UC, local nonprofit win in creative blitz

Earlier this month during the fourth annual Engaging Emerging Creatives (E2C) campus recruiting experience, UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) helped 400 design students come together with some of the country’s top employers for two days of intensive collaboration — including an effort to pay it forward to a local nonprofit.

“E2C is an immersive, collaborative event that brings together representatives from companies around the nation to interact and build professional relationships with each other and our students in creative disciplines,” says Aaron Bradley, associate professor of UC Creative, Culture and Social Impact Initiatives.

“During this two-day event UC students get to work collaboratively with peers and creative professionals on a sprint-style design project and build pathways to co-op and future career opportunities.”

More than a co-op or career fair, Bradley describes E2C as a “premiere recruiting event” and a way for employers to work alongside students across disciplines from the institution with the No. 1 co-op program in the country among public universities. This pursuit of innovation and effort to make an urban impact on the community aligns with UC’s Next Lives Here strategic direction.

As hundreds of tables lined two floors of DAAP’s hallways in a beehive of interactive collaboration, more than 400 students and employers worked in teams on ways to solve a common design problem.

“Students are randomly placed on teams and meet for the first time at the event kick-off," says Bradley. "They have to quickly make introductions, understand each other’s strengths and perspectives and create an action plan to finish a collaborative design project in less than four hours."

Employers personally observe how individual students work together as a team and approach problem solving, which Bradley says gives them an advantage over simply looking at a portfolio or resume.

This year’s project is unique because organizers integrated creative help from Cincinnati Pulblic Schools (CPS) students who are involved with Cincinnati Arts and Technology Studios, or CATS. CATS helps high schoolers earn fine arts and elective credits so they can graduate on time and build skills to succeed in life. CPS Strong is also a Next Lives Here initiative to increase the number of students who attend UC from Cincinnati.

“It’s extremely rewarding and inspiring to watch as we literally take over two floors of the building with more than 400 students all working on something that will have a direct impact on our city,” says Bradley.

It wasn’t long before toiling over schematics for how the space currently functions turned into looking for ways to make the space work better. Sallas says this was the first time many of these high schoolers visited a college and were face-to-face with designers and employers in a real-world creative setting.

“Since we have one of the best universities right here in our hometown, especially with a program like DAAP that is in the top five in national rankings and known throughout the world, we take our students to UC’s campuses for our annual college tour week.”

Throughout the last four years of collaboration, CATS has taken advantage of scholarships created by DAAP associate director of fashion design Laurie Wilson and Procter and Gamble design director Tysonn Betts for deserving underprivileged students.

“I owe everything to [DAAP]. Without it I would not be where I am today — alumni, woman entrepreneur, DAAP design adjunct and a proud parent of current DAAP design student Audrey Eyman,” says Kelly Kolar-Eyman, CATS board member, former UC DAAP student and now CEO of her own design company, Kolar Design.  Kolar-Eyman was named a Women’s Business Enterprise Star by Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.

“How do you get to be award winner of the year? You go to this place, that’s how you do it,” she adds. 

While UC’s design programs are widely respected as providing students with a career advantage, professor Bradley also regards student participation in the E2C Creative Blitz as a catalyst for social impact and inspiration to change the world for the better.

“Our DAAP and CATS students alike want to know that they can make a unique contribution to the world,” says Bradley. “And if they are learning skills through their degree that contribute to a building a better world, that’s a pretty empowering thing.”

Featured image at top: Aaron Bradley, UC associate professor of UC Creative, Culture and Social Impact Initiatives and Kelly Kolar-Eyman, CATS board member and CEO of Kolar Designs collaborate with UC design and CATS students during UC's E2C Creative Blitz. photo/Andrew Higley/UC Creative Services