Middlebury Presents Vision Awards at June Forum

President Laurie Patton presents the Center for Creativity, Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship’s 2018 Vision Awards to Anita Fernández (left) and Marina Kim at the annual June Forum at Bread Loaf on June 12. Photo: Todd Balfour

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Middlebury’s Center for Creativity, Innovation, and Social Entrepreneurship presented its Vision Award to two leaders in the field of social impact education at its annual forum on Tuesday, June 12. The three-day forum, titled “Pushing Our Practices: Changemaking Beyond Disciplines,” offered attendees a variety of workshops aimed at developing methodologies for promoting interdisciplinary collaboration.

President Laurie Patton hosted a keynote discussion with the two Vision Award recipients, Marina Kim, cofounder and executive director of Ashoka U., and Anita Fernández, a scholar activist at Prescott College in Arizona.

As executive director of Ashoka U., Kim works with colleges and universities to “embed social innovation as an educational focus and a strategic approach to aligning the university’s culture, programs, and operations.” To date, the organization has worked with more than 400 institutions globally. Kim, a highly respected voice in national discussions about higher education innovation, was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list for social entrepreneurship.

Fernández, who teaches education, social justice, and human rights at Prescott, is cofounder of La Tierra Community School, a K-8 expeditionary learning school in Prescott. She is locally and nationally involved with organizations that focus on Latinx access to education, social justice activism, critical pedagogy, and transformative teacher education. She is the founder of Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing, an urban education consulting collective.