Dear Chancellor Collins:
I'd like to share my personal story of diversification, transformation,and innovation as a result of the training I received through the UMass Boston Critical & Creative Thinking Program -- one of the very best things that ever happened to me, and that is the truth. As a result of CCT, my life has new direction and focus. I have projects that I am working on that I never dreamed would be mine to take on. I have a bevy of new friends from all walks of life that have enhanced my way of thinking, being and working. And now, I'm even teaching a class at UMass Boston myself.
When the dot.com crash occurred in the late 90s, like others, I found myself out of a job. While I was temping, I thought about what I could do to get out of the rat race of corporate life--I loved the work I was doing in marketing but after being laid off at so many startups I felt jaded. And again, like many others, I decided to head back to school. But what degree should I go after? An MBA would guarantee me a higher salary in any future work that I might do but I just couldn't get excited about it. For me it's not about the money; it's about building upon my talents as a writer (which is the thread throughout any work I do, personal and in business). That was foremost for me. My then soon-to-be-husband was finishing up his M.A. in Education at UMass and had taken many CCT courses. "You would love it!" he raved. And when I looked at the curriculum, I realized it was the perfect solution for my dilemma--building critical and creative thinking skills would be beneficial for both my work as a marketer but also to fuel my desire to publish more poetry and fiction.
Since starting CCT, I have stepped on a path of pure success. I have grown in so many ways and the best part is that I know the most exciting part has yet to come to fruition. As a result of my work in the Critical and Creative Thinking program, I have:
Created and currently edit a successful literary journal, now in its second year: www.plumrubyreview.com.
Been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for my poetry and have been published in several literary journals.
Developed a book proposal which is the culmination of my research in creative problem-solving for creative writers. It's a book of 25 exercises for writers in progress. Each exercise draws upon methods used in the business and science sectors but has been adapted for individual creative writers to use in order to further existing plots, characters and storylines.
My manifesto on Critical & Creative Thinking for Managers was published by ChangeThis ( www.changethis.com) and has been referenced by numerous business leaders, including Tom Peters (www.tompeters.com)
I'm leading bi-monthly workshops at work on critical thinking and creativity for managers (I handle all the PR for iAnywhere, the mobile software division of database company Sybase).
I began teaching at UMass Boston as an adjunct professor this fall--ACM299 Critical Analysis and Business Communication, which is a perfect match for my experience in business marketing and my learnings in CCT.
I became a monthly mobile marketing columnist for iMedia Connection ( www.imediaconnection.com).
I have developed a more steady writing practice and am currently 150 pages into a fiction novel.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that none of these things would have occurred without going through the CCT program. I changed as a person--I became a problem-solver. I discovered new ways of motivation. Most importantly, I learned how to take better risks, especially creative risks.
One of the best things about the CCT program is that, as a student, you have the extraordinary good fortune to be in the company of other individuals who hail from all different walks of life. They're not all there to land a certain kind of job when they graduate--say to become a doctor, teacher, artist. Instead, they are doctors, teachers and artists looking to discover new ways to apply critical and creative thinking to the work they are already doing or to find new paths in life toward personal and career fulfillment. It meant that I had the opportunity to draw upon the expertise and experience of all sorts of different people with different points of view. It gave me balance and perspective that I feel so lucky to be able to draw upon--and continue to draw upon.
The faculty of CCT really make the program what it is. In addition to teaching extremely valuable skills in critical and creative thinking, they have an amazing knack for helping students flourish. Nina Greenwald helped me discover and nourish the spark for my book and Peter Taylor helped me develop the way to drive towards it. Ben Schwendener waved his magic wand and next thing I knew I was the creator and editor of a well-received literary journal. Arthur Millman was the force behind my recently published Critical & Creative Thinking Manifesto. Over and over I can point to ways where the faculty helped both myself and my peers to stretch and reach their full potential.
Everywhere I go people are impressed when I mention I have my Masters in Critical and Creative Thinking. Employers see it as a huge leg up on the carbon copy MBA students that arrive on their doorstep. I know that it was a big factor in landing my current job, which is one of the best jobs I've had. It has made me stand out amongst other job candidates. The title alone seems to scream INNOVATION and yet RESPONSIBILITY as a result of the marriage of two key things that businesses are looking for--creative thinkers and problem-solvers who actively employ smart thinking. I am always asked about it wherever I go. Editors see it in my bio on articles and inquire. Colleagues are impressed. My managers see it as an opportunity for me to teach and share my knowledge internally. It never ceases to amaze me how much that this particular piece of paper has helped me, far more so than I think I would have had with a business degree.
I'm so excited about the future. I'm currently developing other articles on critical thinking in the workplace and creativity building techniques for marketers. I will be submitting my book proposal to agents this fall--it's currently in review by a major journalist who is helping me on final edits. I am confident that it will be accepted and published due to its novelty and the ability for the exercises to serve a market currently not served by writing books today--the writer in progress. My own writing is going like gangbusters which is extremely exciting. I have friendships and business connections that will last throughout my life. And now I'm able to give back to UMass Boston, by helping share my knowledge to undergrads in the business program--my skills as a writer, my work as a marketer and all of the really wonderful things I've learned as a CCT student. ]
Very sincerely,
Crystal King (MA Degree, December 2004)
Dear Chancellor Collins:
CCT (the program and the act of) have confirmed what my heart has told me for years. I am a math teacher because I value the way a math curriculum "trains the brain to think." The CCT program at UMass Boston supports and enhances that idea. Throughout my program of study I gained important new knowledge, experience and strategies for improving my own thinking skills and those of my students.
From my first day of CCT classes, through my capstone experience and continuing in the present, my students have been actively using thinking practices that I learned in the program. For example, I regularly teach by using the "Rule of Four", an Algebra thinking strategy a CCT classmate of mine developed and shared. The language of thinking, thinking dispositions, and mental mangement, introduced to me through my CCT studies, became the core of my capstone experience. Creative thinking activities, open-ended philosophical questions, and dialogue components have become standard components of my teaching.
The CCT program has enhanced my ability to help others "train their brains to think." I feel so much better prepared to teach and, as a result, have been bringing about changes in teaching inspired by my CCT training throughout my whole school. I have become the "change agent" the CCT Program trains students to be. In great measure, this has evolved as part of a process of working closely with the CCT faculty and my fellow classmates in learning environments that cultivate reflective thinking, ongoing dialogue and free exchange of ideas in a safe, supportive climate.
I have made three significant decisions in my life. The first was to join my cross-country running team in the 7th grade (running and coaching has become one of my passions). The second was to study abroad in France during my undergraduate studies (travel is another passion). And the third was to enroll in the CCT program (teaching is yet another passion). The high quality of instruction that is modeled in the CCT Program has dramatically influenced me as a teacher and on numerous personal levels as well. This transformational experience has reshaped and redirected my life in exciting ways. I have incorporated the "message and soul" of the CCT program in my classroom, my students, and my life. Anything is possible when you "think" about it.
My gratitude to the CCT faculty and my fellow classmates for this opportunity,
Sincerely,
Tonya Milbourn
MA Degree, June 2005
Dear Chancellor Collins:
I am writing in tremendous support of the Critical and Creative Thinking
Program at The University of Massachusetts Boston. I earned this degree in
May of 2005. As a graphic designer by profession and as an Assistant
Professor of design currently, I felt that the program was an outstanding
supplement to take me to the next level of my career. While most creative
professionals proceed with a Master of Fine Arts degree, I was more
interested in the business side of design and how to nurture these skills.
The Critical and Creative Thinking program was an ideal complement to my
personal growth both in the classroom and with my freelance business. I was
able to learn to use my already strong creative visual skills with a
critical and creative component to assist in solving situations where a new
direction was needed.
I teach a concept development course for graphic designers. In this class I
teach students how to think differently about a problem and how to use their
own creative skills to come up with great ideas. The way I teach this course
and the lessons learned are a direct result of what I was able to gain
through the Critical and Creative Thinking program. Additionally I use the
book "A Whack on the Side of the Head" as a textbook. This book was
suggested and shown during my Creative Thinking class and now has a
permanent space on my shelf.
Personally I structured my elective courses to focus on interpersonal skills
with such courses as Negotiation, Dialogue, Cognitive Psychology and
Creative Thinking, Collaboration and Organizational Change. I was extremely
interested in learning how to relate to people more effectively. Learning
how to think differently about a problem, open ones mind up to new ways to
approach a situation is an essential skill to success in the corporate
world. While I was not only interested in this personally, I also felt it
was essential for graphic design students to learn. Designing is more than
just the design, but also the interaction with the client to allow them to
understand where solutions come from. The interpersonal courses I took
propelled me to write my thesis on this very subject and how graphic
designers and design educators can incorporate these skills into the
classroom. I am currently doing this today and ironically the trend in
design is taking on a business twist. These skills will be an essential part
of the future of graphic design and I feel that I am able to influence the
way design is taught with this newfound appreciation and knowledge.
I highly encourage you to take a great interest into this program. While it
may appear to be obscure to those who hear the name, honestly the skills
that are learned are used in every profession. It takes awareness to
understand this. The Critical and Creative Thinking program makes a person
aware and influences them to actively apply these skills in work and life!
Very sincerely,
Andrea Brenner-Shaevitz
Pat Scannell
M.A. in Critical and Creative Thinking
UMass Boston, 1995
CCT and Me
I went to the CCT program to take couple of courses. As an English and theatre teacher, I was I was interested in learning how to help my students become more creative and to strengthen their critical thinking skills. I am a lifelong learner, but as a public school teacher I was required to take courses in order to maintain my certification. I had a master's degree in Theatre Education from Emerson College. I was at the top of the Westford Public Schools salary schedule. A second master's degree would not increase my income.
When I took my first CCT course, my focus was on my students. I used what I learned to improve my approach to the courses that I taught. My final projects were lessons plans in which I applied critical thinking principles to the teaching of English and theatre. I began to make a specific thinking skill the objective of a lesson, rather than assuming that my students would learn about thinking while the main objective of a class was subject matter.
Soon, however, the CCT activities were causing me to do some powerful personal reflection. Suddenly I was questioning my thinking. I was beginning to see myself as creative. I started taking risks that I had not taken before. At this point, I began to explore final course projects that related to my personal life, rather than to my professional life. I was beginning to realize that if I become a stronger thinker and a more creative person, it would rub off on my students. By this time, I was hooked on the CCT program. I was no longer content to take one or two courses. I decided to complete the whole program: the Master's Degree in Critical and Creative Thinking. Once a week, after a long day of teaching, I drove to downtown Boston from Nashua, New Hampshire. I was nourished by the intellectual and spiritual community at CCT. At the end of the program, I did not do a synthesis project related to high school curriculum work. Instead, I traced my development as a writer from childhood to present.
In the CCT program I had powerful mentors. After several courses with Delores Gallo, I felt creative and empowered. I was becoming much more open. I was convinced of my own creativity and was exploring creative areas I had only thought about in the past. I began writing poetry for the first time in my life. From Nina Greenwald, I learned even more about creativity, especially about the powerful connection between humor and creativity. In Larry Blum's Anti-racist and Multicultural Education course, I became more comfortable talking about race, not only at UMass, but with my students in a predominantly white suburb. Besides these wonderful instructors, I learned much from the other students in my classes: teachers, artists, business people, scholars. All these people contributed to the stimulating learning community at CCT.
The CCT program changed me both professionally and personally. While in the program, I had grown disillusioned with public school teaching. I wanted to make a career change, but I was seduced by my current salary and the future security of the state retirement system. I remained passive and unsatisfied. Throughout all the journaling I did for CCT courses (Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Decision Making), I realized that I was unhappy. My work was eating up my life, but it did not fulfill me. I had to make a change. Thanks to my participation in the CCT program, I had the courage to leave my public school position and venture forth into the unknown. I wanted to have more free time. I wanted to teach part time and explore my own hobbies and interests: writing, skiing, travel. I wanted to teach college writing, but I thought that doing so would require an advanced degree in writing or rhetoric. I was wrong. Whenever I interviewed for a position, the department head was impressed by the CCT degree. I was always hired because my CCT degree was seen as an asset, as meeting a need of the institution. I discovered that employers love the CCT degree. So...in my new life I taught college writing and reading; I became an instructor and site coordinator of a high school diploma program for adults who work in industry. I taught ESL English. I worked in two college writing centers. Wherever, I went, I introduced my students to metacognition, and to reading and writing as active processes that are forms of thinking. In one of my college positions, I was asked to develop a writing course based on the theme of creativity. This was a dream come true - to directly teach students what I had learned about creativity at CCT...to help them feel more creative. Some of those students were future teachers. In my class they presented research projects on creative ways to teach Spanish and math and early childhood education. My students drew from the sources I had learned about at CCT. We used some of the same course texts. As a result of my development of this creativity/writing course, I earned accolades from the college English department, the writing center, and my students. Most important of all, this experience caused me to understand my role in the generative phase of life. Now is the time when I am able to spread my wisdom to a new generation of teachers, who will, in turn, spread their wisdom to the next. This is a profound responsibility and one that makes me feel happy and proud. I would never have reached this realization without having been part of the CCT program.
There's more to my story, but I'll end here. When I went to the Critical and Creative Thinking Program, I had no idea it would change my life. Now, ten years later, I am happier, more open, more creative, and more convinced of my own power. For this, I thank the CCT program. At present I am excited to hear about a new CCT alumni group that will meet regularly. Attending a recent CCT open house has rekindled my passion for this wonderful program. As Nina Greenwald said, "It's a cold world out there." The world of CCT is different. When we change as individuals, we have the potential of changing the world. For this reason, I hope the CCT program will always exist.
Dear Chancellor Collins:
When I came to the CCT program I was a Lieutenant in the Air Force. I was unhappy and unfulfilled in this career field. I knew I wanted a change, but wasn't sure what. I thought I wanted to volunteer in the Peace Corps, but didn't know why. Through many reflective exercises and by participating in the creative process I came to understand that a career in public health was the right fit for me. I am now training in this field at the Boston University School of Public Health.
In the larger sense, I believe the CCT program helped me to find and begin fulfilling my purpose in life. In the smaller sense, CCT practices are useful and beneficial habits of my everyday life. For example, while a classmate was giving a speech I employed my CCT practice of writing him personal feedback. He replied, "that is a great habit." By popular demand, the entire class will be adopting this practice!
I am forever grateful to the CCT program and, thankfully, forever changed by the CCT process.
Most sincerely,
Meghann McNiff, MA/CCT June 2005
BU SPH, MPH student.
In the mid-1980's, my department head put a brochure in my mailbox. It was a flyer introducing a program at UMass Boston and, as he knew that I spent the summer in Massachusetts, he thought it might be something I'd be interested in. I'd been looking around at graduate programs for years. I was not interested in a masters in Education and, although I'd taught English for many years, I hadn't found a masters in English that really thrilled me. That summer; I think it was 1986, I took the Critical Thinking course with MaryAnne Wolfe and Wanda Tays. I knew, right from the start, that the course, the people and the teachers were something special. I found myself surrounded by passionate, interesting, energetic people who cared about thinking and cared about teaching. I learned so much and had such a fantastic experience that summer that I returned for a course each summer for the next few years. During those wonderful summers I also attended the one day symposiums that were run by the CCT program. Delores Gallo and Pat Davidson invited Howard Gardner who spoke about multiple intelligences and Ted Sizer who spoke about Essential Schools. Wow! There were also many wonderful educators from the Boston area who led sessions in various aspects of critical and creative thinking. It was at one of these gatherings that I had the pleasure of sitting in on Nina Greenwald's provocative and instructive session on humor. There were other enriching sessions and those days are among my most treasured memories of the CCT program.
In 1991, I was granted a sabbatical by my school system to finish the course work for my masters in Critical Thinking. During that year I was lucky enough to take several courses with Delores Gallo and I was Nina Greenwald and Steve Swartz's graduate assistant in their creativity course. I have so many wonderful memories of CCT that I could go on and on.
CCT has impacted my life in so many ways. As I was taking the courses, I knew that the material and all my new insights would inform my teaching. I knew that I'd never be the same teacher I'd been before CCT. I just didn't have any idea of how valuable and important this program would be to me until I returned to my regular teaching job.
When I returned to Montgomery County, Maryland, I began teaching in an IB school - a school that offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma. The core course in the program is called the Theory of Knowledge. TOK asks students to consider what they know and how they know it. They consider the question of certainty in what they claim to know - in science, math, history, ethics, etc. Among other things, they learn to examine and evaluate the sources of their knowledge and they learn the strengths and potential weaknesses of these sources.
TOk is a course in critical thinking, and it is now my passion. I am an examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organization. This past spring I was one of eleven people from around the world who met in Cardiff, Wales to award grades in TOK to the thousands of students who took the course. I am also a workshop leader for the IBO. This year I will train teachers how to teach TOk at conferences in Vancouver, BC, Halifax, NS and Niagara Falls, Ontario. I have also led workshops at the United World College in Montezuma, New Mexico and in Falls Church, Virginia.
I am so grateful for the CCT program. I would never have been hired to teach TOK without my degree. So often in class we talked about serendipity and the power of the "happy accident." The day my department head threw that flier into my mailbox because I was the only person in the school from Massachusetts was one of the luckiest days of my life.
I enjoyed our recent reunion and am thrilled to find the CCT program alive and well at UMass Boston!
Nancy Sullivan