PhotoWings + AshokaU Webinar — Self-Discovery and Changemaking Through Photography

You will never look at a photograph the same way again…

In today’s world, we are surrounded by imagery: marketing advertisements, television, online resources, camera phone photos, and personal photo libraries. Some images move us to action. Others tell a story. And a few images can change the course of history.

A shared vision for Advancing Changemaking Skills Through Photography

PhotoWings has partnered with AshokaU to produce a free webinar, Advancing Changemaking Skills Through Photography: Self-Discovery Through Photography. With this webinar, participants gain valuable skills to use in work and in life, including: communication skills, gaining trust and access, visual literacy, critical thinking, applied empathy, resilience, ethical considerations, preservation, and other critical changemaker aptitudes.

This course does not simply cover photography. Instead, the world of photography serves as a medium through which participants take a deep dive into, developing new skills and strengthening existing ones.

PhotoWings is honored to work in synergy with AshokaU on this webinar. We find it truly exciting to work hand in hand with an organization whose network includes Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, Teach for America’s Wendy Kopp, as well as AshokaU’s co-founders Erin Krampetz and Marina Kim. Krampetz and Kim’s inclusion in the 2012 Forbes 30 Under 30 further testifies to AshokaU’s cutting-edge status.

AshokaU is the university-based initiative of Ashoka, the first global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs— men and women with innovative solutions that address the world’s most urgent social challenges. Since its founding in 1980, Ashoka has launched and provided key long-term support to more than 3,000 leading social entrepreneurs in over 70 countries.

PhotoWings is an educational non-profit whose mission is to highlight and help facilitate the power of photography to influence the world. We help photography to be better understood, created, utilized, seen, and saved.

What is this webinar about?

Learning from leading thought leaders from a variety of disciplines, this webinar strengthens changemaker skills as it explores the actionable value of deeper looking, perception, and listening while utilizing context, critical thinking, empathy, ethics, and communication skills. Through utilizing these techniques, participants will build a better understanding of their own motivations as a foundation for creative and effective social change. These skills, also valued as Executive Function Skills, can be utilized in ways beyond photography. Participants will also develop a better appreciation for the importance of legacy and the value of sharing, utilizing and saving photographs.

This webinar hears from the voices of an impressive group of thought leaders who share their experience and wisdom. Throughout the course, voices of award-winning photographers such as Maggie Steber, Andrea Bruce, Ron Haviv, and Steve McCurry intermingle with stories from leading museum curators and diverse experts such as psychologist Phil Zimbardo, who has over four million views on the TED website. All participants also benefit from an incredible wide array of free PhotoWings educational resources, including their deep-linking Resource Center, provocative interviews, and in-depth yet accessible features.

PhotoWings President & Founder Suzie Katz shares her vision: “In this seminar we’ll explore a myriad of thoughtful new ways to think about photographs, including deep-seeing and deep-listening techniques. We’re all about the Big Idea and dimension — ideas to think about, discuss with others, and carry as a tool in you toolbox for both life and work.”

This course covers:

• Visual Literacy – How to look at, think about, and talk about photography

• Power of Photography – How photography’s unique qualities can influence and even change the world

• Inspiration - Discusses how the world of photography can be inspirational on a number of levels

• Legacy and Preservation – How photography can be thought about in new ways, how it’s at risk, and ways to save it

• Critical Thinking – How the skills photographers need to succeed can be used in work and in life

The webinar is open to the public and will live on as a resource to be utilized. It is designed as a deep-thinking and conversation-based experience to help participants develop deeper personal connections and cross-disciplinary collaboration opportunities for student groups, community organizations, and many other innovative ways.

As a final project, participants developed powerful and creative presentations to demonstrate their explorative journey. Exceptional final projects were eligible for inclusion in a video that was featured at the TEDxAshokaU on Friday, February 22 to 1,300 people in San Diego, CA at the historic Balboa Theater (with thousands viewing online). Additionally, selected projects formed an informative, artistic exhibit that will be displayed prominently at the Ashoka U Exchange at the University of San Diego, a gathering of over 600 leading members of the AshokaU community worldwide, including their 19 (and counting) university partners. All participants joined in PhotoWings' mission to highlight and help facilitate the power of photography to influence the world and to help photography be better understood, created, utilized, seen, and saved.

In addition, we’re creating a community—not just a course.

We’re so inspired by the quality and existing knowledge of the people who signed up for this webinar from all over the world. Their knowledge and energy is an integral part of what we all do, during this webinar and beyond.