Backnotes on Project Orange: The experience of the 21st century grad school

What a 21st century grad school should look and feel like from the perspective of the student.

The Product

• accountability of the community
• emotionally resonant prompts and themes
• a routine, previously setup and agreed upon
• a strong set of IT tools, working relatively well together
• working with people who were up for a challenge (application/selection process).
• "the process" 
• a bigger network of switched on people
• concrete skillset development

The Experience

• Working in groups with instructions that pushes you to take responsibility for the outcomes.
• making the decision to pitch in wholeheartedly.
• deadlines and shipping requirements.
• Real work
• Video work
• the feedback loop of commenting and reflecting (not always welcome, but very valuable)
• communicating happily and with ease through writing. 
• The value of being on both sides of the feedback loop was more than what I had anticipated.

The transformation

• I reframed my life so it has an extra level of meaning and a clearer definition of how I express my purpose.
• I greatly increased my sense of the value of my work and it is giving me courage to speak out about what's important, even when other people want me to do something "safer" or more acceptable.
• I was trying to be a better cog in the machinery at work, and instead ended up wanting to build my own machine.
• Taking ownership of my future.
• Shake-up: hanging out with a crowd willing to engage in more depth, get involved with new projects with deadlines
• I learned about the cutting-edge of entrepreneurship / business, contribute to the growth of others.