As Dr. Sunny Cooke, President of MiraCosta College, identifies the problems of today, she also trains herself, her staff, and her students to look to the future. What will education and technology look like, and how do they create a just, equitable, and sustainable future?
“We are training ourselves to look 10 years down the road. Decisions we make today have an impact on where we are headed,” said Cooke. “Are we headed to the future that we seek to create, or are we just marching down the road to wherever everybody else is going?”
What is Futures thinking?
For the past 3-4 years, MiraCosta College has been working on developing “futures thinking” with the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, CA. Futures thinking is a creative thought process that uses trends and drivers to consider as many future outcomes as possible. It helps to strategically plan for the unexpected to ensure a path to one’s desired future.
“We are hoping to train students in this work and have internships, taking the futures thinking to their businesses and communities,” said Cooke. “We want to bring more futurists into the work so that we, as a community, can define where we want to head in the future and be proactive about the decision-making that we’re doing today.”
Since 85 to 90 percent of the 21,000 student population at MiraCosta College tends to stay local after graduation, the school has tremendous ability to impact the community, but they can’t do it alone.
Read the full article: more about Dr. Cooke, MiraCosta College, and how you can become involved by clicking below…
