FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Cristal Logan
Director, Aspen Community Programs
The Aspen Institute
Cristal.Logan@aspeninstitute.org
Tel. (970) 544-7929
The Aspen Institute and the Isaacson School for New Media Announce the 2014 Isaacson School Scholar
Aspen, CO, June 3, 2014 –– The Aspen Institute and the Isaacson School for New Media at Colorado Mountain College are pleased to announce Justin Patrick as the 2014 Isaacson School Scholar. Patrick entered a portfolio of his most innovative work into a student competition. As the winner of this competition, Patrick will receive a scholarship to this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival. A committee of Isaacson School faculty and administrators as well as a team from the Aspen Institute selected the scholar.
An excerpt from Patrick’s scholarship essay reads, “Ideas are the single most important commodity in the human arsenal of progress. Today, the titans of the technology industry — Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, for example — deal in ideas as if they were currency. It is not a stretch to say that they are in effect manufacturing creativity. Those leaders are exactly the people who are invited to attend and speak at the Aspen Ideas Festival. It is a remarkable occasion to meet any one of them…but a stream of them, one after the other? That sounds like paradise to an idea-holic like me.”
Thanks to a donation from the school’s namesake, Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson, students will also have free access to world-class events at the Aspen Institute year-round including the McCloskey Speaker Series, the Hurst Lecture Series and the Murdock Mind, Body, Spirit Series, among others. The program will take place over the next three years to build a formal connection between Isaacson School students and the Institute.
“It’s fantastic that the Isaacson School has the caliber of students that can participate in – and are excited to be able to attend – the Aspen Ideas Festival and other Aspen Institute events,” said Robert Martin, director of the Isaacson School for New Media. “We are most grateful for Walter Isaacson’s generosity and vision in providing this opportunity for our students.”
The Isaacson School for New Media was inspired and facilitated by Jim Calaway, an active philanthropist in the Roaring Fork Valley, Aspen Institute Trustee, and long-time supporter of Colorado Mountain College. The Isaacson School offers accessible, affordable education and retraining for students who want to be prepared for jobs in the evolving digital landscape. The school was named after Walter Isaacson, formerly CEO of CNN and the managing editor of TIME Magazine. He is the author of many best-selling books including the biography of Steve Jobs, late co-founder of Apple.
The Aspen Institute hosts several public programs throughout the year in Aspen for residents and visitors alike. Ranging from lectures with world-class leaders to transformational seminars for teens; these programs offer unique opportunities for a diverse mix of people to find inspiration in a variety of ways. Thanks to the generosity of donors, the Institute is able to keep these events affordable, in addition to offering scholarships to teens and adults so that anyone may take part in its programs.
For more information on events open to the public, please contact Jillian Scott at (970) 544-7914 or jillian.scott@aspeninstitute.org, or visit the Institute’s website at www.aspeninstitute.org/aspenevents.
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Institute has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It also maintains offices in New York City and has an international network of partners.
About Colorado Mountain College and the Isaacson School for New Media
Colorado Mountain College is a two-year, comprehensive community college that also grants bachelor’s degrees, at 11 locations in north-central Colorado.
The Isaacson School for New Media at Colorado Mountain College is based at the college’s campuses in Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley (Carbondale, Glenwood Springs and Spring Valley), and also offers courses online. More at coloradomtn.edu/programs/new_media/. The college provides liberal arts and science certificate and associate degree programs, bachelor’s degrees in business administration and sustainability studies, basic and lifelong learning, and customized business training. More at coloradomtn.edu.
For more information about Colorado Mountain College, contact Debra Crawford, public information officer, at Central Services in Glenwood Springs, 970-384-8535, dcrawford@coloradomtn.edu.
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