Andrei Matorin moved me to tears during the Tom Tom Summit & Festival in Charlottesville. Photo by Daria Huxley / www.andreimatorin.com When I attend professional conferences — especially one focused on “entrepreneurial ecosystems” — I don’t expect to be moved to tears. But there I was, fighting back an ugly cry, in the middle of the Tom Tom Summit & Festival in Charlottesville last week. Even stranger, I wasn’t moved by anyone speaking. It was during a live performance by Andrei Matorin, a professional violinist and composer. Matorin accompanied the marquee keynote by Pamela Abalu and Chindeu Echeruo, who delivered a dramatic presentation about designing environments and organizations for love and happiness. But it was while listening to Matorin’s music when I made a powerful connection to another message I heard earlier in the conference. Just minutes before, I watched Jason Feifer, energetic editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine, talk about how he defines entrepreneurs (“anyone who makes things happen”) … and three key entrepreneurial mindsets, all centered on the willingness to embrace change. Feifer emphasized true entrepreneurs never see themselves as finished … they are never one thing, always evolving. This has been referred to as being in “permanent beta.” I… Continue Reading What would your life’s work sound like?Read More
Hello! Are you looking for information about the G3 program at Virginia Western? G3: Click to get started *** In the three years I have worked at Virginia Western, I haven’t been this enthusiastic about a grant project. And not to get too dramatic, but I’d rank my excitement level at “Buddy the Elf.” This is because our G3 planning grant — which I will explain more in a bit — is funding the services of the Education Design Lab, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that helps design higher education models that improve opportunity for historically underserved learners. How do they do this? Through design thinking, which the Lab explains in its latest white paper: “We strongly believe in the potential of human-centered design and the principles of design thinking. They can draw institutions outside of their normal — all too often, confining — framework. Individual educators, by and large, have always put the needs of students first; if they were not mission-driven, they would select other, less stressful, better-compensated careers. But most of the institutions we work for, and the centuries-old practices of compliance and incentive, create an unwieldy, multi-layer structure that serves a lot of competing stakeholders. Students figure… Continue Reading Why I’m so excited about our G3 grant projectRead More
Earlier this winter, I finally checked out the business book “Traction” (by Gino Wickman) from Brown Library. I heard about the book in December at the VCCS Hire Education conference, where Jeanian Clark and Bill Pence explained how they used “Traction” to transform their Workforce division at Lord Fairfax Community College. It was my favorite session of the conference, as it was both inspiring and useful. This is going to sound extremely nerdy, but I just loved the idea of aligning bite-sized daily goals with a long-term vision. That’s how you get things done … how you gain traction. One of the most memorable takeaways was the concept of “Rocks,” which the author actually credits to an analogy in Stephen Covey’s book “First Things First.” Wickman writes: Picture a glass cylinder set on a table. Next to the cylinder are rocks, gravel, sand, and a glass of water. Imagine the glass cylinder as all of the time you have in a day. The rocks are your main priorities, the gravel represents your day-to-day responsibilities, the sand represents interruptions, and the water is everything else that you get hit with during your workday. If you, as most people do, pour the… Continue Reading How ‘Traction’ is changing my life and workRead More
About Shelley
Shelley Lyons is glad to be back on campus as she is a Virginia Western alum, and has served as the Administrative Officer for Grants Administration at Virginia Western since early 2022. Prior to VWCC, her career focus was within the Human Services and Arts fields. She wrote her first grant in 1996 on a whim and has continued to plan and learn since that time. She most enjoys seeing a well-planned project come to fruition, where funder, project manager and beneficiaries can all feel success and see impact.
Recent Posts
- Why Try An LOI? May 10, 2024
- Grant Nerds Unite! March 12, 2024
- The Power of Collaboration November 17, 2023
- Time to Innovate October 4, 2023
- How to tackle grant season? August 14, 2023