By Olivia Buster ’20
On Feb. 9, students and teachers will be attending interactive sessions of Idea Day; a day filled with guest speakers, panels and interactive workshops to inspire students on gaining new ideas while exploring different careers.
UA’s Idea Day was created by teacher Laura Moore who is being assisted with students in preparation for the day.
“We tried to make sure that student voice is central in everything that’s happening,” Moore said. She was inspired by a recent trip to Chicago’s Idea Week; the largest annual ideas festival in the world. Moore took a handful of students to Chicago last fall. Idea Week included lectures, labs, and discussions with panels of people talking with facilitators. Each festival is centered around a theme. Last years, ‘Ideas that Change the World.’ Moore wants UA’s Idea Day to be centered around creativity, innovation, and dreams.
The enthusiasm she witnessed during Idea Week from the students she brought along encouraged her to form an Idea related day at UA. “We were in a dark auditorium, you could hardly see anything, and they started taking notes even if they didn’t have to with the flashlight on their phones, because they wanted to write things down that they were so moved by. I’ve never seen students take out a notepad and voluntarily start taking notes before in a lecture, in my life,” Moore said on reflecting the Chicago trip.
Idea Day is partially student run, having both teachers and students in charge of different aspects. Committees have chairmen in charge of subjects such as transportation, social media, and staging.
Students will be bussed to locations outside of school during some sections of Idea Day. A different environment and style for learning being the goal. “I love learning, but if you are learning the same way everyday, just by being lectured by teachers, you want a new way to explore topics,” senior Jake Weimer said. Weimer is in charge of creating posts on Idea Day’s instagram, @UAIdeaDay. The posts feature speakers of Idea Day that are confirmed. “We’re looking into the community, and into the United States as a whole, some people are nationally renowned, and we’re trying to bring these people in, so that we can give students a legitimate hands on feel,” said senior Cindy Tang, one of Idea Day’s co- chairs. “It’s not just a classroom setting but it’s learning with people outside the community, and outside of the classroom.”