June 27

Today was the second set of presentations about innovator types from Tom Kelley’s book. The first type of innovator we focused on was the "Cross Pollinator”. These are individuals who innovate in one industry and are able to successfully transfer over their innovation to another industry. They also share some of the traits with the “Anthropologist” innovator type that is interested in observing patterns and behaviors. The second innovator type we discussed was the "Hurdler”. These types of innovators ten to be rule-breakers and those that find innovative ways to move ideas past challenges or obstacles. They tend to be persistent in the face of adversity and very optimistic.

When talking about the “Hurdler”, a large part of the discussion was thinking about people in our own lives that example these traits. For me, the first person that came to mind was my boss, the Sustainability Coordinator at North Seattle College. I worked as a student leader and as Sustainability Board Coordinator while I was taking college classes during my last two years of high school through a program called running start. One of the hardest things about working for a community college, and especially in Washington State, is the drastic lack of funding available for anything outside of the basic operations of the college. While North Seattle College was very supportive of sustainability efforts, we received a lot of push back on anything that would require a financial commitment from the college. My boss always figured out a way around the lack of funding to continue to push forwards ideas and innovations from the student board. After almost two years of work, we got the college certified as a fair trade college and got the President of the college to sign a resolution to commit to the expansion of fair trade offerings for food and beverages at the college.

After our class meeting, we headed to our site visit at the Van Gogh Museum. The neighborhood around the museum was stunning with large, old and very dutch looking buildings. We had a two hour session that focused on the efforts of the museum to better reach the 18 - 30 year old demographic and bring them into the museum. We also had the opportunity to experience what it would be like to visit the museum as someone who is blind. The museum offers touchable Van Gogh paintings, 3-D models, and scents to enhance the experience for the individual.

After the presentation and tour, we were left to explore the museum on our own for the next couple of hours. The painting that I was most excited to see was the very famous Starry Night. Unfortunately, we soon realized that painting is actually currently on display in New York. However, I did get to see the sunflower painting, which was truly amazing. The exhibits around the painting also detailed how they work on restoring and preserving the paintings to keep them as close to the original as possible. I even got to stop at the gift shop and get a couple of postcards to hang in my room after study abroad is over.