Almost every aspect of contemporary life, professional and personal, includes creative competencies. Creative people thrive today because they are better able to navigate a world that is less defined. They see problems where no one else does. And those problems that others didn t see, they solve them in unusual ways. They are self-directed as their curious nature spurs them to seek out new things. In the Department of Art at Augusta University, we know that this makes the art and design skills we teach extremely important and valuable.