Baldridge Joins Founding Director as Co-Leader of Cornerstone’s Creativity & Innovation Honors Institute
For nearly a decade, Cornerstone University’s Creativity & Innovation Honors Institute (CIHI), established by Don Perini, professor of creativity and CIHI director, has challenged students from all majors to become interdisciplinary thinkers, master adapters, and unconventional problem-solvers. Alexandria Baldridge, assistant professor of business, will join the CIHl faculty this August as a co-director of the uncommon project-based learning honors program.
Baldridge brings strengths in collaborative leadership, strategic planning and digital marketing to her new position. With more than 10 years of corporate experience and escalating leadership roles in corporate banking, social media management and higher education, Baldridge has an aptitude for and demonstrated experience in building high-performance teams, developing business partnerships, and designing student-focused courses.
“I am excited to serve as the co-director of CIHI because the CIHI program at Cornerstone is an important one I have admired since I first experienced it,” Baldridge stated. “I believe in the work that is being done in the CIHI program and have experienced firsthand the types of students this program creates.”
Cornerstone first added a required course in creativity to its liberal arts core courses in fall 2008. Perini, who travels the nation training teachers, writers, and entrepreneurs in creative habits and innovative processes and has written a book on the subject, “Emerge,” championed creativity studies when he moved from work in youth ministry to Cornerstone’s faculty as the first professor of creativity and innovation.
Since Cornerstone’s launch of a minor and certificate in creativity and innovation in 2015 under Perini’s leadership, research studies continue to support the imperative need for robust vocationally-focused and creativity-based liberal arts curriculums. Forbes reported that over 70% of business leaders prioritize creative thinking in their current hiring preferences. As such, applied learning skills and habits in creativity, innovation and collaboration will continue to distinguish college graduates as leaders in the changing world of work.
“We are no longer in the Industrial Age that required ‘knowledge workers’ to do their jobs well,” Perini said. “Knowledge workers are educated in a system of facts and lectures and tests. This no longer will suffice. We have entered the Conceptual Age that now requires workers to be empathizers and creatives. As creatives, they are better equipped to deal with the rapid changes in the marketplace, something knowledge workers are not.”
Baldridge also posited: “As our world becomes more complex, so do the problems that we develop. We need Christian men and women to create human-centered solutions to these problems, which is one of many key takeaways from CIHI. The practical skills that our students develop in CIHI are lifelong skills such as empathy, human-centered design, problem-solving, critical thinking, and so much more. These practical skills prepare our students for the future.”
Cornerstone’s honors program graduates students who can apply creativity principles in conjunction with both interdisciplinary skills and specialized knowledge in the workplace so as to become master adapters and innovative, character-driven thought leaders who shape organizational cultures. Through a cohort approach built on best practices in collaborative learning effectiveness, students discover their vital role as creative cultivators who bear the image of God through talent development, practice of creative habits, study of the Great Books, and use of innovative processes. Students admitted to the program are eligible to earn a second, adjunct major in creativity and innovation studies.
“When I consider the cultural mandate in Genesis for us to go forward, create, and subdue the Earth, I think about how the work of our CIHI program is accomplishing this in one way by providing students with practical creativity and innovation skills to support them going forward, creating, innovating, and problem-solving,” Baldridge concluded. “These skills equip the next generation to make an impact for the glory of the LORD.”
Perini added: “The number one complaint employers have about their employees is that they are not able to solve problems on their own and don’t have the grit to keep moving forward when things are difficult. Therefore, we train students in creative and innovative habits, skills, and processes through problem-based learning integrated with a solid Christian worldview. This prepares students to meet the demands of our ever-changing marketplace.”
To inquire about admission to the Creativity & Innovation Honors Institute and Cornerstone’s growing programs that align with student career aspirations, request information online or call the Admissions Office at 616.949.5300 to speak with an enrollment counselor today.
