Introduction

Originally intended as an approach to publishing student stories in partnership with our campus communications team, the Lightbulb Moment has since expanded into all aspects of our outreach efforts and continues to gain momentum in the campus community.

We initially produced a video series and published articles on the Lightbulb Moment story template, which recenters narratives of success on the moment of insight—foregrounding the unknown and highlighting the moment when doubt becomes action.  For these pieces, we invited the university community to reflect on their interests and experiences as they share the unexpected insights that have illuminated their paths. These narratives shifted focus away from outcomes, highlighting process and individual growth—showing the typically more circuitous and failure-marked paths to success.

In complicating the linearity students often imagine in narratives of success, these stories provide pathways to belonging that allow students to explore potential identities in new contexts while taking risks in the engagement of new ideas. This approach to storytelling has also been integrated into our program assessments, events and resources. Our website continues to extend the reach of our original effort by housing the content produced with our communications team in addition to stories shared through our program assessments.

As students and their project mentors submit their final reports and program survey online, they are invited to respond to an optional Lightbulb Moment story prompt: “Share a story about a moment that changed the way you think about who you are and/or want(ed) to be (a “lightbulb moment”) when your way forward was illuminated by new insight.”  If either submits a story, we share it with the other and ask permission to publish the story on our website.

Embedding the prompt in the program survey has provided a mechanism for sustaining these conversations, and we further encourage discussions about uncertainty and failure by allowing students to submit a reflective essay in lieu of a final project report.  The reflective essay option provides students with the opportunity to explain what they learned—even if their project did not go according to plan. These essays often include components of a lightbulb moment story and serve to reinforce our program’s prioritization of learning over project outcomes.

From the time students apply for funding from our grant program, they are encouraged to reflect on their learning goals and asked to provide statements about their professional learning objectives in their proposals.  Project mentors are asked to explain how they plan to support their mentee’s learning goals as they provide their endorsements, and our review criteria emphasize these aspects of a student’s application.