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"A Passion for Creative Transformation The Transformative Leadership MA is a uniquely innovative distance-learning program that integrates extensive practical skills with deep self-reflection and an emphasis on creative action in the world. The program prepares students to embody leadership and mobilize their creativity in many different ways, whether in organizations, social movements, or a range of activities requiring personal initiative and dedication to making a difference. Transformative Leadership offers a creative incubator for new forms of leadership in a rapidly changing world. New forms of leadership are needed in all dimensions of life, not just in boardrooms and governments. Transformative Leadership explores leadership along four dimensions: new ways of being, relating, knowing, and doing, all requiring new perspectives, skills, and personal practices. Transformative leadership holds that as we change the world we also change ourselves, and as we change ourselves we also change the world. The transdisciplinary curriculum develops students' abilities to reflect on their mission in life, apply leading edge research, develop new sets of skills, and creatively act in the world. Faculty and students create a rich and supportive online learning community that provides a context where students can create their own approach to leadership, based on their personal values, capacities, and mission in life. This innovative program culminates in a Capstone Action Project that demonstrates leadership in the world and allows students to apply their learning and test their theories and assumptions about leadership in real time. The lessons learned from this project are often stepping stones for new initiatives and life paths for our graduates. The program also offers a unique set of electives, including a set of courses specifically designed to address issues related to LGBTQ leadership and policy."

"Step 1: Face Facts "This is the toughest one," said White. "And it can happen a little at a time or all at once." For White, it was the realization that his leg "wasn't growing back. That I wasn't a starfish." Step 2: Choose Life This step differentiates those who remain victims, and those who do not - "those who could imagine a positive life, that my life is more than my body, perhaps, more than this date," said White. "If you make yourself about the date, you'll get stuck in that date. In fact, one of the number one signs of victimhood is living in the past," he said. Step 3: Reach Out "You're tempted when you're bummed out and you're going through trauma to start to sink, to isolate, to go into a shell. But isolation will surely kill you," said White. "And we need people. You can't survive alone. No one survives alone. It's up to survivors as well that they need to do the reach-out, and hopefully there are also people reaching out back." Step 4: Get Moving As White recovered in an Israeli hospital, a nurse was going to let him go to the cafeteria for the first time. He got into a wheelchair.  "And the nurse, she looked down at me and left," he said. White's advice: If you want to move, push. "No one's going to do your recovery for you. No one's going to actually make you better. It's your life," he said. Step 5: Give Back"

"Creative Visualization is the art of using mental imagery and affirmation to produce positive changes in your life. It is being successfully used in the fields of health, business, the creative arts, and sports, and in fact can have an impact in every area of your life. With more than six million copies sold worldwide, this pioneering bestseller and perennial favorite helped launch a new movement in personal growth when it was first published. The classic guide is filled with meditations, exercises, and techniques that can help you use the power of your imagination to create what you want in your life, change negative habit patterns, improve self-esteem, reach career goals, increase prosperity, develop creativity, increase vitality, improve your health, experience deep relaxation, and much more. This book can help you to increase your personal mastery of life."

Meaning-making, in all its various aspects, is not only a prime motivating force in human life but also in teaching and learning. We search for personal meanings in our life experiences, which enables us to develop inner capabilities to become self-empowered, self-determining authors of our own life stories. In short, meaning-making expands human consciousness and MCE-MCL extends this explorative and explanatory domain. As students become engaged in a diverse set of personally and socially meaningful activities, they learn to assess what they learned with responsibility to self, to others, and to the local and world communities. Thus, MCE-MCL is holistic, dialogic, and experiential in nature, collaborative and transformative in process and purpose.

We are an artistic research and development outfit for the improvement of civil society and everyday life. We are situated at the intersections of design thinking and practice, social justice and activism, public art and social practice and civic / popular engagement. We design and test social interventions with and on behalf of marginalized populations, controversies and ways of life.

"CREATIVE HABITS for SYNTHESIS of THEORY and PRACTICE At various points in your life you may take up the challenge of writing something in which you synthesize your ideas and practice. After all, everyone has a voice that should be heard. However, believing deeply that your voice matters and acting on that belief is not easy. You will need support to be able to take yourself seriously and, as the title of Parker Palmer's (2000) book puts it, to "Let Your Life Speak." The frameworks of Phases and of the Cycles and Epicycles of Action Research together with the creative habits below provide a multifaceted structure to help you find your voice, clarify and develop your thoughts, express that voice in writing, and complete your synthesis of ideas and practice. The structure is especially valuable if you want to finish by some defined target date yet do not want to rely on external directions to motivate or reward you." from http://bit.ly/TYS2012

""And now, weak, short of breath, my once-firm muscles melted away by cancer, I find my thoughts, increasingly, not on the supernatural or spiritual, but on what is meant by living a good and worthwhile life - achieving a sense of peace within oneself. I find my thoughts drifting to the Sabbath, the day of rest, the seventh day of the week, and perhaps the seventh day of one's life as well, when one can feel that one's work is done, and one may, in good conscience, rest.""

"For all of us, learning was an innate part of life. It was something we just did, that was as natural to us as breathing. If not for this innate desire to learn and with it the ability to do so, we would never learn to walk, or speak or interact with others. But at some point learning stops being something we do and becomes more like something that happens to us. Our initial self-drive to learn is replaced by learning as a part of our life that is highly regulated, controlled, monitored and externalised. "

"How do you encourage life long learning?"

""Eat Pray and Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert: "Instructions for Freedom" 1. Life's metaphors are God's instructions. 2. You have just climbed up and above the roof.  There is nothing between you and the Infinite. Now, let go. 3. The day is ending.  It's time for something that was beautiful to turn into something else that is beautiful. Now, let go. 4. Your wish for resolution was a prayer.  Your being here is God's response. Let go, and watch the stars come out - on the outside and on the inside. 5. With all your heart, ask for grace, and let go. 6. With all your heart, forgive him, FORGIVE YOURSELF, and let him go. 7. Let your intention be freedom from useless suffering. Then, let go. 8. Watch the heat of day pass into the cool night. Let go. 9. When the karma of a relationship is done, only live remains.  It's safe.  Let go. 10. When the past has passed from you at last, let go.  Then climb down and begin the rest of your life.  With great joy."

Task/Problem-Centered - Students learn more when the instruction is centered on relevant real-world tasks or problems, including a series of tasks or problems that progress from simple to complex. Activation - Students learn more when they are directed to recall prior knowledge, to recall a structure for organizing that knowledge, or are given a structure for organizing new knowledge. This activation can also include a foundational learning experience upon which new learning can be based. Demonstration - Students learn more when new knowledge is demonstrated to them in the context of real-world tasks or problems. The knowledge that is demonstrated is both informational and skill-based. Demonstration is enhanced when it adheres to research-based principles of e-learning. Application - Students learn more when they perform real-world tasks or solve real-world problems and receive feedback on and appropriate guidance during that application. Integration - Students learn more when they are encouraged to integrate their new knowledge into their life through reflection, discussion, debate, and/or presentation of new knowledge.

"Life itself can be approached as a creative challenge, through the medium of whatever we do on a daily basis, whether it be painting a picture or cooking a meal. In The Widening Stream, author David Ulrich gracefully illustrates the series of stages encountered on every creative journey, regardless of the form of expression. Using the stream as a metaphor, Ulrich takes readers from the moment of inspiration to completion, helping us navigate the joys and frustrations inherent in the process."

"In this exceptionally positive and encouraging book, Stephanie Dowrick frees the journal writer she believes is in virtually everyone, showing through stories and examples that a genuine sense of possibility can be revived on every page. Creative journal writing goes way beyond just recording events on paper. It can be the companion that supports but doesn't judge, a place of unparalleled discovery, and a creative playground where the everyday rules no longer count. Proven benefits of journal writing include reduced stress and anxiety, increased self-awareness, sharpened mental skills, genuine psychological insight, creative inspiration and motivation, strengthened ability to cope during difficult times, and overall physical and emotional well-being. Combining a rich choice of ideas with wonderful stories, quotes, and her refreshingly intimate thoughts gained through a lifetime of writing, Dowrick's insights and confidence make journal writing irresistible-and your own life more enchanting. Included in Creative Journal Writing are: u stories of how people have used journal writing to transform their lives; · inspirational instructions, guidelines, and quotes; · key principles, practical suggestions, and helpful hints; · 125 starter topics, designed to help even the most reluctant journal writer; · more than forty powerful exercises; · and much more!"

"The Artist's Way is the seminal book on the subject of creativity. An international bestseller, millions of readers have found it to be an invaluable guide to living the artist's life. Still as vital today-or perhaps even more so-than it was when it was first published one decade ago, it is a powerfully provocative and inspiring work. In a new introduction to the book, Julia Cameron reflects upon the impact of The Artist's Way and describes the work she has done during the last decade and the new insights into the creative process that she has gained. Updated and expanded, this anniversary edition reframes The Artist's Way for a new century."

"life online is seen as a chance to "wind up" the anxious, dupe the powerful, trash the earnest, alienate the already marginal. There doesn't need to be a larger aim. "

"In other words, once you have something valuable to offer, use it to gain as much autonomy, competence, and relatedness as you can possibly cram into your life."