by Heidie Raine, Student Public Relations Writer
Picking a college and potential career can be a daunting task for high school students, but a new program offered by the International Center for Creativity and Cedarville University just made that process a little easier, and a lot more fun.
The International Center for Creativity (ICC) is introducing a new program to help build up its future students.
ICC will host its first College for a Weekend program on October 15-17. The two-day experience will familiarize potential students with the center's environment, course of study and student experience.
ICC is the home base for juniors and seniors studying innovative and industrial design (IID), a major that is exclusive to Cedarville University students.
For their first two years of undergraduate study, IID students live on Cedarville’s campus and complete general education and Bible minor coursework. After sophomore year, they move to and spend their final two years at the ICC in Dublin, Ohio, completing more specialized study.
College for a Weekend is an opportunity for prospective students of the IID major to learn by doing. “At our core is experiential learning, so we created an experiential weekend,” Jim Stevenson, president of the ICC, said.
"At the ICC, you're with 25 to 35 of your classmates for two academic years, and you get to experience a vibrant and growing suburb of Columbus called Dublin,” Veronica Lynagh, ICC vice president of strategic initiatives, said. “This gives ICC students the best of both worlds by living on main campus for two years and then being closer to their future industry and its opportunities for the last two."
Throughout the weekend program, the ICC will host a variety of informational seminars for parents and students. Additionally, students will meet faculty members, worship with a Cedarville HeartSong music team and participate in a design scavenger hunt around Columbus, visiting architectural firms and viewing projects created from ICC graduates’ designs.
Some of the topics to be covered during the weekend include living off campus responsibly, learning what industrial designers do, engaging with industry and discussing the faith component of an ICC education.
“Where your students go to school really shapes a huge piece of who they become,” Lynagh added. “We are the 5th-ranked industrial design school in the country and the only Christian industrial design school in the country, and that goes with our foundation of a Christ-centered approach to learning.”
High school students interested in the IID major, as well as Cedarville freshmen and sophomores yet to declare their majors, are invited to register with their families.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to share with students what a career in creativity and this field looks like,” Lynagh said.
To register and learn more, students can visit iccreativity.com/cfaw.
The International Center for Creativity serves clients through strategic planning, coaching and mentoring of staff, workshops, keynote addresses, retreats, graphic and product design, program development and product launches. Academically, the Industrial and Innovative Design program is an exclusive program with Cedarville University. The program delivers a hyper-relevant, and completely fresh Industrial + Innovative Design major that is part of a fully accredited, liberal arts, undergraduate degree. The ICC also offers a cutting-edge MBA concentration in Innovation and Entrepreneurship through Cedarville University.
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,550 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is one of the largest private universities in Ohio, recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, including the Bachelor of Arts in Industrial and Innovative Design program, strong graduation, and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and high student engagement ranking. For more information about the University, visit www.cedarville.edu.