This book tells the story of how a team of colleagues at Boston College took an unusual approach (working with a design consultancy) to renewing their core and in the process energized administrators, faculty, and students to view liberal arts education as an ongoing process of innovation. It aims to provide insight into what they did and why they did it and to provide a candid account of what has worked and what has not worked. Although all institutions are different, they believe their experiences can provide guidance to others who want to change their general education curriculum or who are being asked to teach core or general education courses in new ways. The book also includes short essays by a number of faculty colleagues who have been teaching in BC’s new innovative core courses, providing practical advice about the challenges of trying interdisciplinary teaching, team teaching, project-or problem-based learning, intentional reflection, and other new structures and pedagogies for the first time. It will also address some of the nuts and bolts issues they have encountered when trying to create structures to make curriculum change sustainable over time and to foster ongoing innovation.

Sheed & Ward, in partnership with the Commonweal Foundation and with funding from the Pew Charitable Trust, proudly presents the first of two volumes in a groundbreaking series called American Catholics in the Public Square. The result of a three-year study sponsored by Pew aimed at understanding the contributions to U.S. civic life of the Catholic, Jewish, mainline and evangelical Protestant, African-American, Latino, and Muslim communities in the United States, the two volumes in this series gather selected essays from the Commonweal Colloquia and the joint meetings organized by the Commonweal Foundation and The Faith and Reason Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. Participants in the Commonweal colloquia and the joint meetings-leading Catholic scholars, journalists, lawyers, business and labor leaders, novelists and poets, church administrators and lobbyists, activists, policy makers and politicians-produced approximately forty-five essays presented at ten meetings that brought together over two hundred and fifty participants. The two volumes in the American Catholics in the Public Square Series address many of the most critical issues now facing the Catholic Church in the United States by drawing from the four goals of the colloquia-to identify, assess, and critique the distinctive elements in Catholicism's approach to civic life; to generate concrete analyses and recommendations for strengthening Catholic civic engagement; to encompass a broad spectrum of political and social views of Catholics to encourage dialogue between Catholic leaders, religious and secular media, and political thinkers; to reexamine the long-standing Catholic belief in the obligation to promote the common good and to clarify how Catholics may work better with those holding other religious or philosophical convictions toward revitalizing both the religious environment and civic participation in the American republic. This first volume, American Catholics and Civic Engagement: A Distinctive Voice, includes a general introduction by Peter Steinfels and is structured in four parts, each of which include a brief overview. Part One, Catholic Thought in the American Context, explore the fundamental concepts that underlie Catholic social thought and their relevance to American public debate and public policy-the intellectual tools with which Catholics have often participated in the public square. Part Two, Catholic Institutions in the American Public Square, reveals the Church's vast presence in the American public square-from the church steeples that dot urban landscapes to primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, clinics and nursing homes, social service centers, orphanages, and shelters-and provides a detailed analysis of the place of the parish in the public square, the activities of the bishops' conferences in New York, Wisconsin, and the California, and the challenges facing Catholic health care providers. Part Three, Catholics in the Public Square: Autobiographies, includes the personal stories of politicians, journalists, lawyers, business executives, and labor leaders who describe how their faith shaped and is shaped by their work. Part Four, Catholics in the Voting Booth, relies on data from two wide-ranging surveys of how Catholics vote and assesses the impact on Catholic voters of the Catholic social tradition, of sermons, of parish community and sacramental life, and of papal and episcopal statements.

A different way of discovering and developing the best business ideas

Jack Welch once said, "Someone, somewhere has a better idea." In this myth-busting book, the authors reveal that great business ideas do not spring from innate creativity, or necessarily from the brilliant minds of people. Rather, great ideas come to those who are in the habit of looking for great ideas all around them, all the time. Too often, people fall into the trap of thinking that the only worthwhile idea is a thoroughly original one. Idea Hunters know better. They understand that valuable ideas are already out there, waiting to be found - and not just in the usual places.Shows how to expand your capacity to find and develop winning business ideasExplains why ideas are a critical asset for every manager and professional, not just for those who do "creative"Reveals how to seek out and select the ideas that best serve your purposes and goals and define who you are, as a professionalOffers practical tips on how to master the everyday habits of an Idea Hunter, which include cultivating great conversations

The book is filled with illustrative accounts of successful Idea Hunters and stories from thriving "idea" companies. Warren Buffet, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Mary Kay Ash, Twitter, and Pixar Animation Studios are among the many profiled.

This book tells the story of how a team of colleagues at Boston College took an unusual approach (working with a design consultancy) to renewing their core and in the process energized administrators, faculty, and students to view liberal arts education as an ongoing process of innovation. It aims to provide insight into what they did and why they did it and to provide a candid account of what has worked and what has not worked. Although all institutions are different, they believe their experiences can provide guidance to others who want to change their general education curriculum or who are being asked to teach core or general education courses in new ways. The book also includes short essays by a number of faculty colleagues who have been teaching in BC’s new innovative core courses, providing practical advice about the challenges of trying interdisciplinary teaching, team teaching, project-or problem-based learning, intentional reflection, and other new structures and pedagogies for the first time. It will also address some of the nuts and bolts issues they have encountered when trying to create structures to make curriculum change sustainable over time and to foster ongoing innovation.

Extraordinary people describe how faith is possible amid the tragedy and senselessness of contemporary existence. Their insights on community, prayer, suffering, religious observance, etc., form an elegant meditation that acknowledges the desire to search for something beyond what we can see and measure.

Boling pens a tale of the American West in 1883 as three men give up their deputy U.S. Marshal appointments to become cattle barons.