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Creativity and innovation were the focus of the ribbon cutting for the new Adobe Creative Campus launch at Marshall University on Friday, Nov. 1.
The status of being an Adobe Creative Campus is unique, as Marshall is the only one designated in the state. This means that Marshall and Adobe are official partners, allowing Marshall students and faculty to have access to certain Adobe-related products.
Some of these products include programs like Adobe Express and Adobe Acrobat. Certain computers on campus will have access to the Adobe Creative Cloud, which feature programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Audition and Adobe Photoshop.
“Some of the features for the creative campus also include an integration for Adobe’s micro-connection courses,” said Nathan Araya, the customer success manager for Adobe. “That is a great and robust way for students to really own their own learning journey. These courses include presentation, design (and) job application materials, so there are so many things that students have access to empower them for career readiness.”
An Adobe Student Ambassador program is also set up at Marshall.
Students of the program can “get mentorship, leadership and other opportunities to really grow in Adobe and to pursue their passions in their careers,” Araya said.
Araya also said the Adobe Creative Campus program offers training for Marshall’s facility and staff through the Adobe Education Institute.
“We want to really empower (faculty and staff) to engage with digital tools to innovate teaching and learning in new ways,” Araya said. “The creative campus program is a great partnership that serves all facets of a university in all departments. The partnership is really all encompassing, and it’s great to be partnered with Marshall.”
Marshall students and faculty can access what is included in the creative campus program on Marshall’s IT section on its website.
“It all started about a year ago. We are very lucky that Brad Smith has a very good relationship with our CEO, Shantanu Narayen, but the real driving factor is that Brad really had a vision for Marshall to forward into the 21st century and to adopt tools that allow the students to have that,” said Matt Connelly, the account executive of Adobe. “We talked about some other institutions and other creative campuses are doing as well, and we decided that this would be a wonderful opportunity for Marshall moving forward.”
Connelly and Araya are Adobe’s representatives to Marshall University, and they say that, “It’s our job to set up a relationship with the university to make sure that we can help empower students for creativity, digital literacy as well as responsible and ethical AI usage.”
“We have never had an adoption quite like we have had at Marshall, and that started with the top down and to the students,” Connelly said.
Speakers at the ribbon cutting ceremony featured Connelly and Araya alongside Jodie Penrod, Marshall’s chief information officer, and Marshall President Brad D. Smith.
Nate Harrah can be contacted at [email protected].
