Christopher H: Graphic design in general, the discipline, sits a lot of intersections with technology, client based work, and expression. Expression and activism. Parker Palmer has this great quote about, "the greatest act of rebellion we can offer the world is to show up as our full selves." And when I got here at Augsburg, I was really excited to show up as my full self.

Paul Pribbenow: Design has many meanings. Christopher [Hulkberg 00:00:28], Assistant Professor of Art, brings together community and classroom to create change, to celebrate diversity, and to empower his students to discover their own creative agency.

Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the President of Augsburg University, and it's my great privilege to present the Augsburg podcast, one way you can get to know some of the faculty and staff I'm honored to work with every day.

Christopher H: I approach teaching in a way that extends our classrooms into the community, and think about our community as local citizens first, so I think about the students as being citizens of this community. And as being a citizen, they have a responsibility to their neighbors, and they have a responsibility to contribute.

And as an extension of that, I started looking for ways for the students to use their skill set to access their agency to connect with another form of agency in the community and collectively, they can create something interesting.

For instance, there's a group of young Somali women that met at the Brian Coyle Center. And they had this dream to start a, a secondhand boutique store. And uh, as I begin to hear about this, I thought well, they're going to need some logos. Like, they're going to need some signage, they'll need a lot of collateral. We can do that. (laughing)

And so, we began a conversation with this organization. And first we just went in and listened to their vision and said, "Tell us what you're up to." I was with four advanced students at the time. And we went in for a listening session. And we just listened to their vision. Uh, we brought a bunch of images and patterns and colors, and we just asked them to put something together for who they thought they were. And, and how does that translate visually. And so uh, through the course of this relationship, we ended up designing a logo for them, some business cards, um, and, and most recently a, a sign uh, signage system so that they have for their store that sits across the street from Augsburg.

Every day I drive in, I get to see that signage, and I'm reminded of this amazing moment when two sets of power or influence come together, and now this store holds space in our neighborhood.

I began writing a curriculum to create a graphic design degree program that was built around these core values that the school holds, but also these core values that I was beginning to see incredibly valuable for our students. We've named our design agency ca- it's called Design and Agency. Really, it's a double entendre for us. On one hand, we provide a service to clients, and like any other agency we have a storefront, we function within a set of parameters. But on the other hand, agency is the conduit by which power is accessed. And when we think about agency, oftentimes in educational systems the student is put in a subordinate position automatically. And I just don't believe in that. I don't think that that's good practice. The idea around fostering environments that promote uh, the power within.

And so, I wrote this curriculum, Design and Agency became the name, and we started working with more clients. And as that happened, in what I think about is this exchange that happens. The power and strength that our nonprofit community partners have. The strength by which our students have to offer. And when those come together, that exchange, the agency that happens between, creates a current. And in, there's energy around that.

I believe true innovation happens in that environment. I'm watching these students come into Design and Agency and they are incredible. They are solving problems, and I believe that they are the future of the design industry.

One of the proudest moments I've ever had as a professor was seeing one of my students, Olivia House, receive the John Olsen scholarship award through [Branlab 00:04:57]. She gave one of the most concise, articulate speeches I've heard in, in quite a long time. She stood up, and then she looked at a room full of executive creatives. She says, "I stand here for every person that has not been invited to be at the table. And I'm not going away. I'm going to be in a leadership position, I strive to be in a position to create influence so that we no longer have advertisements that misrepresent women of color. I want to be at this table."

The people in that room needed to hear that, and afterwards I was in a conversation with a really well known CEO, and he said, "Yeah, I mean, Olivia's really incredibly articulate, and uh, very talented." He said, "How do we make more of her?" (laughing) And I said, "We don't have to make more of her. There are so many more people just like her that are ready to stand up and lead." And I think that the platform that we're creating here at Design and Agency is really for students to access that ability and, and give them opportunity in different ways to share with the world what's within them.

Paul Pribbenow: That was Christopher Hulkberg, Assistant Professor of Art. Thanks for listening to the Augsburg podcast. I'm President Paul Pribbenow. For more information, please visit augsburg.edu.