Founded in 1878, Champlain College is a not-for-profit, private college based in Burlington, Vermont. For the fourth year in a row, Champlain was named a "Most Innovative School" in the North by US News & World Report.
Living their motto Audeamus (Let Us Dare), Champlain’s Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry (AI) co-convened the World Positive Education Accelerator (WPEA) with the International Positive Education Network (IPEN) in June 2018. Champlain sent more than 50 staff, faculty, and students to this event. Inspired by the WPEA, Champlain has since launched an appreciative-based process for creating a new vision for the college. In October 2018, they held “A Community Conversation” that reflected the “wholeness” principle of AI, engaging over 350 stakeholders to envision the future of the institution. With a focus on lifting up what is working and co-defining the future together, this process also reflected AI’s “Anticipatory” and “Poetic” principles.
We will share our strategic planning journey, reflecting how AI principles are informing our work to envision the future of our campus. We will pay special heed to how AI was used both explicitly and implicitly as a model for other institutions seeking strength-based ways to approach their own strategic planning process.