Nine presenters<\/a> from vastly different backgrounds \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 alumni and students, university provost, surgeon, military veteran, scenic artist for \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d \u2013 will share their unique stories about how creativity plays out in their own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The speakers are Pardis Mahdavi, Ph.D., provost and executive vice president at the University of Montana; Jillian Eddy, of Brooklyn, a painter for \u201cSNL\u201d; Jen Mott, Ed.D., an educator, school administrator and circus performer from Cincinnati; Dr. Francois Luks, of Barrington, professor of surgery at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Ginay Lopes, an author and spoken word artist from Providence; Carol Pegg, of Saunderstown, an alumna and executive assistant to the vice president of student of affairs at 溏心vlog免费B站; and current 溏心vlog免费B站 students Abigail Gordon, of Durham, New Hampshire, a dual major in secondary education and French; Aryana Sadr, an engineering major from Providence; and Jeremy Bergantini, of Ashaway, an Iraqi War Veteran, who is pursuing three majors and two minors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCreativity,\u201d says Bergantini, \u201cis important to our everyday life because it\u2019s at the core of human expression. Whether we realize it or not, everyone utilizes creativity in some way. For me, the creative spark is what gets me hungry while satiating my desires and motivations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bergantini is founder of Tapped Foundation, a nonprofit he started after his father suffered a series of strokes in February 2022. Among numerous causes, the organization helps veterans dealing with PTSD, potential homelessness and suicidal thoughts. His talk will focus on how photography helped him find his creative spark and \u201csaved my soul\u201d during his mental and physical recovery from injuries sustained during Operation Iraqi Freedom. \u201cI have more purpose now thanks to it,\u201d he says. \u201cMy nonprofit helps me utilize my spark in more challenging ways that could in turn help others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Mott, creativity is a constant part of her dual path as a long-time educator and equally long-time circus performer. She\u2019s always learning new things, meeting new people, trying new things, and traveling the world. \u201cI never want to become stagnant and the creative spark keeps me from doing that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fittingly, her presentation will be on juggling \u2013 careers and passions \u2013 creating a harmonious balance between the two. \u201cMany people try to keep their worlds separate or inadvertently lose part of themselves as they chase careers and families. My goal is to show we can merge the two in order to bring about fullness in ourselves while lighting the spark in others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eddy, the \u201cSNL\u201d painter, finds creativity a vital skill in her work in art and visual components, a spark that sometimes catches and ignites in something worthwhile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think the biggest roadblock to overcome is the idea that you could be wrong or that your idea will be bad,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is a trap because with creativity it isn\u2019t the correctness that matters, it\u2019s the uniqueness of the solution. Any ideas that are shared have potential to become something bigger when you let go of getting it right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eddy, who graduated from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2016 with a bachelor of fine arts degree in theater, is starting her own business, The Scrap Pile, focused on reallocating entertainment industry construction waste to local artists and community building projects. Her presentation, she says, is the story of her life as a \u201cJill-of-all-trades\u201d — including life with ADHD, the \u201codd path\u201d that led her to \u201cSNL,\u201d and launching a business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with being a professor of surgery, Luks is pediatric surgeon-in-chief at Hasbro Children\u2019s Hospital, and an illustrator. As a medical student, he drew a daily comic strip that appeared in several newspapers. He moved on to illustrate his research publications and those of colleagues. He now teaches medical illustration to students at Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo me, creative thinking is what\u2019s exciting: coming up with new ideas can be as satisfying as it is enriching,\u201d he says. \u201cThe creative spark is all about solving a puzzle, finding a solution to a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Gordon, a first-year 溏心vlog免费B站 student, her creativity runs in another direction. Not particularly talented in drawing, photography, knitting or pottery, she had trouble figuring what she would talk about. But then her spark clicked \u2013 she\u2019s a writer, a daydreamer. As a child, she loved to create stories from the vivid dreams stirred up by her imagination. But she gave it up in high school \u2013 before rediscovering it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI realized a large part of my general happiness came from the act of creation, specifically creating stories both in my head and on paper,\u201d she says. \u201cThis epiphany \u2013 or creative spark \u2013 had a major effect on my life and helped me find my inner-happiness again. I want to be a part of this to inspire others to think more deeply about how creativity plays a role in their life and just how important it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadr, also a first-year student at 溏心vlog免费B站, likens the creative spark to an \u201caha moment\u201d when you see ordinary things in a different way and find inspiration to develop a new method to solve problems. Sadr, whose parents immigrated from Iran, will present her talk in words and music to give voice to the girls in Iran who are standing up for their rights. But at the last minute, she had to alter her presentation because of a copyright issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSince creativity and the creative spark is the main theme, I used this opportunity to completely change the format and find a more meaningful way to tell my story,\u201d she says. \u201cAfter all, these talks are to help us discover new meanings to the moments that we encounter in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lopes, a full-time grant writer for AS220, the non-profit community arts organization in Providence, finds her creative spark in her curiosity — asking questions, learning about people from all over the world and sharing their stories through poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve always seen people\u2019s stories on their faces,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve had this knowledge that the person you are looking at has a timeline that brought them to that exact place where you are. And when you look around further, there are more faces with more timelines. People with stories that will die with them, cultures that will die with them. I\u2019ve always had a goal to preserve culture and create empathy and community, to show us that we are all more alike than different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pegg, who will open Saturday afternoon\u2019s presentations with \u201cWhat is Creativity,\u201d looks at the topic from the perspective of everyday life. A 30-year veteran of theater and dance performances around Rhode Island, along with being a first-time presenter, she is working with TEDx溏心vlog免费B站 as a speaker coach for the second straight year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCreativity is essential to your life and I\u2019m not speaking with my artist\u2019s voice,\u201d says Pegg, who holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in theater and a master\u2019s degree in education. \u201cWhen we have challenges or problems that need solving, we sometimes have to think creatively about how best to solve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople often think they must be artists, painters, actors or musicians,\u201d she ends. \u201cBut that isn\u2019t true. Creativity happens organically, lies within each of us, and manifests in many different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Opening the event, Keith Ranaldi, interim director of entrepreneurship and innovation, will present a video, discuss 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Launch Lab, and kick off the College of Business\u2019s 100th<\/sup> anniversary event for World Creativity and Innovation Day on April 21. The event will highlight stories of creativity, innovation, and impact at the College, while also engaging students in the Launch Lab on the use of artificial intelligence as part of creative problem solving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2023\/03\/Bergantini.jpg\")
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