It’s no secret that the dynamics surrounding higher education and post-college employment are changing fast these days. The interconnected world we live in is also changing at a quick pace. These changes, fueled by technology, politics, and economics, affects the way we learn, work, play, and connect to each other. It’s exactly for these reasons that there is no better time to invest in a Liberal Arts education.

In the world that awaits future graduates, the competitive edge belongs to those with bright, curious, and agile minds. Objective, technological or scientific knowledge will no longer be enough. The world you or your child will enter after college is already demanding more human-centric solutions to our collective challenges. With this in mind, here are just a few reasons why Liberal Arts education is so valuable.

This is the fourth of a series of interviews with extraordinary people who are working in partnership with or using their skills and training as artists and humanists to improve their communities, challenge assumptions, and advance our understanding of the human condition.

Performer, teacher, director Rhodessa Jones is Co-Artistic Director of San Francisco’s performance company Cultural Odyssey. Jones directs The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, an award-winning performance workshop committed to incarcerated women’s personal and social transformation, now in it’s 23rd year. As recipient of US Artist Fellowship, Jones expanded her work in jails and educational institutions internationally. She conducts Medea Projects in South African prisons, working with incarcerated women and training local artists and correctional personnel to embed the Medea process inside these institutions. In 2012, she was named Arts Envoy by the US Embassy in South Africa. Recent US residencies include Brown University and Scripps College Humanities Institute. Recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from CA College of the Arts, San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Lifetime Achievement Award, SF Foundation’s Community Leadership Award, Non-Profit Arts Excellence Award by the SF Business Arts Council, and an Otto Rene Castillo Award for Political Theater.

This is the third of a series of interviews with extraordinary people who are working in partnership with or using their skills and training as artists and humanists to improve their communities, challenge assumptions, and advance our understanding of the human condition.

Dr. Kathleen M. Pike is Executive Director and Scientific Co-Director of the Global Mental Health Program and is Associate Director of the Health and Aging Policy Fellowship Program at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. She is also Supervising Psychologist in the Eating Disorders Program at NYSPI. Dr. Pike has provided consultation on mental health policy to Japanese Parliamentary Representatives. Dr Pike has conducted pioneering work in the area of risk factors for eating disorders, and she has developed a widely-disseminated treatment program for anorexia nervosa that has demonstrated effectiveness in multiple clinical studies.

Dr. Pike actively consults to programs around the world on the implementation of evidence-based treatment for eating disorders and has received awards for her clinical service and teaching. She recently served as consultant to the American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 task force on cultural factors associated with the clinical presentation and risk factors of eating disorders. She also serves on the Feeding and Eating Disorders Working Group for the World Health Organization revision of the International Classification of Diseases.

There was another story that caught my eye last evening during the 89th Oscars celebrations. It was not the mistaken announcement for Best Picture that filled the front pages of the early morning news. Nor was it the surprised tourists who unknowingly entered the celebrations, starry-eyed and woefully under-dressed. In my mind, it was Samsung’s airing of a commercial called “The Rest of Us,” with filmmaker and ex-vlogger Casey Neistat.

This is the second of a series of interviews with extraordinary people who are using their skills and training as artists and humanists to improve their communities, challenge assumptions, and advance our understanding of the human condition.

In this interview we speak with seven-time Emmy award-winning filmmaker Charles Stuart. Stuart has over twenty-five years of network experience in writing, directing, production, news gathering and film making. He is a recipient of five national EMMYS, two Duponts, three regional EMMYS and various other national awards for excellence. He has provided more than fifty hours of programming to all major networks. His work includes more than a dozen documentaries including eight Frontlines for PBS, many co-productions with ABC, Home Box Office, The Discovery Channel, A&E, TLC, Lifetime, AMC, CNN, MSNBC, National Geographic and ESPN. He has also produced for 60 Minutes on CBS. Yasmine Van Wilt is a Producer on Charles Stuart’s forthcoming film Into The Light.