Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
BRINGS
IDEAS
HOME
WE CELEBRATE
20 YEARS OF
COMMUNITY
CONVERSATIONS
THE
EARLY
LEAD
ASPEN'S
YOUNGEST
FELLOWS
COME OUT
STRONG
AND LOCAL
CONNECTING
AMERICA
THE INSTITUTE TACKLES
SOCIAL ISOLATION
CONTENTS
DEPARTMENTS
8 | W H AT I S T H E I N S T I T U T E ?
1 3 | A R O U N D T H E I N S T I T U T E
Socrates goes to Cartagena; Aspen finds a
new home in New Zealand; Misty Copeland
wins the Tisch Award; the Institute launches
3 1 | A S P E N L I B R I S
Jill Abramson on Merchants of Truth; Evan
Thomas on First: Sandra Day O’Connor ; David 23
Brooks on The Second Mountain.
3 2 | A S H E A R D AT
Colson Whitehead talks about writing and
his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Underground
Railroad at Aspen Words.
3 4 | I M PA C T
Three members of the Aspen Presidential
Fellowship become community college
presidents to make student success a primary
goal; the Community Strategies Group helps
leaders bring prosperity to rural America.
61 | FA C E S
Behind the scenes at Institute events.
Dan Bayer
6 8 | FA C T S
Get to know the Institute’s programs. 32
7 2 | PA R T I N G S H O T
The Aspen Institute is all about Bauhaus.
ON THE COVER
ASPEN
BRINGS
IDEAS
Courtesy Tonjua Williams
HOME
WE CELEBRATE
20 YEARS OF
COMMUNITY
CONVERSATIONS
THE
EARLY
LEAD
ASPEN'S
YOUNGEST
FELLOWS
COME OUT
STRONG
AND LOCAL
CONNECTING
AMERICA A seminar in Aspen’s Maroon Bells
34
THE INSTITUTE TACKLES
I
CONTENTS
FEATURES
58 | FAIR GAME
Instead of just leveling the playing field, some sports are
integrating it. Risa Isard examines how mixed-gender
sports—from children’s teams to the most elite Olympic
events—are creating opportunity and upending norms.
60 | DEFEATING DEBT
Out-of-control college debt is now at epic proportions. At the
same time, employers are looking to diversify their workforces.
Romy Parzick has a solution to both issues: companies 58
should offer benefits packages that repay student loans.
60 62
ELLIOT F. GERSON
Executive Vice President, Policy and Public Programs; International Partners
NAMITA KHASAT
Executive Vice President, Finance and Administrative Services;
Chief Financial Officer; Corporate Treasurer
DAVID LANGSTAFF
Walking from the Institute’s bright Washington headquarters Interim Executive Vice President, Leadership and Seminars
one early summer day, I found myself trying to keep up with a ERIC L. MOTLEY, PhD
colleague who was rolling a black amp up the sidewalk. Was he Executive Vice President, Institutional Advancement; Corporate Secretary
on his way to a rally? I asked. No. It was the end of the season for JAMES M. SPIEGELMAN
Stonewall Kickball, the LGBTQ team he coaches and captains Vice President and Chief of Staff
as a way of making newcomers feel welcome and included in a EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND PUBLISHER CORBY KUMMER
city that can seem closed. The amp was to call out plays. “We’re EXECUTIVE EDITOR SACHA ZIMMERMAN
MANAGING EDITOR AND ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER NICOLE COREA
a team,” he told me, “not only on but off the field.” Teammates SENIOR EDITORS PHERABE KOLB, JAMES M. SPIEGELMAN
meet regularly to catch up on each other’s lives, do volunteer DESIGN DIRECTOR KATIE KISSANE-VIOLA
work, and fundraise for the team’s charity. “It might sound corny,” CREATIVE DIRECTOR PAUL VIOLA
he said, “but Stonewall is really my second family.” DESIGNER MICHAEL STOUT
EDITOR EMERITUS JAMIE MILLER
He reminded me of another young colleague who coaches an ADVERTISING CYNTHIA CAMERON, 970.948.8177, adsales@aspeninstitute.org
ultimate frisbee team, part of an effort to make Washingtonians feel CONTACT EDITORIAL ideas.magazine@aspeninstitute.org
at home and linked even if they, like him, are holding down a day GENERAL The Aspen Institute,
2300 N Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037
job and getting a graduate degree at night—he aims to be a teacher
202.736.5800, www.aspeninstitute.org
and a role model for young Latinos. Or the young woman who
coaches soccer teams for children ages 5 to 12 and told me: “I’m BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIRMAN
24, I don’t have kids, and neither do any of the volunteers. We don’t James S. Crown
usually interact with kids outside our family. Every Saturday I have BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Madeleine K. Albright, Jean-Luc Allavena, Paul F. Anderson, Jeffrey S. Aronin, Donna Barksdale,
intense conversations about best friends, earthworms, and family
Mercedes T. Bass, Miguel Bezos, Richard S. Braddock, Beth A. Brooke-Marciniak, William Bynum,
pets. What I love most about this league is that it’s free. It allows for Stephen L. Carter, Troy Carter, Cesar R. Conde, Phyllis Coulter, Katie Couric, Andrea Cunningham,
families whose financial resources differ to have their kids all be part Kenneth L. Davis, John Doerr, Thelma Duggin, Arne Duncan, Michael D. Eisner, L. Brooks Entwistle,
of the same team.” Alan Fletcher, Ann B. Friedman, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Mircea D. Geoana, Antonio Gracias, Patrick W.
Gross, Arjun Gupta, Jane Harman, Kaya Henderson, Hayne Hipp, Ivan Hodac, Mark S. Hoplamazian,
All these colleagues came to mind not only because of the Gerald D. Hosier, Robert J. Hurst, Natalie Jaresko, Sonia Kapadia, Salman Khan, Teisuke Kitayama,
article we feature this issue in our Journal of Ideas about mixed- Michael Klein, Satinder K. Lambah, Laura Lauder, Melony Lewis, Yo-Yo Ma, James M. Manyika, William
gender sports finally taking hold as an idea both on community E. Mayer,* Bonnie P. McCloskey, David McCormick, Donald C. McKinnon, Anne Welsh McNulty, Diane
fields and at the Olympics (see page 54)—but because almost Morris, Karlheinz Muhr, Clare Muñana, Jerry Murdock, Marc B. Nathanson, William A. Nitze, Her Majesty
Queen Noor, Jacqueline Novogratz, Olara A. Otunnu, Elaine Pagels, Carrie Walton Penner, Daniel R.
every article focuses specifically on Porterfield, Margot L. Pritzker, Lynda R. Resnick, Condoleezza Rice, Ricardo B. Salinas, Lewis A. Sanders,
building communities in places Anna Deavere Smith, Michelle Smith, Javier Solana, Robert K. Steel,* Shashi Tharoor,** Laurie M. Tisch, Luis
that don’t have them (see pages 44 Gerardo del Valle Torres, Giulio Tremonti, Eckart von Klaeden, Roderick K. von Lipsey, Vin Weber
The Aspen Institute sets high standards to ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable manner.
This issue was printed by American Web on recycled fibers containing 10 percent postconsumer waste, with inks containing a blend of soy base. Our printer is a certified member of the Forestry Stewardship Council
and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, and it meets or exceeds all federal Resource Conservation Recovery Act standards.
38%
of all low-income
43% of those having
trouble paying medical bills say that in
households have the past year they (or a family member)
MEDICAL DEBT. did not get recommended
treatment because of the cost.
On average, an individual with
overdue medical debt owes
$1,766
Source: EPIC, Lifting the Weight: Solving the Consumer Debt Crisis, 2018
IDEAS SUMMER 2019 13
57 AM
AROUND THE INSTITUTE
Laurence Genon
Erin Baiano
Copeland, Woetzel
Sam Levitan
FSP fellow Karen Andres
RETIREMENT ENDGAME
You know you’re in a compelling room when you’re having an off-the-record conversation with a global industry CEO, a community organizer,
a behavioral economist, the principal of a scrappy fintech start-up, and the leader of an emerging state-run retirement plan. In the space of
three years, the Aspen Leadership Forum on Retirement Savings has become the premier national meeting on a critical financial challenge:
Americans’ lack of adequate retirement savings. The Institute’s Financial Security Program designed the forum to accelerate policy and market
innovations that enable workers to participate in a retirement savings system that actually builds financial security—especially for the 55
million Americans who lack access to workplace retirement savings benefits. This year’s April forum put major societal trends front and center,
from the growth of nontraditional employment and technological disruption to the realities of increasing life spans. Participants explored the
compelling innovations that workers require to build financial security and to ensure their long-term economic dignity. aspenfsp.org
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ASPEN Celebrating its 15th year, the Aspen Ideas Festival has become one of the nation’s
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most noted forums for civil discourse. It’s only appropriate that its online presence
be a modern, digital hub and a vital addition to the expansive and inspiring
discussions that take place in Aspen. This May, the festival launched the next
iteration of aspenideas.org, where the substance of the 10-day event lives and
where visitors can delve into a rich video archive of talks, browse collections by
topic, listen to podcasts, and share salient ideas on social media. “Redesigning the
website gave us the opportunity to rethink how we communicate what we learn
here to larger audiences,” says Kitty Boone, the Institute’s vice president of public
programs and the executive director of the festival. “We want to inspire curiosity
about the most novel and exciting ideas that experts and leaders are working on
today.” With 350 presenters annually—scientists, entrepreneurs, politicians,
journalists, artists, and business leaders among them—the festival hosts revered
MAJESTIC • 5 BR/6 BA + Studio leaders as well as highly respected but lesser known experts on topics like genetics,
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Jon Batiste and Wynton Marsalis riffing their way through the American song
book, there’s something for everyone,” Boone says. “We hope it’s a delight for the
CarolDopkin.com | carol@caroldopkin.com
970.618.0187 | 616 E. Hyman Ave. | Aspen, CO curious and a resource for anyone who considers themselves a lifelong learner.”
aspenideas.org
Jones
Courtesy NHL.com
Project Play Hockey: East Harlem
AMERICA’S
PREMIER SUMMER
CLASSICAL
MUSIC FESTIVAL
JUNE 27-AUGUST 18
Post-season events on
August 20 and 21
Enjoy more than 400 events
featuring hundreds of the
world’s best students, top
professional artists, five
orchestras, staged operas,
chamber music, children’s
events, lectures, and more!
Courtesy McNulty Foundation
Courtesy NHL.com
SOCRATES IN COLOMBIA
Music Director
ROBERT SPANO
President and CEO
In March, the Socrates Program and the John P. and Anne Welsh McNulty Foundation joined ALAN FLETCHER
forces to bring the Institute’s seminars to South America for the first time. Leaders from
Colombia, the United States, Chile, Panama, Japan, El Salvador, the United Kingdom, and
World-Class
Mexico gathered for debate and dialogue in Cartagena, Colombia. MIT Media Lab’s William Concerts in a
Powers led a seminar on “Order Amid Chaos: Major Trends Shaping the Future of Technology, Spectacular
Setting
Business, and Society,” and Georgetown University’s Sonal Shah led “Can the Market Fix the
Market?” Participants considered artificial intelligence, market limitations and biases, and new
policies for South America and the world. They also explored the coastal city of Cartagena and
took in its rich history and culture. The Socrates Cartagena Seminars are part of an effort to INFORMATION
establish an international Institute partnership in the Andean region. Topics and challenges AND TICKETS
explored within seminar sessions became launching points for continued debate and inspiration
970 925 9042
for future programming. The McNulty Foundation, Luis Javier Castro, Sonia Sarmiento, Julia www.aspenmusicfestival.com
Rojas, and Francisco Staten and Jennifer Burris sponsored the Socrates Cartagena Seminars.
aspeninstitute.org/socrates
SUMMER'S BOUNTY
8 MUST-READ BOOKS
Whether you’re relaxing on a beach or on a mountain meadow this summer,
these eight titles will enthrall the mind while your body kicks back. All were
written by the acclaimed faculty of the Aspen Summer Words Writers
Conference & Literary Festival, held from June 16 to 21 this year.
aspenwords.org
FICTION
That Kind of Mother Thirty Girls
Rumaan Alam Susan Minot
Alam’s latest book explores what it Minot interweaves the stories of
means to raise two equally adored a young American writer and a
children—children the world treats Ugandan schoolgirl kidnapped by
very differently. The novel explores the Lord’s Resistance Army. The two
the stuff of today’s headlines: white confront displacement and heartbreak
privilege, cultural appropriation, and while struggling to wrest meaning
transracial adoption. from events that test them both.
POETRY
Happiness
Heather Harpham “The way you do one thing is the way you do
This gripping memoir follows an EVERYTHING. No wonder you’re a top realtor”
unconventional couple raising a Jenny Kennedy - Aspen/Miami
mortally sick child.
The Unspeakable
Meghan Daum “Why aren’t you charging for this??” Tina Staley
SCIENCE
MATTERS
This May, the Institute’s Heath, Medicine and
Society Program launched a new initiative,
Science & Society, to address critical gaps in the
public’s trust in and understanding of scientific
advances. Science & Society will focus on a
number of scientific disciplines—including the
biomedical sciences, the natural sciences, data
Shutterstock
f r o m A s p e n , ye t a w o r l d a w ay. T h i s p a r k-l i ke s e t t i n g i s a m a g i c a l e n c l a ve f i l l e d condition for all. Aaron Mertz, a biophysicist who
w i t h w i l d l i f e , p o n d s , v i e w s a n d e n d l e s s re c re a t i o n a l o p t i o n s i n c l u d i n g f u l l worked previously as a researcher at Rockefeller
e q u e s t r i a n f a c i l i t i e s . H i ke , b i ke , s k i a n d r i d e r i g h t f ro m t h e r a n c h . $1 9, 5 0 0,0 0 0 University, serves as director. The program
kicked off with a book talk featuring Michael
Ro ch elle B o u cha rd
970. 3 7 9. 16 6 2
Lubell, the Mark W. Zemansky Professor of
Physics at the City College of New York and
Ro c h e l l e . B o u c h a r d @ s i r.c o m
author of Navigating the Maze: How Science and
B u y In A s p e n .c o m
Technology Policies Shape America and the World.
“The post–World War II era was an American
era," Lubell, who will chair the program's advisory
board, said at the talk. “That’s no longer true.
We as a nation have lost sight of what we have
accomplished and, even more important, how
much there is still left to be done—and if we
don’t somebody else will.”
aspeninstitute.org/science
Floral Arts
Helen Klisser During
970.920.6838 ~ www.sashae.com
300 Puppy Smith St. ~ Aspen, CO Lubell
Erin Baiano
curiosity, not ego,” she said. “But how do you enact these things?”
Strong
MEDICAL TEAM Mark Purnell, MD Eleanor von Stade, MD Stanley Gertzbein, MD
Erin Baiano
McWhorter
Laurence Genon
hope to inspire translators who can start a conversation between
Leigh Vogel
technologists and policymakers.” aspentechpolicyhub.org
Cooper
OPPORTUNITY ROCKS
At 18, Wanner Johan Gaviria addressed the violence in his hosted with YouthBuild International and Global Development
hometown of Cali, Colombia, by creating a neighborhood peace Incubator. The event was part of the new Global Opportunity
and reconciliation group. He is one of 24 global leaders between Youth Initiative, seeded with a grant from Prudential Financial
18 and 30 who participated last December in the Institute’s and launched by the Institute’s Forum for Community
inaugural Global Opportunity Youth summit in Philadelphia, co- Solutions. The initiative follows the model of the Opportunity
Riccardo Savi
Youth Forums across the United States: use youth
voices, vision, energy, and knowledge to respond
to the crisis of 350 million young people around
the world who are underemployed or unemployed,
and not in school. Many developing countries, even
those enjoying strong economic growth, cannot
come close to creating the amount of jobs needed
to meet the numbers of young people moving from
school to work. “One key strategy is to listen to
and learn from others,” Gaviria says. “A leader is
not one who knows but one who learns each day.”
Courtesy YouthBuild International
the most part they are. It’s just that The New York Times and others have lowered the wall between the
Leigh Vogel
Abramson
news side and the business side. That blurring is somewhat worrying to me.”
come to an interview with the president of the United States about a job in the Supreme Court. She
Thomas
gets on the phone and she says to him, ‘You wouldn’t be calling me about secretarial work would you?’ ”
movement in pursuit of an ideal, in pursuit of something that satisfies our moral yearning. When you
see people at the peak of their second mountain, it’s not that their desires have been satisfied but that
they are all desire. They’ve found something that is truly meaningful and truly important to them. The
self has been left behind, and they long to be more and more in service of that thing, a faithfulness to
Riccardo Savi
something they really care about and want to live out. And that’s the second mountain.”
Brooks
MAGIC STREAK
During this year’s Winter Words season, author Colson Whitehead spoke to
an Aspen Words audience about his life as a writer, the difference between
fiction and nonfiction (spoiler: fiction is made up), and how he came up with
the fantastical premise for his most recent book, The Underground Railroad,
which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. aspenwords.org
When I got to college and started reading different kinds of are 7.5 billion people in the world. You’ve made an impact
fiction, I liked the equivalency I saw between the science fiction in the lives of .00000001 percent of the population. You’re
and horror I grew up adoring and the magic realism of Garcia a microbe on the butt of a gnat trying to catch the attention
Marquez, the absurdity of Beckett, the mythical landscapes of an elephant. The population of Earth is very intimidating.
of Borges. All these writers from the canon played with the But, you might naturally ask yourself next, what about life on
fantastic as much as the genre writers I grew up inspired by. other planets? Perhaps they have a taste for language, poetry,
I was very self-conscious as a 20-something. So, when the creative nonfiction, coming-of-age novels. Well, I hate to burst
rejection slips began to arrive and accumulate, I started thinking your bubble, but scientists say only one in 100 million planets is
about what else I might be able to do. My parents were of a capable of supporting life, and what’s the chance they would like
generation that if you were an able-bodied black person, it your crap, anyway? They could be all about the haiku up there,
was your duty to make something of yourself, uplift the race. some 5-7-5-based civilization, and then you’re out of luck.
The average book of literary fiction sells 5,000 copies—if I got very depressed thinking about this. Then it occurred
you’re lucky. Assuming everyone who loves the book makes 10 to me: maybe it’s out of my hands. An artistic temperament
other people read it, then the book has 50,000 readers. There must go back to the Neanderthals. There’s a Neanderthal who
It’s time to start thinking about the next generation of lows are people of color, compared with just 29 percent
community college presidents. The American Association of sitting presidents.
of Community Colleges predicts that more than 80 per- The yearlong fellowship, a collaboration with the Stan-
cent of them are going to retire over the coming decade. ford Educational Leadership Initiative, includes one-on-
To fill the void, in 2016 the Institute’s College Excellence one mentoring, three residential seminars, and a capstone
Program created the Aspen Presidential Fellowship for project. Unlike other training programs for college lead-
Community College Excellence. Each year, the Institute ers, this one focuses solely on student success, which the
selects 40 aspiring community college presidents for the program defines as student learning, degree or credential
fellowship, which nurtures enthusiastic and capable lead- completion, success after transfer to a four-year school or
ers who will create transformational change on behalf of in the workforce, and equitable outcomes for students of
their students. all backgrounds.
In 2018, the program welcomed its third cohort of The fellowship chooses candidates who are already ex-
fellows, a diverse group by design. While only one-third cellent leaders—like the three alumni featured here, now
Courtesy Jeff Cox
of sitting community college presidents are female, two- all college presidents—and provides them with the tools
thirds of the members of the 2018–2019 class of Aspen to build solutions, spur urgency, and establish the partner-
Presidential fellows are. What’s more, 43 percent of fel- ships necessary to get the work done.
At convocation this year, I had all of our 300 faculty and staff
members stand up. I told them they represented our student
body at Wilkes Community College. Then I had a quarter
of them sit down; they represented the students who don’t
return after their first semester. Then I had another quarter
sit down; they were the students who don’t complete their
first year. Then I asked another quarter to sit; they repre-
Courtesy Tonjua Williams
sented the students who last a year or two but never gradu-
ate. I asked, “Is anybody here satisfied?” No one was. By the
time we completed the exercise, only a few faculty remained
Williams standing. They represented the 4 percent of graduates who
make at least $20 an hour within one year of graduation.
“I Am Forever Connected to a You could have heard a pin drop.
From that moment, we all understood the urgency of
Great Group of Leaders” what we needed to do. I issued a bold challenge that day:
By Tonjua Williams let’s move our three-year graduation rate from 25 percent to
50 percent in the next five years.
The Aspen Presidential Fellowship experience gave me a I’d been president for three years before the Aspen Pres-
Courtesy Tonjua Williams
better understanding of the definition of “student success” idential Fellowship, which is where I’d learned that convo-
and the strategies necessary to lead my team to accomplish cation exercise. I had a vision for this work, or at least the
it. I intensified my focus on the labor market as well as ac-
cess and success for underrepresented and underprepared
students. For my capstone project, I created an educational
ecosystem to solve problems in collaboration with area em-
ployers, faith-based organizations, community partners, and
other educational institutions.
I now meet with local communities one at a time and ask:
“What jobs are out there? What kind of employees are you pro-
ducing? What’s missing from what we are teaching?” I no lon-
ger offer programs with no future just because we can get stu-
dents into seats. If a child-care certificate only leads students to
a $10-an-hour job, it’s not enough. I refuse to have a St. Peters-
burg College degree on the wall of someone living in poverty.
Faculty are key to achieving our goals. Building rela-
tionships with faculty and understanding their need to be
engaged, empowered, and included is vital to institutional
health. But including faculty in decision-making is not
enough; we must also call on them to ensure that students
get an education and finish what they start.
Finally, I’ve learned to ask for help. While confidence is
important for a leader, it is also good to know you can call
on others to assist you. Two years later, the 39 fellows in my
class communicate practically every day: What skill set would
you look for when hiring a vice president of advancement? What strate-
gies do you use to engage faculty? I am forever connected to a great
group of leaders who are determined to change the world.
Courtesy Jeff Cox
start of one. But I really didn’t know as much as I needed the table to help shape the curriculum.
to about actual outcomes. At college, we’d talk anecdot- This all stemmed from strategic planning, the framing for
ally about the graduates we knew who were making good which came from my capstone project. Our college had sort
money as a nurse or a diesel mechanic. But once we looked of accepted its 25 percent graduation rate, which was above
at the data in the ways I’d learned to in the fellowship, we the national average. But the fellowship gave me the tools
realized that those success stories aren’t as common as we I needed to put a laser-sharp focus on student success. My
would like. mentor was Bob Templin, a senior fellow at the Institute and
We identified the careers in our area that pay students a one of the most prominent community college leaders in the
living wage. Then we asked, “What’s the educational path- country. Having him and the Institute’s research behind us
way to get there?” We placed a career coach in each of the made all the difference in mobilizing the college community
high schools in our area. We are building apprenticeship around our bold plans.
programs and infusing our curriculum with work-based
learning and the soft skills that employers told us new hires Jeff Cox is president of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro,
were lacking. We are revamping our business and industry North Carolina, and a 2017–2018 member of the Aspen Presidential
advisory committees to ensure we have the right people at Fellowship.
technology program at
Phillips Community
College in DeWitt, Arkansas
OUTSTANDING ON
RURAL GROUND
The Institute’s Community Strategies Group inspires local leaders to make rural America
healthy and prosperous. By Katharine Ferguson and Janet Topolsky
What’s the recipe for building local prosperity—for all? Ingre- in early 2019 the program surveyed more than 40 of the na-
dients vary from place to place, but a few basics are essential in tion’s foremost rural development experts, including Innovation
any community: inventive leaders who form partnerships to get Group members, and found that no one type of local or re-
things done, residents engaged in shaping solutions, and strong, gional organization is best at grappling with challenges or lever-
flexible, local organizations. Since 1985, the Institute’s Commu- aging opportunities in rural America. In one place, it might be
nity Strategies Group has equipped, connected, and inspired a community foundation; in another, a local development orga-
local leaders to build more prosperous regions and to support nization or chamber of commerce; in the neighboring valley,
those living on the economic margins. it’s a community development financial institution; two states
Starting in 2016, the program joined forces with the North- over, it’s a community action agency, or a regional nonprofit.
ern Forest Center and the US Endowment for Forestry and These “rural development hubs” play a critical role in galvaniz-
Communities to pull 16 leading rural development practitio- ing communities to act and create lasting, systemic change.
ners into its Rural Development Innovation Group. In the face Community Strategies Group will be releasing findings from
of media and social discourse fixated on everything rural com- its research throughout the year, including recommendations
munities lack, the group’s members are bringing to national at- for how public and private investors can strengthen the environ-
tention the countless innovations at work across rural America. ment for more rural innovation and progress. In the meantime,
With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, these perspectives from three members serve as a sneak preview.
Shawn Pointer
At Northern Initiatives, we help rural communities real-
Stewart
ize their fullest entrepreneurial capacity, adding to the ranks
of those who have the opportunity to build wealth. Northern
“In Our Region, Everything Is Initiatives, a community development financial institution
Interdisciplinary” based in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, lends to small family-
owned firms, helping them launch and grow. Today, our loan
By Connie Stewart portfolio has 320 customers, each helping its community
create a more differentiated economy. They are the salt that
In 1984, I moved to Arcata, California, to attend college—and makes the community unique and whole.
never left. While the hundreds of rural California miles north Trust and sustained relationships in the communities
of San Francisco rarely get the spotlight, the creativity and de- where we work are essential to our business model. This is
termination in our region rival none. Throughout my career,
serving on the city council and as Arcata’s mayor, working for
a state legislator, and now at the California Center for Rural
Policy, my north star has always been community needs.
A diverse group of community members from four coun- “The People in These
ties bemoaned the quality of data and analysis available on Communities Are Not
issues affecting people in rural California. They wanted a Giving Up”
partner with rural-specific knowledge and expertise essential
By Ines Polonius
to working in rural places. With that, our center was born. We
quickly realized the dense connectivity among rural health
care, infrastructure, and economic development. In our re- Talent is distributed equally across the United States. Oppor-
gion, as large as Virginia but with only 400,000 people, every- tunity is not. I firmly believe—and Communities Unlimited
thing is interdisciplinary. is rooted in the belief—that access to opportunity should not
Today, we provide better data to policy leaders and others depend on where you live, how much you have in the bank,
working to improve life in rural California. We do not create or what you look like. That’s our vision and the heart of our
reports that sit on a shelf collecting dust. Take, for example, our work: everyone has the opportunity to live and work in their
work on accelerating broadband deployment. Most broadband hometown.
policy is designed with high-density places and large population How do we do this? Through old-fashioned human con-
centers in mind. Building from an initial $5,000 grant, we’ve nection and ingenuity combined with cutting-edge technol-
helped leverage more than $80 million—$60 million in state ogy. We work in a seven-state region in the South that spans
funding and $20 million in private investment—for broadband the Mississippi Delta, parts of the Black Belt, Oklahoma
deployment, bringing affordable, reliable high-speed broad- tribal lands, and the Rio Grande Valley. Many people see
band to more than 50,000 rural people. these regions as lacking, and if you focus on the decades
Community Strategies Group has been an enduring and of poverty and the people and funders who have left, you
essential partner since our founding 15 years ago. When our could give up. What I see is different. I see a pool of entre-
community foundation, community college, and local university preneurs who are courageous, creative, and persistent.
formed a leadership group to improve rural livelihoods in the re- When we started creating opportunities for people to lead
gion, Community Strategies Group served as our facilitator and and grow at Communities Unlimited, I had a big aha mo-
partner. CSG is truly our mentor, champion, and godparent. ment: I had tried this before and failed. Trying for a second
time forced me to create space for others to try new things,
Connie Stewart is the founding executive director of the California fail, and learn from those experiences. Making failure OK
Center for Rural Policy and a member of the Institute’s Rural is critical to creating an organization full of leaders. It has
Development Innovation Group. forever changed how we work.
our field staff but even to our leadership. Since 2011, Com-
munity Strategies Group has provided Communities Unlim-
ited with national exposure. Our work together, especially
with the Rural Development Innovation Group, gives us ac-
cess to innovation going on across the country while connect-
ing us with philanthropic partners, think tanks, and others
committed to a stronger rural America.
relevant issues with their fellow citizens,” says Cristal minded or you might disagree with—and having a neutral
Logan, an Institute vice president and the director of Aspen place to do it.”
“When you’re in a room with people for four days, you’re respectively. In Sharing Shakespeare, a program Logan launched
engaged in real conversation that’s regrettably absent in in 2004 with a group of locals, participants dissect relevant
our increasingly polarized society,” says Lee Bycel, a senior political and social themes in Shakespeare’s plays. It attracted 100
seminar moderator at the Institute. “No one’s grading you, people in just its initial offering. Community Programs developed
so you can take risks on what you’re thinking. What kids get its newest public seminar, Our Society Imagined, from scratch
out of it is that life is not just college, a job, and who you live to explore domestic policy. “We try to create different ways the
your life with. There’s value in looking at life, what it means community can take part in programming that’s relevant and
to be human and to feel.” Youth programs have grown, with stimulating to them,” Logan says.
a Great Ideas seminar added for eighth-graders. In both that The public seminar programs are part of what makes the
and the high-school version, school representatives select the Aspen area unique, says Parker Maddux, who retired to Basalt
participants. Teen Socrates, open to anyone ages 15 to 17, with his wife after living around the world. Even in cosmopolitan
rounds out the youth offerings. cities, similar programming might exist but is usually associated
Courtesy Aspen Community Programs
The high-school Great Ideas seminar was such a hit with with a university. Aspen, on the other hand, “attracts people with
students—Bennett recalls hearing it was transformational for vast experiences and a sensitivity to the problems we all face,”
some—that parents began asking if they could take part. Thus, the says Maddux, who occasionally moderates seminar programs.
Community Great Ideas Seminar was born. Over the years, other Participating in them is important mental exercise, he says. And
multiday public seminars, all based on reading classic texts and a Maddux is lobbying to expand Aspen Community Programs, so
roundtable format that equalizes participants, were developed or it has greater reach. “I think there’s a hunger for these types of
taken over from local groups. Great Books and Great Decisions programs,” he says. “Ideas pop up, and unexpected comments
explore significant Western books and key foreign-policy issues, allow you to see things differently.”
EXPANDING THE CONVERSATION As the names of the speaker series suggest, they require
When they launched Aspen Community Programs in 1999, generous support to be sustainable. “We struggled for years
Bennett and Logan inherited a summer series featuring six to raise money for these programs,” Logan says. Fortunately,
lectures by speakers who were already in town for other Institute Aspen Community Programs has a few long-standing
events. “There was a wealth of people always coming through, donors who have helped keep programs affordable and
Left: Riccardo Savi; Top: Dan Bayer
and we wanted to share them with the community,” Logan accessible. These contributions have also funded need-
says. Three summer speaker series may get less fanfare than the based scholarships for teens and adults. Bonnie and Tom
flagship Aspen Ideas Festival, but they bring in equally impressive McCloskey stepped up in 2005 to endow a summer speaker
leaders, thinkers, and innovators: the Hurst Lecture Series, the series, and in 2012, local residents Bob and Soledad Hurst
McCloskey Speaker Series, and, reflecting the Institute’s founding gave an endowment to support a high-school and middle-
philosophy, the Murdock Mind, Body, Spirit Series, endowed by school Great Ideas program as well as the Hurst Lecture
Institute trustee Jerry Murdock’s wife, Gina Murdock. Series. “We live in Aspen full time and believe it’s critical that
Rachel Richards, who was Aspen’s mayor immediately programs are available and grounded in the community,”
after Bennett, recalls the Institute’s community engagement Bob Hurst says. “It is part of the history of the Institute.”
expanding as Aspen Community Programs grew. “It was a Another branch of the Aspen Community Programs tree
larger invitation to everyone, that they were trying to make helps local leaders grapple with local issues. These occasional
these incredible guest speakers and enlightening programs forums have studied topics such as housing, broadband, and
available to everyone at a really affordable rate,” she says, mental health, and recently the forum met to try to find
noting in particular the ticketed public events that take place solutions to the area’s traffic issues. As a result of 15 months
during the Aspen Ideas Festival. The Institute “has done a of meetings and public events, the task force for the traffic
lot,” Richards says, “to integrate the whole concept of the forum published a report with recommendations that the
Aspen Idea at a time when we really needed it.” regional transportation committee is currently following.
What the Institute brought to the table, says Pitkin
County Manager Jon Peacock, who has been a moderator as
well as a participant in Aspen Community Programs, were
experts with outside experience and innovative viewpoints.
“Local communities are consistently challenged to consider
issues holistically, bringing the increased polarization in our
communities into sharper relief and making implementation
more difficult,” Peacock says. “The Institute has a tested model
to convene productive conversations between people and
groups with different values. It can and does provide great value
to local communities dealing with difficult questions.”
Courtesy Aspen Community Programs
Hill
of making change in my community by combating the the Mississippi/Arkansas Delta; Newark, New Jersey;
injustices I saw in the bail system.” or St. Louis, Missouri. Locally based fellowship classes
Hill networked with community leaders; conducted complete one year of personal and leadership development
research; interviewed everyone she could, from former programming designed to accelerate fellows’ understanding
inmates to corrections officers; and even interned in the of how to make a difference.
St. Louis Corrections Division. The data she collected Far too often, American communities struggle to keep
underpinned a proposal she called risk-free: let inmates go their brightest and most talented young leaders in town.
home prior to trial, based on a comprehensive assessment Some young people lose faith that positive change is possible,
of the risks they pose to the community and the likelihood others doubt their own potential, still others come to believe
they will appear for trial. “No longer,” she said, “would low that they must leave to find success. This loss of raw talent
socioeconomic status be the only factor that determined makes local problems all the more difficult to address. The
whether an inmate was at home or behind bars before trial.” Aspen Youth Leaders Fellowship asks, What would it look
Soon the proposal won’t just be a theory: Hill’s supervisor in like if we could retain and empower the most talented local
the Corrections Division is working to implement the new youth and help them find opportunities for growth and
model. impact in their own hometowns?
Ideas into action: the Aspen Young Leaders Fellowship For Mississippi Delta natives Yasmine Malone and
cultivates local, committed young talent ready to invest in Tyler Yarbrough, that looks like comprehensive education
and positively change their communities—not in some opportunities. The pair knew from personal experience how
distant future but right now. Hill is just one of around difficult it can be to coordinate the college-prep and career-
30 youth between the ages of 18 and 22 selected for the planning process. They also knew how lucky they were. “For
fellowship. All fellows come from one of three places: every story that mirrors our own,” Malone says, “there are
networking. “At the center of our work is a desire for youth to Zuckerberg Initiative, The Community Foundation of New Jersey,
understand that their narratives have the ability to change the The Oak Foundation, The Pershing Foundation, The Saint Louis
Mississippi/Arkansas Delta,” Malone says. The pair wants to Community Foundation, and The Walton Family Foundation.
instill Delta youth with the belief that their stories are valuable To learn more, visit aylf.aspeninstitute.org or contact
and that they themselves are problem solvers and change John Dugan at john.dugan@aspeninstitute.org.
Laurence Genon
Laurence Genon
49
started for sociological reasons, but then it got
was because when they knocked, she was the only one who
let them in.
Lisa is a weaver. Weavers are not people who organize
Participants at #WeaveThePeople
their lives around making money or getting famous or pow- power dynamics did not make them feel safe. Amid these
erful. They are people who want to serve their towns. They expressions of trauma, the gathering did not produce a clear
have a specific set of values. They are somewhere, not any- agenda for the future.
where. They have planted themselves in a place, and they The tensions and protests, though, were effective: they
live to make their communities better. I have met hundreds, were a reminder that the differences among the groups
maybe thousands of weavers over the past year. They are ev- Weave is trying to link are wide. They were a reminder that
erywhere. They are a movement that doesn’t even know it’s the work of accompaniment is hard and necessary—seeing
a movement. They have found a better way to live. strangers deeply, responding to variations of wording and
In May, Weave brought together roughly 275 weav- culture compassionately, entering into ways of thinking that
ers at Union Market, in Washington, DC, for Weave The might seem foreign.
People, a gathering unlike any other. From the start, the So I ask you to identify the weaver habits in your own
proceedings were emotionally intense. At most conferences, life and to move your life in a weaver direction. Sometimes
people lead with their bios, but here people led with their it’s as simple as inviting your eight closest neighbors over for
vulnerabilities. One researcher talked about how the abuse dinner. Sometimes it involves a “reach relationship,” find-
she endured as a child pushed her to spend her life study- ing a way to be in relationship with somebody completely
ing children’s emotional development. One woman talked unlike yourself. Sometimes it’s more formal, joining an or-
about the daily pain of living with racism. One man joked ganization that helps people transition out of prison, or one
that it wasn’t clear if the gathering was a nuclear reactor that helps young mothers with day care. It’s not just giving
or a nuclear explosion—but there was certainly a lot of money. It’s building relationships.
intense energy in the room. Our job at Weave is to ask you to make a choice—to do
The conference also kicked up the sort of tensions that something extra that will warm your heart and lift your soul.
are inevitable when you get this much intensity from such Visit us at weavesocialfabric.org if you want ideas for
a wide array of people. The loudest speakers were on the how to do this.
left, and many people from rural America did not feel they
had the space to talk. Some young people said they felt trig- New York Times columnist David Brooks is the executive director of
gered by the pace of the schedule. Others said that unspoken Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Institute.
54 FAIR GAME
Instead of just leveling the 56 DEFEATING DEBT
Out-of-control college debt 58 THE HUMAN EFFECT
Technology is becoming
playing field, some sports is now at epic proportions. more and more entwined
are integrating it. Risa At the same time, employers with our daily lives,
Isard examines how are looking to diversify their and some fear a cyber
mixed-gender sports—from workforces. Romy Parzick doomsday. But, Román Gil
children’s teams to the most has a solution to both issues: Alburquerque cautions,
elite Olympic events—are companies should offer technology isn’t something
creating opportunity and benefits packages that repay to be feared; it’s something
upending norms. student loans. to harness.