Hello and welcome to The CCAD Way.
“ 'The CCAD Way’ describes our guiding principles: Creative Collaboration, Intentional Inclusivity, and Proven Potential. They inform everything we do as a college in pursuit of creating a transformational educational experience for our diverse community of students—one that propels growth in our region’s economy. Read on for stories celebrating where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed next.”
—Dr. Melanie Corn
President, CCAD
“CCAD is the heart and soul of our creative economy.”
—Kenny McDonald, President & CEO
Columbus Partnership
Creative Collaboration
Creative Collaboration is how we work and how we teach: collaboration amongst our students and faculty, and how we work with our neighbors, cultural and educational partners, and corporate connections.
“CCAD students also provide a valuable source of creative inspiration in our community. Our youngest designers are often the best at helping us look beyond all our current constraints today and how we design for the future.”
—Corey Allenbach, UX Director at
Huntington National Bank, SVP
71
learning partners in the archive
28
corporations
43
community organizations
Since Fall 2019:
75
projects
667
students
86
faculty
Creative Collaboration demonstrated
An increasing number of our students are participating in real world learning experience and corporate and community partnerships, and we’ve grown partnerships with key community colleges throughout the United States to make it easier for more students to access an affordable CCAD education.
Intentional Inclusivity
We embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion not simply because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it prepares our students for their pivotal work shaping culture and commerce in the global economy.
CCAD plays a vital role in diversifying the pipeline of talent entering the workforce in Central Ohio and beyond. Our alumni add value to organizations and are helping to increase the representation of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous designers and creatives in roles ranging from User Experience Design to Creative Project Management.
35%
students of color
30%
first generation in college
45%
Pell Grant eligible (low-income students whose families rely on federal aid)
Higher rates of workplace diversity can help workplaces evolve, innovate, problem-solve, and be more efficient.
“Designing with inclusivity in mind is all about having empathy towards people that have different experiences than you do.”
—Adjunct Faculty Lara Alsoudani Weeks
(Advertising & Graphic Design, 2015)
Partner & Art Director, FRINGE22 Studio
Proven Potential
Our students arrive as artists and designers with promise and graduate as savvy, talented professionals who lead in all aspects of culture and commerce, impacting the globe and making Columbus a place the world watches.
Nigel Ewan (Advertising & Graphic Design, 2014) turned his passion for print into a business venture.
Alysse Gafkjen (Media Studies Still-Based, 2009) shoots for The Black Keys, Kacey Musgraves, Lizzo, Alison Krauss, and Jason Isbell.
“I've not met a CCAD graduate who's just not a chill, cool, really wonderful person to be around. And that's fun. CCAD is a cultural transformation icon. It takes young mind, shapes them, gives them skillsets, and then they leave CCAD to do incredible art and design that impacts our city—and the world—culturally.”
—Fredrick Bertley, PhD
President & CEO, COSI
Proven Potential demonstrated
Our students, alumni, faculty, and CCAD as a whole are receiving more regional and national recognition for their successes through editorial initiatives to highlight alumni.
