Founding intern Kristi Wilcox carries lessons and passion for a creative world to Ohio State
Kristi Wilcox entered the University of Alabama with plans to become a doctor, but her work with the Creative Campus Initiative sent her down a different road.
Wilcox, who was a founding intern in the organization, earned her B.A. in English last spring. She now is working toward a master’s degree in Arts Policy and Administration and a Juris Doctorate at the Ohio State University.
As a student in UH300: Arts and the Public Purpose, Wilcox helped draft the proposal that created CCI, and she filled one of the organization’s first two internships in the summer of 2005. During the ensuing two years, she and fellow founding intern Erica Crabtree set up six pilot programs with the intention that they become “signature projects” replicated in some form from year to year.
“Erica and I often referred to ourselves as two crazy interns running around campus with a laptop because a lot of what we did initially was coalition building to build up some grassroots support for the initiative,” Wilcox said. “That student-catalyzed, bottom-up aspect of the initiative at UA has continued to be a nationally distinguishing feature.”
Wilcox with Creative Campus Director Scott Bridges. |
Wilcox called her internship at Creative Campus a real learning experience in which she was expected to take an idea and make it a reality. Her tenure at Creative Campus taught her a lot of things that she has taken with her to Ohio. She developed public speaking and management skills. She also learned how to think flexibly and become a creative problem solver.
“I think most importantly, I developed a sense of self, and with that a sense of confidence about attempting new things in often uncharted territory,” Wilcox said. “For someone like me, who by nature is quite the perfectionist and uber-planner, learning how to deal with vagueness and uncertainty while still pursuing a direction and a goal was a big lesson.”
During her second year at Creative Campus, Wilcox served as senior intern, heading up the rapidly growing student intern team. She devoted a lot of time to developing the internship program, bringing in guest speakers and engineering field trips to correlate with each of the interns’ personal learning goals.
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Her goal was to ensure that each future intern had the same rewarding experience she had – “a job that wasn’t about clocking in and clocking out, but had a larger purpose.”
Wilcox is working to bring the same sort of experience to Ohio State. In response to the interest several OSU professors have shown in starting a Creative Campus Initiative there, she has been preparing presentations and doing speaking engagements to dialogue with potential supporters.
“It is exciting to me to get to stay connected to an initiative and emerging field that is so pertinent to today’s economic and educational climates,” Wilcox said.
As for the University of Alabama community, Wilcox expressed hope that Creative Campus will accrue an alumni base that has a “special something in common.”
“It is my hope that the people who pass through Maxwell Hall will go out into the world to become part of the Creative Class and be change-makers and champions for the immensely powerful impact that art and creativity can have in our communities and on the entire American landscape,” she said.
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