IDEA U

A Camp for Poets and Planners, Dreamers and Doers

June 21-23, 2016
Heidelberg University
Who: High School youth — Rising sophomores through rising seniors
Application Deadline EXTENDED: May 31, 2016
Cost: $115 (Due after acceptance; scholarships are available)

Do you love the church, but would love to see it change? Do you enjoy wrestling with the meaning of life? Do you want to do something to make the world a better place?

Yes! Apply NOW to be part of the first IDEA U Innovators Camp!

Apply Now

PHOTO__StudentsonLawn__715x430During this two-day camp pilot program, the innovative YOUNG PEOPLE who are chosen to participate will design and lead a new kind of camp. You’ll spend these three days with other creative young people, design a camp that really appeals to YOU and YOUR FRIENDS. Then, help implement the camp during the year and lead it in Summer 2017. Although some really fun adults are involved, their job is to get out of the way — make space for you to create, learn and design something new that will empower the poets and the planners, the dreamers and the doers to sculpt the future of this new thing God is doing in the Ohio UCC and beyond.

Plus, at this camp, you are encouraged to use your phones, bring snacks and stay up late (working on the design, of course).

Apply TODAY to be one of only 18 high school students (entering grades 10 through 12 in Fall 2016) who will dream and build a new kind of camp by and for the young people of the Ohio UCC!

IDEA U is based in the process of Human-Centered Design. Read more about IDEO’s HCD in their Field Guide and watch this video

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Application Process

The. Best. Camp. Ever.

You get to design it. At IDEA U. Just fill out this simple application and submit no later than May 1, 2016. We'll let you know by May 9, 2016 if you are accepted.

We ask you two questions in this simple application. We suggest you write your answers (200-300 words) in a separate file, then copy and paste them into the online application:

1.) Idea U will be using Design Thinking, which are based in the 7 Mindsets of Human-Centered Design:
1.) Creative Confidence
2.) Make It
3.) Learn from Failure
4.) Empathy
5.) Embrace Ambiguity
6.) Optimism
7.) Iterate, Iterate, Iterate.

Pick one of these mindsets and write an essay about how you exemplify that mindset. Share examples. What gifts do you bring to IDEA U based on your mindset?

2.) What do you think would make The. Best. Camp. Ever. For high school students in the UCC?

IDEA U will use the principles of Human Center Design, a process that puts people at the center of designing new things. Read more about HCD and the 7 mindsets by downloading their Field Guide and by watching this video