A five-day creativity project "Creativity and Innovation" that was launched the previous academic year 2015-16 at Dar Al-Hekma University concluded this week at the university campus. The week was designed to launch a new era of teaching and learning experience by providing creativity training to around 300 freshmen and preparation year students. This program was delivered to the students by a team of national and international mentors. The project was aimed at delivering transformative and mind-changing experience through intensive participation of new students at the beginning of each academic year. By combining methods of personality training with the utilization of creativity tools and innovative methods, students learned to think creatively and holistically and gained the competence to discern opportunities for innovative solutions for life. "The program focused on intellectual and emotional enrichment while finding one's self and building skills to achieve one's full potential. These five days were a mind-changing experience for the members of the upcoming class of 2020," said Dr. Suhair Hassan Al Qurashi, president of Dar Al-Hekma University during the opening session of the event. Initiativez, the company that provided the training, has international capabilities. It is founded on the passion to make a positive difference in both the workplace and educational sphere. "The program has been designed with great care, utilizing national and international expertise that will provide an amazing and unique learning experience for the entire class of students admitted to Dar Al-Hekma in 2016. The instructional material and contents have been meticulously developed and will be delivered by expert trainers who will make this an exciting and life changing experience for all participants and will set the tone for the next four years of your academic life at DAH," Dr. Sanaa Askool, the dean of students at Dar Al-Hekma University told the students. One of the memorable workshop in the creativity week was "The Chocolate Challenge" which required dividing the students into groups. Each group was asked to create an original box of chocolate, present the product, market it and finally create a 30-second TV commercial. The goal behind this workshop was to enhance the students› collaboration, creativity, team building, business awareness and marketing skills. Another workshop that was popular with the students was "The Bigger Picture". This was a creative and involving exercise that highlighted the need for communication, collaboration and organization across each group. Each team was shown an image which they had to increase the size 1/150th of the original image. Once it was completed all the portions were joined together – in the correct order – to make the bigger picture. The training program was delivered by a team of national and international experts led by Shereen Tawfiq, the founder of Initiativez, and Cheryl Shuttle, the lead facilitator who is also the Institute of Leadership & Management certified instructor. There were also four co-facilitators; Sharral Izhiman, with 20+ years of experience in corporate communication strategies and digital marketing; Susan McIntosh, a human capital and business professional; Mary-Catherine Rabaut, with 20+ years of experience revolving around NGO's, charitable organizations, event management and training; and Fiona Arrand, with over 30 years of experience as a licensed Neuro Linguistic Programming and business growth coach, leadership development facilitator and sales manager.
