CLEOS Participants
What will I do at the CLEOS lab?
The CLEOS program is about five hours of experiences that have all been found to be uniquely effective in helping creative people choose their future goals.
Whether you are in live or online counseling, you will first take online tests for about an hour. These are NOT achievement tests, Buzz Feed quizzes, or boring forms. Instead, they are state-of-the-art personality and creativity measures that only licensed psychologists can give, and that ordinarily cost $300 - $500 to take.
You will then meet with two counselors and perhaps other CLEOS participants online or in person to experience a visualization that takes you ten years into your own future.
You will have an individual live or online counseling session with one or two counselors, in which you will receive the interpretations of your tests, an opportunity to develop a profile of your creative traits, and a chance to explore some potential pathways.
You will have an online or live individual or group session with a counselor to discuss the internal and external barriers to your goals. These can include internal states like anxiety and depression, or external barriers like experiences of racism, sexism, poverty, or skill deficits as a result of educational gaps. You'll discuss ways of coping with or overcoming these barriers, based on how other creative people with your abilities and traits have surmounted these barriers.
You'll get to experience a live session of neurofeedback, using your own brainwaves to identify the flow experience, or an online session of visualization of creative flow states. You'll the complete a Map of the Future, that helps you to figure out the next steps to take today and in the future to reach the day in which you are fulfilling your creative potential and experiencing flow in your daily life.
Whether you are in live or online counseling, you will first take online tests for about an hour. These are NOT achievement tests, Buzz Feed quizzes, or boring forms. Instead, they are state-of-the-art personality and creativity measures that only licensed psychologists can give, and that ordinarily cost $300 - $500 to take.
You will then meet with two counselors and perhaps other CLEOS participants online or in person to experience a visualization that takes you ten years into your own future.
You will have an individual live or online counseling session with one or two counselors, in which you will receive the interpretations of your tests, an opportunity to develop a profile of your creative traits, and a chance to explore some potential pathways.
You will have an online or live individual or group session with a counselor to discuss the internal and external barriers to your goals. These can include internal states like anxiety and depression, or external barriers like experiences of racism, sexism, poverty, or skill deficits as a result of educational gaps. You'll discuss ways of coping with or overcoming these barriers, based on how other creative people with your abilities and traits have surmounted these barriers.
You'll get to experience a live session of neurofeedback, using your own brainwaves to identify the flow experience, or an online session of visualization of creative flow states. You'll the complete a Map of the Future, that helps you to figure out the next steps to take today and in the future to reach the day in which you are fulfilling your creative potential and experiencing flow in your daily life.
Over a thousand high school students, college students, and adults in creative occupations have experienced these same activities, and most have gone on to creative occupations. Seven years to ten years after participation, CLEOS students went on to such careers as Russian literature translator; independent artist; biomedical engineer; NASA project engineer; retro vaudeville/ circus performer; videogame musician; and leader of nonprofit social action campaign.
Why was I selected for CLEOS?
High school students selected for the CLEOS program are nominated by their teachers, counselors, or gifted program or parents based on their high creative potential. College students and adults can self-nominate. Creativity can be found in a variety of different aspects of life both inside and outside of the classroom, and we are proud that our students represent all different varieties of creative expression. Gifted athletes, artists, engineers, storytellers, leaders, musicians, problem solvers, and countless others can benefit from the experience, and we are thrilled to have seen a great variety of creative personalities in our lab.
What does creativity look like?
Creativity is a mental process that involves generating new ideas, concepts, or associations between existing ideas. Although this seems intuitive and simple, it is actually rather complex. Creativity is often associated with art and literature; however, it is also essential to invention as well as professions such as business, leadership, teaching, entertainment, science, and the healing arts. Many students will go on to create careers that are as of yet unknown. There are three reasons why people are driven to be creative:
- A need of novel, complex, and varied stimulation
- A need to communicate ideas and values
- A need to solve problems
Over time, creativity has been attributed to various sources: Divine intervention, cognitive processes, the social environment, personality traits, and chance (accident or serendipity). People also associate creativity with genius, madness, and humor. Finally, creativity is often closely associated with a state of intense psychological concentration known as flow.