Power On: How Students Built a Real Agency Inside a College Program
Why I Almost Said No to the Job
Here’s the truth: When CMC offered me a full-time teaching job, as Program Director for their Bachelor of Applied Science in Integrated Media, I tried very hard not to take it.
Not because I didn’t like teaching—I’ve spent my career with one foot in professional practice and the other in the classroom—but because I’ve seen too many programs built on “safe” ideas, theoretical exercises, and the hope that somehow all that abstraction will magically turn into “career readiness.”
I wasn’t interested in that. Not even a little.
So when the role was offered, I made myself a promise:
Only take it if there is real permission—and real appetite—for building something bold, messy, disruptive, and actually useful.
Rethinking “Career Readiness” in Higher Education Innovation
I gut-checked CMC’s openness to innovate by making the creation of a student-led, faculty-mentored creative agency a condition of my hire. To be candid, I was a little surprised when they offered me the job.
Here’s the thing about higher ed: everyone says they want innovation. Everyone loves the idea of doing something “big” and “new” and “transformative.” But the real work of innovation isn’t shiny. It’s not a TED Talk. It’s a grind. It’s spreadsheets, logistics, scheduling headaches, and the constant hum of “Are we actually doing this?”
The Birth of a Student-Led Creative Agency
So yes—I took the job. But I was skeptical. I think everyone was.
Because what I proposed was not small. I wanted undergraduate students working with real clients, developing integrated media content plans, working with real budgets, delivering on real timelines, and collaborating with real community partners whose reputations (and ours) were on the line. No hypotheticals. No simulations. Just the work—the actual work—you’d need to succeed out there.
A lot of people assumed this experiment would fail.
To be candid, at times, I was one of them.
But I believed it was the only model worth building. The only school worth being a part of had to be one where students earned confidence through the work, not through rubrics or lectures or best-case hypotheticals, but through showing up, doing the real work, and seeing real people respond to it.
And then came the advice:
“If you’re going to do this… take baby steps. Try it in one class first. Ease everyone in.”
Thoughtful, reasonable advice. I arrogantly ignored it completely.
Instead, I rolled the agency model into every class at the same time. Full immersion. Sink-or-swim. To me, it seemed the safest choice.
Real Clients, Real Stakes, Real Growth Through Experiential Learning
Change is inherently uncomfortable. Given a choice, we will resist it. Integrating our new agency model into every class was the only way I knew to ensure adoption and give this student-run agency experiment a chance to succeed. And I was confident that while my colleagues shook their heads, my students would immediately embrace my innovations.
The student response was immediate — but it did not meet my expectations:
Confusion over assignments: “What exactly are you expecting us to do?”
Stress over working with clients: “This isn’t just an assignment – if I don’t get it right, it’s bad for my client!”
Conflict over grades: “I did everything you asked for – why did I get a B?”
I’ll take this last one first:
Conflict over grades: I explained to students that abundant research supports that humans emotionally record 3 real grades for every interaction – meets / fails to meet / exceeds expectations. In aligning my gradebook with life, I reserved A grades for exceeding expectations – for homework I didn’t assign.
Confusion over assignments: Because I gave so little direction on how to exceed expectations, students were forced to explore aspects of the course material that were of real interest to them.
Stress over working with clients: Yes, real work for real clients was really stressful. But, I reasoned, facing that challenge was the only path to earning real confidence.
When Students Take Ownership of Applied Learning
Okay, maybe my expectations were unrealistic:
Integrated marketing plans for six non-profits with built-out social media campaigns.
Donor communications, a cinematic promo, and a social campaign for the 5Point Film Festival.
A comprehensive agency rebrand, including new brand identity assets, branded content videos, website launch, and social campaign.
The creative agency model also required students to play leadership roles at iWorks – designing our creative agency business strategy, workflows, leadership roles, and responsibilities.
That’s a lot to ask of the dozen students launching this new program.
In the first semester.
My expectations were way out of line. They didn’t meet them.
They exceeded them.
Learning Beyond the Gradebook: When Students Lead
Here’s a sample of student comments from our first semester that demonstrate how they took agency over their work:
“If the Donor Deck needs to resonate with Gen Z, shouldn’t it include more animations?”
“Why hadn’t the scope of work for our agency website included a blog page to highlight our thought leadership and drive SEO?”
“Clearly, our agency brand guidelines need to include our AI policy.”
“Shouldn’t we publish a handbook that defines our workflows so we can scale our teams effectively?”
They were right, of course. And in every one of these cases, the students stepped forward and did the work.
So much work that I became concerned about burnout. I tried to lighten their load. Push back deadlines—Unburden students who took on too much.
“What if I said take an extra week on this video, get caught up on your other class first?”
“I’d tell you to fuck off.”
That’s a direct quote. Said to me by a student in front of our entire class. Although he later apologized, I wasn’t insulted. He was right. The video project in question was no longer my assignment – it was his work. I was out of line to tell him he should expect less of himself.
The Hard, Messy Work of Innovation in Higher Education
“OH MY GOD.”
That’s another direct quote, from one of our iWorks clients. She went on to say:
“Well done, team. Truly without words.”
After viewing a presentation in another faculty member’s class, an administrator commented that while the work was amazing, she questioned if our students could sustain it. I didn’t share this with our students. I knew what they’d say.
“I’d tell you to fuck off.”
Powering On: Redefining What Success Looks Like
I’m proud to report that our students regularly humble me. By how hard they work. And how often they surprise me—not by hitting the bar, but by moving it to a place I hadn’t even thought to look.
That’s why iWorks exists. Our creative agency is more than who our students work for — it’s who they can become when they make the work their own. These students aren’t just turning their potential into a profession—they’re redefining what both look like.
Power On.
