A Culture of Innovation

By Dr. DeRionne P. Pollard,
President, Montgomery College

Almost eight years, ago The New York Times published a piece on a “new destination” for high-achievers: community colleges. The irony was not lost of those of us who have known about community colleges for decades, but Montgomery College was proud to be among 11 institutions profiled for their strengths. Among other assets, community colleges on this list were lauded for their learning communities, honors programs, interdisciplinary curricula, and transfer agreements with four-year institutions. Eight years later these elements are so integral to our institution and other community colleges that “innovative” is rarely a term used to describe them.

To keep pace with the speed of 21st century change, higher education has had to evolve at a faster rate than ever. With the forces of globalization integrating distant worlds in a short timeframe, production, labor, migration, and governance have all been impacted. Higher education has, in turn, been called to respond innovatively to the pressures of the marketplace: to make education less expensive, more workforce-oriented, more accommodating to students’ schedules, and attentive to the needs of their future employers. These changes are not luxuries designed to edge out the competition, but necessities produced by the global economy and made even more urgent by the recession. Employment competition from abroad and scarcity at home make job preparation more critical. Education beyond the secondary level has become increasingly vital as countries around the world bypass the US’s long-respected standards and our economy moves from a manufacturing-base to a knowledge-base.

Many institutions of higher education are not accustomed to thinking of themselves as part of the marketplace. Some even consider innovation to be a concept from the business world that is antagonistic to the concept of a liberal arts education. For many humanists the word “innovation” calls to mind the giants of the tech world—Bill Gates (Microsoft), Sergey Brin (Google), and the late Steve Jobs (Apple). Famous for their merger of technical knowledge, engineering skills, and marketing aptitude, all three credited innovation with driving their creative approaches. But their conceptions of innovation were much broader than many imagine. Steve Jobs was a vocal advocate of innovation, not solely as a scientific concept, but as an approach to problem-solving. He advocated for the creation of a “culture of innovation,” with components like creativity and discipline in tandem with a clear mission. These qualities, he argued, fueled the engines of smart, engaged people, who could then create original ideas. It was these innovative ideas that were the essence of success in Jobs’ mind, far superior to sales figures.

The late author and poet Maya Angelou described her own prolific writing life in a similar way. “You can’t use up creativity,” she said. “The more you use, the more you have.” With 36 books to her credit—30 of them bestsellers—and three Grammy awards, Angelou’s work is lauded as a study in artistic innovation. One of Angelou’s favorite authors, Langston Hughes, a leader in the 1930s Harlem Renaissance, is often credited with innovative combinations of jazz and written verse. Blending two existing elements in a new way is usually the root of innovation, as many inventors have observed, and Hughes’ use of rhythm to propel words produced a unique, vibrant cadence that was called “innovative” by musicians for decades.

Art, science and technology all evolved because of innovation.

At the beginning of 2015, Montgomery College has a treasure trove of innovative ideas for our common challenges: closing the achievement gap, improving access and retention, and partnering with industry. What we need now is a culture of innovation—much like Jobs’ vision—where creativity, discipline, and a clear mission will guide our investments of energy and resources. From where I sit, this is already happening in many productive ways. Cybersecurity, for example, was not among MC’s course offerings not too long ago. But because our faculty stayed engaged and forward-thinking, they expanded our offerings to fit the growing workforce needs of this burgeoning industry. As a result, MC was optimally positioned to win a $15 million grant from the US Department of Labor and lead a consortium of community colleges in increasing training opportunities in information technology and cybersecurity.

With 350 bioscience companies in Maryland, MC faculty have been similarly creative in responding to the growth of the biotechnology sector. New courses on topics proposed by local companies have trained students in areas such as “Introduction to Drug Development” and “Clinical Trials Project Management.” Both of these fields—biotech and cybersecurity—have evolved rapidly in Maryland, creating significant ripples in the regional workforce. But because of the creativity of our faculty and their commitment to our mission, MC has risen to meet these challenges.

The College’s Workforce Development & Continuing Education (WD&CE) unit has been similarly consistent in creating new trainings for evolving specialties, some of which did not exist 10 years ago, such as hybrid vehicle repair, solar panel installation, LEED certificate training, and computer gaming and simulation classes. WD&CE offerings are clear responses to workforce technology changes and evidence of our creativity and discipline. WD&CE offers classes in fields that respond directly to growing technology in the workplace. In the health care industry, for example, it has created certifications for medical sonography technicians, EKG technicians, pharmacy technicians, and sterile processing technicians. WD&CE has classes for non-native English speakers who are eager to work, combining English as a Second Language with skills for building trades and health care jobs.

A continuing challenge to MC’s mission has been retention and completion, both of which can impede our contributions to the larger economy. Faculty and staff on our campuses have designed innovative programs such as Sister 2 Sister and Boys to Men, to closely mentor students from underrepresented groups. These relationships encourage persistence through discipline, which lays the groundwork for innovation in our students.

Our community supporters also see the value of innovation. The Montgomery College Foundation’s Innovation Fund invites students and faculty to contribute to our community by presenting their best ideas for innovation on campus, and to be rewarded with funding in order to test out an idea. The theme of the 2015 program is Pathways to Completion and Career, a topic that straddles our community college missions of workforce development and educational excellence.

Our efforts to improve STEM enrollment, especially by underrepresented students, are also innovative. With over $2 million in National Science Foundation grants won by creative, diligent faculty members, the Graduate and Transfer STEM Talent Expansion Program and Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity programs are boosting STEM education at MC.

Clearly the work of our faculty is already defined by creativity, discipline, and mission-focus. These elements are what enable us to make consistent progress towards our Montgomery College 2020 vision. But we should also attend to the possibility of larger paradigmatic changes, such those that altered higher education in earlier eras, including the Morrill Act (1862), the GI Bill (1944), and Title IX (1972). The transformational changes wrought by these laws redefined the higher education map in critical economic moments. President Obama’s America’s College Promise could join the ranks of these shifts—if it can win the support of Congress—and would multiply the impact of our efforts.

In the meantime, I am proud to say that Montgomery College is already an incubator for innovation. Our faculty and staff are tuned in and responsive to changes in politics, in technology, and in business. But we must expand our conversations regarding innovation so that they can infuse all areas of our College. We must create, as Steve Jobs suggested, a culture of innovation. A good start would be to ask ourselves, how do we best create such a culture? How do we nurture it? How do we balance the demands of discipline with the freedom of creativity?

One of the most heralded innovators of the early 20th century, Henry Ford, is often credited with saying, “if you ask customers what changes they want in transportation they will say, ‘faster horses.’” Ford gave them something much better: the automobile. His vision and determination created not just a revolutionary method to mass-produce the car, but also led to fundamental changes in the workforce, such as the assembly line, the chance to earn a living wage, and the dream and reality of middle class car ownership.

If community colleges are to make the transformational changes that are needed by society, we need to push ourselves into a realm that we can’t yet imagine. Such progress will require sustained effort and discipline. Equally important elements, though, are imagination and creativity. Most great inventors—whether they be tech giants or poet laureates—consider their mind to be their greatest tool. When disciplined and directed by a clear mission and fueled by creativity, such minds can reach dramatic new levels of achievement. These components of innovation are already alive and thriving at Montgomery College. Channeling them to meet the growing demands of the next century will undoubtedly lead us to new and better worlds we cannot yet envision.