Andrea Wollensak, Professor of Art with specializations in visual communication and graphic design, uses Adobe Creative Suite in her courses. Though hers are some of the few classes at Conn that require use of software like InDesign and Photoshop, Professor Wollensak views an understanding of the programs as a byproduct, not the main goal, of her teaching.
“The focus of all my classes is content,” explained Wollensak. “The [Adobe Software] is something I introduce, but I really encourage students to take time on their own using online resources and Lynda.com to develop what they need.”
Lynda.com is an online resource for video tutorials with 2,157 courses (and counting) on various software, design and business skills. A one-year premium subscription to this service is priced at $375 but, as of this summer, members of the Connecticut College community can enjoy unlimited access for free.
The subscription is a gift from Diane Y. Williams ’59, the unseen benefactor behind many technological and skill development initiatives at the college. “To me, it’s not what I have but what I do with it, and the value this [subscription] adds to the campus,” said Williams. “I want it to be a gift that keeps on giving, and continues to be upgraded as is required by the speed of technological change.”
Diane Y. William’s career is marked by firsts. She was accepted to the Merrill Lynch training program after graduating from Connecticut College for Women in 1959. There, she became the first female officer and, later, the first woman in management. Before Merrill went public in June of 1971, Williams was the only woman of the bank’s 742 voting-member partnership and she was the first woman to be a registered principle for the New York Stock Exchange for Merrill, too. To top it off, she was the sole female trustee of the Merrill Lynch pension fund.
“It’s important that students know that there are some of us – a lot of us – that think very highly of the College and the education you’re receiving,” said Williams. Though not tech savvy herself, Williams is keenly aware of the importance in developing skillsets (through Lynda.com or otherwise) to apply and articulate the liberal arts in the competitive job market. “Even though I came from the [technological] dark ages,” Williams admitted, “my education was the game changer and launching pad for my career.”
Chris Penniman, Director of Instructional Technology at Conn, has worked with Williams since 1995, when she donated funds for the economics computer lab, now located in the basement of Becker House. “She’s a very smart woman, she listens to everything,” said Penniman. “It’s very important to her that her money be spent carefully and the goals of a project are achieved.”
Williams reached out to Penniman last spring, expressing interest in funding a project that Penniman thought would be important to the College and beneficial to the students. “Lynda.com was at the top of my list,” said Penniman.
“[Williams] was a little worried about Lynda, not using a computer and not knowing how long it had been in business” recalled Penniman. However, after a trip down to Williams’ home in New Jersey, where Penniman explained the company’s services and gave her a tour of the site via iPad, Williams was convinced.
So, with the funds provided by Diane Y. Williams, the College purchased a two-year license for all faculty, staff and students to access Lynda.com. “If it proves to be a valuable resource, we can fund it for more than two years,” explained Jessica McCullough, Instructional Design Librarian. McCullough works with faculty to help select the best technology for their courses, and helps to develop research assignments and processes as well.
“I’ve worked with Julia Browne in the CELS office and trained her and her staff on using Lynda,” said McCullough. “They’re going to start going out into residence halls and showing students Lynda.com [which has] a category for business school applications, like how to do your resume and ace an interview.”
Professor Wollensak calls the service “a perfect stepping stone. It empowers students to learn on their own.”
“We don’t want to be a tech school,” Wollensak went on, “we don’t want to be an art school. We want to learn how to communicate through different systems. We want to be able to articulate complex relations, visually.” By learning technical, practical skills outside of the classroom, students can be better prepared to tackle the real content of their courses.
Diane Y. Willaims considers Lynda.com part of a “three point initiative,” in conjunction with the economics lab she donated years ago and the Academic Resource Center’s “Now Hiring!” workshop, which was announced last Tuesday.
The workshop’s pilot program will run during the last week of winter break, and enrollment is limited to 12 students only, plus four waitlisted seniors who may audit the workshop. The highly selective pilot will help gauge student enthusiasm and will help mold and design the program moving forward. Thanks to Williams, the program will be at no cost to parents or students for housing or meals.
“It’s focused. It’s intensive,” described Noel Garrett, Director of the Academic Resource Center. “A community is actually built in those five days. There will be individual presentations, presentations with a partner and presentations with teams of four, and everyone is critiquing. The beauty of having it done over an intensive week is that you get to apply that feedback immediately.”
Garrett also mentioned that the program will include a series of speakers from outside of the College in addition to Conn faculty. “The result of this is not creating a resume and cover letter to put your best foot forward,” said Garrett. “The idea is to make students more confident when it comes to communicating, not only about themselves but what they do and what their interests are, from talking freely to formalizing a presentation.”
“This is a first initiative for the Academic Resource Center to develop a workshop that will combine, in a total immersion, a superior skillset that, in my view, is sought by the workplace,” enthused Williams.
In addition to the Lynda.com subscription, the economics computer lab and the “Now Hiring!” program, the College has Diane Y. Williams to thank for the purchase and installation of eight dual-display high power computers that will be available in the library at the end of this month.
A new, state-of-the-art computer bank had been on Chris Penniman’s radar for some time, but there simply wasn’t funding for the project within the budget for the library renovations that will be taking place next summer. So, Penniman proposed the idea to Williams as a possible alternative to the Lynda.com subscription. Williams was impressed with both concepts, though, and generously decided to move forward with the two initiatives rather than just one.
Two screens and one powerful computer is a valuable combination, Penniman described: “A student could come down and do their research, looking at information on the web on one screen, being able to write their paper on the other. Or, on Lynda.com, they could be learning InDesign on one screen and using it on another.”
McCullough said that the computers would be set up by the end of October and that students would be able to use them through the end of this semester and through the transition period during the library’s renovation.
Though her giving spans across disciplines and departments, Diane Y. Williams views her gifts to the College as working “hand in glove” towards the common objective of applied liberal arts.
“They provide not only added value, but a differential advantage, too,” said Williams of the resources she’s helped bring to Conn. “A differential advantage is hard to craft, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an objective… I’m not bunting, I’m swinging for the seats.” •
