iLL Academy reimagines the culture of student activism by injecting creativity into the process of social change.
Formerly known as CampusBuiLLd, this program takes the form of a week-long on-campus residency where we work with students and staff to create dialogues, open mics, workshops, and stage productions centered around issues specific to each campus. We launched iLL Academy in 2010 at Ithaca College, and have since presented it to Cornell University, the University of Vermont, Susquehanna University, and Rutgers University. This fall we’re bringing it to Penn State.
Having engaged student leaders throughout the United States through performances and workshops since 2001, iLL-Literacy presents a unique framework for cultural and political student groups toward sustainability and effectiveness in campus and local communities. Although we are inspired and guided by models developed by historic student movements such as SNCC and TWLF, it is our belief that the new millennium’s social, political, and technological climates require a reevaluation of tactics developed during the early student movement.
By reimagining social engagement on college campuses, we contextualize leadership with cultural aspects of student life that attract today’s college communities, and remove college activism from the “niche” status in which it is often perceived.
