{"id":868,"date":"2014-07-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/?p=868"},"modified":"2023-06-01T11:31:38","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T18:31:38","slug":"deans-message-spring-summer-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/deans-message-spring-summer-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Deans Message Spring – Summer ’14 – Playground of Ideas (and Solutions)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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< Back to Spring\/Summer 2014<\/a><\/p>\n

Playground of Ideas (and Solutions)<\/h1>\n

My colleague Scott Fraser, who came to USC Dornsife from the California Institute of Technology last year, describes the USC campus as a playground. Without even questioning his word choice, Scott will recount how biologists and engineers make plans to \u201cplay\u201d together. They compare ideas and goals, and work in teams to devise new ways to address long-standing issues.<\/em><\/strong>
\n\"\"
\nThe global challenges we face in 2014 are no doubt formidable, but at USC Dornsife, our faculty, researchers and students come prepared to address these problems enthusiastically and collaboratively. There is nothing like seeing a scientist\u2019s eyes light up as he describes how a type of solar technology may hold the key to curing certain eye diseases or a student\u2019s excitement when she secures an internship with a high-profile congresswoman.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting \u2014 a good playground can be the glue that holds a community together. It\u2019s where families meet and children learn to socialize and connect. Among many powerful examples of \u201cplay\u201d at USC, we have students who introduce literature to local elementary school students through the Joint Educational Project (JEP), a faculty member who studies what it takes to motivate underserved youth to excel, and a graduate student who analyzes gratitude using the USC Shoah Foundation\u2019s Visual History Archive of stories from genocide survivors, among so many other powerful examples.<\/p>\n

\"\"My goal as dean of USC Dornsife is to make sure that we break out of the traditional academic bubble. After all, problems can\u2019t be solved without dismantling boundaries, combining disciplines and looking far further than just inside our own textbooks, classrooms, city or even country for answers.<\/p>\n

We must teach our students how to use their own resources to enact political change, imbuing public health initiatives with cultural sensitivity \u2014 or even cure cancer or arrest climate change by encouraging collaboration among scholars in different fields. In essence, Scott is right. USC is a playground \u2014 a playground for ideas, strategies, collaboration and, ultimately, solutions.<\/p>\n

Steve Kay
\nDean of USC Dornsife
\nAnna H. Bing Dean\u2019s Chair<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-message-from-dean"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDeans Message Spring - Summer '14 - Playground of Ideas (and Solutions)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/deans-message-spring-summer-14\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deans Message Spring - Summer '14 - Playground of Ideas (and Solutions) - 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