A new cohort of 35 curious students from different fields of study met for the first time on 21 April 2023 at Eulenhof (IBZ). The day’s program was designed around the topic of "Navigating Change – New Solutions", the annual School for Talents’ theme 2023/24.
What does it mean to be smart, especially in the age of AI? Which skill-sets are required to tackle societal, environmental and economic challenges in the years to come? Which role does technology play when it comes to sustainable transformation? These are just a few of the questions that our participants discussed during our first in-person meeting.
They also experienced first-hand what we consider the basis of our program. Namely, how a strong focus on community and mutual respect can create platforms where participants feel a sense of connection to the topics discussed. School for Talents uses innovative teaching and learning methods that are unlike what usually students experience during their regular curricula. During the kick-off, each new member of the program had the opportunity to contribute their thoughts and ideas during workshops and discussions in a non-hierarchical space. The goal of our time together was for students to get to know the program in more detail, get a first introduction to the annual program and the journey ahead, but also, and most importantly, to get to know each other as a group.
It is therefore not surprising that the highlight of the day was a workshop built around the idea of “teaming.” School for Talents requires an openness for new topics from our participants. For example, engineers are introduced to ideas and methods from the humanities – and vice versa.
It was thus very special to have Dr. Jessica Bundschuh from the Institute of Literary Studies facilitate a workshop that combined so many of the things we try to convey through the program: The workshop not only served as an introduction to a new idea. By using the poem “To Autumn” by John Keats as a vehicle to engage students with “Tactile Ecosystems of Change”, the afternoon also entailed a creativity method, new approaches to teamwork, and coming up with ideas to improve our environment - all at the same time.
After listening to the ode with a focus on how Keats activates the senses and conjures up an ecosystem within the poetic frame, the students broke into interdisciplinary groups and built their own micro-ecosystems out of plants and materials procured for this very workshop! Above all, they got their hands in the soil and engaged with the materials on a tactile level. The resulting spaces were functional and they responded to a specific ecological crisis, while activating as many senses as possible. Ultimately, each group wrote a poetic text to encourage visitors to dwell in what they had created: a three-dimensional poem. Like Keats, they chose a season and a name for their ecosystem. And many incorporated snippets of Keats’s language in their tactile system of change!
👉🏽Discover some of the ecosystems on the Institute of Literary Studies website.
