these expectations of what we could do in post production and, you know, you hear six weeks of work, and our students were like ‘what are we gonna do for six weeks?’  You know, and then what happened was – at like, you know, five-and-a-half weeks, they’re like ‘I can’t believe we only have three days left,’ you know, because there was just so much more work that they wanted to do and that we could have done, but really kind of setting those goals from the beginning and being able to be realistic in what we can achieve but also giving students the flexibility and creativity to work within sort of some broader frameworks means that they’ll come back with really creative products that are very effective for the organization.  You know, we had students do stop-motion animation, which was not even anything I knew anything about until last year, but because, you know, we were able to give our students some creative freedom, an expression of how they wanted to tell the stories, we got some really, really great work out of that.  

And then I just think really constantly, you know, checking in with the individuals as well as the team, and what we did last year is we had each -- the producer of each team wrote us a weekly report of here’s where the team is at and we wanted both in terms of the work that they were doing but also in terms of the emotional, where is the team at, and it was really nice to empower our producers to take on that role and then come with us, and, you know, and talk with us as they were having, you know, issues and problems throughout post production.  I think it’s important when you work with college students to empower them to take leadership within projects that they’re, you know, they’re involved in, and not just talking down to them, but actually saying we’re all in this together, so let’s find a way to work in effective ways.

Courtney Spence on How to Teach College Students to Take Criticism

In Chapter 15 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers "How do you teach your students to embrace feedback without taking it personally?" Spence shares what she has learned about teaching creative college students how not to take criticism and feedback personally. She teaches students to embrace feedback by grounding the work in its fundamental and positive purpose, complementing it with a continuous improvement mindset built on giving back by making art. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World, a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How do you teach your students to embrace feedback without taking it personally?

Courtney Spence:  I think there’s always a challenge of – in any job that you do is taking criticism and feedback without taking it personally, especially if you work at a company or the way that you personally work is to take things personally, is to be emotionally invested in the work that you’re doing.  So, you know, that’s something that I still struggle with myself but that is certainly, you know, as we work with young, creative talent, young, you know, college students that, you know, are used to producing work for a grade or producing it for, you know, creativity for creativity’s sake, there is sort of a process that we have to go through with them, and not all of them. 

Some of them understand it, but some of them don’t, and it is ‘how do you take feedback and criticism on the work that you have done, the artistic work that you have created, and take that feedback, and then refine it to make something better?’  And I think what we always start with is the end goal, so we’re there to give back through media.  Some people build houses, some people teach English, some people provide, you know, aid and service. Our service is through storytelling, it’s through media, and if it’s not the best story it can be if it’s not accurately reflecting the organizations and the individuals that were on the ground, then we’re not doing our job.  And it’s really easy for people to get stuck back in to ‘but it would be so much more cool if we could do this’, or, you know, really getting into the creative element, but you always have to go back to that fundamental question, that fundamental purpose, and that is we are here to make a difference, to make a positive difference through our work, and through really focusing on the positive aspects of things that are going on in this world. 

So if you aren’t interested in telling stories of progress and if you’re more investigative, wanting to uncover what, you know, all the bad in the world, this organization isn’t for you.  And so, what I think we have done through our application process has really found students that do believe in the mission of giving back through art.  And so when we do get, you know, feedback or criticism of the work as we’re going through reviews, you know, we always kind of huddle together, and it’s like okay, listen, we’re here to make these stories to help make a difference for this organization to help them fundraise and they have to play an active role in how those stories shape up.  So it’s just trying to level it up to, you know, what is our greater purpose, and I think that has worked pretty effectively for students to understand okay, this is how – not only this is how the real world works but this is how I can contribute in the most effective way at this organization.

How College Interdisciplinary Studies Shape Design Career - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 4 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko learns problem solving in a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) interdisciplinary studies program. Studying Human Computer Interaction, or HCI, Kolko majors in computer science, cognitive psychology, and statistics. These problem solving skills prepare Kolko for his design career. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen:  How did your interdisciplinary studies at Carnegie Mellon impact your career trajectory?

Jon Kolko:  Directly.  I got a Masters in Human Computer Interaction or HCI which traditionally has been a convergence of cognizant psychology, computer science, design and statistics and that – so fundamentally that career is interdisciplinary, that career path and then if you combine that with sort of an under – underlying approach on just in design like with a big D or however you want to frame it. 

I’ve always approached problem solving with those different lenses on, albeit be not nearly as equally weighted.  I always tended toward the computer science design side of things and away from the cognitive psychology and statistics point of view.  It’s only recently that I’ve actually started embracing both of those two. 

Arguably, they are harder for my small little creative brain to understand because those are like real science elements as opposed to these design disciplines.  I say that completely tongue in cheek so – and so I learned an interdisciplinary approach but I don’t think it ever occurred to me that that’s was what it was because it just seems like how else would you approach solving a complex human problem and then – then from multiple perspectives.  That idea of empathy of being able to view it from a different – a different point of view, I think is pretty fundamental to solving any problem.

How Design Thinking Problem Solving Can Improve - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 11 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko interprets design thinking. He talks about the rise of "Design Thinking" philosophy, specifically using design methods to solve strategic business and organizational problems. He notes its shortcomings, specifically how design "doing" must complement design "thinking". He notes the "doing" part is often thought of as menial - commoditizing and offshoring product design for mass production overseas. Kolko argues against this, noting overseas designers will solve local design problems. Because design is connected to culture, problems must be locally solved, or at least locally engaged. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

How to Improve Design School Education and Teaching - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 15 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares how design schools can improve how they teach. He notes that most design professors teach what they have learned which is rooted in traditional design theory such as Bauhaus form giving, meaning color theory, typography, 2D design and 3D design. He highlights these are relevant for manufactured product design and not necessarily for social problem solving design. Kolko notes how innovative design thinking and doing programs are coming from abroad, including KAOSPILOT and CIID in Denmark and Malmo University in Sweden. These programs are focusing more on social problem solving design and less on mass-produced product design. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

How Interdisciplinary Studies Develop Career Path - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 4 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how blending social science and arts studies at University of Virginia (UVA) shaped his career. Stallings first focuses on economics and, having the luxury of not having area requirements, then focuses on psychology. He channels his passion trying to understand people and their behavior. Over the years, Stallings works in business trying to understand personal decision making and then in creative roles understanding how market mechanisms work.

Hammans Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen:  How did blending your studies of social sciences and the arts at the University of Virginia impact your career development?

Hammans Stallings:  I was pretty spoiled in that I was allowed to be in a program that at UVA where we didn’t have any area requirements and so I’d spent the first two years really knocking out the economics and that allowed me to really explore and move into a much more an interdisciplinary academic approach, more so than I think most people are able to do, we didn’t have any area requirements so I came in, was able to take graduate classes pretty quickly and work in labs, in psychology and – and for whatever reason, the – this contrast of economics and psychology really was this – this kind of an annoying bug.  They had so many assumptions about people and behavior and how things work that are in contrast that drove me nuts for years and so I kind of in a lot of ways, there’s this –that has actually kind of come through with me throughout all of my – all of my jobs since.  I spent time in – in business, thinking about how poorly understood people are. 

I spent time - a little bit now - in the creative world where there isn’t a really sharp understanding of how market mechanisms work and why businesses are sort of strange in a way that people are too.  Organizations are made of people and they have their own kind of strange psychology and so I think that early experience in academics really prepared me for studying in my later career across functional areas and so I’ve been much more of a generalist than I have been a specialist.  You know I’ve – maybe it taught me the value of it and as well it gave me something to always kind of be struggling with in terms of like reconciling things and it’s that letting your subconscious kind of reconcile things and being able to live and sleep with that – you know that –that stress that I think you’re able to come out with interesting solutions that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise if you just so deeply believed any one thing. 

So, I think that’s kind of, I love more than anything bringing kind of an interdisciplinary approach and seeing how all these different areas, different people, and different perspectives in their own contexts see this elephant differently and I think that’s kind of a neat future is you know reconciling all these things and see kind of at the intersection, what do you learn.

What Makes a Near-Peer Mentoring Relationship Valuable - Lauren Serota

In Chapter 5 of 18 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, interaction designer and researcher Lauren Serota shares how mentor Jon Kolko encouraged her independence and built her self-confidence. While studying at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Serota forges a mentoring relationship her professor, Kolko. Only a few years older than Serota, Kolko provides presence and encouragement as a mentor to help Serota gain confidence in her work and become more independent in her aspiration. Serota is an interaction designer at frog design - http://frogdesign.com - and a professor at the Austin Center for Design - http://ac4d.com . She earned her bachelors degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

How Research Experience Informs Design Career - Lauren Serota

In Chapter 9 of 18 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, interaction designer and researcher Lauren Serota shares how her design career has developed. After high school DJ and Music PR jobs, Serota attends Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) to study industrial design. Over time she focuses on formative design stages, specifically design. After multiple early career jobs, she lands a design researcher job at Lextant. Serota is an interaction designer at frog design - http://frogdesign.com - and a professor at the Austin Center for Design - http://ac4d.com . She earned her bachelors degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Fabian Pfortmüller on What to Consider When Choosing a College Major

In Chapter 4 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares his approach to choosing a college major.  He advises others to consider non-practical approaches, focusing less on choosing based on career path and more on learning from a diverse array of subjects.  Over time, typically two years, the diverse experiences allow for a more personalized and fitting choice.  Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com).  He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion.  Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What should college students consider when choosing a major?

Fabian Pfortmüller: I personally believe that they should not go for practical output for practical reasons such as ‘This is going to allow me to do X, Y and Z in my career’. I think having the courage and the guts to disconnect your studies and especially undergrad but I personally believe even grad studies, from a practical, applicable knowledge for your career is a great thing.

Because in the end, you know look at how people recruit, yes they like to recruit – like if you want to go into business, yes they like to recruit business people but at the same time this is not what going to really matter afterwards in the job. And so I can only recommend for people to try and try out as many things as possible, most diverse as possible in first one, two years, don’t settle too easily for something, be critical to yourself, try totally random stuff and then go for what you really feel most passionate about.

In my case, I had a class on music in the Middle East and India and I realized that’s cool, that’s interesting but it was music. I had a class on philosophy, I had a class on social inequality in China and from all those things in the end you have to kind of also start understand what is a good professor? What is a nice department? I mean obviously the major and the topic itself matters but I think there are also departments and departments. And I am at the department which is called Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and people are just very relaxed and people are very open and I believe that makes a big difference.

Fabian Pfortmüller on Why to Learn Arabic and Study Middle Eastern Languages

In Chapter 3 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares why he went with his gut feeling in choosing to major in Middle Eastern Language and Culture at Columbia University. After enjoying travels to the Middle East and experiencing the food and culture, Pfortmüller considers the short and long term benefits of learning Arabic language. Learning the language not only opens future doors to living and working abroad in the Middle East, but also provides short term benefit to understand Arabic language based current events and news. Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com). He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies.

Transcript:

Erik Michelsen: How has majoring in Middle Eastern languages built upon your fascination with global culture?

Fabian Pfortmüller: I traveled a few times in that area in the Middle East and you know as always I guess when I made a big decision in my life it was so random and it was more based on a gut feeling and a love for something than a rational process, same goes for me doing Middle Eastern languages and cultures. When I was traveling there I loved the people, I loved the food, food is a very important aspect of how I make decisions in my life, I loved the culture and I really felt that… cultures in general are very interesting but I won’t be able to understand them all, I have to start somewhere kind of digging deeper.

I can read the New York Times and the Economist and get kind of a general sense of what’s going on but going back to study is a great opportunity to dig deeper in one specific hole and hey, I had this passion for the Middle East, why not dig deeper there? Because that would also allow me, because now we’re studying Arabic, to actually live there at some point and while I can say now after my Arabic, which is very intense, I do two or three hours of homework everyday on just Arabic but – and it’s still on the level of, I don’t know, first grader I guess but it’s cool because I watch the news right now what’s going on the Middle East and we have all the protest in Egypt and so on and I understand kind of what’s going on and I can read little bit of the newspapers and I can watch Al Jazeera and kind of get the grasp of it and that’s really, that’s really cool.

Fabian Pfortmüller on How Columbia General Studies Educates a Nontraditional Student

In Chapter 2 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares how getting into Columbia University comes about after not getting into his first school. Applying only after taking several years to work after high school, he finds comfort at Columbia University's School of General Studies. The program is designed for nontraditional career paths, including incoming students coming from performing arts and the military. Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com). He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: Why did you decide to attend Columbia University?

Fabian Pfortmüller: The honest answer is I originally wanted to study in the UK and no school accepted me, that’s the honest answer and I started applying in the US kind of as a consequence of that and suddenly schools started to accept me and really good schools started to accept me and I just realized that I was not an extraordinarily good student from my high school grades but I had something to show, not good grades but I had a lot of extracurricular activities.

And apparently that can be clearly seen with the process of my applications, this was valued much more here in the US than it was in the UK. But in the end it was very clear New York was the place to be, I’m a big city person, Columbia seemed like a really amazing place and Columbia has a special program which it calls the School of General Studies, which is a normal college degree you do but you have all kinds of, they call it atypical students. Students who have been entrepreneurs, students who have been in the army, who have been professional artists or have been in sports to have a college for those people to go back and make a degree and I couldn’t be happier than being there really, like it’s a fantastic place.

Erik Michielsen: Tell me more about the general studies program and how have your peers in that program inspired you?

Fabian Pfortmüller: You know I always felt little bit like a freak, especially when it comes to education but as a young entrepreneur I guess at large you’re a little bit like a freak, you decided not to go for that classical career and that’s a hard decision to take if everyone else goes straight to university becomes a banker or a consultant goes off he makes his career, does an MBA goes into middle management and then he has kids and family and that’s pretty much it and not doing that feels kind of cool but at the same time it also needs quite a lot of courage.

And I felt a freak until I came to Columbia and I saw that there’re lots of people like me and it feels really good to see that it’s absolutely normal to have an atypical education way and I would recommend it to anyone. And I think that gives me self confidence, that gives me self confidence with saying ‘I’m twenty-eight, I’m just graduating with my bachelors in May’ and it’s totally fine, it’s totally normal, you know? And I think that’s great.

How Dartmouth Bridge Program Prepares Social Entrepreneur - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 1 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, storyteller and entrepreneur Michael Margolis graduates with a cultural anthropology liberal arts degree from Tufts University and then takes a month-long mini-MBA program. Margolis goes through the program alongside new hires from McKinsey management consulting. After the program, Margolis looks to social entrepreneurship, specifically applying business principles to social issues. He attends a social enterprise job fair and joins Volunteer Solutions. Margolis is the founder and president of Get Storied (http://www.getstoried.com), an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. As a consultant, educator and writer he uses storytelling to create more effective branding, innovation and culture change. Margolis earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

How to Structure a College Student Leadership Program - Louise Davis Langheier

In Chapter 7 of 9 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, non-profit founder and executive Louise Davis Langheier details how Peer Health Exchange teaches leadership to its volunteers. The organization designs a tiered leadership development structure for its volunteer student teachers. Langheier offers ways this tiered leadership and management structure allows for development as well as classroom teaching competency. The individual and group leadership skills prepare college volunteers for post-college careers. Langheier is founder and CEO of Peer Health Exchange (http://www.peerhealthexchange.com ), a non-profit that trains college students to teach health education in public high schools. She graduated Yale University with a B.A. in History and serves on the board of directors of Dwight Hall at Yale, the center for public service and social justice.

How Yale Experience Teaches Value of Mission Clarity and Focus - Louise Davis Langheier

In Chapter 3 of 9 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, non-profit founder and executive Louise Davis Langheier shares what she has learned about leadership and organizational effectiveness as a board member at Yale University's Dwight Hall. Specifically, Dwight Hall's efforts teach her the value of clarity of mission, purpose, and goals. Langheier applies these lessons developing a more committed, focused approach at her non-profit, Peer Health Exchange. Langheier is founder and CEO of Peer Health Exchange (http://www.peerhealthexchange.com ), a non-profit that trains college students to teach health education in public high schools. She graduated Yale University with a B.A. in History and serves on the board of directors of Dwight Hall at Yale, the center for public service and social justice.

What Writing a Comic Strip Teaches About Brand Storytelling - Doug Jaeger

In Chapter 3 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer Doug Jaeger shares what writing a college comic strip taught him about brand storytelling. As a designer, Jaeger is motivated by finding solutions. From an early age, as a college student, he sees the relationship between creating art, putting it in a media format, and impacting culture. Through the process he learns compromise, multitasking and prioritization. Jaeger is a partner at design firm JaegerSloan - http://jaegersloan.com/ - and is also president of the Art Director's Club - http://www.adcglobal.org/ . Previously he founded thehappycorp and has served in creative director leadership roles at TBWA/Chiat/Day and JWT. Jaeger holds a BFA in Computer Graphics and Art Media Studies from Syracuse University.