Gude encourages others to think about how they would define success

Taylor McPhail, Grand Ledge High School

Students attending the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) summer workshop were given the opportunity to learn how to expand upon their creative thinking through a brief lecture given by Michigan State University Professor Karl Gude.

“We’re all conformists,” Gude said. “We love conforming to what society expects from us.”

He emphasized the importance of straying from the road most travelled by in order to further one’s own creative thinking, even though that may not always be the easiest path socially.

“If there’s discomfort in the room, creativity is present,” Gude said.

By the end of Gude’s lecture, MIPA students were left feeling inspired to think not only creatively, but for themselves.

“How do you define success?” Gude asked his audience of teens. “Not how do your parents define success, not how do your teachers define success. How do you define success? It’s your life.”