A Brief Overview of Innovations
The ONE. The ONLY!
HUGEMANITIES
From inspiring students, to traveling all over the state of New Hampshire to visit Community College Faculty, the HUGEmanities Project has been the most work and the most rewarding program that I've been a part of at UNH!
Conceived together with my Co-Director Krista Jackman, the HUGEmanities Project was actually made up of a whole showcase of Programs
The BIG Contest
One of our most visible projects is The BIG Contest which allows Liberal Arts/Humanities students from UNH and six community colleges to compete for money and fame by submitting their work from a humanities-based class. We're going on year 5!
The Digital Projects Institute (DPI)
During the Summer 2019the HUGEmanities Digital Project Institute was created as a paid digital apprenticeship in which students could gain valuable hands-on, mentored experiences as they proposed, and then developedand published individual digital projects that answered a humanities driven question. DPI included workshops, mentoring, and training in a variety of topics such as: innovation, project planning, copyright and fair use guidelines, digital design, production and publication, among other topics.
DPI was discontinued but the idea of micro-internships has carried on and is present in other initiatives today.
https://mypages.unh.edu/hugemanities/digital-projects-institute
HUGE Tiny Talks, Summer / Fall 2019
The Tiny Talk initiative was a series of interviews and video production with established, highly successful professionals who launched their careers with a degree in the liberal arts. Tiny Talks directly addressed the question "What can I do with a degree in the Humanities?!" The objective of the Tiny Talks was to offer students considering a degree in the humanities, an understanding of what professional opportunities can come from a liberal arts degree as well as a glimpse of what professional life looks like well after college graduation
Outreach Program, Fall 2019-20
HUGEmanities Outreach campus visits created relationships between the HUGEmanities Co-Directors, and faculty at each community college. Visits included an implementation workshop, and then a coffee klatch Q&A, where Krista Jackman and I furthered conversations with faculty and students about the value of humanities-based work and its academic options, as well as celebrating the wide variety of professional opportunities available to humanities majors
HUGEmanities Education and Learning Modules (HELM)
Offered 2020 the "Summer of Covid," this course provided UNH and Community College Faculty all the resources they need to roll out some excellent online teaching & digital assignments. I've invited my committee members to this class through MyCourses. Over 60 community college and UNH faculty took part in this great online learning experience.
We may have gone a little overboard, even on our own skewed metric. It's AWESOME! Currently the department of Innovations has asked us to revise the logo and consider it as a income-generating program.
Hype-the-Humanities
Born from Covid, Hype-the-Humanities has given UNH and Community Colleges a way to celebrate their work during one of the final weeks of the semester. A "social media takeover," Krista Jackman and I work closely with Marketing and social media folks from UNH and across the state to tweet, post, and generally celebrate humanities classes. Three successful years so far!
The Internship Experience: English 796/896
Going into it's fourth year, the English department internship program can be considered wildly successful. I've been turning people away for the Spring semester and I wonder if it's time to grow this program even more! Interns follow one of four tracks: media/marketing, technical writing, publishing and authorship, or government/law writing
Interns have been placed at: Craghoppers Adventure Wear, The Black Heritage Trail, The Seacoast LGBT History Project, The UNH Entrepreneurship Center/Department of Innovations, PARMA Recordings, The UNH Department of Theater and Dance, UNH Career and Professional Services, North Hampton Police Department, The Durham Fire Department, The UNH Department of Theater and Dance, Erin Claire Boutique, UNH Department of Art and Art History, Lucky Brand Jeans, The Boston Children's Museum, The Women's Foundation, UNH Extension, Global Foundries, Backcountry Squatters Nonprofit, UNH Health and Wellness, The Sustainability Institute, UNH DEI Office, NOAA, Everproven Crossfit, and more!!
First-Year Innovation and Research Experience (FIRE)
For this incredibly successful collaboration with the Peter T. Paul College of Business, which is now used as a model for other Freshman Experiences at UNH and beyond, my complete list of contributions are as follows:
Summer 2015 (Summer Consulting) Role as Project Program Manager.
Hired to “fix” program launch that had failed to gather momentum
Reconfigured staff, schedules, project timelines and outcomes to achieve project launch date
Led team meetings and delegated project components to meet deadlines
Solved problems and provided novel solutions to entrenched difficulties
Worked with computer science engineer to develop Access database to compress analytics.
Designed year-long gamified components to accompany curriculum
Service & Teaching Blocks for Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics
Role as course designer/teacher for Fall 2015.
Attended all classes and taught new academic elements to Peer Advisors inADMN696 (M/W 8:10-9:30)
Designed all new academic curriculum elements for FIRE (ADMN405) except forthose created by Kathrine Aydelotte on behalf of the Dimond Library. Also designed companion elements for the use of peer advisors in teaching content
(ADMN696). Advising/past FYE elements were taught by the Paul CollegeAdvising office staff.
Assembled Course outcomes from existing and new materials and provided them for review with all interested parties, including the Cynthia Kelly (accreditation)
Conceived and mapped year-long Pharos Game integrated with academic (curricular) challenges and designed graphics and animations for promotion/events
Provided the matrix for running a complex network of academic games overlapping with academic assignments, including multiple categories of games (run on a database I worked with a computer science engineer to design summer 2015)
Worked with Learning Management System staff so they could utilize FIRE running as a pilot in Canvas.
Completed initial set up with outside company “Motivis” so that FIRE would be able to run on the SalesForce platform (though this is still not in use)
In keeping with the additional 12% of duties performed I:
Aided in orchestrating cross-curricular partnerships between Paul College and the English department, including authoring the proposal for a 5th year PhD student to help address accreditation needs at Paul College
Worked on developing a four year-program to work in concert with FIRE, conceived of career and cross-curricular program “Compass”, and designed “SCM-p” mapping protocol for data modeling (innovation disclosures for these currently in draft).
Worked with Motivis employees, and Department of Innovations regarding strategy for packaging FIRE for distribution and sale
Designed promotional materials for FIRE and other program concepts.
Aided in designing presentation, handout and teaching “On your mark, get set, gamify” for CETL professional development program
Designed materials and strategy for DreamForce conference that staff attended to promote technology partnership for FIRE
Reviewed personal work and materials presented to me by the associate dean, including article drafts and curriculum vitae
I have also worked in conjunction with some of our most Innovative Students!
You Scheduler Developed by Francesco Mikulis-Borsoi and Kristian Comer
Francesco Mikulis-Borsoi asked for this idea to be his English 602: Service Learning Project in 2016. Over the course of this assignment we developed concept papers, approached the UNH E-Center, Invited in his partner to work in class, as well as developed preliminary logos, proposal, and marketing materials. Francesco and Kristian presented a functioning You Scheduler project at the culmination of the course. I supported and advocated for this project, however I do not think Francesco slept for about six weeks. Read about their incredible success here: https://youscheduler.com/team.html
Honey-Do: Andrew Demeo
In 2018, I recieved this letter from former student Andrew Demeo:
I wanted to let you know that today I launched my business! You may remember I won the Social Venture Innovation Challenge in December (with Honey-Do, now it's Half-Acre). It's been a long grind since then but we finally did it and it's live!!!
Even if this ends up being a complete failure I'm glad to have gotten to this point anyway-- and I'm excited to try (and learn something at the very least). Anyway I wanted to write all of my (favorite) professors and just share that one of your former students is putting your lessons to work! Sustainability is no joke after all.
I have learned so much from you all over my college career and I know that without your lessons and guidance I wouldn't have gotten here.
So THANK YOU (in no particular order!!) Professors Straussfogel, Mitchell, Friedman, Campbell, Manalo, Safford, Lee, Ashcraft, Purrenhage, Brown, and Taylor.
Best, -Andrew
UNH Pathways APP led by Computer Science Student Evan Rodgers
Krista Jackman and I partnered with the Computer Science culminating program to develop an app that would help Community College students transfer into UNH using a phone app to figure out what classes would transfer to UNH programs.
We worked with a group of computer science students through a series of meetings and email communication to bring the app from ideation to product.
Ultimately their app failed to function! But they (and we) learned a lot in the process! Looking forward to another collaboration with Computer Science!
Embracing Change
I've beta-tested, piloted, and supported initiatives and new leadership whenever possible
Beta-tested Canvas, Supported student-run Makerspace (including securing a grant for them), beta-tested Canvas Extend, aerved and taught on Grand Challenge and Design Initiatives, beta-tested LinkedIn badging rollout system. Utilized UNH Media production and storage, Taught faculty to use technical and digital tools, supported and utilized Parker Media Lab, and have a long list of extra-curricular and cross-curriculum development and collaboration.